The Mandalorian Chapter 9: The Marshal ending explained

Here’s what the ending of The Mandalorian “Chapter 9: The Marshal” means!

If you have yet to see The Mandalorian’s debut episode of season 2 — “Chapter 9: The Marshal” — and don’t want spoilers, come back to this post to discuss again after you’ve had the chance to see it.

Season 1 of The Mandalorian debuted nearly one year ago, and Star Wars fans were introduced to a character who clearly had no problem taking care of himself and taking care of business.

The best bounty hunter in the parsec got himself a job from the old Empire, a piece of which was now in hiding on the planet Nevarro. Mando was offered a job to go after an extremely high-value target, and based on what everyone had seen among his carbonite bounty prizes already, it was assumed to be another literally large bounty.

No one expected the major twist at the end of the first-ever episode of the show, as Mando’s bounty was revealed as the first young “Yoda” species ever seen in Star Wars.

That kind of twist at the end of the first episode in series history was certainly going to be tough to match, and not that Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni were trying to match it, but they certainly have the fans talking after the ending of Chapter 9: The Marshal.

In his quest to find more Mandalorians, our hero and The Child come to a part of Tatooine that fans have never really seen before. It’s a small town with a very Western vibe, and the leader of this small town is a new character named Cobb Vanth, AKA the marshal.

The marshal is decked out in Mandalorian armor, which just so happens to be the armor of Boba Fett himself.

https://twitter.com/sandcrawlerblog/status/1322237437951635458

Mando has absolutely no clue that the armor once belonged to Boba Fett, but it’s in his code to take the armor back to his people if it’s being worn by someone who is not actually a Mandalorian.

Vanth agrees to give the armor back to Mando if he helps destroy a giant dragon-like creature that is terrorizing the small town of Mos Pelgo.

After an unlikely alliance between the people of Mos Pelgo and the Tusken Raiders turns out to be a successful mission and an unprecedented peace treaty is struck with Mando as the mediator, our hero and The Child are seen speeding off into the twin sun-setting sand dunes.

The very end of Chapter 9 involves the shot of a character from behind, bald, and wearing dark cloaks. When the character turns around to face the camera, a familiar face is revealed…

Temuera Morrison, the actor who played Jango Fett in Episode II: Attack of the Clones, is revealed for the first time ever as Boba Fett.

Let’s explain what in the world is going on here.

The Mandalorian season 2 episode 1 ending explained

Back during Episode II, Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi was tasked with discovering the “lost” planet of Kamino, where a clone army was being put together at the request of another Jedi, Master Sifo Dyas. Presumed dead by the Jedi, Sifo Dyas’ involvement came as somewhat of a shock, but the Jedi were nonetheless pleased with the operation and ultimately accepted the massive clone army as their allies in what would become fittingly known as The Clone Wars.

The clone troopers in this army were all clones of Jango Fett, a Mandalorian bounty hunter who was working with Darth Sidious. During the cloning process, Jango requested a clone for himself to essentially take as his son. He requested this particular clone not have any behavior modifications (clones were made to be intentionally docile) or rapid aging.

Essentially, this clone Jango Fett requested would be an unmodified clone, completely normal by almost every human standard. This clone was named Boba Fett.

But didn’t Boba Fett die in Return of the Jedi?

This is a great question and one that obviously yet needs a clear answer. The episode gives us some hints as to how Boba Fett would have survived his unceremonious fall into the Sarlacc pit in Episode VI.

As the Mandalorian (whose real name is Din Djarin), the Tuskens, and the people of Mos Pelgo are devising a plan, it’s revealed that the place where the dragon-monster lives is an “abandoned Sarlacc pit.” The follow up to the seemingly oxymoronic “abandoned Sarlacc pit” is Cobb Vanth saying there is no such thing, to which Mando replies that there is if the Sarlacc is eaten.

So, the banter in this episode implies. that a Sarlacc once lived in this pit before it was eaten by this massive dragon-monster. Could this be the very pit we see at the beginning of Return of the Jedi?

Later, Mando is forced to devise a plan off the cuff when the initial plan goes awry. His plan is not overly difficult to see coming, as we’ve seen this a number of times throughout storytelling. Mando, along with a very unfortunate Bantha, go inside the belly of this beast, and Mando flies out unscathed, using electrical charges to open the beasts mouth and his jet pack to fly out before detonating the explosives, ultimately destroying the beast from the inside-out.

The artwork (shown in the closing credits) above is a simple picture of how Boba Fett could have very easily come out of the belly of the Sarlacc with mere scars, burns, and hair singed by the stomach acid of the beast. It wouldn’t be a re-write so much as it would be a logical continuation of Boba’s story, considering how — let’s be honest about it — lame his death was.

When Fett survived the fall into the Sarlacc pit, he would have undoubtedly heard of the fall of the Empire, and since he was working with the Empire and very closely with Darth Vader, it makes sense that he would go into hiding and ironically conceal his identity by relinquishing his very easily recognizable Mandalorian armor.

Earlier in the episode, we learn that Cobb Vanth survived in the middle of the desert through an encounter with Jawas. In exchange for the crystals he happened upon, he asked only for the Mandalorian armor they had in their possession. How did the Jawas get Boba Fett’s armor?

We know the Jawas love to trade and barter, so what if Boba escaped from the Sarlacc pit and similarly wandered through the desert dying of hunger and thirst, only to eventually come upon the Oasis of a Jawa colony?

In exchange for life-saving sustenance, it’s possible that Boba would have traded his valuable armor, even as acid-burnt as it was at that point.

One way or another, Boba Fett has been written back into the Star Wars story after his presumed death all the way back in 1983. It’s possible we see more of Morrison as other characters throughout this story, in particular Captain Rex from The Clone Wars and Rebels.

For the first time since 2002, though, Morrison is back in Star Wars as a Fett character and this revelation was the cherry on top of arguably the best episode of The Mandalorian yet.