‘The Mandalorian’ Explores a Crisis of Faith for Its Characters

While episode 3 was exploring Dr. Pershing’s time with the New Republic, episode 4 of The Mandalorian titled “The Foundling” provided fans with a look into how everyone is doing. And spoiler alert, they’re not going great. From the moment that Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) saw the Mythosaur in the living waters of Mandalore, she has clearly been dealing with a life of thinking that the stories she was told were lies.

And when she (sort of) decided to join the Children of the Watch after she had been “redeemed,” she still seemed to be confused about what was happening in her own mind as she watched the Mandalorians training together. But “The Foundling” brought us more of an exploration on where Bo-Katan and Grogu are in their own explorations of their past and it really fell into theme with the time spent with Dr. Pershing in the episode prior.

**Spoilers for the third season of The Mandalorian lie ahead**

Prior to this season, most of the growth we’ve seen with the characters on The Mandalorian came from Din Djarin’s (Pedro Pascal) relationship with Grogu. His understanding of what it meant to be a father figure to Grogu and what he was willing to do for his son drove the series. Now, other characters are getting that treatment. Once Din met his goal of being redeemed, the series has since become other characters exploring their own pain and understanding. And it is oddly wonderful to see play out.

Grogu remembers

Grogu gets left behind when the rest of the Mandalorians go to rescue Paz Vizla’s son. Grogu is too small so Din and Bo-Katan leave him behind with the Armorer (Emily Swallow). She takes her time watching Grogu as a time to go ahead and tell him about the Mandalorian way all while building him a new piece to his armor. But Grogu is triggered by the sounds of the beskar being molded to the Armorer’s will and he’s transported back to a time when he escaped from the Jedi Temple during Order 66.

One Jedi (played by Ahmed Best) helps get Grogu to safety but Grogu still sat and watched as the Jedi around him were murdered by the Clones and all Grogu could do was fly away in his ship. We don’t get much else in this other than Grogu just escaping and what happened to get him to safety but it still is the pain that Grogu has been ealing with since reconnecting with his Jedi ways.

Bo-Katan and the Mythosaur

Bo-Katan’s crisis is a bit more obvious. While Grogu is just clearly remembering more than he was before, Bo-Katan is actively questioning what she knows and doing so with the Mandalorian creed she used to mock for their ways. Bo-Katan let herself be redeemed by the Children of the Watch in the episode before and this week, she is there to help everyone rescue the Foundling captured by the raptor.

She’s doing her part to save him but that’s not all she’s doing. She’s trying to navigate what everything she knows about means. When the Armorer sees a part of her armor missing, she says that she can fix it and can put the symbol of the Nite Owl back on it. But instead, Bo-Katan asks if she can wear one with the Nite Owl and one with the symbol of the Mythosaur on it.

The Armorer tells her yes that the Mythosaur belongs to all the Mandalorians but Bo-Katan goes further, telling her essentially what she saw in the waters of the mines. And the Armorer, for her part, does not seem shocked but it shows Bo-Katan’s thought process and where she is in the midst of her trying to understand what to believe anymore.

____________________________

This episode of The Mandalorian was one of the best and it truly gave us so much to talk about until next week.

(Featured image: Lucasfilm)