The Lord Of The Rings: 11 Dumb Moments Everyone Ignores

4. The Return Of The King: Gollum Re-explains His Motivation

In The Two Towers, Gollum has a few key scenes where his split personality debates itself: the Smeagol half is mild and wants to trust Frodo (Master), where the Gollum half wants to steal the Ring back and kill both Frodo and Sam. Smeagol "banishes" Gollum for a while, but Gollum returns after he is captured and mistreated by Faramir and his men. Together, they hatch the plan to let Shelob (euphemistically referred to as "she" and "her") take out Frodo, then collect the Ring after Shelob has had her way. At the beginning of Return of the King, Gollum/Smeagol are obsessively discussing the plan, as they are wont to do. Sam hears Gollum talking about it aloud and tries to wring Gollum's neck, but Frodo intervenes. Frodo still believes that the Gollum personality is gone, to his (and Sam's) later regret. The scene serves two purposes: to remind the audience of Gollum's plan and to have Sam eavesdrop on it. In fairness, this was created when the films were being released one year apart and it was necessary to remind the audience what was going on. But home video makes this a bit repetitive and has the viewer looking for the fast-forward button on the remote.