After last week’s detour to see how Doctor Pershing was acclimating himself to his new life in the New Republic (not great, Bob!), this week returns us fully to the action of the Mandalorian cult as Grogu begins his Mandalorian training and Bo-Katan further enmeshes herself with her new family through orchestrating a successful rescue mission for Paz Visla’s abducted son. It’s really the first episode of The Mandalorian that allows us to focus solely on the Mandalorian as a group, a tribe, and not on Din Djarin’s personal journey. In fact, Din is only a supporting player throughout much of the episode, encouraging Grogu in his sparring match and coming in for a save of the lost Foundling before he was to be eaten by the sea beast. The bulk of the action – and the character development – is given to Grogu and Bo-Katan in this one, and that makes the episode, on the whole, far more interesting.
Let’s start with Bo, since I suspect the Grogu revelations are going to be the ones that resonate the most. As expected from what we’ve seen of her thus far, it’s clear Bo has more on her mind than simply taking the time to learn more about The Way during her time with the Children of the Watch. Seeing that Mythosaur has changed her in more ways that simply making her pure in the Living Waters. She now appears to believe that she has been blessed in some way – something that is reinforced by the Armorer’s comment that only someone truly lucky would see a vision of that great beast (although the Armorer doesn’t seem to believe that Bo saw a live creature, even if Bo insists she did). So, what does this mean moving forward? My best guess is that it’s going to further Bo’s belief that she is the chose one, the one to wield the dark sabre and unite all Mandalorians under a single banner and return them to greatness in the galaxy. She’s already ingratiating herself to those with the Children of the Watch through this rescue attempt – which also saw her awarded a shiny piece of beskar following its success. What makes Bo such an interesting character is her deep belief in her personal path to greatness – and the events of the last several episodes and her role in them have only served to fuel that belief. I suspect the series is setting us up for a showdown between her and Din at some point in the future. But when and where that happens will likely have a lot to do with how much she is able to make the Children of the Watch see things her way – and how much she can turn them against Din. We’ve seen that the Armorer isn’t fully sold on Din’s place in the cult (she knows that he has desires to be elsewhere and travel around and not stay put), but I think it might take more than just that distrust to get her on Team Bo.
And then there’s Grogu, who had a flashback to just who rescued him from the Jedi Temple purge of Order 66. If you aren’t familiar with Jedi Master Kelleran Beq (played here by Ahmed Best, who famously provided the motion capture and voice performance for Jar Jar Binks in the prequel films), you likely aren’t alone, since he only appeared in the Star Wars: Jedi Challenge children’s game show (also portrayed by Best), which I suspect not many Star Wars fans checked out. But according to that series, Beq is an incredibly skilled lightsaber combatant, nicknamed “The Sabered Hand” due to his extreme skills. His role as almost a dean of the academy meant that he was responsible for training the younglings and enhancing their skill with the lightsaber – meaning that he would have had a hand in young Grogu’s training as well. His rescue of Grogu was a tense affair, with many laying down their lives to ensure that he – and apparently only he – was saved from certain death. Which only reinforces the question as to why Grogu was so important? Did the Jedi know of his high M-count and want to keep him safe for that reason? Was he actually related to someone like Yoda, and therefor extra precious? Or is there some other reason that we don’t know about yet? Either way, Grogu’s rescue cost numerous Jedi their lives (as well as some Nobu guards, whose ship Beq commandeered after they elected to stay and cover the pair as they escaped – possibly hinting at some connection to Padme. Lots more questions, even if we received a clear answer as to Grogu’s knight in brown sack cloth.
We also saw a bit more about what it takes to turn oneself into a full-fledged Mandalorian, and it’s basically training games on the beach. Grogu, hesitant to let his true abilities shine, finally does and absolutely bests his adversary (who then sulks off and gets snatched, setting up the rescue attempt). This earns him a new piece of beskar as well (for being so rare, the Armorer is certainly freely handing it out this episode). While Grogu is clearly still feeling the pull of the Force – and using the Force to fight and protect those he loves – he appears committed to staying by Din’s side for the long haul. I suspect it will be quite difficult to get a Mandalorian helmet on that head, however, so I’m not sure if this is a permanent stop for the young man. But time will tell. After all, once Bo-Katan makes her inevitable move, who knows if Din and Grogu will be welcome in the clan.
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