In “The Mandalorian” recap, Mando and Bo-Katan go on a rescue mission while Grogu remembers his past…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Last week’s episode of “The Mandalorian” clocked in as one of the longest of the series while also featuring two very different storylines.
The first involved Bo-Katan and Mando leaving Mandalore and returning to the moon planet Kalevala only to be attacked by a squadron of TIE interceptors that ended up bombarding the palace that belonged to Clan Kryze and likely the last connection Bo had to her family.
With help from Mando and his insanely fast ship, they were able to escape the attack before arriving at the wayward planet where the Mandalorian clan led by the Children of the Watch has been amassing while quietly building their numbers. Because Bo-Katan purified herself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka — actually the Living Waters beneath the mines of Mandalore — she was redeemed the same as Din Djarin, which means both were allowed into the ultra-religious cult that won’t allow its members to remove their helmets in the presence of anybody else.
It’s clear that Bo-Katan is having a crisis of conscience right now after she spotted a living, breathing Mythosaur — a creature that’s supposed to be long since extinct — and perhaps that’s rattled her beliefs and possibly even made her gain some faith in what the Children of the Watch have been preaching.
Meanwhile, we also took a detour to Coruscant where we were reunited with Dr. Penn Pershing (he had a first name after all!) — he was the doctor in charge of the cloning program run by Moff Gideon — except now he’s been inducted into the amnesty program by the New Republic. Sadly, Dr. Pershing’s attempt to integrate himself into a new life backfired spectacularly after he was lured into stealing a lab kit by another former Imperial officer, who also previously served Moff Gideon, but now she was working as a double-agent for the New Republic.
In the end, Dr. Pershing underwent some serious electro-therapy that fried his brain so it’s tough to say whether those scrambled eggs will still allow him to do much cloning or perhaps he was being punished by a Moff Gideon loyalist for turning against the Empire. Either way, Dr. Pershing won’t be cloning much of anything.
As we pick up in the new episode, Mando and Bo-Katan are making a home for themselves amongst the other Mandalorians while Grogu begins his training to take after dear old dad before the little guy remembers a much more tragic event in his past. Of course, Bo-Katan and Mando also get called into action when a youngling gets taken by a winged creature that requires a rescue mission.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of “The Mandalorian” …
Chapter 20: The Foundling
The episode begins with the Mandalorians in a training session with younglings learning alongside those who have already graduated to become apprentices. Mando watches over the group before going to retrieve Grogu, who was enjoying himself by the beach just keeping an eye on the crabs, perhaps looking for a midday snack.
Mando tells Grogu that it’s time to join the other younglings to learn the ways of the Mandalorian.
It seems Grogu is the one exception to the rule about wearing a helmet because he’s too young to speak the Creed, which makes him exempt from the policy. When Mando presents him to challenge another youngling, the rival boy scoffs at taking on a miniature opponent but the match proceeds with training darts as the chosen weapon.
The boy — who we later learn is named Ragnar — fires off two consecutive shots that land on Grogu like paintballs and the little guy doesn’t react much at all. Mando pauses the match to offer Grogu some encouragement, which leads to the boy jumping through the air to distract his opponent before firing off all three darts to win the match.
Mando and Bo-Katan are both impressed and Grogu is all smiles seeing how happy he’s made his surrogate father but Ragnar is dejected. He sulks by the beach but out of nowhere a Shriek-hawk — a giant, flying dinosaur like creature — comes tearing over the mountaintops and swoops down to grab Ragnar in its talons before flying away.
Paz Vizsla instructs the other Mandalorians to resist firing at the creature because it could hurt the boy but the situation turns more perilous after they attempt to give chase with their jetpacks only to run out of fuel before following the Shriek-hawk back to its next. Thankfully, Bo-Katan was smart enough to grab her ship and follow the creature back to its lair before reporting back to the rest of the group.
She knows a rescue party can only get so close before alerting the Shriek-hawk so they’ll need to fly in and then climb to the top of the nest to hopefully rescue Ragnar before he’s turned into birdfeed. Bo-Katan leads the team along with Mando and Paz Vizsla and a few other Mandalorians trained in dealing with Shriek-hawks but it’s an overnight trip that will require only the most skilled members of the group.
That means Grogu has to stay behind but that allows him to get some time with the Armorer, who offers him instruction and education on the importance of the forge in Mandalorian culture. The Armorer explains how the forge represents the growth of a Mandalorian through fire and flame, a great warrior is molded and crafted after much work just like the Beskar she uses to create armor.
While The Armorer is speaking and creating a new piece of armor, Grogu flashes back to his own history on Coruscant during the night where future Emperor Palpatine called for the annihilation of every Jedi in existence — better known as Order 66, which we’ve seen carried out in in live action pieces during “Revenge of the Sith” as well as the recent “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series.
In this flashback, Grogu remembers the Jedi fighting back against the clone troopers, who were just too many in number, to defend against. Grogu watched Jedi after Jedi fall but he was particularly important as the group ushered him to an elevator in an attempt to escape the slaughter.
When the elevator doors opened on a different floor, Grogu was greeted by a Jedi knight named Kelleran Beq — played by Ahmed Best, who will always be remembered as the voice and the motion capture actor who portrayed the much maligned character Jar-Jar Binks in the “Star Wars” prequels. Best never got a fair shake with fans even though he was only playing a character in the “Star Wars” universe but now he gets some redemption of his own while playing a Jedi in these flashback scenes.
With dual lightsabers in hand, Kelleran Beq is able to fend off the clone troopers (who were all coincidentally voiced by Temuera Morrison aka Jango Fett, the original base for the clones) as he got to a speeder and eventually a ship manned by loyal soldiers from Naboo.
When another garrison of Stormtroopers arrive trying to kill the last remaining Jedi, the Naboo soldiers offer to fend them off while Kelleran Beq and Grogu make their escape off the planet. Kelleran Beq promises to take Grogu to some friends of his, which makes it sound like this won’t be the last flashback we’ll get as we continue to understand the mysterious origin story behind this boy once known as Baby Yoda.
Back in the present day, the Armorer finishes forging a new piece of armor fashioned into a rondel with the insignia of the Mudhorn — the symbol of Clan Mudhorn as first anointed back in “The Mandalorian” season 1 after Grogu helped kill the horned-creature as it was attacking Mando thus giving the new house a proper name and insignia.
The Armorer then places the rondel on Grogu as the latest piece of armor to go along with the Beskar chainmail that she made for him during the events of “The Book of Boba Fett” as requested by Din Djarin.
Back on the rescue mission, Bo-Katan and the other Mandalorians arrive near the next of the Shriek-hawk but the hour is already too late — they’ll need to camp for the night and climb the mountain the next day to reach the nest. As the group prepares to have dinner, Bo-Katan is understandably confused a how she’s supposed to eat while not removing her helmet.
Mando explains that each member will find solitude somewhere separate from the campsite to remove their helmets and eat their food. Paz Vizsla tells Bo-Katan that she can stay by the fire because she’s leading the hunt for the foundling.
The next day, the Mandalorians scale the mountain side to find the next where the Shriek-hawk is nesting while hoping that a stealth operation will allow them to save the boy rather than opening fire, which will undoubtedly end in his death. After they arrive at the next, Mando finds the only heat signature in the nest and that sends Paz Vizsla into action much to Bo-Katan’s chagrin as she attempts to keep him in check.
It turns out Paz Vizsla is personally invested because Ragnar is his son.
He rushes over to the next calling out his son’s name but all that emerges are three Shriek-hawk chicks all hungry for dinner. That’s when the mama Shriek-hawk arrives and effectively coughs up Ragnar to feed to her young.
Thankfully the boy is unharmed but still in grave danger as the Mandalorians spring into action to save Ragnar and themselves now that the Shriek-hawk has transformed into attack mode. An airborne battle ensues with Paz Vizsla nearly chomped in half but in the end, Bo-Katan and the others are able to rescue the foundling unharmed as well as his father while the Shriek-hawk ends up being devoured by an even larger underwater creature that springs up to snatch its own dinner.
The group returns victorious with the rest of the Mandalorians applauding their efforts with Ragnar still very much alive. The Armorer greets Bo-Katan and congratulates her on carrying out the highest honor in the Creed by saving a foundling.
Bo-Katan answers back with a familiar “This is the way” before introducing the Armorer to three more foundlings in need of training — the group retrieved and rescued the Shriek-hawk chicks, who will presumably now be used as a way for the Mandalorians to fly around the planet with creatures of their own.
The Armorer then notices that a part of Bo-Katan’s armor has been damaged during the battle so she offers to forge a new piece. Rather than have another Nite Owl insignia added, Bo-Katan requests the Mythosaur skull, which The Armorer explains belongs to all Mandalorians so it’s a perfectly good insignia to wear on her armor.
As the two of them sit together while the armor is being hammered out, Bo-Katan finally comes clean about seeing the Mythosaur on Mandalore.
At first, The Armorer just assumes she saw a vision while bathing in the Living Waters but then Bo-Katan tells her that she saw a Mythosaur very much alive and not extinct at all. The Armorer only answers back with “This is the way” but once again Bo-Katan shows signs that perhaps she’s starting to learn to have a little faith in the ancient ways of her people and maybe this really will be how Mandalore will finally rise from the ashes again.
“The Mandalorian” will return with a new episode next Wednesday on Disney+.
