I’d imagine Gollum represents those who don’t willingly serve Satan, but end up furthering his goals anyway. Almost like a pagan; his plans for the ring don’t involve anything more than simply keeping it, along with his ways, resisting any attempts to change. Sort of an Aztec who wouldn’t convert to Christianity; human sacrifice was just what they did, and to them not part of some diabolical plot.
I watched the replay of the program this afternoon and tried to take took notes. Pearce delves deep into the symbolism, especially the hidden key to understanding the story. Pearce begins by reminding us that Tolkien was a linguist and employs this skill artfully in naming the characters.
Morgoth Bauglir (originally Melkor) means "he who arises in might". Melkor was the most powerful of the Ainur, but turning to darkness, became Morgoth, the ultimate antagonist of Arda, from whom all evil in the world of Middle-earth ultimately stems. This character is drawn from Isaiah 14:11 -" All your pomp has been brought down to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you". Morgorth = enemy = Satan; IOW, Morgorth is Satan.
Manwe was the King of the Valar, husband of Varda Elentári, brother of the Dark Lord Melkor, and King of Arda. Manwë was (with his brother Melkor i.e. Morgoth) the greatest of the Ainur, and the one that best understood the will of Eru. Manwe is Michael the Archangel.
Sauron - the greatest of Satan's servants, and Saruman - illustrates the corruption of power. Both names are derived from the Greek "sauros" which means lizard or dragon. In mythology, dragons symbolize Satan.
Wormtongue means devil tongue. Gandalf calls him a snake and wormgongue replies by baring his teeth and hissing.
Pearce now reveals the hidden key of the story - it is the day on which the ring is "unmade" or destroyed. That day is March 25. The significance of this date will not escape the attention of Catholic scholars, though it is certainly overlooked all too often by Tolkien's non-Christian admirers. March 25 is the Feast of the Annunciation. It is the day on which Jesus was conceived. It is the day on which the Word was made flesh. It is the day on which God became man. It is also the day on which the Crucifixion supposedly took place. Today, Good Friday, follows a movable calendar but March 25 was fixed by Anglo Saxons as the actual date of the Crucifixion.
It signified the way in which God had "unmade" the Fall, which, like the Ring, had brought humanity under the sway of "the Shadow." If the ring that the hero wants "unmade" at the culmination of Tolkien's quest is the "one ring to rule them all and in the darkness bind them," the Fall was the "one sin to rule them all and in the darkness bind them." On March 25, the one sin, like the one ring, had been "unmade," destroying the power of the Dark Lord.
Pearce now makes the comparison between the power of the ring and original sin. As you recall, once it was slipped onto a finger, the wearer disappeared in God's world but became more visible in the dark world of Sauron. The wearer struggled against the 2 powers of good and evil, always free to choose. With sin, we are excommunicated from God's world and free to choose evil. In choosing to sin, we form habits. A thing possessed possesses the possessor as in Matt 6:21 - "where your treasure is, there your heart will be".
As christians, we must follow in the footsteps of Christ. Frodo does the same thing. On the way to the crucifixion, Christ carried the cross which is a symbol for sin. Frodo carries the ring which also symbolizes sin. Notice that on their journey, they bring nothing to eat except "lembas". In elfish, "lembas" means life bread, IOW, the Blessed Sacrament.
Pearce poses the question of why Frodo fails at the end of the journey. The most difficult part is behind him; all he has to do is toss the ring into the fire but he can't bring himself to do it. This bothered Pearce for a long time until he recognized the answer and calls it a master stroke of Tolkien genius. Like Frodo, we cannot carry our crosses on our own. We need the grace of Christ to do that. Gollum became the agent of that grace. At the beginning of the book, it is mentioned that good can come from evil. Now, at the end, we see that. All along the way, each of the hobbits had an opportunity to kill gollum but spared his life. Had they killed him, the quest would have failed. Tolkien used Gollum to demonstrate Christ's command to "love your enemy". Had they killed Gollum, sin would have triumphed.
At the conclusion of the program, Pearce mentions several of the many themes running throughout the trilogy that hopefully will be covered in the future. These include Gandalf and the symbolism to the death, resurrection and ascension of our Lord. I hope this addresses some of your comments and hopefully, the program will be shown again.