At their darkest moment in Mordor--on the barren plains of Gorgoroth--with their journey seemingly going on forever like an "ever-darkening dream," Sam and Frodo escape in hallucinations, imagining they're back in sunny Hobbiton. In this waste land, with Mount Doom billowing black smoke into the sky, even the stars are blotted out at night. Sam never lets go of the phial of Galadriel, however. He wears it around his neck--a glowing symbol of goodness and hope, the antithesis to the evil Ring of Doom on its golden necklace, weighing down Frodo's head like a millstone.