The Foundling (The Mandalorian - S03E04) - Live Action Series

Discuss the latest Chapter! (Discussion)

"This is the way!" SPOILERS.

Din encourages Grogu to duel Paz Vizlas's son Ragnar the very Unlucky

Ever since the Holiday Special we have known what the most tedious thing in Star Wars is. Having Wookies converse with each other for minutes and minutes without any subtitles, happily growling away at each other speaking some incrompehensible nonsense language. And now, with "The Foundling" I believe we know what the second most tedious thing in Star Wars is: unending scenes of helmets talking at each other.
What on earth is going on with The Mandalorian season 3? We are halfway (!) through the season already and so far we still don't know where anything is going. Instead the season zigzags randomly, similar to The Book of Boba Fett, and also seems to get lost in more or less pointless side plots that add little to the overall narrative. And then we have the decision by Jon Favreau to center the season around the Mandalorian helmet cult, which means that many, many scenes now involve helmets talking at each other, removing one of the quintessential elements of any good movie or series: seeing characters emote, it entirely removes a large part of what makes a character appealing, the actual "acting" part of the acting. Instead everyone is hidden underneath a helmet now. I find that incredbily tedious and actually quite bothersome.

Helmets talking at each other

Then there is the weird structure. Last week's episode was the "Dr. Pershing" show for some weird reason. And this week literally almost nothing of note happens. Instead we are treated to a somewhat laughable duel between tiny toddler Grogu and Paz Vizla's son Ragnar, the boy who was baptized earlier in the season and now has to wear a helmet 24/7 like anyone else. Of course Grogu wins and as it turns out Ragnar is a magnet for disaster. First he was almost eaten by some megalodon dino shark living in the lake. Then he loses a duel to a tiny toddler who is maybe one and a half feet tall  and before he can even process what just happened he is literally eaten by some flying space kaiju, some dino bird / dragon thing that decides to snatch Ragnar mere moments after he embarrasingly lost his duel to Grogu and flies away with him. So of course the Mandos devise a plan to rescue young Ragnar the very Unlucky, with Bo-Katan quickly turning out to be a person who is born to lead.

Very late redemption for Ahmed Best

Then the episode cuts away to a Grogu Order 66 flashback, when the Armorer fashions some fancy armor piece for Grogu. Now this scene was fun, sure, also, it featured Ahmed Best as Kelleran Beq, the Jedi previously featured in the Star Wars quiz show on the Star Wars Kids YouTube channel. So Beq is now officially canon. Ahmed kicks ass in the scene and he single handedly saves Grogu from the 501st raiding the temple, we get a chase sequence on speeder bikes and eventually Beq manages to board a sleek Naboo ship with Grogu and slips away. Now I am not against fan service per se, and yes, seeing Best kick some serious ass as an even more badass Jedi who duel wields lightsabers and can't be taken down by countless clone troopers was fun. But to be honest, the entire scene added nothing at all to the episode or the series as a whole. We already knew Grogu survived Order 66 and the exact details of his rescue are not really of importance, it was always obvious some Jedi helped him escape the temple. Did we really have to see it? Also, didn't we have a very similar Order 66 scene in Obi-Wan Kenobi? How many more times do we need to see how the 501st raided the Jedi temple and killed everyone on sight? Still, it's a very nice gesture of Jon Favreau to have Ahmed Best be a badass Jedi, Best who suffered greatly after the sequels when Jar Jar became the most hated Star Wars character of all time. I am glad for him he can be a cool character almost 25 years later and that his role in Star Wars has undergone some reevaluation since the prequel hate, he merely performed a role written and directed by Lucas, after all. So I root for him and I am happy he gets to shine here, but when I am honest the entire flashback is rather pointless.    

Apparently Ragnar the Unlucky survived about a day inside the crop of some flying space kaiju

Back in the present day Bo-Katan comes up with a plan to save Ragnar, they find the nest of the critter, climb up the steep mountain to rescue the kid. But the nest is not empty, three hungry baby kaijus are waiting for their mom. And it doesn't take long before the mother arrives. The space kaiju dragon regurgitates Ragnar who for some reason survived about a full day inside the crop of the critter. Ok. Whatever. After some high octane action the mother kaiju is defeated and Ragnar is saved. The critter crashes into the water where yet another megalodon has just been waiting for its snack, the kaiju dragon monster is devoured.

Three ugly ducklings

The team returns to camp, but they bring guests, for some reason they decided to save the three space dragon chicks. I suppose we will get some scenes with Mandos flying space dragons in the not too distant future.

The Armorer does not believe the mythosaur really exists

Bo-Katan damaged part of her armor during the rescue and the Armorer makes a new shoulder pad for her. Bo-Katan confides in the Armorer and tells her that she saw a mythosaur, but the Armorer is apparently convinced that Bo is walking the path of the Mandalore and merely had visions, she does not believe the mythosaur is real. Bo-Katan meanwhile asks the Armorer to make her a mythosaur shoulder pad. I suppose it's part 1 of Bo's plan to come riding into camp on a mythosaur, becoming queen of all Mandalore again after all.

I really don't know what to say about this episode... yes, it had action, it was fun here and there, but it also added literally almost nothing to the plot. We've had filler episodes like this before, but what makes this so tedious is the fact that everyone is now hidden under a helmet, you don't see any of the actors anymore. The Grogu duel bordered on silly, the Grogu flasback, while "fun", contributed literally nothing to the plot and shed light on something that never needed to be elaborated upon. Some Jedi saved Grogu at the temple. We knew this before, we still know this. Ok, now we know who exactly saved Grogu, but does that matter?

Then there is the shockingly low runtime of under 30 minutes. When your season is just 8 episodes long these very short episodes are almost a crime. When you then add the fact that episode 3 was wasting endless time on Pershing's plot, when all we really needed to know is that a Remnant agent has his mind scrambled, and when you consider that  episode 1 turned out to be not really all that relevant either with the whole "I need IG-11 fixed" plot that goes nowhere, you are not left with much that is really relevant. The four episodes we've had so far could have easily be trimmed down to two 40 minute episodes. I feel The Mandalorian is about to lose its way. Season 3 feels very unfocused, about as unfocused as The Book of Boba Fett. And the decision to focus the entire season on the Mandalorian helmet cult removes the human element from the show, we no longer get to see the actors, Pedro Pascal was never on set either, since he made Last of Us, which may have contributed to the decision to have everyone wear helmets now all the time. We get a short glimpse of Bo-Katan out of helmet, that's all. Because it turns out Mando helmet cultists eat all alone, they find a hiding spot where no one can see them, so they can eat and drink. Family dinners must be a lot of fun.

What happened to The Mandalorian? They had 15 months or so between seasons and this is all Jon Favreau could come up with? One episode that goes nowhere, then one good episode about going to Mandalore, one weird segue that shows us in detail Pershing's new life as a reformed scientist who can't abandon his research and has his mind scrambled, and now an episode about space Mothra kidnapping and literally swallowing Paz Vizla's kid, with the kid surving inside the crop of the beast for a full day or so. Which makes total sense. And to top it off the entire season is heavily focused on the Mando helmet cult, which means we never see any of the actors anymore. Everyone is hidden underneath a helmet. Preventing the viewer from seeing the actors, well, act. I am sorry to say it, but this was a terrible idea. Mandos in moderation may be cool, but when it's like this I find it incredibly tedious and borderline silly. Also, it does not help that every other line of dialogue is now "This is the way!". It was cute early on, when it was used sparingly. Now it has become the single most spoken line of dialogue in the entire season. It's annoying.

It really pains me to say all this, because until now The Mandalorian was a bright star, the one thing Lucasfilm got more or less right after years of messed up movies and various PR disasters. Grogu was a pop culture phenomenon as Baby Yoda. And now we see him somersaulting around in a duel that just looks utterly ridiculous and Din Djarin apparently wants him to become a proper Mando, helmet included, as soon as Grogu can recite the creed. It feels Din Djarin made a 180 degree turn after the emotional season 2 finale, where he removed his helmet so Grogu can look at him. Din has not progressed as a character since then, he has regressed and the season 2 finale was more or less pointless, since everything was reverted to the status quo in The Book of Boba Fett. So the whole story about returning Grogu to the Jedi was ultimately pointless. This is not the way. Let's hope the second half of the season will turn out to be a lot better. And the series needs to leave the Mandalorian helmet cult behind sooner than later, a series that hides the actor's faces all the time is on the wrong path.