Full spoilers observe for The Rings of Power season 2 episode 4. Potentially massive spoilers are additionally mentioned about The Stranger’s identification.
The Rings of Power season 2 episode 4 is out now on Prime Video – and it is given us one other enormous clue about The Stranger’s true identification.
The hit Amazon collection’ newest entry, titled ‘Eldest’, reunites us with Markella Kavenagh’s Nori and Megan Richards’ Poppy, who had been separated from Daniel Weyman’s amnesiac wizard in season 2 episode 2. The pair had been by chance blown away by The Stranger’s newest spell – a big sandstorm, no much less – after he misplaced management of his skills as soon as once more.
Nori and Poppy’s fates are left up within the air all through episode 3, that means we did not know in the event that they survived their newest life-threatening scenario. But, sure, save for a couple of bruises, the pair are alive and surprisingly unhurt. Hey, among the best Prime Video exhibits round is fantasy-based, so I can forgive the truth that neither was gravely injured after they had been thrown a whole bunch of ft into the air earlier than touchdown in an space filled with jagged rocks.
But I digress. It is not lengthy earlier than they cross paths with Gavi Singh Chera’s Merimac, who belongs to a different pint-sized race of Middle-earth dwellers often known as Stoors. Essentially, just like the Harfoots, they’re simply one other sort of proto-Hobbits however for the truth that they completely settled in Rhûn.
Anyway, after Merimac agrees to guide the duo to his residence, Nori and Poppy are greeted – with an excessive amount of suspicion, thoughts you – by Tanya Moodie’s Gundabel, the Stoor group’s chief. It’s throughout this interplay that the newest massive tease about The Stranger’s actual identify raises its head above the proverbial parapet.
Concerned about who these outsiders are and why they’re travelling with one other wizard – the Stoors have already handled one Istar, aka Ciaran Hinds’ Dark Wizard, for many years at this level – a sceptical Gundabel asks who they’re and what they’re doing in these elements. Nori pleads their case – properly, till Gundabel cuts her off to ask for extra info on The Stranger. It’s right here when Poppy interjects to say “he is a large”, to which Merimac asks “what, like an elf?”. That leads Poppy to say: “greater than that.”
And then, out of nowhere, The Rings of Power all however confirms our personal suspicions concerning the largest thriller surrounding The Stranger. Responding to Poppy, Gundabel sarcastically says “oh, so he is an important massive grand-elf?”. Grand-Elf… hmm.. sounds an terrible lot like a intelligent twist on the identify Gandalf, essentially the most well-known and widespread of all of The Lord of Rings‘ wizards, does not it?
“So he is an important massive Grand-elf”…👀#TheRingsOfPower #TROPspoilers pic.twitter.com/BPjJuSuJobSeptember 5, 2024
This is not the primary trace we have had that The Stranger is definitely Gandalf. In The Rings of Power season 1 finale, The Stranger uttered one in every of Gandalf’s most iconic phrases – “all the time observe your nostril” – to Nori. That, coupled with how well-spoken he’s, his bushy grey beard, and normal demeanor, have satisfied followers that The Stranger must be Gandalf.
Now, there’s each probability that this might all be a smokescreen. In J.R.R. Tolkien’s supply materials, solely two of Middle-earth’s 5 Istari – these merely often known as The Blue Wizards – ventured into the lands of Rhûn, so it is potential that The Stranger is one in every of this duo. That stated, The Rings of Power has performed quick and free with a few of Tolkien’s literature, so it is also believable that The Stranger/Gandalf traveled to Rhûn in some unspecified time in the future in Prime Video’s non-canonical TV adaptation.
For what it is value, Weyman, plus The Rings of Power‘s showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, proceed to play it coy over this thriller. Indeed, solely The Rings of Power‘s solid and writers know who The Stranger is and even then a few of them did not discover out that he was one of many 5 wizards till the very finish of season 1.
Still, with solely 4 episodes left to go till the collection’ second season ends, followers are hoping that The Stranger’s identify can be revealed earlier than the finale’s finish credit roll. Will Tom Bombadil assist The Stranger to resolve this thriller? Or does The Dark Wizard have an enormous half to play? We’ll discover out quickly sufficient (at the least, I hope we do).
