Credit: LucasfilmAfter last week saw us relocate to the capital world of Coruscant for most of the runtime, in this week’s shorter episode of The Mandalorian, “Chapter 20 – The Foundling”, we are firmly back with our primary heroes as we find out more about the dynamics of the covert… time to recap.
We open back on the same planet from the season opener, at the Mandalorian covert. The clan are training as Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) watches. Grogu is sat on the beach, playing with some rocks. Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) tells him it is time to learn with the other foundlings.
He’s placed into a fight with another foundling. They’re to fight with darts. When the challenged young Mandalorian asks why Grogu doesn’t wear a helmet, Djarin explains that he is too young to speak the Creed and so to follow the rules.
After losing two rounds, Grogu deploys his Force skills and leaps over him and back, taking him out with three darts. As the battle finishes, the loser is suddenly grabbed by a flying creature. The covert takes to the skies to chase it down. As Paz Viszla (Tait Fletcher) runs out of fuel, he says ‘it always gets away’. It seems it’s an ongoing issue.
Bo-Katan followed the monster to it’s lair and says they should summon a hunting party to track it down. Grogu stays behind with the Armorer (Emily Swallow). She says there’s much work to attend to if he wishes to become a Mandalorian.
She shows him the Forge, the “heart of Mandalorian culture”, describing how their raw ore is forged through fire and adversity. the hammering steel leads to an Order 66 flashback.
We see Grogu being steered into an elevator in the Jedi Temple as Jedi shout for hm to get to Kelleran. Outside the lift we see Kelleran, Ahmed Best, who helps Grogu escape in a speeder after taking down some Clones with dual lightsabers.
What follows is a furious chase through the Coruscant cityscape, as Clone ships pursue the damaged bike through a train tunnel. Kelleran gets them to what appears to a familiar gleaming silver starship. The pair make it out to the atmosphere and hyperspace, and Grogu comes back to the present.
The Armorer hands his his roundel and tells him he will grow into it.
Back with the main group, they’ve flown as close to the creature’s nest as possible, and opt to take the rest on foot. Reaching the spire, they make camp at the base of the outcropping. Bo-Katan asks how they eat and Djarin says everyone goes off to eat alone. Viszla gives her the honor of staying by the fire for being the leader.
The next morning, they begin to abseil up the outcropping. at the nest, they find a trio of baby creatures, and the parent lands vomiting out Ragnar (Wesley Kimmel) – the challenger from earlier, and Viszla’s son. The winged beast takes off with him in its talons, and the Mandalorians takes to the skies after it once again. After an intense mid-air tussle, they manage to save the child. Djarin managed to save him from falling, earning the gratitude of Viszla too.
Returning to the covert, the Armorer tells Bo-Katan she has completed the Creed’s highest honor: saving a Foundling. Bo-Katan reveals they brought the infant creatures back too as new Foundlings. After the Armorer offers to repair her broken pauldron, she requests instead for it to be a Mythosaur symbol, and not a Nite Owl.
After the forging, Bo-Katan reveals that she did see the legendary creature. The Armorer seems only to half believe her, as the episode ends…
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This Is The Way (We Saw It)
This episode gave us another tantalizing glimpse into Grogu’s past and the horror of Order 66 at the Jedi Temple. that short flashback sequence gave us a lot: we had the return of Ahmed Best, the original Jar Jar Binks, as Jedi Master Kelleran Beq. Beq previously appeared in Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge. Beq was the primary reason Grogu made it out of the temple alive, fending off Clones first within it’s halls and then evading them in the city to make it to their escape craft, aided by members of the Royal Naboo Security Forces.
Was that escape just part of a wider initiative from Padme or Naboo itself to save as many Jedi as possible?
Outside of this flashback, we saw Grogu begin to train properly with other members of the covert, deploying his Force abilities to his advantage to outweigh the significant size difference. We also saw Bo-Katan open up to the Armorer and Din Djarin forge a new bond with Paz Viszla, after rescuing his son. Surely these will pay off significantly in the weeks to come…
What did you think to the latest episode of The Mandalorian, “The Foundling”? Tell us in the comments below.