“How should Frodo have gotten into Mordor?” is a frequently asked question on the assorted Tolkien-hubs of the internet. If Gandalf hadn’t fallen in Moria, what path would he have chosen? If Frodo hadn’t left Aragorn behind, where might he have led them? Frodo, not being particularly qualified for this part of things, goes for the only way in he’s aware of: the front door, which is obviously a non-starter if his goal is to anything besides get immediately captured. Gandalf is horrified when he learns they took the pass of Cirith Ungol. But what else could he have done? Looking at the map, the only other option would have been go East along the edges of the Ered Lithui, loop around the far end of them, and approach Gorgorth by travelling through the Lithlad and past the Sea of Núrnen. That would be a long, long journey through hostile, unforgiving territory. Sam’s already concerned about their food being enough to last to Mt. Doom by much shorter roads, and it would give Sauron plenty of time to conquer everything anyway.
So we can all appreciate Frodo’s dilemma here. He needs to reach Mordor, and is prepared to try the impossible task of sneaking through the Morannon if it’s the only way. But here comes Sméagol, obviously and honestly terrified at the thought of Sauron recovering the Precious, offering an alternative path. But Frodo isn’t stupid, and knows that Gollum would betray him and recover the Ring if he thought he could. Of course Frodo ultimately takes Sméagol’s suggestion, and as far as I’m aware neither Aragorn nor Gandalf could have offered a better one. It was an impossible quest from the beginning, and this is a large part of the reason why.
That’s ultimately what this chapter is all about: Frodo choosing to roll the dice and place his trust wholly in Sméagol. This is different from trust him to lead them out of the Emyn Muil and out of the Dead Marshes: they knew the rough geography, could literally see the place they were trying to get to, and Gollum’s opportunities to betray them were limited. Here, Frodo is choosing whether or not to trust Sméagol to lead them safely past Minas Morgul. Literally the only place worse to go to would be Barad-dûr itself. It’s a momentous decision in a chapter that I never really appreciated fully when I was younger, as it’s mostly just description otherwise.
Next time, Sam laments for po-tay-toes and gets his wish of seeing an oliphaunt after all, after dining on some Herbs and Stewed Rabbit.