Rings of Power Season 3 Episode 4’s Shocking Ending Hints At A Massive Canon Twist
Are we seeing the beginning of The Witch King?
The Nazgnagôl are here, and they are not playing around. In the first four episodes of The Rings of Power Season 3, we’ve seen, in detail, how Sauron (Charlie Vickers) is doling out the titular rings in order to amass a bigger and bigger army. While the Nazgnagôl aren’t quite full-on Ringwraiths yet (that would be Nazgûl), these proto-wraiths do have very human identities. We’ve always known that there were nine men who were morphed into the Ringwraiths over time, but when it comes to the words of Tolkien, only one of those men was named: Khamûl the Easterling.
By the end of the first four episodes of The Rings of Power Season 3, not only have we met the only named Ringwraith ever, Khamûl, as played by Zubin Varla, but we also might have a candidate for the Witch-King himself. The shocking end of The Rings of Power Season 3, Episode 4 leaves one character slain forever, and his murderer might be on a fast track to becoming the worst wraith of all time.
Spoilers ahead for The Rings of Power Season 3, Episode 4.
The Rings of Power Season 3, Episode 4, Ending Explained
Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) versus the Orcs in The Rings of Power.
As the micro-fellowship scatters, and the “good” Orc, Marnûkh (Adam Young), tries to escape with Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and Celeborn (Jamie Campbell Bower), the various other Orcs and Sauron himself arrive. The mission to find the missing Elven-smith, Maitalle, has failed, and Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) is on archery duty, taking out a variety of Orcs who continue to pour out of the fortress.
However, what Arondir does not know is that the sword-wielding Nazgnagôl here is none other than Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin), the son of Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi), who was in love with Arondir. We haven’t seen Bronwyn since Season 1, and Theo is not Arondir’s biological son, but Theo is, in many ways, his adoptive son.
Shockingly, as the newest Nazgnagôl serving Sauron, Theo murders Arondir, ending the episode with this heroic character seemingly gone forever. For the first two seasons of The Rings of Power, Arondir was one of the characters that was connected to the canon of the show, not the books. But now, with his murder, The Rings of Power is down one of its only original creations.
Is Theo the legendary Witch-King?
The Nazgnagôl are Sauron’s greatest weapon yet in The Rings of Power Season 3.
When it comes to the identities of the Nazgûl in The Lord of the Rings, and the other books, we only have the name Khamûl, who, again, has already been revealed this season. Showrunner Patrick McKay tells Inverse that they put careful thought into the looks of the Nazgnagôl, wanting them to retain their human form this season...for now.
“Anytime you’re playing jazz with canon in the Lord of the Rings books, there are the ringwraiths,” McKay says. “There are these ghostly apparitions who have lives have been extended past death by the ring, but they’re still human men, but human men who are empowered by that ring. So you’re trying to imagine what that iteration and form would be. And you want them to be fearsome and a game changer on the battlefield and in the geopolitics of it all, but also they can pull off their helmets and they’re human, which maybe makes them even scarier.”
However, he promises that “maybe in the future,” there may be something more “otherworldly about their appearance.”
“But not yet,” McKay teases.
Other than that, all Tolkien tells us in The Silmarillion, that the Nazgûl were “mortal kings, sorcerers, and warriors.” Theo fits into the warrior part — with Sauron making sure to call him a descendent of “sorcerers” and “kings,” just to hammer in the hints. It could mean that he will survive a very, very long time to become the most feared dark wraith of them all.
The proximity of Sauron riding a Fell Beast toward the end of this episode also could suggest that Theo, as a Nazgnagôl, could eventually become the Witch-King, since as a Nazgûl, the Witch-King was infamous for riding a Fell Beast.
To be clear, the Nazgnagôl are proto-Ringwraiths, so it’s possible that not all Nazgnagôl will become Nazgûl. We know that Khamûl certainly will, but it’s possible that if Theo isn’t on the fast track to becoming a Witch-King, there could be hope for him to turn away from the dark path while he still has time.
