Some Star Wars followers had been confused this week when an ordinary episode of The Mandalorian, which featured Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Bo-Katan Kyrze (Katee Sackhoff) avoiding a fleet of TIE fighters as they exited Mandalore, all of the sudden switched gears to meet up with a personality we hadn’t seen on display for the reason that Season 2 finale. Dr. Penn Pershing (Omid Abtahi) participated within the experiments on Grogu that had been initiated by The Consumer (Werner Herzog) however ordered by Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito). What seems like a detour to Coruscant, and an training lesson on the New Republic’s amnesty program, feels extra to me like a significant tease for the return of a significant Mandalorian villain: Moff Gideon.
Moff Gideon was detained on the finish of The Mandalorian Season 2, after Luke Skywalker appeared and destroyed a military of darkish troopers. The villain tried to commit suicide, reasonably than be taken captive, however Cara Dune (Gina Carano) stopped him, then took him into custody for the New Republic. There’s point out of Moff Gideon on this week’s episode of The Mandalorian, when a gaggle of former Imperial employees speculate concerning the horrible issues which may have occurred to him after being turned over to the New Republic. G-68 (Katy O’Brian), who was a part of Gideon’s crew, dismissed all of the rumors and mentioned:
I strive not to consider him anymore. Due to the rehabilitation program, I can contribute to the New Republic. Identical to you.
She directs that sentiment to Dr. Pershing, who’s rising acclimated to life outdoors of the Empire. Solely, the extra I rewatch the scene, the extra I imagine that G-68, or Elia Kane, is mendacity. All through the episode, she encourages Pershing to proceed pursuing the cutting-edge work that he was doing with reference to cloning. She argues that the developments he was making on behalf of the Empire will be simply as useful to the New Republic, and all however convinces him that it’s his civic obligation to proceed experimenting. The New Republic would require that.
Once more, I feel that she’s manipulating him. She convinces this weak-willed scientist to go on an expedition to retrieve a cellular lab system in order that he can proceed his analysis. She’s very clearly pushing his buttons, and ultimately betrays him as soon as they lay declare to the fabric that he wanted for his analysis. On the finish of their story, when Pershing is dealing with a mind-wiping process, she sneakily raises the amps to verify he can’t share any position that she might need had on his secret mission.
Why would she be doing this? It may very well be for her personal nefarious causes. However I feel that finally, she continues to be working for Moff Gideon, and has infiltrated the New Republic’s amnesty integration program to take the system down from inside.
Moff Gideon has been a thorn in Mando’s aspect since showing within the present. He’s wished to get his arms on Grogu. And Mando bested him for the correct to the Darksaber… which ought to have granted him the correct to manage Mandalore, solely Mando wasn’t worthy. Till now. As a result of he bathed within the waters beneath Mandalore, and reclaimed his future. That additionally implies that he and Moff Gideon have unfinished enterprise. And so I very a lot imagine that the detour to Coruscant in The Mandalorian Episode 3 was a reminder that former loyalists to Gideon’s military exist, and that is the place they’re, for now. Doing his bidding, and presumably setting him up for the possibility to experiment on cloning himself. Or cloning one thing a lot worse.
