Alan Sisto

But he got away with trailing them without them noticing for quite some time.

So we shift locations at the end of that passage from Moria to Isengard as we get a third and very different version of the story of the Nazgul's arrival to Saruman's home.

Christopher explaining that the story is much altered in version C. And this later version picks up after they're coming back across the limelight.

He then helpfully compares the two versions.

First, he looks at the one that we saw in the first week of this series, Matt.

Christopher does explain in a footnote just the very tiniest of differences between A and B. They're otherwise similar.

In A, Saruman denied knowledge of where the ring was hid, while in B, he said he didn't know anything about the land that they sought.

Christopher says this is probably no more than a difference of wording.

And that's where the big difference is, because now we look at C, which actually has the writer showing up while Gandalf is still there as a prisoner atop Orthanc.

And that changes things for the White Wizard.

It's a nice day for a White Wizard.

Actually, it's a pretty crappy day for a White Wizard.

He is in serious trouble, right?

He decides to ask for Gandalf's help.

And maybe remain on the good side.

I mean, clearly he doesn't want to because he's like, well, if that doesn't work, I'll just turn him over.

But I mean, so he's not really going to stay on the good side, but he wants to at least pretend that he's there.

Help me and I'll be good forever.

Basically, he's more afraid of Sauron than he is of Gandalf.

That's the way I read this.