– Spoiler Review –
In The Mandalorian’s “Chapter 20 – The Foundling,” two foundlings take focus, as Din and Bo-Katan stage a rescue for one, while Grogu’s own training takes us back to his rescue from the Jedi Temple, where a surprising, yet utterly delightful face returns.
With Din Djarin redeemed, and Bo-Katan now part of the team, even if she’s not behind their ways fully, the covert settles into training, including putting Grogu to the test. I found it pretty laughable, in a cute and silly way, to see Grogu standing before Ragnar, the newest foundling whose initiation was interrupted in the season premiere, about to fight. Ragnar was like me, incredulous he was being put to the test, as he’s so small, but Din believes in his little boy and overrides everyone’s concerns, as after all, he’s got to start sometime. Ragnar picks fighting with darts, in this case basically paint guns for training, and gets in two good shots on the little Grogu to start. Distressed, Grogu looks up sadly at Din, but he has faith in him, coaxing his little foundling to show off his abilities, leading to Grogu flipping back and forth over Ragnar and landing all three shots in a quick succession, winning. After having his initiation interrupted and now being beaten by Grogu, Ragnar’s not giving his papa’s name a good rep, and it only gets worse: a giant flying creature swoops in and nabs the poor boy! Seriously, this kid has the worst luck, and so does the covert with creatures on their chosen planet (to the point it feels more like a plot convenience these keep happening), and while Ragnar’s father Paz Vizsla, Din, and another set off on jetpacks to chase, Bo-Katan follows it in her ship, finding its nest and returning to mount a rescue plan.
With a plan in mind, Bo-Katan leads Paz, Din, and a small group to the nest for the rescue, while Grogu stays behind with the Armorer for more lessons on being a Mandalorian. It’s in these lessons, seeing the forge and learning its importance, where the machinery’s pounding taps into Grogu’s repressed memories and takes us back to Order 66 and the Jedi’s attempts to save him. The initial group of Jedi protecting him falls, not before shoving him into an elevator and mentioning a very surprising name. When the elevator opens, it’s none other than Jedi Master Kelleran Beq waiting to rescue Grogu! I had no attachments or hopes on who or how Grogu would escape the Jedi Temple during Order 66, so it could’ve been anyone, but making it Kelleran Beq left me cheering and was a stroke of brilliance actor Ahmed Best truly deserved (and someone guessed it two years ago!).
After starring as Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menance, Best received some truly terrible reactions from a certain subset of fans, which he revealed almost led him to suicide, but he’s since found lots of love from younger fans who grew up with Binks (like me), so his return to the franchise as Kelleran Beq in the in-universe game show Jedi Temple Challenge was met with much acclaim and excitement. To take his character and put him front and center in Star Wars’ most popular show, saving its most popular character, is a sharp rebuke of anyone who had hateful things to say to him and a giant show of support from Lucasfilm and this franchise for Best. Beq pulls off some sick double lightsaber moves against the clone troopers trying to kill them off, which leads to a speeder chase through Coruscant (even taking us back to the square seen in “Chapter 19 – The Convert”), and eventually a rough landing to sneak away in a Naboo starship. It’s a thrilling sequence, hampered only a little by some wonky background/CGI work that’s not as clean as other parts of the episode, and tells us finally how Grogu escaped the Temple. How long is Beq with Grogu after this? How and why do they part? Does Beq take Grogu to the Gungans, to Jar Jar, in what would be an amazing meta moment? While this answers one part of Grogu’s past, it leaves much of it open, allowing the show to return to or flesh it out (and bring Beq back again) whenever they so choose.
For now, this is where Grogu’s flashbacks end and we are brought back to the present, where Bo-Katan finds herself the leader of their war band in the attempt to save Paz’s child, Ragnar. To not spook off the creature, or make it kill the foundling, they land away from the nest, walk over, and scale the mountain its nest is on. While they don’t encounter any issues, Paz abandons all his cool and calm composure and rushes into the nest once Din identifies a heat source, only to find little baby creatures, which snap at him until the parent flies up into view, regurgitating Ragnar and dangling him over their yapping little beaks. Paz doesn’t wait again, jetting himself into the creature’s mouth to fight it, which prompts everyone else to jet off after them, to save both and bring the creature down. It’s a pretty cool sequence, a bunch of Mandalorians jetpacking around in a high speed/altitude chase, where the CGI looks more refined than Beq’s chase on Coruscant, and it leads to both the return of Ragnar safely, with our boy Din pulling off an impressive catch, and the death of the creature, as it’s eaten by the alligator-turtle from the premiere. With everyone happily safe, the crew returns to the covert’s cave with the little chicks in tow as more foundlings for the group…imagine those things flying into battle with a Mandalorian riding them!!
The episode ends with Bo-Katan receiving a new shoulder pauldron, one of hers fell off in the scuffle in the sky, and she requests the mythosaur signet on it instead of another Nite Owl one. As she requests it, she tells the Armorer she saw the creature in the Living Waters, who doesn’t seem to quite believe her but allows her the space to believe what she wishes. In a way, this felt less like Bo-Katan wanting to tell the Armorer specifically, but rather to help herself believe what she saw, something she’s been grappling with since “Chapter 18 – The Mines of Mandalore.” She’s following their rules, careful not to upset them or break any yet, as she’s seeing the benefit of working with them, but I imagine it’s all in the hopes of regaining her rule and hold on Mandalorians overall, especially as she considers the impact of the mythosaur on her designs going forward. What are her next moves? How does she want to play the mythosaur card with her plans? How long will she go along with Din’s cult? All questions I look forward to seeing answered throughout the remaining half of the season.
You read that right, we are halfway through season three already! It’s been an intriguing one, filling in backstories, revealing machinations in the larger galaxy, and wiping away Din’s transgressions (but not the show’s for putting story development in a different show). But after four episodes…it’s not quite clear where this season is heading. There are definitely hints littered throughout, but nothing concrete and nothing at the end of this episode, or the last, queueing us in on where the show intends to go next. It’s not vital, mind you, but it makes the story feel a little aimless without any specific destination in mind, unlike the last two seasons having the larger goals in mind like returning Grogu to his people, so hopefully this final half of episodes will chart a course on where this is all heading.
Here are a few other things:
- Carl Weathers, aka High Magistrate Greef Karga, directed today’s episode and it’s as action-packed as his last directorial stint. But the biggest thing I appreciate was how he revealed the episode’s title ahead of Wednesday, as it’s semi-ridiculous we never know the episode lengths or titles beforehand…the world didn’t end when he did it or when The Bad Batch did it for its second season. More of episodic directors revealing title names beforehand to help hype up and increase speculation before a new episode airs, please!
- April 19 will be the season finale, a full two weeks after Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023…I’ll be interested to see what news comes from there which might increase interest in this show’s final few episodes.
The Mandalorian’s “Chapter 20 – The Foundling” reveals a vital piece of Grogu’s backstory with the inclusion of an actor whose time to shine was long overdue, while its present set story, while enjoyable, is beginning to feel a little aimless.
+ Kelleran Beq and Ahmed Best’s resurgence
+ Great action sequences in present and past
+ Bo-Katan’s decisions
– Feeling aimless
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.
THE MANDALORIAN REVIEWS
Season Three: Chapter 17 – The Apostate | Chapter 18 – The Mines of Mandalore | Chapter 19 – The Convert
The Book of Boba Fett: Chapter 5 -Return of the Mandalorian | Chapter 6 – From the Desert Comes a Stranger | Chapter 7 – In the Name of Honor
Season Two: Chapter 9 – The Marshal | Chapter 10 – The Passenger | Chapter 11 – The Heiress | Chapter 12 – The Siege | Chapter 13 – The Jedi | Chapter 14 – The Tragedy | Chapter 15 – The Believer | Chapter 16 – The Rescue
Season One: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 – The Child | Chapter 3 – The Sin | Chapter 4 – The Sanctuary | Chapter 5 – The Gunslinger | Chapter 6 – The Prisoner | Chapter 7 – The Reckoning | Chapter 8 – Redemption