In episode 4 of The Mandalorian season 3, titled The Foundling, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) lead a mission to save a kidnapped Mandalorian child, and Grogu flashes back to the night that changed his life forever. The latter sequence answers a question that Star Wars fans have been asking ever since Grogu was introduced at the end of The Mandalorian’s series premiere.
In other words, even though The Foundling only runs a little over 30 minutes long, the episode still manages to pack quite a lot into its fairly limited runtime. Now, heading into next week’s episode of The Mandalorian, here are five questions we have after The Foundling.
When will Grogu be able to speak?
Early on in The Mandalorian’s latest episode, Pedro Pascal’s Din explains that Grogu does not have to wear a Mandalorian helmet like the rest of his fellow foundlings because he doesn’t yet have the ability to speak and, therefore, cannot recite the Mandalorian creed. Putting aside questions about how Grogu’s large ears will even allow him to wear a helmet at all, Din’s comment suggests that the moment when Grogu begins to speak will also be the moment when his Mandalorian transformation is complete.
That raises the question: How much longer will Din and Co. have to wait before Grogu actually starts talking? Unfortunately, given how little is known about Grogu’s mysterious race, that’s a question fans may have to wait a while to have answered.
Does Jar Jar Binks return? Well, sort of …
In The Foundling, The Mandalorian finally reveals how Grogu was able to survive the Order 66 massacre on Coruscant that resulted in the deaths of many of his fellow Jedi younglings. Specifically, it’s revealed that it was Jedi Master Kelleran Beq who saved Grogu’s life and personally escorted him off of Coruscant. Beq is, notably, played by Jar-Jar Binks actor Ahmed Best, and The Foundling isn’t the first time that Best’s Jedi Master has appeared in a piece of Star Wars content.
The character was actually introduced in 2020 when Best appeared as him on the Lucasfilm-produced children’s game show, Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge. While little is known about Beq’s life as well, Best has previously described the character as one of the rare Jedi who is devoted solely to the art of teaching others. Taking that into account, it makes a certain amount of sense that it was ultimately Beq who saved Grogu’s life during Order 66.
Did Kelleran Beq survive the Jedi Purge?
The central flashback sequence in The Foundling comes to an end just after Grogu and Kelleran Beq successfully manage to lightspeed away from Coruscant in their ship. As a result, it’s still unclear how Grogu went from being in Kelleran Beq’s care to being at the Nikto mercenary hideout where Din Djarin found him in The Mandalorian’s first episode.
That also means we still don’t know whether Ahmed Best’s Kelleran Beq actually survived the 16-year purge that the Empire waged against the galaxy’s Jedi. The odds don’t seem high that he did, but if there’s one thing that the franchise’s Disney-run era has taught Star Wars fans, it’s that many more members of the Jedi Order actually survived Order 66 than they long believed.
Regardless of whether he’s still alive during the post-Empire era of The Mandalorian or not, though, it seems safe to say that Star Wars fans are already eager to learn more about the time that Grogu spent with Jedi Master Beq following their escape from Coruscant.
Do the Mandalorians really intend to train those baby raptors?
At the end of the fourth chapter of The Mandalorian season 3, Bo-Katan tells the Armorer that their Mandalorian tribe now has three new foundlings they have to take care of. Moments later, a pair of Mandalorian warriors lure out three wild baby raptors from Bo-Katan’s ship using pieces of raw meat. The creatures are, notably, the surviving children of the adult raptor that Bo-Katan, Din, and their fellow Mandalorian warriors teamed up to take down in the second half of The Foundling.
While the reveal of the three raptors brings Bo-Katan and Din’s mission to a lighthearted conclusion, it is worth asking: Does their Mandalorian tribe really intend on training the raptors to be like them? That seems like a tall order, frankly, and not just because making helmets for the raptors seems like a bit of a logistical nightmare. There is, of course, also a chance that the Mandalorians will try to find a new raptor to raise the orphaned children, but even that seems like something that’s easier said than done.
Either way, the strange scene raises several questions about how the Mandalorians actually take care of the foundlings they come across, especially those that are wilder and more beastlike than them.
What does Bo-Katan’s new sigil represent?
In the final scene of The Foundling, The Armorer crafts a replacement piece of armor for Bo-Katan, who requests that it bear a Mythosaur sigil rather than the same Nite Owl sigil as her other shoulder plate. The Armorer grants her request and tells her that the Mythosaur symbol belongs to every Mandalorian. While Bo-Katan tries to tell The Armorer that she’s actually seen a living, breathing Mythosaur on Mandalore as well, it’s unclear whether or not The Armorer believes her.
The Mandalorian’s newest episode subsequently ends with Bo-Katan not only staring contemplatively again at a replica Mythosaur skull but also taking yet another step away from her past by replacing one of her Nite Owl shoulder plates with an entirely new one. The moment suggests that Bo-Katan may, indeed, end up choosing to stay with Din Djarin and agree to become a full-time member of his Mandalorian tribe.
At least, it certainly seems like Bo-Katan is enjoying the sense of community that the Tribe provides more than she ever expected she would.
New episodes of The Mandalorian premiere Wednesdays on Disney+.
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