Another Wizard in White

The wise old wizard in myth and literature is one of our most enduring and beloved tropes. Who does not love Gandalf, Dumbledore, Obi-Wan, or Merlin? The hero of the story would be nothing without them. In a real sense, they are the hero behind the hero. Theirs is the difficult work of preparing, teaching, and forming the protagonist into someone capable of fulfilling a calling. Or, just as often, into becoming the humble figure who does not so much accomplish a victory through force as receive it by surrender. In the truly great, Christian inspired stories, the hero must embrace humility and cease striving, allowing good to overcome evil rather than attempting to overpower it.

Among this company of wise guides, one figure is often overlooked.

Mr. Roarke, the host of Fantasy Island.

If ever there were a wizard in a white suit, it is he. Each week he ushers guests into their most extravagant dreams and secret fantasies, only to expose the fragile scaffolding beneath them. The island does not merely grant wishes. It reveals idols. Love without covenant. Power without character. Nostalgia without truth. Security without trust. Again and again, the fantasy collapses under its own weight, and the guest is forced to confront the hungry god they have been serving.

If Fantasy Island were framed more explicitly as Christian parable, the arc would bend one step further. The guests would not only discover that the dream they worshiped was a powerless trap demanding devotion. They would also discover that the longings beneath their fantasies: the love, belonging, power, security, provision, and purpose, are not wrong. They are misdirected. Those desires find their true fulfillment at the foot of the Cross, in the person of Jesus Christ.

Ricardo Montalban famously speculated that Mr. Roarke might be an angel, perhaps even a fallen one, serving out a kind of purgatorial sentence by helping others. It is an intriguing idea, but theologically tangled. Purgatory is unbiblical enough without assigning it to a place for fallen angels to earn salvation.

It is cleaner, and perhaps richer, to see Mr. Roarke as a wizard in the mold of Gandalf. He possesses power, but it is restrained power. He does not simply rearrange circumstances or override human will. Like all true guides, he orchestrates encounters with truth. He allows the illusion to play out just far enough to reveal its emptiness. He does not save his guests. He helps them see why they need saving.

And that, in the end, is what the wise wizard always does.