[The Saucepan Man]

Wa-heyyyy! I'm veering from one theory to another here with alarming regularity.

My original gripe with the Servant of Sauron theory was that the Ring would be fairly difficult to find once eaten (along with our dear little Ringbearer friend). Not the most efficient way to recover the Ring when you have the likes of a Balrog lurking in Moria to do your dirty work.

My problem with the independent but nasty beast theory was its deliberate closing of the gates. But, Purple Monkey's theory does make sense. Perhaps it was drawn to the Ring, hence its attack on Frodo, but then it got hacked off (literally), finding that it had more than it had bargained for on its tentacles. So it shut the doors on them.

This leaves us with Gandalf's unspoken thought about it going for Frodo before the others. Maybe he was thinking: "Well, that's the power of the Ring for you". But it does seem more likely that he was noting to himself the extensive influence of the Enemy, suggesting that he considered it to be in Sauron's service.

Either theory works. Is there anything else that we have to go on?