"The Mandalorian' Season 3, Episode 4: 'The Foundling' Recap and Review
Grogu gets his backstory and Bo-Katan gains the respect of the clan in a perilous rescue mission as they both learn The Way
WARNING: Contains Spoilers
This week we come to the eventual filler episode, but the showrunners of this series have made it their mission to keep these episodes from being throwaway. The term ‘filler episode’ is used to describe episodes where the relative story gets put on pause and the characters go on a separate non related adventure… or does nothing at all. The Mandalorian series as a whole has a great track record for making their filler episodes entertaining and distracting from the fact that the story goes nowhere. This episode is no different as we are given an extremely anticipated and speculated upon look at Grogu’s past as well as a fun rescue adventure with Bo-Katan and Mando.
We begin our episode on the beach of the Mandalorian hideout as they train in groups. Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) walks through the groups and observes the training but eventually finds her way to Grogu as he watches the rock crabs move around the beach. Mando (Pedro Pascal) notices Grogu and decides it is time for him to train. He is pitted against another Foundling with training darts. Quickly, his opponent gets two shots on Grogu but after some encouragement by his father, he comes back to win after a brilliant acrobatic move. Dejected, the loser walks away and sulks by the beach. Suddenly a large winged Shriek-Hawk swoops in and snatches the boy up and flies away. Paz Vizsla (Tait Fletcher) and Mando take off after it with their jet packs. after a short flight they run out of fuel, but Bo-Katan flies by in her ship and continues chase. After chasing the creature to it’s home she returns and informs the group. They form a hunting party and take off, leaving Grogu behind. But the Armorer (Emily Swallow) has more for Grogu in her Armory. The Child follows her and watches as she crafts and tells him of their philosophy. As she does, Grogu thinks back to his escape. It was on Coruscant during Order 66, Grogu is being escorted by a group of Jedi, protecting him from the Clone Troopers. He makes it onto the elevator as the last of the Jedi falls. He waits on the elevator anxiously but when the doors open, he sees the caring face of Kelleran Beq (Ahmed Best) Kelleran escorts Grogu outside and fights off several groups of Clone Troopers before taking off on a speeder. They are chased by several Clone Trooper Drop Ships but manage to escape to a waiting star cruiser. They take off into the stars and off into hyperspace. In the Armory, she reveals a new piece of armor for Grogu, a chest plate adorned with the signet of the Mudhorn. Bo-Katan and the hunting party fly as far as they can then head off on foot. They walk until the sun sets then make camp. As they prepare food, Mando explains that they do not take their helmets off in front of each other when they eat, they go off and eat alone. But since Bo-Katan is the leader of the party she has the honor of staying by the fire. The next morning they scale the peak to the nest of the Shriek-Hawk. While the others stay hidden, Paz goes out on his own to look for the foundling, his son. Paz is startled by the baby Shriek-Hawks when their mother swoops in and tries to feed them the foundling. The mother flies off with Paz in its mouth and the boy in its claw. Thanks to some great maneuvering by Bo-Katan, it drops Paz, then Mando is able to rescue the boy. Upon return to the camp, they reveal that they have captured the baby Shriek-Hawks as well. The Armorer takes Bo-Katan inside to replace a Pauldron but she requests one change, that this one be adorned with the signet of the Mythosaur.
Redemption! The actor behind arguably the most hated Star Wars Character finally gets his redemption. For decades Ahmed Best has been known as the Jar Jar Binks but know he can be known as Grogu’s Savior as it was revealed that the youngling was rescued from Order 66 by Kelleran Beq, played by Best. This might disappoint some fans who speculated that it might have been Obi-Wan Kenobi or Mace Windu who rescued the child, but their fandom was blind to the fact that Obi-Wan was off world at the time and Mace Windu was probably dead. This reveal comes while the Armorer crafts an adorable little chest piece for Grogu adorned with the signet of the Mud Horn to match his dad. On the other side of things, Bo-Katan leads a rescue party to save a foundling who just happens to be Paz Vizsla’s son. The important notes are that her views on the group have soften as she sees the respect that they give her and effort she has made to learn and respect their ways. In an important note, she has to replace her pauldron and instead of getting a Night Owl signent, she gets one of the Mythosaur. This furthers her journey to reclaiming the Kingdom of Mandalore. Another interesting note is how Bo-Katan is almost trying to co-Parent Grogu with Mando, there might be some credence to the shipping of Bo-Katan and Din. Din-Katan forever.
This season seems to be leaning into a bold choice to tell the story of a different Mandalorian in this season. Bo-Katan Kryze is the obvious lead of this season and after two seasons following Din Djarin it is a nice change of pace. The main reason why this change works so well is the character work of Katee Sackhoff. She has been playing this character in some form for over ten years and at this point it is as much an extension of her as it is a character written by someone else. Not to mention the fact that this particular Bo-Katan Story is just as interesting if not more than any other story told in this series.