‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3, Episode 4: 'The Foundling'

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Coming right off the back of many viewers’ favorite episode in the season so far, episode four of the latest season of The Mandalorian had a lot to live up to. The runtime of the episode is dramatically shorter than episode three’s, being almost half as long. The short runtime doesn’t mean that this episode is lacking, however, as this episode features some of the coolest scenes that we’ve gotten so far in season three.

The kids get into some mischief

This episode opens in the exact same place where this season starts, on the beach right outside of the Children of the Watch’s secret base. Everyone seems to be training with each other and Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) is just walking around watching everyone train as a group. We next see Grogu sitting like he is trying to meditate when the titular character (played by Pedro Pascal) snatches him up and tells him that he must start training with the other foundlings.

Mando S3 E4 photo 2 (2).jpg — Taken from Denofgeek

Mando and Grogu walk over to the group of foundlings and ask to challenge one of them. Lo and behold, the foundling that they challenged just so happens to be the same one that we saw get their helmet in the first episode of the season. The foundling decides that he wants to battle with wrist darts, and so begins the battle. The foundling ends up scoring the first two points on Grogu during the battle, but of course, with the power of both his father (Mando) and his Force training, Grogu pulls through and easily wins the battle.

Immediately after the fight, right when Mando is congratulating Grogu on his victory, the foundling is snatched up by a giant dragon and hauled away by the beast. Some of the Mandalorians decide to go after the animal in their jetpacks, but they will need a lot more fuel if they expect to catch up with it. Right when all seems lost, Bo-Katan’s ship screams right past them and ends up following the dragon all the way to its nest.

Once Bo-Katan returns with the information regarding the youngling’s whereabouts, the Armorer (Emily Swallow) tells Paz Vizla (Tait Fletcher) to assemble a team to go save the foundling. The group leaves right after, but as they are taking off, the Armorer asks Grogu to follow her into the forge room to give Grogu a talk about what the forge means to her and the other Mandalorians.

As the Armorer is describing the significance of the forge, Grogu is looking more and more frightened. As the camera zooms in on his face, we cut to a flashback of Order 66. Many Star Wars fans have asked the question, “how did Grogu escape the Jedi Temple during Order 66?” Well thankfully today, this question is answered.

As the clones storm the Temple, mowing down all of the Jedis and Padawans around him, Grogu finds an elevator and takes it. As the elevator opens, we see that on the other side is another Jedi, played by Star Wars alum Ahmed Best, who most fans might know for playing Jar Jar Binks in the prequel films. The mysterious Jedi tells Grogu to hop on a speeder bike, and off the two go through the city of Coruscant dodging blaster shots from the clones following shortly behind.

The two make it to a landing pad where some non-clone guards seem to be waiting for them. Here, we find out the name of the Jedi, Kelleran Beq. The guards protect Kelleran and Grogu as they sneak on the ship, which in itself is another prequel reference as Anakin and Padme used the same ship in Attack of the Clones. Just in time, the two of them blast into hyperspace and narrowly escape their pursuers. As Grogu comes out of the flashback, he is presented with his next piece of Mandalorian armor, a rondel featuring the skull of a mudhorn.

Back to the actual Mandalorians, we see them pull up close to the nest where they say they must make the rest of their journey on foot in the morning. They set up camp, and this is finally where we learn how Mandalorians eat without breaking the creed of not removing their helmet. They simply go to a place where nobody can see them and eat there; a simple, yet needed answer to a long-asked question about the show.

Mando S3 E4 photo 3.jpg — Takne from Denofgeek

In the morning, the crew awaken and begin their ascent up the mountain where the beast’s nest sits at the top. During the entire ascent, the team remains extremely stealthy, only using hand signals to communicate with one another. The moment they reach the top of the mountain, however, we learn that the foundling that they have been searching for is actually Paz Vizla’s son, and Paz starts screaming his son’s name right when he reaches the nest.

Before the boy is found, the group accidentally stumbles across the three children of the giant dragon and the angry mother soon comes to defend her babies. Right when the mother reaches them, she coughs up the boy and Paz Vizla immediately starts attacking the mother, causing her to grab both Paz and his son and fly away. The rest of the Mandalorians follow the dragon and eventually get it to release both Paz and the boy using the net launchers stored in their wrists. During the battle, Bo-Katan is seen losing pieces of her old, battle-hardened armor. Mando barely catches the boy before he hits the ground and brings him back to his father.

The kids turned out fine

Once the group returns from their successful mission, Bo-Katan is thanked by the Armorer for taking it upon herself to lead the mission. Before the Armorer could ask Bo about her damaged armor, the three baby dragons come out of the ship, meaning the Mandalorians now have some new pets. The Armorer offers Bo some repairs and the two walk into the forge room.

As Bo waits for her new armor pieces to be forged, she starts to ask the Armorer some questions about the legendary Mythosaur. She confirms what many have thought online, that the beast that Bo-Katan saw in the living waters was in fact a Mythosaur, meaning that the animal is far from extinct. The Armorer, of course, offers Bo-Katan no easy answer, and instead only says “this is the way.”