In The Rings of Power Season 3, Gandalf Investigates a Longstanding Tolkien Mystery

The following contains spoilers for the first four episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3 episodes 1-4.

It took The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power two seasons to finally confirm the worst-kept secret in fantasy television: The mysterious man known as The Stranger—who had an affinity for elemental magic, halflings, and quotes made famous onscreen by Sir Ian McKellen—was, in fact, Gandalf the Grey. But, finally freed from the multi-season deception required to mask his identity, the character gets the chance to come into his own this season, and, in doing so, his story ventures into some heretofore unexplored corners of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional universe.

Gandalf’s journey takes him into the eastern kingdom of Rhûn, a land that Tolkien’s writings left largely unexplored and mysterious. (The idea of “The East” in Middle-earth is normally used as code for something that’s very far away.) The human race there, known as the Easterlings, fell under the dominion of Morgoth and later Sauron, but outside of Khamûl the Easterling, one of Tolkien’s two named Nazgûl, we know very little about them or their culture. The Rings of Power set about changing that last season, and takes it even further, offering a possible explanation for one of the most longstanding mysteries of Tolkien’s world: The fate of the Blue Wizards. 

“The idea of the Blue Wizards who went East is such a tantalizing, deep corner of the lore,” showrunner Patrick McKay tells Den of Geek. ”We always wanted to go out to Rhûn, and we always wanted to explore that story, but we also wanted to [do it] through a familiar face. The idea of Gandalf going there on that journey was always appealing to us, and we always knew that it was going to go this way, and then hook back into the main narrative. We trusted the audience would go with us for really three seasons for that to happen. And we hope the payoff is worth it to them.”

One of the few things we do know about Rhûn is that at some point Saruman the White and two of the other Istari—the Maiar spirits sent to Middle-earth to aid in the fight against Sauron—journeyed east, ostensibly to convince the Easterlings to resist the machinations of the Dark Lord. They’re known only as the Blue Wizards, though Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales confirms their names as Alatar and Pallando. In The Rings of Power’s third episode, “The Secret Fire,” it is revealed that Ciarán Hinds’ initially unnamed Dark Wizard is one of them; a surprising narrative swerve from the direction many viewers likely assumed the story was going. (Look, we all thought Hinds’ general Christopher Lee impression was because he was Saruman. Sometimes, it’s nice to be wrong!)

The Dark Wizard’s true name is Pallando, and he is not only one of the Blue Wizards, but it turns out that he betrayed and murdered his partner in the name of claiming power for himself. Gandalf learns this shocking fact courtesy of a casual conversation with the Secret Fire, a divine manifestation of Eru Ilúvatar, the Tolkien universe’s stand-in for God. (There’s a reason its depiction has real “Moses and the burning bush” vibes.) We’ll leave the questions about the wild convenience of Gandalf’s sudden celestial communication for another day, but the gist of it is that not only has Pallando broken a sacred rule of his order and fallen into Shadow, but his actions were so evil that they “laid all of Rhûn to waste.”

But although Gandalf immediately wants to know how he is meant to defeat him, that is not his mission. Instead, he is charged with saving Pallando and, in doing so, saving Middle-earth. It’s a surprising twist, but one that feels perfectly in tune with the Gandalf we know from much later in his story. He is, after all, the one who will praise Bilbo’s pity in sparing Gollum’s life, and remind us that we should never be too quick to deal out death in judgment because even the very wise cannot see all ends. It’s perhaps the most Gandalf-coded plot twist possible. But, according to the man who plays the famous wizard, Gandalf’s journey this season isn’t about him magically saving the day, but offering folks a chance to do it themselves. 

“Maybe it’s not saving him, which feels very much like [an] “I’m going to save somebody” [attitude]. Maybe it’s just reflecting to him that there was still goodness in [him],” Daniel Weyman says. “Maybe all Gandalf does is show people what they have inside that they’ve forgotten about. Maybe Gandalf shows them that their hearts are still warm, [when] they had thought that they were irredeemable. I even like to go a step further to say that it’s not about Gandalf saving somebody; it’s about the Dark Wizard saving himself. It just so happens that he’s got a friend on the journey, and that’s Gandalf.”

For McKay, this sidequest in Rhûn is an important piece of Gandalf’s evolution as a character, and something that the character needed to do before (one presumes, eventually) joining up with the series’ main action. 

“The idea that Gandalf’s story in season 3 would be [a question] of how does he supersize his magic powers or [how does he] defeat the magic whatever, no, no, no,” McKay says. “His story’s about learning what his real mission is, and his real mission is to inspire hearts. That’s a Tolkien thing. It couldn’t be a bigger Tolkien idea. The question is, has he picked the wrong one or not? Is Ciarán Hinds’ Dark Wizard redeemable? You have to see the finale to find out.”

The first four episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power are available to stream on Prime Video now. Two new episodes premiere on November 18 and November 25.