Alan Sisto

Absolutely.

Here we learned that Gandalf was not trying to indicate a connection between the hobbits and the rings of power, again, because there isn't one.

Also, he wouldn't if there was, right?

There's no way he's going to play those cards.

Instead, he was showing Saruman two things, that he, Gandalf, could see that Saruman desired the rings.

That's symbolized by his hand reaching for the smoke rings.

And then, of course, that this desire would never be met, that it would always be an impossible thing.

That's the rings disappearing.

Yeah.

Why do you think, Matt, Saruman didn't see just that as the message, instead looking for a connection to the Shire or to the Hobbits?

And that's all it is, but he can't even imagine that that's what it is.

He thinks it's a secret message of, I have the knowledge of where the one ring is.

You're totally missing the symbolism here.

The symbolism, yes.

Like you said, he's just dense here.

No, that's the thing.

That would have been extremely out of character.

Yeah.

He would absolutely have played dumb.

He would never mention the ring.