Review: The Mandalorian Chapter 20 sets up the back half of Season 3

WARNING: The following contains SPOILERS for The Mandalorian Season 3, Episode 4 – Chapter 20: “The Foundling.”

There’s something quite wonderful about an episode of Star Wars television that focuses solely on developing its characters, setting up what’s to come, and building out a new world — even if “the plot” of the larger story doesn’t move forward much.

I know this is a controversial thought among my peers, but the slower episodes of The Mandalorian do more for the show than Luke Skywalker swooping in to save the day ever will.

The whole point of The Mandalorian in the first place was to introduce a new set of characters to an audience made up of new and returning fans. There are things happening in the galaxy around this time, but there isn’t a full-scale war (yet). There’s chaos. And people like the Mandalorians are just out there trying to figure out where they fit in a galaxy where a lot of people don’t seem to want them.

Hence why we stumble upon groups like the Children of the Watch. If Mandalorians don’t have one collective home to call their own and not much of a purpose beyond the value they create for themselves, why not form a cult where everyone can feel they matter?

I’m having a hard time understanding why so many viewers aren’t seeing the direction the show is likely heading. The show is called The Mandalorian. Here we are, following a group of Mandalorians who have just discovered their original planet of Mandalore is in fact habitable after all. Don’t you think they’re going to do something about that — and that not every Mandalorian left in the galaxy is going to agree on how to go about taking back where they came from?

Grogu is a foundling with a lot of trauma to process and a lot to learn. And he’s probably going to have a very hard time fitting in with the other foundlings because he’s quite talented despite never having trained as a Mandalorian before.

If something happens and Din realizes this is the wrong place for them to be — but Grogu, after processing more of what he’s been through, feels he belongs with the Children of the Watch — will he be allowed to make his own choice again? Or will Din make the choice for him?

Bo-Katan may be going along with the Watch’s “way” now, but it’s because she has no other choice. She has nowhere else to go, no resources to go anywhere, and very few allies. She is planning something … what that something is, perhaps even she isn’t fully certain of yet.

What is certain is this: She has seen the mythosaur. She knows this. The Armorer knows this. But if more Mandalorians know this, things may not end well for anyone involved.

See? There’s a lot still to be revealed. We’re only halfway through the season, after all. Maybe waiting to see how things play out, rather than throwing fits over an “unpredictable plot,” is the best way forward.

New episodes of The Mandalorian stream Wednesdays exclusively on Disney+.

Follow Dork Side of the Force for all your Star Wars news, reviews, and more!