Every time an episode of The Mandalorian lands, Fantha Tracks will be giving their responses, and here are our initial gut feelings, deep dives and thoughts on the twentieth episode – Chapter 20: The Foundling. Beware of spoilerific elements in here.
Ross Hollebon
In Season 2, we experienced Grogu in a classroom on Nevarro. There was very little learning taking place other than his understanding that blue space macarons were delicious. In Ch. 20, we see that the Mandalorian classroom is based on experiential learning, which at the insistence of his ward, Din Djarin, made a much larger impact on the tiny Force user.
Grogu’s challenge of Ragnar, the son of Paz Vizsla, allows him an opportunity to show his physical gifts in battle as he surprises his larger adversary. But the next stage of his enlightenment is even more important. The Armorer introduces the young, green Foundling to the Forge—“the heart of all Mandalorian culture.” This scene was especially powerful because it took Grogu through the same spiritual journey that Din Djarin faced in the inaugural episode of the series—the rhythmic pounding and hammering of beskar eliciting traumatic flashbacks of childhood.
The jarring sound and fiery sparks took Grogu back to his early memories of being rescued—just like Din. But for the foundling, it was during the fallout of Order 66 in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Jedi fought to protect him from the surging Clone forces, giving their lives to get him to one of the greatest surprises in Star Wars history—his rescue by Jedi Master Kelleren Beq, played by Ahmed Best. Beq gets Grogu to a waiting J-type 327 Nubian royal starship and takes off as a small collective of Royal Naboo Security Forces fends off the arriving Clones. A victorious action that likely prompts more questions than it answers as they blast into hyperspace.
Returning to the present moment, Grogu watches as the Armorer constructs a rondel for him, complete with the Clan of Two insignia. “You will grow into this rondel as you grow into your station, foundling Grogu,” explains the Armorer.
This episode also shows the growth of a potential bond between Bo-Katan Kryze, Din Djarin, and Paz, though, with the stubbornness of Mandalorians, this may be short-lived. For the time being, they work together, each bringing their own strengths and knowledge to the situation in order to rescue Ragnar from a raptor. Much like Luke Skywalker reminding a Rebel pilot, he used to pick off wamp rats on Tatooine as a kid, Bo-Katan calls out the mountains where this nest is “are no higher than the peaks of Kyrimorut. I used to climb them in basic training.” She teaches the members of her new Covert that there are different ways to a rescue solution—and the episode ends with her being praised by the Armorer, even if her mind and vision are still focused on the Mythosaur.
Paul Naylor
Yes! Yes! Yes! What an episode.
Jen Sopchockchai
This episode was full of many surprises, but the most shocking and heartwarming for more obsessive — I mean dedicated — Star Wars fans was the appearance Ahmed Best, the actor who played Jar Jar Binks in the Prequel Trilogy. To see him get a chance to play a pivotal role in Star Wars canon felt like a warm Star Wars fandom hug. I pointed at my screen and grinned.
Best’s pivotal new role is one we’ve been waiting on for a while now. Ever since fans realized that Grogu was originally part of the Jedi Order, they have speculated and anticipated who might have saved him from the death knell of Order 66. While Grogu’s flashback in this episode shows that several unnamed Jedi came to his defense, it was Best’s Kelleran Beq who ultimately facilitated his escape from the Temple and Coruscant. Once I got over my initial shock and glee, I immediately wanted to know more about Beq — what his role in the Jedi Order was and what he’d been doing during the Clone Wars. I stumbled across a Forbes piece identifying the ship in this episode as an exact match to one Jar Jar had during the Clone Wars. Does this imply that Beq may actually know Representative Binks?
Grogu’s trauma, unearthed by the Mandalorian Forge and delivered to us in the form of this prequel era flashback, is the centerpiece of the episode. But not because of Ahmed Best’s unexpected cameo. Rather, it is foundational to Grogu’s induction into Mandalorian society. The flashback is not a random cut, but rather a memory triggered by the churning of the Forge, which echoes the slamming of the Jedi temple doors. This transition is similar to the use of the bacta tank in The Book of Boba Fett. While some found the flash-bacta scenes to be too contrived, just an excuse to shade in what happened to Boba Fett right after he fell into the Sarlacc pit in Return of the Jedi, I find the use of the same technique with Grogu in the Forge better integrated into the present timeline.
This is primarily due to The Armorer’s exposition about the role The Forge plays in Mandalorian culture. She says, “Just as we shape The Mandalorian steel, we shape ourselves. We all begin as raw ore. We refine ourselves through trials and adversity. The Forge can reveal weaknesses.” The ensuing flashback to Order 66 clearly has shaped who Grogu is — that’s why he is initially hesitant to use his Force abilities in the foundling challenge. He waits until Din tells him it’s okay not because he lacks confidence; it’s because Order 66 taught him to conceal his powers to survive. The question before Grogu now is will his past trauma be a weakness that The Forge has revealed? Or will it instead be a source of strength?
Last week we had two candidates for “The Convert”: Bo-Katan and Doctor Pershing. Here we have two foundlings: Grogu and Ragnar. Why do this? What value do the parallelisms add to the story? The most obvious answer is that it creates a thematic subtext, which in turn cultivates a unity or connective tissue that can hold the different plots together. In this episode specifically, however, I think it may do more: it may be making a statement about Mandalorian ideology through the very notion of a foundling.
Foundlings in Mandalorian culture, according to this series, are not fringe members of society who may, with the right parentage revealed, enter back in. Their foundling status, in fact, intrinsically, automatically makes them a candidate for social acceptance. It doesn’t matter who your parents might have been or where you came from before; if any foundling walks the Way of the Mandalore, they’re in. And they’re equal. In a galaxy notorious for discriminating against non-human life forms and droids, it’s actually quite astounding that The Armorer welcomes someone like Grogu into the fold without flinching. Yes, the Creed is very rigid — unyielding and unforgiving. Many other groups may have considered Bo-Katan an ineligible outsider because she was not born into The Children of the Watch. According to The Armorer, as long as she follows the Creed, she’s as Mandalorian as they are.
I found Grogu’s victory over Ragnar to be pure joy. The way Din doesn’t want to baby him and wants him to start his training right away was adorable. There’s some model parenting to gawk at here; I was jealous of Din’s ability to find the balance between pushing his child out of their comfort zone and being encouraging or supportive. I nearly lost it when Bo said, “My dad was the same way. It’s okay. It just means he’s proud of you.” While most of this gave me the warm and fuzzies, I’m still not entirely sure what’s going to become of Bo-Katan. The Armorer’s reaction to her confession that she had seen a Mythosaur was very ambiguous; and I don’t mean cryptic in the “oh how wise, this gave me chills” kind of way. When she says “This is the Way” repeatedly to Bo-Katan, I have no idea what she’s actually thinking or feeling about it. She doesn’t seem to care, and she doesn’t ask any questions. How is that possible? Is she just keeping everything close to the vest? Or is this more of a Rafiki/Yoda moment where she’s purposefully being obtuse to teach Bo, leaving it up to her to derive meaning for herself?
Maybe The Armorer really is just happy for Bo-Katan, congratulating her on having this spiritual awakening? She does, after all, say that “The Mythosaur is for all Mandalorians.” What can be more egalitarian than that?
(This is condensed and edited – with permission – from Jen’s The Long Take review, which you can subscribe to here)
Jonathan Hipkiss
Where to start? I’m going straight in for the most obvious as I’m still walking around with a goofy grin on my face from THAT moment. We’ve all been speculating on who could have saved Grogu from Order 66; heck – I even wrote an entire piece a few weeks back looking at all the possibilities, and I’m one of these fans that doesn’t really have an issue with what they do so as long as they do it well. How this panned out, however, couldn’t have been any more wonderful.
I’m just going to come out and say it…having Ahmed Best return to save our favourite baby is how you subvert expectations in a lovely, kind and heart-warming way. Let’s not dig up old wounds, but I’m sure we’re all on the same page when we say that he never deserved the treatment he got from his portrayal of Jar Jar Binks and certainly never deserved to feel how he felt for that. It’s been nothing short of glorious to see the fandom embrace him and throw their arms around him once more.
Carl Weathers did a fantastic job of this episode on all fronts. Much like last week’s episode, Coruscant looked lovely – even if it was during the Jedi’s darkest hour. There was fantastic tension during the flashback sequence and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed some of the speculation about what could happen next. I’m rooting for Grogu to be delivered to Jar Jar and have Mr. Binks take the little on to safety. I never liked Jar Jar’s cameo in the Aftermath novel. I’m sorry, but to have him as a sad, tired street clown who people laugh at was a mean joke for the sake of being mean and left a bitter taste in my mouth.
The teaming of Jon and Dave continue to be a powerhouse and we’re only half-way through this season. We’ve been spoilt in the past with this show. The benchmark has been set incredibly high…how do you top Luke Skywalker returning to save the day? Answer: you don’t. You simply continue to push the story forward in its natural way. I’m loving the idea of Grogu becoming a Mandalorian Jedi (well, a Mando with force powers) and in this episode it was fantastic to see some more depth to Bo Katan and the ties that bind these Mandalorian’s together.
Having said all this, there’s still only thing on my lips days after the episode aired…welcome home Ahmed, we’ve missed you.
Eric Onkenhout
As the episode suggests, The Foundling focuses on Grogu and how he was rescued during Order 66. It begins with Grogu challenging a young Mandalorian warrior during a training session. After quickly falling behind, Grogu defeats the challenger by using his Force abilities. Shortly afterward, a large reptilian avian snatches the young Mandalorian and carries him back to its nest. Pax Vizsla and Din Djarin briefly pursued it, but their jetpacks ran out of fuel. However, Bo-Katan chases it to its lair with her ship to learn where it lives.
The group gathers a hunting party and plans a rescue. In the meantime, The Armorer forges a new Beskar rondel for Grogu. While watching her, Grogu has flashback visions of Order 66 and the clone troopers fighting the Jedi. Amid the chaos, one Jedi can be heard saying, “Get the youngling to Kelleran.” As Grogu is inside a turboshaft, the doors open, and there is Kelleran Beq (Ahmed Best) coming to the rescue. Kelleran defends Grogu from clone trooper fire, and they escape on a speeder, flying through Coruscant traffic and getting chased by Republic gunships. They eventually crash onto a landing platform occupied by a Naboo ship. The ship’s crew exchanges fire with the clones while Kelleran and Grogu escape on the Naboo ship. And that ends the flashback.
Meanwhile, Katan’s ship lands far enough away from the creature’s nest not to be heard. From there, they walk. It’s dusk, so they decide to make camp and climb at first light. Din teaches Bo a little about how to eat while not removing your helmet. Come morning, they begin the climb up the cliffside. They arrive at the nest, but three chicks are present, which alerts the mother. Not only does the raptor have the boy, but she also takes Paz in her mouth and flies off. The rest of the rescue group chases the raptor using their jetpacks. The Mandalorians manage to rescue Paz and his son. The raptor gets injured and falls into the lake below, only to be dinner for a larger predator. There’s always a bigger fish. Bo is awarded a new sigil which, as requested, is a mythosaur.
The Foundling was the shortest episode this season so far, but it definitely did not lack action or story. It was great seeing Ahmed Best again after his appearance in Star Wars: Jedi Temple Challenge game show that aired in 2021. And it totally made sense to have his character, Kelleran Beq, as the one to save Grogu, as Beq was a youngling teacher. And it’s always great to have Ahmed Best back in Star Wars after his unpleasant history with Jar Jar Binks in the prequels.
I loved seeing Bo-Katan getting more action and how she is becoming a more critical part of the story and the Covert. She really wants to be there after not having favorable opinions before joining. Dinosaurs-type creatures are making their presence known, which is very cool, and they look amazing! Interestingly, Kelleran and Grogu escape on a Naboo ship. I wonder if there’s a chance they will go to Naboo and we will see the handmaidens. I believe, at this point, Padme is with Anakin on Mustafar. And with the handmaidens reappearing in the Darth Vader comics, maybe there’s a connection to be made there. The Jedi seemed incredibly protective of Grogu as they knew Grogu needed to go with Kelleran. Perhaps it’s because of his species; they know they’re scarce. Only three known examples in Star Wars are known. It’s a similar flashback as seen in Kenobi with Reva Sevandor, but the Jedi weren’t rushing to herd the kids to Kelleran then. So what is the difference there? Anyway, great episode. Short and sweet. Loved it!
Daniel Lo
Many years ago, a good friend of mine who lives in Salt Lake City posted a photo of himself and a group of his friends shooting guns in the desert. Having lived in or near big cities for most of my life, the idea of unloading firearms into the scenery for entertainment struck me as both unusual and amusing. When it comes time to poke fun at him it’s certainly one of my favorite go-to’s.
All that was to explain why the opening training montage from chapter 20 of The Mandalorian made me laugh, which probably wasn’t the aim of the writers (no pun intended?). More importantly though, I wondered what Bo-Katan was thinking beneath her helmet as she observed the sparring and firing of weapons at the landscape. Was she impressed by what she saw, or maybe underwhelmed by the possibly primitive (to her) equipment and techniques? Was I the only one who initially thought that Grogu was using the Force to move actual rocks?
Much like the previous episode, this one can be summarized quite easily: A flying “raptor” (as Bo-Katan called it) kidnapped a foundling, and a bunch of Mandalorians successfully rescued him. During that time, Grogu thought about his past. This synopsis is simultaneously accurate and utterly inadequate. Did the episode feel a bit like a side quest in some ways? Yes. But did it contain some incredibly awesome Star Wars moments? Also yes.
This may be an unpopular opinion, but the idea of Grogu being a Mandalorian is still a bit difficult for me to process. We know he is 50 years old and quite handy with the Force, but he still essentially has the movement and proportions of a human toddler which at times can make for awkward visuals. Strapping a rocket launcher onto his tiny wrist and having him duel another foundling was a sequence I had a bit of trouble taking seriously, making it my least favorite scene in the episode. On the other hand, and I had completely missed this in the season opener, the foundlings’ helmets were indeed a clever way of canonizing the oversized T-visor on the Hasbro Boba Fett Electronic Helmet from 2010. The other odd moment for me was the fact that they brought back baby raptors after the rescue mission. How did they all fit on the ship? Where did the steak come from? And was Bo-Katan joking when she referred to them as foundlings? Surely the most they can do is train them enough to be able to fly on, which… would be pretty cool actually. It will certainly save some jet fuel.
Clocking in at just 32 minutes, this episode is the shortest in the entire show so far. However, what this chapter lacked in runtime it more than made up for in its impressive display of visual effects. Flying Mandalorians were featured in season one of the show and made for a cool spectacle to be sure. However, the visual effects themselves were sometimes a mixed bag in those early days, often looking like actors being raised and lowered by stunt harnesses. Not anymore. Mandalorian flight now looks completely convincing, and the raptor chase scene at the end was a great showcase of the incredible progress they’ve made in what was a highly compelling action sequence involving a giant monster. The water effects were also impressive when the crippled raptor crashed into the lake and was immediately eaten by a dinosaur turtle, which very much felt like a nod to Jurassic World.
Then of course there was the Order 66 flashback. We’ve had several of them across multiple shows now, but this was by far the most spectacular. Aside from a small handful of shots that felt a bit constrained (possibly due to filming in The Volume?), I found it to be so immersive and well done that it felt like I was watching lost footage from the prequels. It really gave us a glimpse of just how unhinged the situation was with LAAT gunships and V-wings opening fire into city traffic, and clone troopers indiscriminately mowing down anyone who stood between them and their programmed targets. And of course transcending all the prequel hype and excitement was the re-introduction of Ahmed Best to a new generation of Star Wars fans in just about the coolest way imaginable. Looks like Anakin wasn’t the only Jedi who knew how to wield two lightsabers.
As a quick side note, Din Djarin and Paz Vizsla sure do have an odd relationship. The title character was most responsible for saving Paz’s son from the raptor, and it’s easy to forget that the two were fighting to the death just (sort of) six episodes ago in The Book of Boba Fett. Before that, Paz was last seen coming to Mando’s rescue when the latter was pinned down and impossibly outnumbered in a standoff in the third ever chapter of the show. And of course, not long before that in the same episode the two were engaged in a knife fight over Imperial beskar. Will they continue this back and forth dynamic, or are they finally friends now?
I know I had labeled this episode as a side quest, but it’s admittedly more than just that. Grogu has now participated in Mandalorian culture beyond/apart from Din Djarin, and is a bit heavier thanks to the forging of his latest piece of armor. According to the Armorer, the forge revealed Grogu’s weakness to be memories of his rescue during Order 66, similar to Mando’s own flashbacks of his rescue from a droid attack. What consequences will that have moving forward? Even more apparently significant was Bo-Katan’s ever deepening assimilation with The Tribe. She has clearly made the decision to keep her helmet on in the presence of what she had previously dismissed as a cult, and has fully embraced the mythosaur after her unexpected encounter with one. The episode ended with a puzzling cliffhanger though, when the Armorer appeared to dismiss Bo-Katan’s mythosaur sighting as a vision. Was the Armorer gaslighting her, or was there actually nothing in the Living Waters?
The irony of having written an unusually long review on such a short episode is not lost on me. While this most recent chapter definitely had a few flaws in my opinion, there was plenty more to like about it. After the credits rolled, I immediately rewatched Grogu’s Order 66 flashback, and followed that up by firing up Attack of the Clones to watch the speeder chase scene between Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Zam Wesell. Good Star Wars always inspires me to watch more Star Wars, and this episode did exactly that.
Sander de Lange looks at all the reveals and easter eggs in The Mandalorian – The Guide: Chapter 20: The Foundling
Brian Cameron and Mark Newbold discuss The Foundling on Good Morning Tatooine
Mark Newbold discusses The Foundling on Making Tracks Reaction Chat: The Mandalorian S3 Ep4 – The Foundling
