Danced for hours today :)
I’m not done being emotionally compromised by Samwise Gamgee in that scene in Shelob’s lair. He absolutely knows what the Ring has done to Frodo, mentally and spiritually - the thing that finally convinces him that Frodo must be dead is the fact that he doesn’t react to having the Ring taken from him. At some level, Sam knows that nothing but death could separate Frodo and the Ring now; that as long as Frodo lives he can’t willingly give it up.
And that’s a truth that neither of them can possibly afford to articulate to themselves, because what happens when we reach the Fire.
