Official summary: Survivors come out of hiding.
Trivia
The episode opens on Coruscant, where we see a pink (and mirror-reversed) Aurebesh sign reading “Cybernetics”, a blue one reading “Bronwyn”, and the rest appear to be gibberish or incomplete.
When Moff Gideon walks to the meeting, he passes by the Imperial armored commandos. They wear Ralph McQuarrie inspired chest armor that was originally meant for Boba Fett.
Also those laser gates bring to mind the ones seen on Naboo in The Phantom Menace.
This is actually the second iteration of the Shadow Council, which was first formed in the Aftermath novels by Gallius Rax.
The Shadow Council is unfortunately mostly comprised so far of unknown Imperial warlords. They are played by Jonny Coyne, Jodi Long, Hemky Madera, Ron Bottitta (who previously voiced characters for The Old Republic), Marco Khan and Imelda Corcoran. However there are two who are known and they are huge.
The first we see and hear speaking is Captain Gilad Pellaeon, played by Xander Berkeley. He was the right-hand man of Thrawn in the Legends novels of the original Thrawn trilogy. Since his debut in Heir To The Empire he has become the most important Imperial in the period after Return of the Jedi. He made his return to canon in the final episodes of Season of Rebels, where he was voiced by Jim Cummings.
Pellaeon wears on his left sleeve the symbol of the Seventh Fleet, which was Thrawn’s fleet in both Rebels and the new Thrawn trilogy of novels by Timothy Zahn.
The other big name of the Shadow Council is Brendol Hux, father of Armitage Hux who we saw in the Sequels. The character of Brendol has been seen in various novels like Aftermath where he was in the first version of the Shadow Council and deemed too important to the Empire and thus spared from the Empire’s final fate on Jakku. The reason why he was important was explored in his first appearance: Servants of the Empire: The Secret Academy, a novel that shows Brendol involved with training recruits that eventually leads to him being the mastermind behind the First Order’s stormtrooper training regimen.
Brendol Hux was played by Brian Gleeson, the real-life brother of Domhnall Gleeson (Armitage Hux). The likeness of their father Brendan Gleeson (known for various roles, including Mad-Eye Moody in the Harry Potter movies) was used for a portrait of Brendol in the Star Wars: Galactic Atlas. Considering that this guide is closer in time to The Force Awakens, it can be assumed that this is how he looked like when he was older. They did match the beard on Brian on purpose it seems for this to be true.
Project Necromancer is new, but a necromancer is a person who practices necromancy, a discipline of black magic used to communicate with the dead to foretell the future. Considering that cloning is the obsession of Brendol Hux, it could refer to bringing Palpatine back.
Moff Gideon requests for three Praetorian Guards. This marks their return in live-action after their debut in The Last Jedi.
The Imperial Cruiser of the Mandalorians features a painted Mythosaur skull at the bottom to show the true allegiance of this ship. This is not the first time we saw an Imperial ship doing this. Thrawn’s star destroyer the Chimaera also has such a painting.
That is a piece of Meiloorun fruit that Grogu squeezes.
The surviving Mandalorians are all unnamed and the end credits only list the Survivor Scout (Charles Baker and Chris Silcox) and Survivor Captain (Charles Parnell and Julius Denem).
Not mentioned in the episode, or the audio description, but the Official Website later named the skiff that the Mandalorians use as a Langskib.
This same article also identified the creature that attacked the Langskib as a trinitaur.
Moff Gideon’s Mandalorian helmet has the same horns on it as the Mandalorians loyal to Darth Maul had when he took over the planet in The Clone Wars.
The Dark Trooper in Legends also had multiple generations, with the third generation being the ones we saw earlier in The Mandalorian. This new Fourth Generation is a step to what the Dark Trooper always was intended to be: not a droid, but rather the next armor for a stormtrooper to wear.
- Hardcover Book
- Córdova, Zoraida (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 352 Pages - 09/05/2023 (Publication Date) - Random House/Star Wars (Publisher)
