The Mandalorian Chapter 12: The Siege ending explained

Here’s The Mandalorian Chapter 12: The Siege’s ending explained.

The Mandalorian is already halfway in the books with four of the eight chapters of season 2 now available to stream on Disney+.

The latest episode, “Chapter 12: The Siege,” was directed by Greef Carga himself, Carl Weathers, and reunited two major characters from season 1 (Carga and Cara Dune) with our heroes Mando and the Child.

As always, we’re here to explore the ending of the episode, so this will be loaded with spoilers. Come back for the analysis after you’ve seen the episode.

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After it was revealed to Mando in “Chapter 11: The Heiress” exactly where he and the Child could find a Jedi — Ahsoka Tano — it was all too predictable that the shoddy repair job on the Razor Crest was going to need immediate and long-term repairs. The lack of any appearance from Greef Carga or Cara Dune through three episodes telegraphed a trip to Nevarro in Chapter 12, and that’s exactly what we got.

Mando came to Nevarro to visit old friends and get his ship repaired. What he got was yet another action-packed, death-defying adventure. This time, our heroes appear to have opened up a can of worms that will bridge the gap from the fall of the Empire to the rise of the First Order.

The “siege” the episode gets its namesake from is a mission led by Greef Carga and Cara Dune to eliminate the last remnant of the Empire on Nevarro. What they thought was just an abandoned base was actually a heavily guarded and protected laboratory.

As Mando and the rest of the crew attempt to destroy this Empire facility, they discover a very clear sign of cloning trials happening right under their noses. It looks like the lifeforms they are attempting to “grow” are very similar to Supreme Leader Snoke, and the fact that Snoke’s theme apparently played as they set their eyes upon the experiments only reinforces the idea that they were seeing early prototypes of Snoke.

Because of the timeline of The Mandalorian, we know that at some point, the gap will be officially bridged from the fall of the Empire to the rise of the First Order. The end of this episode reveals that some in the New Republic are convinced that there is evil afoot in the Outer Rim, but that people on the “Core Worlds” are not so convinced. That would help explain how the old Empire and new First Order could create someone like Snoke without the good guys being able to figure it out first.

After the Empire’s last base on Nevarro is blown up and those in pursuit of the good guys are handled in an exciting dog fight, it’s revealed that one of the creatures repairing the Razor Crest was actually a mole for Moff Gideon.

This creature planted a tracking beacon on the Razor Crest prior to Mando’s departure from Nevarro, and now Moff Gideon knows exactly where to find not only Mando but the Child as well. And as a bonus, Mando will lead them directly to Ahsoka Tano.

When Gideon received the news that a tracking beacon had been planted on the Razor Crest and that the Child was still alive and with him, he was looking upon what appears to be the final touch-ups on Dark Troopers.

As this tweet states, Dark Troopers would be a major part of Star Wars Legends lore crossing over into canon. These Dark Troopers are droids that are more effective soldiers than stormtroopers or other Battle Droids. This is yet another fascinating development and even after their escape from Gideon in season one, it appears as though the Moff has played a long game with Mando that is about to reap serious benefits.

It was fantastic to see over the past couple of episodes so many different pieces of Star Wars intersect in The Mandalorian. Bo-Katan Kryze’s appearance in Chapter 11 was a tie-in to both The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, and Chapter 12 appeared to tie directly to the sequel trilogy as well as a few non-canon video games from the ’90s and early 2000s.

These elements will all lead to potentially the greatest conflict yet of season 2. Moff Gideon has Mando right where he wants him. There are a group of Mandalorians led by Bo-Katan looking for Moff Gideon to seize the Dark Saber. Mando is likely going to find Ahsoka Tano in the next episode (or two), and who knows who she might have along with her?

Combine all of that with the old Empire seemingly close to successfully cloning a force-sensitive being, and you have the makings of something huge happening in Chapter 13.

It’s not likely that we’ve already seen the most shocking elements of season 2. Buckle up — it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

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