The Rings Of Power Season 2 Finale Confirms The Stranger's Real Identity

Halt, friend! Before you enter, be warned that this article has some major spoilers for the "Rings of Power" Season 2 finale.

Well, after a two-year wait, "The Rings of Power" Season 2 is fully here. The finale aired on Thursday, October 3, and in its fading moments, we got one of the biggest reveals of the entire show so far: who the gosh darn Stranger is. Folks, here it is: The Wizard is Gandalf.

That's right. As the episode ends, The Stranger (Daniel Weyman) is thanked by the survivors of the devastated and displaced Stoor community for protecting many of them from the antagonistic antics of Ciarán Hinds' Dark Wizard (more on him in a bit). In the scene, more than one of them refers to him as a "grand Elf," a term they coined earlier in the season. When the Stranger returns to Tom Bombadil's (Rory Kinnear) home, J.R.R. Tolkien's enigmatic otherworldly character coaxes the Istar's name out of him, leading to a scene where we close in on the Wizard's face as he officially puts together the two words "grand Elf" into "Gandalf."

There it is. While many people were hoping the unnamed Wizard would turn out to be one of Tolkien's mysterious Blue Wizards, in the end, showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay opted to go with the face that all Middle-earth fans are familiar with. Looper called it way back in May when we said that Bombadil's presence solved Season 1's big mystery — the Stranger had to be Gandalf. Less than half a year later, the finale has put the Istar's identity beyond all doubt. This guy is Gandalf. Let's break down what that means.

When you step back and look at the collection of evidence, it turns out that there are quite a few points where the show hinted that Weyman's Wizard would end up being Gandalf. These started way back in Season 1 when he arrived in Middle-earth alone. The Blue Wizards are usually referenced together. In the Season 1 finale, The Stranger dropped another major hint to his identity when he told Nori, "When in doubt, Elanor Brandyfoot, always follow your nose."

Season 2 didn't wait long before adding grist to the rumor mill. In episode 4, the Stoor leader Gundabel (Tanya Moodie) initially coined the "grand Elf" name. In that episode, Bombadil also tells him, "Great deeds are left to the hands they were placed in," which is a Rings of Power Easter egg that harkens directly back to something Gandalf says to Frodo in "The Lord of the Rings."

When Nori (Markella Kavenagh) and Poppy (Megan Richards) help the Wizard look for a staff at a separate point in the season, they also refer to it as a "gand." Even the simple fact that this guy is hobnobbing with Halflings is a Gandalf move. In "The Fellowship of the Ring," Gandalf (Ian McKellen) explains to Frodo (Elijah Wood), "Among the Wise, I am the only one that goes in for hobbit-lore: an obscure branch of knowledge but full of surprises." 

Everywhere you look, the hints are there. Honestly, it had gotten to the point where if he hadn't been Gandalf, it would have been pretty awkward explaining why this random Wizard had so many similarities to a Grey Wizard half a world away.

The Stranger doesn't just reveal his name in the Season 2 finale. He also confronts the Dark Wizard and, in the process, comes into his own as a magic wielder. He stops a cascade of boulders singlehandedly and saves his proto-Hobbit friends. Really, though, his journey has just begun — and his heartwarming goodbye to Nori is the beginning of that journey.

"We're very different creatures, Nori, when all said and done," he tells her, and while she retorts that they aren't that different, in reality, the truth is, well, they are. Nori doubtless has some role to play in the rest of the story, but Gandalf's is going to only get bigger as time goes on. We know from "The Lord of the Rings" that he is the only Istar strong enough to fight Sauron — and even then, he doesn't do so through direct confrontation. Instead, his role will be to stay true to his mission, befriend all of the Free Peoples of Middle-earth, and help coordinate the War of the Ring and Frodo's quest thousands of years later.

For now, though, Gandalf is running wild in an adapted story with no clear path forward. In the source material, the Wizard doesn't even show up until a thousand years into the Third Age. He also says during "The Lord of the Rings" that he doesn't go into the East, and yet that's where the show has him.

It's possible to explain these away. Maybe he doesn't go to the region of Rhûn later in Middle-earth history because he had a bad experience in the past or his job there is already complete. As far as timing goes, it's also worth pointing out that "The Rings of Power" showrunners and writers have not been afraid to change the Tolkien timeline. They've rearranged events, condensed stories, and pulled characters forward to integrate them into things that took place earlier in J.R.R. Tolkien's writings. That said, maybe we're just going to have Gandalf involved in the Second Age regardless of what the author originally intended — but we're hoping there's still at least some explanation for the shift when Season 3 rolls around.

Regardless of how "The Rings of Power" chooses to integrate Gandalf into the Second Age, one thing is clear: he doesn't have one enemy but two. Sauron is the big cheese, but he's half a world away, duping Elves into forging Rings of Power. Right now, Gandalf's biggest threat is the fearsome rogue Istar that he briefly faced at the end of Season 2. In the finale, he stops the Dark Wizard's indirect attack on his friends, but the two don't actually come to blows. That is clearly being saved for a later date. The question is, who is this Dark Wizard in the first place?

Again, Gandalf isn't in this part of the source material, so we can't just follow the books. However, it's worth noting that J.R.R. Tolkien did write a version of the story where his Blue Wizards break bad like Saruman and end up leading secret cults in the East. Does that mean the Dark Wizard is a Blue Wizard? Possibly.

That said, remember, the Two Blues are usually seen together, and we've only seen one Wizard thus far to oppose Gandalf. The book "Unfinished Tales" does add the important detail that "[The Blue Wizards] passed into the East with Curunír, but they never returned." Who is Curunír, you ask? Why, that's Saruman. Yep. he goes into the East at one point with the Blue Wizards, although he comes back alone. So, in theory, the Dark Wizard could be Saruman or a Blue Wizard. The book also says that the number of Istar in Middle-earth is technically unknown, although there are five main Wizards. In theory, the Dark Wizard could be another Wizard. If we had to put money on it, though, we'd go with a Blue Wizard or Saruman.

The main storyline for "The Rings of Power" is pretty straightforward at this point. Sauron has forged the Rings of Power and will soon be creating his own Ring to rule them all. He'll attack the Elves and their allies and destroy Númenor. Eventually, though, he will be defeated by the armies of the Last Alliance. This is an event that we're all familiar with from the opening scene of Peter Jackson's trilogy, where Isildur (Harry Sinclair) cuts the One Ring from Sauron's hand.

But what about the Gandalf storyline? The Wizard is out in the deserts of Rhûn, outside of his canon storyline and very far away from the people who need him most. What happens next in Rhûn is anyone's guess, but there are a few obvious directions things could go in.

First, there's Nori. Based on the way things are going, we wouldn't be surprised if she leads the displaced Stoors back to the Harfoots. Heck, maybe they'll even run into the third group of proto-Hobbits, called the Fallohides, and the trio will head off and found the Shire together. (Yes, that happens later in the source material, but who's counting at this point?)

As far as the Stranger, things are wide open. He'll probably duke it out with the Dark Wizard, and maybe we'll see more of Rhûn and the surrounding areas in the process. That region is chock-full of Human tribes and even some Dwarves to boot. Many of the tribes of Men are pro-Sauron (some of them even worship him), and maybe Gandalf will take it upon himself to lead a resistance against the resurgent Dark Lord. Then again, maybe he'll pack things up and head back east to help the Elves. All we know for sure is that Season 3 can't get here fast enough.