The Mandalorian Uncorks a Murder Mystery — Do You Have a Suspect?
!['Mandalorian' Season 3 Murder Mystery — Who's Working With [Spoiler]?](https://tvline.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/matt_mitovich_final_v3.jpg?w=250&h=250&crop=1)
The Mandalorian this week was all about pesky pirates, in an action-packed episode that led to the reveal that someone sporting Beskar has apparently done a very, very bad thing.
Coming out of a “Previously On” that very much tipped its hand, Season 3, Episode 5 — titled “The Pirate” — found Gorian Shard’s cruiser hovering above Nevarro, before unleashing holy hell on the built-up town below. High Magistrate Greef Karga scrambled to get a message to Carson Teva at the New Republic’s Adelphi base, before leading his people to relative safety at the lava flats on the outskirts of town. Teva’s hands were a bit tied, seeing as Nevarro is an independent world under the watch of neither the New Republic or Empire remnants, so he made tracks for Coruscant to make an in-person appeal on the planet’s behalf.
Alas, there, Colonel Tuttle (hey, Tim Meadows!) shrugged off Teva’s request, saying that the New Republic has a backlog of actual member worlds they need to take care of, before they help out an indie. (Of note, Amnesty program member G68/Elia Kane set herself up to be in on this confab, and even opined that Nevarro could learn a lesson from their Switzerland status.) Teva exits, but not before warning Tuttle that between Moff Gideon’s rumored escape from custody and now these pirates, “There’s something dangerous going on out there,” maybe a possibly reforming of the Empire. “It’s not coincidence. But by the time you act, it will be too late.”
Teva then made a trip to the Mandalorians’ hidden covert on the still-unnamed lake planet, having apparently been tipped to its location by R5-D4. After Teva made his pitch that Mando help out his good friend Greef, the Mandalorians held a meeting. There, Mando argued in favor of helping out Nevarro, noting that he himself was offered a sweet, sweet parcel of land where the Mandalorians could live out in the open, where kids could play. Superswole Paz then took the mic hammer and seemed to be launching into a “They bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into, I say let ’em crash!” speech, but it took a turn when he asserted that as Mandalorians, it is their duty to join the fight! And so they did.
The plan: Bo-Katan piloted a Kom’rk Class fighter transport, while Din (and Grogu) took the N-1. The N-1 made the first run at Shard’s cruiser, serving as a distraction, while the others dropped from Bo’s transport onto the streets of Nevarro, and began mowing down pirates. It was a pretty eclectic, ground and air battle sequence — if you don’t watch with Disney+’s Audio Description Lady turned on, I highly recommend you do — and though the Mandalorians took a few hits, Din and Bo wound up taking out several stubfighters and then the cruiser’s engines, forcing Shard to crash-land. (Of note, Shard’s No. 1, Vane, at one point bailed on the fight and flew off to parts unknown.)
In the aftermath, Greef thanked the Mandalorians and invited them to make Nevarro their new home. Soon after, the Armorer summoned Bo-Katan for a private meet in their sect’s former sewer covert, to say that if she truly saw a Mythosaur — which the Armorer herself always assumed was but the stiff of legends — it is “a sign that the next age is upon us,” and that “Mandalorians must all come together.”
To that end, the Armorer invited Bo to round up more scattered Mandalorians — and with her helmet off. As the Armorer explained to the rest of their stunned crowd as their new member showed her face, “Bo-Katan walks both worlds, so she can bring all tribes together.” Because “it is time to retake Mandalore.”
Then, in a bonus scene of sorts, we caught up with Captain Carson Teva in his X-wing, as he stumbled upon a derelict Lambda shuttle. Having his droid dispatch a scanner, it was discovered that the New Republic shuttle was the prison transport for Moff Gideon. This confirmed that Gideon had not, per rumors, made it to trial. What’s more, the breached ship contained multiple dead guards, and the only clue to their killer/Gideon’s rescuer being… a shard of Beskar.
What is your kneejerk theory on who, presumably sporting Beskar armor, killed several friendlies in order to spring Moff Gideon?
“Gideon’s rescuer” might be a bad assumption. It could be some rogue Mandalorians looking for extra-judicial revenge.
Fair ’nuff; I was probably considering what Giancarlo Esposito told me:
https://tvline.com/2023/01/01/the-mandalorian-season-3-preview-moff-gideon-return/
I was thinking sabine wren from rebels looking for thrawn and gideon has the answers but i wouldn’t think she would commit murder through unless the people who were escorted gideon was imperials in disquise
Don’t forget the sneaky Zeb cameo!!
Ah, is that who the tall creature at Adelphi base was? Never saw Rebels. Good catch!
Have to assume he was either supposed to be in the defunct Rangers of the New Republic or will be in Ahsoka or both but either way very exciting development!
My gut feeling is that the Beskar is not being worn by Mandalorians. We know that Gideon and his allies had lots of it from the purge (Mando and Greef Karga’s payment, plus the Beskar Spear that ultimately Asohka gave Mando and became Grogu’s armour) so I suspect that it’s the next generation of Dark Troopers, but with Beskar armour to make them even more formidable.
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Seeing as Moff Gideon had the Darksaber, it is possible some Mandalorians followed him, but given that all of Bo-Katan’s followers left her it seems unlikely any “true” Mandalorians would stay loyal to Gideon.
You’ve got to remember the Imperial Super Commandos from Rebels. Formerly the Mandalorian Super Commandos who aligned with Darth Maul during the Clone Wars, remnants of this group later aligned with the Empire. One of Maul’s former lieutenants, Gar Saxon, ruled as the Empire’s puppet viceroy of Mandalore until Sabine Wren killed him.
However, it was never said that the Imperial Super Commandos as a whole were destroyed after that. It’s entirely possible they retreated into the shadows after Saxon died. The only likely person who could be leading the unit at this point is Rook Kast, who was the only other named character outside of Saxon who served Maul. As far as we’ve seen, Kast was never killed during the Siege of Mandalore when Bo-Katan, her Nite Owls , and the clones forced her and Maul’s Mandalorians to surrender. We didn’t see Kast during Rebels and it was never said that she died, which opens the door for her to return leading the Imperial Super Commandos in the post-ROTJ era.
If any Mandalorians did side with Gideon, this group would be the prime candidates.
Never watched Rebels so wasn’t aware of those Commandos, they definitely sound like a possible option though given various other Rebels characters have shown up.