The Mandalorian has returned this week with its third season’s most action-packed installment to date. The series’ latest episode, titled The Pirate, fulfills one of the promises of its season 3 premiere by bringing back Pirate King Gorian Shard (Nonso Anozie), who launches an all-out assault on Nevarro that he promises won’t cease until its High Magistrate leader, Greef Karga (Carl Weathers), surrenders. Greef, in response, tries to secure aid from the New Republic, but to no avail.
Fortunately, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff), and the rest of their Mandalorian covertly come to Nevarro’s rescue by wiping out Shard and almost his entire pirate crew. The Pirate doesn’t kill off Shard without setting up another villain’s potential role in The Mandalorian season 3, though. The episode packs in a number of shocking moments and late-season developments between its numerous action beats.
With that in mind, here are five questions we have after episode 5 of The Mandalorian season 3.
Was that Zeb?
Early on in The Pirate, New Republic captain Carson Teva (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) watches Greef Karga’s call for aid in an Adelphi bar. Afterward, he is approached by a male Lasat with a very familiar voice, who tells Carson he’ll have little luck convincing the New Republic to help Greef and the people of Nevarro. For fans of Star Wars Rebels, it’ll be impossible to watch the scene and not be left asking: Wait, was that Zeb?
Voiced by Steve Blum, Zeb (full name Garazeb Orrelios) is a longtime resistance fighter who just so happens to be one of the primary characters of Star Wars Rebels. Before today, Zeb had never been brought to life in live-action form. However, the credits for The Pirate confirm that the episode’s gravelly-voiced Lasat is, indeed, Zeb, who appears to have become a member of the New Republic Defense Fleet in the years since the climactic events of Star Wars Rebels.
What is Elia Kane’s plan?
Carson Teva’s attempt to bring New Republic backup to Nevarro is met with considerable resistance by not only his superior officer, Captain Tuttle (Tim Meadows, making his Star Wars debut), but also one of Tuttle’s officers, Elia Kane (Katy M. O’Brian). Kane tells Tuttle that Nevarro hasn’t officially joined the New Republic and notes that it would probably do the planet’s people some “good” to realize what it’s like to live without the galactic government’s protection.
Captain Teva correctly calls out Kane’s fascistic beliefs and advice, but Tuttle doesn’t take his observations to heart. As Teva storms off in frustration, Kane watches him go with the same unsettling smirk she had in episode 3 of The Mandalorian season 3. The Pirate, in other words, makes it clear yet again that Kane is up to no good. But is she intentionally trying to weaken the New Republic from within? Or is she simply trying to get revenge on her past enemies through seemingly bureaucratic means?
Alternatively, is it possible she’s trying to further cover up the potential rescue of Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito)?
Will Bo-Katan really reunite the Mandalorians?
In one of the most surprising moments of The Pirate, The Armorer (Emily Swallow) commands Bo-Katan to remove her helmet before telling her that she believes Bo-Katan’s recent Mythosaur sighting suggests that a new age for Mandalore may be about to begin. The Armorer then tells Bo-Katan, as well as all of their covert’s other members, that she believes Bo-Katan’s experiences both following and not following the Tribe’s strict Mandalorian creed gives her the unique ability to unite the various remaining Mandalorian factions throughout the galaxy.
The Pirate ends by suggesting that Bo-Katan is about to embark on a grand Mandalorian unification journey, but it’s worth noting — as The Armorer herself has before — that Bo-Katan’s previous attempts at leadership have failed. Taking that into account, it’d be unwise to assume based solely on the events of The Pirate that Bo-Katan really will end up being the new leader of Mandalore rather than The Mandalorian’s longtime lead, Din Djarin.
Who extracted Moff Gideon from his ship?
In the shocking final moments of The Mandalorian’s latest episode, Carson Teva discovers the destroyed remains of a prisoner transport ship floating in space. Teva deduces, with the help of another New Republic officer, that the ship in question was meant to transport Giancarlo Esposito’s Moff Gideon to his New Republic trial. Teva says that Gideon’s body isn’t present at the wreck and, even more shockingly, reveals that there are traces of Mandalorian Beskar steel throughout the ship’s destroyed remains.
The implication of the scene seems to be that it was a group of unknown Mandalorians who sabotaged Gideon’s transport ship and extracted him from it, but is that really the case? Or were the traces of Beskar intentionally planted on the ship to throw the New Republic off the trail of Gideon’s real savior? Alternatively, if Gideon was found and extracted by an unknown Mandalorian crew, did those same Mandalorians end up letting the Imperial go or did they kill him themselves?
What happened to Moff Gideon?
The final scene of The Pirate doesn’t just raise questions about who destroyed Moff Gideon’s transport ship, but also why. Did they do it to help him escape the justice he was likely going to have to face? Or did they do it to ensure that he did face justice? Beyond that, what happened to Moff Gideon after he was extracted from the transport ship seen at the end of The Pirate? Was he killed, liberated, or imprisoned?
The thought of Gideon still being alive and free is an undeniably disconcerting one. Unfortunately, Star Wars fans will likely have to wait to find out what happened to Moff Gideon following his defeat at the hands of Din Djarin and Luke Skywalker in the Mandalorian season 2 finale.
New episodes of The Mandalorian premiere Wednesdays on Disney+.
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