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The most recent episode of The Mandalorian is called ‘The Convert’ and might refer to a few things: one of Bo-Katan with the cultists, one with our old buddy Dr. Pershing with the New Republic, and one mayhaps with the fake conversion of old Imperial stalwart Elia Kane. Of course, that last one is so muddled up in the plot that it’s hard to really know if the thematic connections are coherent or confused.
In the ‘let’s just continue from last episode’ piece, we follow up with Bo-Katan and Din outside the Living Waters, and Mando is thrilled (we assume) to be redeemed. He even mentions that Bo-Katan is ‘redeemed’ too, not that she really cares — and she even hides the fact that she saw the giant Mythosaur (which is certainly an obvious name for Star Wars stuff, more than normal). Why she’s hiding it is unclear, maybe because she’s resistant of the mythos of her people or maybe because she’s keeping it to help make a name for herself later.
A bunch of random legacy Imperial ships take them on a decently fun little action scene, but it ends with them blowing up her home castle. It’s not really established much and was pretty empty aside from the droid, so it’s not really an emotional moment — and I’m not sure it’s meant to be either. Whether or not it’s meant that way, the real reason is to serve the story and bring the gang to Mando’s cultists, where they are embraced with open arms — assuming Bo-Katan keeps her helmet on now.
We get the feeling she’s not sure what to do yet — but you have to assume that there’s something cooking there (or at least I hope so, because otherwise what’s the point of this character or even the season at this point?).
Perhaps the point lies in the big detour in this episode, where we follow Dr. Pershing in a redeemed version of old Imperial people in the New Republic, where it feels both like a far improved society with the lack of terror and death, and perhaps a commentary that’s it’s much the same when you’re in the center of power. I’m not sure what the show is really trying to say here, is it really trying to argue that systemic changes are complicated beyond destroying the Death Star and killing the Emperor or something else?
Disney Plus
Either way, it’s still a fun sequence as Dr. Pershing gets pressured into ‘betraying’ the New Republic to pursue genetic research by ‘former’ (this is heavily hinted at) Imperial stooge Elia, all by pushing the greater good angle to him. That was always his Achilles Heel, in the first season he was never entirely happy with the less ethical aspects of the Empire’s usage of his research on Grogu.
Moff Gideon’s name is dropped that he apparently escaped off camera, so I guess Giancarlo Esposito will return as an antagonist sometimes this season — that would be an energy burst this show really needs too. The escape from the subway sequence was perhaps the most tense part of the episode, but it was all for naught, as Elia reveals that she was an informer and the good doctor is set to be ‘brain persuaded’.
Of course, after everyone else leaves the room, she’s left to monitor the guy himself (I guess? She’s already that trusted?) and breaks his brain. So … I guess she’s either still working for Gideon and considers Pershing a traitor or she doesn’t want his genetic research stuff exposed or really is loyal to the New Republic to a crazy point. It’s all kind of muddled and unclear, and I hope it’s resolved soon because right now this action doesn’t really make sense and just seems to be meant as a shocking moment.
That confusion aside, it was a decently fun episode, more interesting than the last two episodes, especially because the world of Coruscant is still so rarely investigated and I’d definitely be interested in seeing more stuff there. But it’s a bit of a slow start to the season so far, that’s for sure.
What did you think of this episode? Sound off in the comments below!
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