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The Mandalorian: The Foundling

“There’s always a bigger fish.”

Chapter Twenty

Mando, Grogu and Bo-Katan settle into life at the Covert, and Grogu has his first test as a potential Mandalorian. Although too young to speak the creed, he is able to best his opponent. Then in a moment of celebration, another foundling is grabbed by a flying monster, setting in motion a desperate rescue attempt...

First off, the action in this episode was really fun, from the small duel between Grogu and the other foundling we met in the first episode of this season, to the flying combat with the monster. It was all well framed and easy to follow with a highlight on Bo-Katan and Mando acting courageous and taking daring risks to save the young Mandalorian.

This parallels nicely with Jar Jar Jedi, sorry, I had to make the joke. Ahmed Best, infamously known for his performance as Jar Jar Binks, here plays Kelleran Beq, the Jedi who saved Grogu from a grizzly death at the hands of the clone troopers raiding the Jedi temple. The scene really showed the sheer amount of death that happened during Order 66, and how it was more than just tragic, it was outright evil.


The flashback also shifted things to Grogu’s point of view, which was lovely. The character is coming into his own now, starting to train to become a Mandalorian and become more autonomous. Although him becoming a Mandalorian is funny in one respect that a single throw away line confirms he isn’t going to get his own helmet anytime soon. He did get a shiny new breastplate courtesy of the Armorer who explained that the castoffs left from other Mandalorian armor are what is used to make the first armor for foundlings.

I’m also a bit confused by the creed. I thought they were never to take off their helmet. Or was it that they could never take off their helmet in front of others? So what would happen if a Mandalorian is sleeping with their helmet off, because how could they sleep in that thing, and someone comes upon them? Suddenly they have broken the creed. Seems kind of weird and silly, but I guess the logistics of such a thing are kind of hand-waved for the sake of the story.


At leat we got an opportunity to see Bo-Katan’s face as she contemplated her new home and her role within it. I do wonder if her Mandalorian helmet has a function that somehow keeps her hair perfect, because she somehow evaded helmet head. Anway, it was a nice moment with the other members of the team giving her an honored place at the fire while they ate. So far all her reactions have seemed genuine. Maybe she is playing a long game or maybe I’m reading too much into her previous ambitions to rule Mandalore. Either way, she keeps proving her worth.

I really liked the final rescue with the flying monster and the jet pack battle. It might have been a cheat to get rid of the flying beast with a water monster rising up and eating the flying monster without our heroes having to butcher it just to save the boy. But I like to think it was to honor Ahmed Best, in a subtle way paying homage to a similar scene in Episode One. Either way, the aftereffect was that they adopted the creature's babies, which might prove to be important down the line. Here, it was just a cute capper to the action.

Bits:

Having Mando get to physically save the boy was probably a way of cutting off toxic fanboys who would take issue with Bo-Katan having that moment instead. Plus he is still the main protagonist so he should get a hero moment in each episode.

When I was searching for pictures for this one, all the promotional stills were kind of static and not very interesting. So for the first time I’m using all concept art found on StarWars.com.


The opening scene with Grogu and the little rock crabs is just another reminder that he tends to think with his stomach.

No quotes for this one, since it was all action. The quote at the top is from Episode One, spoken by Qui-gon Jinn. The episode felt a bit light, but I did like the character work for Grogu and Bo-Katan.

3 out of 4 Flying monster babies to feed

Samantha M. Quinn spends most of her time in front of a computer typing away at one thing or another; when she has free time, she enjoys pretty much anything science fiction or fantasy-related.

5 comments:

  1. I really, really enjoyed the Grogu content this time. And I had the same exact reaction to the helmet stuff. How do they blow their noses?

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  2. Thanks for the review. As usual, there’s a lot I’d miss if I didn’t read these. It was a terrific and fun episode. My only criticism is that it’s too short. My favorite line came early in the episode, when Bo Katan asked Din if he’d taught Grogu those battle moves, and he simply replied, “Not me.”

    Grogu’s memories were well done. I had to go read up on Kelleran Beq. It was terrible to see Order 66 so up close and personal. I’m a fan of The Bad Batch, so it’s pretty painful.

    Yeah, the helmet way is a bit unclear. I’ll second Billie’s question about nose blowing, and add one about kissing.

    Bo Katan keeps shining, but I still have a niggle of doubt. I hope it’s just my own cynicism.

    “The opening scene with Grogu and the little rock crabs is just another reminder that he tends to think with his stomach.”
    - I’m suddenly reminded of Yoda rummaging through Luke’s supplies and sampling his rations, lol.

    I love the concept art. Watching the credits on this show is just about as good as watching the episode!

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  3. Bo and The Armorer and a fascinating pair. As an audio engineer, I spend a lot of time thinking about the microphones and speakers that their masks employ. I need to let it go.

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  4. They can take their helmets off in private, we saw Mando take his off in that hut in the Season 1 episode with the AT-AT attacking the settlement

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  5. But they all seem to be sort of camping around a cave. How do they get to be totally alone long enough to sleep all night?

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