‘Star Wars: The Mandalorian’ S4: “The Foundling” – Everything We Noticed
This week we returned to Din and Grogu’s story to see some neat wildlife, rescue a foundling, and get to the bottoms of a season one mystery.
If last week’s episode wasn’t quite your style and you’d prefer to come back to Mando-and-Grogu-centric episodes, this week’s offering might have been just what you were looking for. In fact, we spend time with a lot of Mandalorian as the vast majority of this episode focused on Din’s home, Grogu’s training, and the sometimes difficult life of a foundling.
In order to break down this episode, we will have to spoil most of what happens this week. If you haven’t watched episode four yet, read at your own risk.
Kelleran Beq
We have two different scenes with the Armor Smith in this episode as she crafts both a new pauldron for Bo-Katan and a Rondel for Grogu. And both of these scenes represent a bigger acceptance of these relative newcomers into the order and family.
But while Grogu is watching his armor being formed, the clang of the machinery reminds him of his narrow escape during Order 66 and we are treated to a flashback. We learn that he was the sole Youngling survivor at the Jedi Temple and is flown out by Kelleran Beq.
Kelleran is a character you may recognize, but probably only if you’ve spent part of 2020 watching Star Wars children’s programming. Y’know, like with a child. He is the host of the Star Wars-themed kid’s game show Jedi Temple Challenge. And I’m going to be real with you, it was real cute.
Within the lore of the show, Kelleran’s job was helping young padawans get ready for knighthood through the Jedi Trials. Which makes him a perfect candidate for an Easter egg appearance to rescue a young Grogu. But what does this mean for the continuity of the show? Is the Jedi Temple Challenge supposed to be filled in front of a live Coruscanti audience? Are the kids from that show legally Jedi within the current canon, and if so has anybody checked on them recently?!
Kelleran Beq was played by Ahmed Best, who yousa may also remember as Jar Jar Binks.
H-Type Nubian Yacht
Kelleran and Grogu blast off in a ship so shiny you can see your reflection in it. And if that looked familiar it’s because that’s a H-Type Nubian Yacht or one of Senator Amidala’s ships of choice. We see this ship make an appearance in Attack of the Clones as well as a few times throughout The Clone Wars.
And with the Nubian ship, there are a handful of Naboo Royal Guard ready to hand off the fueled-up and still-running ship to Kelleran so he and Grogu can get away. They got to the temple ready to go very fast, so I have to wonder if the implication here is that Padme used one of her last minutes to tip them off and make sure there would be at least one escape ship?
501st
Conversely, we see the 501st attacking the Jedi Temple. This elite battalion of clones was led by Anakin, Ahsoka, and Rex during the Clone Wars. But with the rise of the empire they are reorganized and rebranded as “Vader’s Fist.”
“There’s Always a Bigger Fish”
Back to the present day, we see a bunch of animals in this episode, but perhaps the most important is a dragon-looking beast that kidnaps one of the community’s foundlings. Bo-Katan leads the rescue mission, and in the end, the creature is eaten by an even larger sea monster. It’s a pretty fun callback to Qui-Gon Jinn‘s “There’s always a bigger fish,” line from The Phantom Menace.
Bo-Katan’s Story
In the last few episodes, Bo-Katan has sternly requested to be alone, visited one destroyed home, lost another, and is now staying with Din Djarin‘s mando clan for the time being. And it feels like she may have something like a community once more.
It’s been interesting to see this evolution, and she’s almost falling into a friendly relationship with Din as she gently chides him for not training Grogu to use darts and then acts as the youngling’s cool aunt before fully planning and leading a rescue mission.
I can’t help but wonder what’s next, though. Will she be happy to stay with this variety of Mandalorians if they give her the leadership and respect she craves and deserves? Or is this a waystation and will eventually leave them behind when bigger and better things come along?
What did you think of this week’s episode of The Mandalorian? Did you recognize Ahmed Best / Kelleran Beq? Where do you think Bo-Katan’s story is headed? Let us know in the comments!
May the Force be with you, adventurers!
