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Five Thoughts on The Mandalorian‘s “Chapter 20: The Foundling”

By | March 23rd, 2023
Posted in Television | % Comments

After a strangely sequenced/paced episode that, nonetheless, pushed the overall plot forward and gave us an interesting look at the nascent days of the New Republic, The Mandalorian returns with an equally strange episode, but one with lots of interesting nuggets in it as well. Let’s get to it.

1. The freedom of blind faith

Bo-Katan has been through a hell of a lot in her life. From a princess to a warrior to living in an abandoned kingdom alone, she has lost just about everything she once held sacred and important. Her family, her Darksaber, her power, has all vanished. And so, when she was offered a spot among Din and the Armorer, in a group that she (correctly) called dangerous and cultish, Bo-Katan was at such a breaking point that she accepted. It was a huge gamble for her but, thus far, it seems like it is a choice that she is very comfortable with.

This is a hard thing to talk about without sounding judgmental, but many people I know who have gone in on extreme beliefs/organizations often have the same phrase about the restrictive rules and standards, and that is freedom. It sounds so counterintuitive; freedom is the ability to do whatever you wish, untethered from expectations or responsibility. But here’s the thing: real life is full of the exhausting reality of decision making and living with those consequences. And sometimes, being a mindless drone sounds like a vacation from the rigors of agency.

And so, Bo-Katan is willing to take on the onus of this extremist group just to be accepted and to not have to make decisions for once. Once she signs up for that, she thrives. She’s easily the most capable person in this group, tracking the beast, capturing its young, plotting a rescue mission, and not losing a single person along the way. She is instantly granted respect and a position of power in this community. After struggling to have anything go right for so long, she is able to not worry about being the one and just be Bo-Katan. And she thrives in that.

2. Grogu as a foundling

We see Grogu’s first steps into Mandalorian culture when he challenges, via Din, another foundling to a training exercise. While Grogu is very skilled when he actually participates in the showdown, it is very clear that this is not who he is. He’s a Mandalorian because of Din, not because of who he is. And hell, maybe that’s the way all foundlings start off, but it seems like a particularly bad fit for him. The Jedi are trained to not use their skills to harm others, and it seems like most Mandalorian training is to harm others.

Or, I should say, this particular flavor of Mandalorian is a bad fit for Grogu. This particular brand of Mandalorian is bad for just about everyone I’d argue, though the camaraderie and support they show is truly inspiring. That said, it’s somewhat undercut by the extremist viewpoints. This season seems to be setting up Bo-Katan to take the best of all Mandalorian traditions and forge something new with it, and in that way, I could see Grogu thriving. But for right now, he seems like a bad fit.

3. And now, a flashback

A lot of folks have basically seen the flashback to Grogu’s escape of the Jedi Temple in their heads for a few years as soon as they learned his basic backstory. After literally years of never seeing Order 66, since Revenge of the Sith, we’ve now seen it from at least four perspectives (RotS, Clone Wars season 7, Bad Batch season one, and now The Mandalorian). It never gets easier to watch, and this episode did a good job of reminding us of the abject horror of that moment.

It is also nice to see Star Wars forgive Ahmed Best for the sins of George Lucas by casting him as Kelleran Beq, the Jedi that saves Grogu’s life. Even wilder is that the same character, played by Best, was the host of Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge, a YouTube series that was essentially Legends of the Hidden Temple in a galaxy far, far away. So, does this mean that all of those kids are canonically part of Star Wars? I guess it does!

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But in terms of what this means for Grogu’s story, it asks more questions than it answers. Is he not speaking because that is how his species grows, or is he not speaking because he’s suffered such extreme trauma at a young age? How far along in his Jedi training was he? Did he continue a relationship with Kelleran Beq? I do think we will see more of Beq, either here or elsewhere.

4. The rescue

The rescue of the foundling was a daring and fun sequence, especially considering how few action sequences we’ve seen across the season thus far. One of the most glaring pieces of it, however, is the revelation that most of the Mandalorians are so inept. They can barely use their jet packs, they have no tactical knowledge, they didn’t think to simple scale the peak. There is not a lot of confidence in their abilities right now, and the fact that the rescue happened at all was due to Din and, especially, Bo-Katan being not shitty.

I also got serious The Phantom Menace vibes when the monster from “The Apostate” showed up to eat the winged creature when it fell into the water. “There’s always a bigger fish.”

5. The Mythosaur

I find it fascinating that Bo-Katan would be so willing to talk to the Armorer about her seeing the Mythosaur. She didn’t say anything to Din about the encounter, but chose to speak to the Armorer, a cold fish if there ever was one. But she’s someone with intimate, deep knowledge of the Mandalorian culture and traditions. And while the Armorer doesn’t exactly pat her on the head and say “that’s nice, dear,” she didn’t exactly give Bo-Katan what she was looking for either.

Like I said last week, this show seems to be setting up Bo-Katan as the Mandalore, the true heir to her people. Will this be enough to unite the various factions? That remains to be seen.


//TAGS | The Mandalorian

Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

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