https://preview.redd.it/o8ep1386yfnd1.jpg?width=686&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4242257908fafc12842379fffbe45a9a886a7b3e

Alright, so at the start of S2, we open on the start of the Second Age. Morgoth has been defeated, and Sauron is attempting to get the Orcs on his side (let's put aside all the lore reasons why this shouldn't be the case). Part of his pitch is to use them gain the powers of the unseen world. He says that this'll require many of them to die, which implies he hasn't started his experiments. He's then immediately killed (or rather his body) by Adar and the Orcs.

He's in his goo form for a long time, until he eventually takes his form as Halbrand. He lives a sort of empty nomadic life until he meets the Southlander refugees, which takes us to where we meet him in S1E2.

There's a lot of weirdness with this...

• if Sauron was usurped, who performed the experiments to glimpse the Unseen World, the results of which we see in S1E1?
• why would Waldreg worship Sauron if he never was truly in power, not even respected by orcs?
• if Adar HATED Sauron, why would he carry out Sauron's plan to create Mordor? it's explicitly HIS plan since HIS symbol was branded on Finrod (an absolutely stupid idea)
• if we assume that the current timeline is within 100 years of the Battle of Dagorlad and that the intro of S2E1 is the very start of the Second Age, that means it still takes Sauron over 3000 years to reform. Why is he so weak? With LotR he's slower to return because he poured so much of his essence into the One Ring. What's the excuse here?
• why would the refugees he escaped with not warn Arondir and his people of what had transpired?

WRITERS! This is why you double-check your work!