Warning: This review contains spoilers forThe Mandalorianseason 3 episode 4.
After last week’s episode ofThe Mandalorianbarely featured the Mandalorian at all, the Mando-centric action of “Chapter 20: The Foundling” more than makes up for it. Following on from Mando, Grogu, and Bo-Katan joining the other Mandalorians at their monster-infested lakeside hideout, “The Foundling” sees the trio settling in at their newfound community. Grogu starts on the path to becoming a Mandalorian and Bo-Katan starts to see why Din Djarin loves the camaraderie of the Mandalorian people so much. The episode provides a fun adventure-of-the-week side mission as Mando, Bo-Katan, and the other Mandalorians journey to a giant bird’s nest to save an abducted foundling – but, mercifully, it’s not just typicalMandalorian-style filler.
Series creator Jon Favreau usually writesMandalorianepisodes alone, with the odd exception, but he brought in George Lucas’ personal protégé Dave Filoni as a co-writer for this one. Filoni has writtenMandalorianepisodes solo before, but this is the first one co-written by Favreau and Filoni. Filoni’s involvement in aMandalorianepisode usually signifies that something big is about to happen, likethe introduction of Ahsoka Tano. In the script for this week’s episode, Favreau and Filoni collaborated to give audiences the clearest glimpse yet at Grogu’s origins.
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Throughout the season, Favreau has continually foreshadowed that Grogu is about to start speaking. His baby noises have been sounding more like full words and “The Foundling” has the biggest sign yet that he’ll speak soon. The script has a whole spiel about how Grogu won’t followthe Mandalorian creedsuntil he can verbalize them. Season 3 is setting up a milestone moment in which Grogu finally utters a word (or even a full sentence in jumbled-up order, a la Yoda).
Bo-Katan solidifies her place as the third lead of the series in the latestMandalorianepisode. Mando and Bo-Katan have settled into their new co-parenting arrangement nicely. When Mando pushes Grogu into combat training, Bo-Katan assures the kid that her dad was the same way and it just means he’s proud.Bo-Katan is learning to embrace the Mandalorian peopleand their creeds. She’s no longer the power-hungry tyrant blindly determined to rule Mandalore; she’s opening up to the idea of being a team player.
At the helm of “The Foundling,” Carl Weathers proves once again that he’s adept at directing action. After pulling off the thrilling TIE fighter chase in the lastMandalorianepisode he directed, season 2’s “Chapter 12: The Siege,” Weathers directs a Jedi massacre, an airborne rescue mission, and Grogu’s first fight scene in “The Foundling.” All those years of working withgreat action directors like John McTiernanand Sylvester Stallone have clearly rubbed off on him. Weathers brings an impressive sense of perspective to the scenes with the pterosaur, as well as inventive shot choices like a camera locked onto a Mandalorian’s jetpack and low angles of the pterosaur babies snapping at the rescue party.
As much fun as it is to watch the Mandalorians fight a Godzilla-sized bird, the best sequence in the episode deviates from the A-story. The Armorer’s forge serves its usual purpose of delivering crucial flashbacks. This time, Grogu looks back on the most traumatic event of his 50-year childhood with an extended flashback to his survival ofthe Great Jedi Purgeon Coruscant. FromThe Book of Boba FetttoObi-Wan Kenobi, flashbacks to Order 66 have been done to death in recentStar Warsmedia. But this week’s heart-wrenching Order 66 flashback onThe Mandalorianis shot mostly from Grogu’s perspective. The clones’ massacre of the Jedi is even more horrifying when seen through the innocent eyes of a child in a floating crib.
This flashback reveals that, in the midst of the chaos of the Purge, Grogu was saved by Kelleran Beq, played by Ahmed Best reprising his role fromStar Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge. Beq and Grogu’s escape from the newly formed Empire takes audiences across all the Coruscant hotspots they saw last week, from the mountaintop to the subway tunnels. After everything Best went through withthe controversial role of Jar Jar Binks,The Mandaloriangives the underrated actor a character that theStar Warsfan base couldn’t possibly not love: the Jedi who saved Grogu’s life.
The latest episode ofThe Mandalorian’s third season is short but sweet. It wraps up in just under half an hour, but that half-hour is jam-packed with exhilarating action sequences that are sure to appeaseStar Warsfans who were turned off by last week’sAndor-style insight into intergalactic bureaucracy. With its trip to a bird’s nest, “The Foundling” might seem like another filler episode. But it uses its big bird storyline to advance the ongoing narrative arcs. Mando and Bo-Katan’s heroism in rescuing the foundling helps to ingratiate them into the Mandalorian community they’re hiding in, and sending them away for a couple of days gives Grogu plenty of time for introspection so the show can round out his fuzzy backstory. “The Foundling” might be the shortest episode of the season to date, but it’s also the most action-packed.
