House of R - ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3, Episode 2 Deep Dive, Plus Katee Sackhoff

Episode Date: March 11, 2023

They call it a mine, but we call it a deep dive! Mal and Jo are back with another deep dive into the latest episode of ‘The Mandalorian’ (18:44). Ben Lindbergh also joins the pod to talk about the lore of the planet Mandalore (44:00). And later they are joined by Bo Katan herself, Katee Sackhoff, to discuss her character's arc, along with how to pose on a throne (02:04:02). Hosts: Mallory Rubin and Joanna Robinson Guests: Ben Lindbergh and Katee Sackhoff Senior Producer: Steve Ahlman Social: Jomi Adeniran Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, I'm Erica Ramirez, founder of Ili and hosts of What About Your Friends? A brand new show on The Ringer Podcast Network dedicated to the many lives of friendship and how it's portrayed in pop culture. Every Wednesday on the Ringer dish feed, I'll be talking with my best friend, Stephen Othello, and your favorites from within the ringer and beyond about friendships on TV and movies, pop culture, and our real lives. So join me every Wednesday on the Ringer dish feed where we try to answer the question TLCS back in the day, what about your friends? For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks.

If your doctor decides that you can self-inject trumphia, proper training is required. Tramphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to suffice. severely active Crohn's disease, and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis, serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Trimfaya today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more, or visit Trimfairadio.com. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech.

Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need Weather Tech floor liners in the summer unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those WeatherTech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need WeatherTech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. These minds date back to the age of the first Mandelor.

According to ancient folklore, the mines were once a mythosaur lair. Mandelor the great is said to have tamed the mythical beast. It is from these legends that the skulls signet was adopted and became the symbol of our planet. And welcome into the Ringerverse. Your nexus podcast feed for all things fandom. I'm Joanna Robinson and Fear Not. Even though I am doing the introduction today, your favor in mind,

Mallory Rubin is also here pawing at the screen at me. Love to see it. Love to hear it. Hi, Mallory. How you doing? Oh, you hear that? She's purring like a nuzzle shrew. I'm miserable.

I'm really sick. I feel like shit. Yeah. I have so much suit of fed in my system right now. But nothing could keep you. The only thing I would love more than a nap is to talk about this episode of the Mandalay with you. I couldn't miss it. I apologize

in advance to you and our listeners if I am an incoherent, babbling loon, all pod. But we only get so many chances to chat about Bando together. I just didn't want to miss it. Thanks for having me. Mallory sent me so many texts over the last 40 hours about how she's dying.

And every single time, I was like, you know you don't have to do this podcast. And she's like, but I do. So, you know, flowers for Mallory for being here. We're just trading Yeah, we're just trading ailments and Yeah I was on a red eye

that went wrong you know So we're just doing our best here But we're thrilled to talk to you about Season 3 episode 2 of the Mandalorian or aka chapter 18

Yeah They call it a mine A mine The Mind's a Mandalore Before we get into all of that Programming reminders of course Here on this theme the Midnight boys,

Piupew are doing their instant reactions to the Mandalorian. It's great stuff. It's great content. I love to listen to it. I love those boys. What is also true is that sometime in the next few weeks,

DC is putting out a movie called Shazam, and we're going to talk about it. That's fun, and that's exciting. And that might be a bit of a crossover, and it's been a while since we've had a house of midnight. So that is exciting, and that is on the horizon. And then also over in the Prestige TV,

Podcast, feed. Mallory and I are covering the last of us. I mean, I don't know if you're listening to this and you're like, wow, I would like to see a show about Pedro Pescal and a special child and navigating dangers of the world. Yeah, that's the last of us finale is coming up is upon us, Mallory. And we're devastated. We're very devastated. Also, big announcement. Mallory's here.

Chalk full of Sudafed. I'm here on Little to No Sleep. Ben Lindberg will be here, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Yeah. And then also one Katie Sackoff, Starbucks herself, Bo Katan. Amianna for love. Is here on the podcast this week. Mallory and I got to talk to her.

It was absolutely delightful, just absolutely delightful. There was a small dog there the whole time. It was the whole vibe. Thankfully, it was also before I got. sick and you had 47 hours of travel. Yeah. We were neither of us on fumes for that interview. So that'll be really good. We'll be coherent for that. So that'll come at the end of our discussion of this week's episode. Just a really, really, honestly, genuinely great chat with Katie.

Mallory. I'm not going to make you do this. I'm just going to tell you. I'm just like, we're going to give Mallory a break. Guess what? If you want to keep on top of everything that's that's coming up now in the future in the past. I would recommend you subscribe to the Ringerverse feed. Why not do that? Go ahead and subscribe to the Prestiash TV Podcasts fee while you're at it. I think that's a smart thing to do. Follows on social.

Twitter, Instagram, Mallory's beloved Peach, TikTok. Jomi's just really crushing it at the Ringerverse on all of those feeds. And then if you want to email us directly, and we have a ton of great emails this week, like some really, really thought-provoking stuff about what's going on in this episode. Hobbits and Dragons at gmail.com, your apple opinions, your mushroom recipes, your dipping dots, theories, like whatever the case may be, that is what we are here for. Did I miss anything, Mallory? Now, I'm just wondering when you're going to update the email alias to Nuzzles Shrewson,

alamites at gmail.com, but we can talk about it later. I thought we agreed that for branding, purposes. We're sticking with hobbits and dragons. All right. Mine's a mandolore. Yeah.

Directed by Rachel Morrison. Rachel Morrison is a well-known cinematographer. She's got a really cool CV. She worked on

Fruitvale Station, dope, and she got nominated for an Oscar for her work on Mudbound. She's the first woman ever to be nominated

for in that category of cinematography, which is shameful, but a very cool accomplishment for her. That's shameful that it took

until 2017 for that to happen. And this episode was written by John Favreau. Ever heard of him? And it is 45 minutes with the credits, which are, I don't know, 10 minutes long, however they are. That takes us now to our opening snapshot. Steve found such good music for this season of television

that I cannot believe that John Williams himself did not compose some of these things. I was going to say it's just like working with Lydia Tar, you know, watching a maestro at work. in real time. You love a fine, a finely cut suit, a well-tailored suit,

Mallory. Okay. Overall impressions of episode two, Mallory, Rubin, giving you time to drink some water. I did a long sip of water. Thanks for really stretching out my name there.

Honestly, genuinely helpful. You're a pal. I loved this episode. I absolutely loved it. I kept texting you, yo, this rolled like 50 times in a row.

I was so excited. When Van and I were watching it, because they showed this at the premiere, I was doing the thing that I can't help but do when in real time I'm having like a physical response to how excited I am watching something, which is I kept digging my fingers into Van's arm. And he was very accommodating and very sweet.

But like, I thought that it was a genuine, shock to see, you know, we chatted a lot last week in the premiere about the ground that we revisited, the plot points, the actual conversations that were retreads of events and book of ObaFat for the viewers who missed that and why that needed to happen there based on the decisions they had previously made. And while I enjoyed episode one and thought it was fun and just genuinely loved being back in the world, despite some of those parts of the episode that slower. It, without question, did feel slower as a result of that. This episode was not only like fast-paced and vibrant and thrilling, but zipped us straight to events that I had assumed

heading into season three would be episode six, episode seven, possibly finale territory. So it makes me not only, not only am I loving the episode, it makes me so full of anticipation for what comes after this. Because if we thought this was the end and this is episode two, then what fun awaits? It's so exciting. What about you? How did you feel about the episode? Oh, I loved it. But it's so interesting to me to think about the fact that you watched the premiere and this episode sort of back to back. When you went to go see the premiere event, they sort of surprised you with episode two. And so you watch them in short order next to each other. And something that you and I have talked about off pod, but I want to bring the conversation to the pod, is this question of like, should,

Darth Mall is hot? No, oh, is that not? Okay. It's on the agenda today, Mallory will get there. As you know, I have shoehorned away. Talk about Darth Mall in his podcast. Yeah. Should this have been these two episodes, one supersized premiere?

And the more I think about it, the more enamored, the more, not only am I enamored with that idea of those two episodes, sort of their powers. combined, creating a great, exciting, invigorating return to this world. I like them individually. I think they would have been stronger together. And that I think that when you look at some of the plotting in this episode and some of the things that happened in terms of like didn't going to see Bo last week, but then also like leaving and then coming back and some of the IG stuff, like all of it sort of seems like

maybe initially this was one episode and they chopped it up for whatever reason that they have. And so, like, a little bit of, there's a little bit of funkiness around the way in which Din and Groger Zipping around that, that I think, I don't have any insider information, but it seems like this was one arc chopped into two. And we'll maybe talk about some of those specific reasons why. But, so that's not to say, I mean, I loved this episode. I just think, like, I heard some people's criticisms last week, especially as we talk about that whole, like, how do you how do you how do you how do you feel about mandolorean after and or and i think that first introduction last week which we like likened to delightfully sugary breakfast cereal on a weekend you know

felt a little lightweight for people and i think if it had been paired with this episode wouldn't have felt as lightweight does that make sense what do you think i think it's a great point it's a i love when you whenever you have these insights about maybe an edit or a repositioning i'm always so fascinated you have such a keen eye for that and it in addition to agreeing it kind of forces me to do something i've been a little reluctant to do which is maybe concede the point that the the book of boba episode should just not have been in book of boba fat like i've i've really been as you know a little bit like okay well if we're going to have this expanded connected universe then actually it's a cool and good thing that the characters pop up in each other shows. It makes it feel more

authentically entwined. I enjoy seeing those crossover event team up moments. But this also, I think, gets to what we're talking about at the beginning with the genuine shock you feel as a viewer when you see the Mythosaur right here in episode two when we're spending all this time on Mandelor. It's like maybe that was supposed to be episode four. Because maybe episodes, maybe chapters five and six and a little bit of seven of Boba Fett, we're supposed to be the opening couple episodes of this season. Now, again, I remain genuinely glad. We didn't have to wait inside of this season

to see Din and Grogo together that we picked up with them together and just zipped ahead. But if those had been the opening episodes, then you pull out from episode one entirely all of the scenes that repeat and you take what was left of episode one and combine it with what's here.

You, I think, arguably, have three. of the strongest installments in the history of the show to open this season. And you're talking about this as a historically good season of not only Star Wars, but sci-fi TV, which is a little bit different. I'm having a blast, but a little bit different than the conversation right now. So it's worth the, you know, we won't know until we're four seasons deep to book a Boba fat, really what the grand design was. No, I'm kidding.

Except am I because Pelly mentioned the huts and boba. So who knows? That's like a jump scare. You're saying four seasons? seasons of Bocafah is like a jump scare on a Friday morning for me. All right. Quickly, I am going to address the controversy that I kicked up last week. An amazing bullet point in our outline.

Incredible stuff. I a little bit knew what I was doing, but I didn't know to the full extent. So we got an email from Justin and many other people. This is what Justin wrote. So I have a dog and a cat, and therefore I don't take sides on the is grog. a dog or a cat debate. But for the dog owners this week, doesn't injar and doesn't injure and turn into Timmy?

And Grogu Lassie with the way he goes back and gets help from Bokitan. Yeah, like, didn't literally went down a well. Like, it's a very lassie storyline. But the point is, the dog owners are very mad that I call Grogu a cat. And mostly it's the dog owners with small dogs. And I will concede this. I have been cuddled by a small dog. A small dog has, like, curled up in my lap by my side, blah, blah.

I did not mean to imply that. that only cats ever cuddle with their owner. So I apologize that is something that you guys felt like I was, I might have literally said that and I apologize.

I don't apologize. Dogs are wonderful. The large dog owners. No, dogs are, dogs are wonderful. Dogs are wonderful. And Grobu is a cat. And both of those things are true.

It's fine. Both of those things are true. Also, Justin's saying, I have a dog and a cat and so I don't pick sides. This is like saying you don't have a favorite child.

Like, of course. Everyone's got a side. Everyone's got a favorite. Justin, write in and tell us which side you're really on. We won't tell anyone. We promise. But we won't read it out next week. All right.

Next, we have a question for you, Mallory. This email comes from Ryan. I'm a real idiot because I just said something about needing to pick a side before you were about to read this question. This shows you I'm off my fucking game today. Disaster. What an own goal. Go ahead. That's my favorite sports phrase.

So in this episode, Ryan writes, our sweet little baby people, P. Grogu was attacked by both a droid and an animal. I need to know if Mel was conflicted or if she was 100% with Grogu the whole time. Yeah, Mal, Rubin, where are your droids' rights conversations now? How do you feel? First of all, this was a blood-sucking eyeball sack inside of a droid skeleton. Cyborg rights. Do cyborgs not deserve to live?

Did this cyborgs not deserve to suck the goo out of our hero? I can comfortably say I was not rooting for the cyborg against Grogo. Nor was like rooting for the winged lizard birds that were snapping at him. It made me think back to the moment where, you know, they're in one of our favorite episodes, sanctuary or they're wandering in right before my guide down some restorative bone broth. I could go for some of that right now, I got to say. And the loft cat like jumps out. He's got the little scare.

You know, I love a lot cat. But in that moment, my desire was to bring growth. to my breast and nuzzle him against me and feel his heart beating flush with mine. And that will always be my desire because I love him more than anything in the world other than my cat, Halo. And so while I love animals and while I love droids and while I don't want to see harm befall animals or droids, I'm taking Grogu's side a thousand out of a thousand here. This is easy.

This is easy. Who was rooting for the lizard creature against Grogu? Listen, to the monsters, we're the monsters. Maybe they were just trying to live their lives down in their creepy little caverns. All right. Last one, only, speaking of nuzzling Grogu close to your chest,

I wanted to make sure we addressed a very important moment in Mandalorian fandom that happened this week, which was Pedro Pescal appeared on the show, Hot Once. Great show. Love it. He was great on it.

But most importantly, and I would be shocked if you're listening to this and you haven't seen it yet. He does, Peter Pascal did an impression of the Grogu puppet. I really recommend you watch this because there is a visual component that goes with it. But I just thought we would treat ourselves on a Friday morning and listen to Pedro Pescal's Grogu impression they did on a hot one. Steve, will you play that for us, please?

This puppet is making me cry. Right. You know, it's like, you know, I, you know, I fully. And I'm like, damn. My favorite part is the next line after that where he's like, this is like the only time I get that my helmet off, bro. You're stealing it. You're stealing it.

It's so funny. Mallory. Yeah. How did you, well, tell me, take me through your emotional journey, seeing Peter Pascal do a grow-go impression. This is just one of the true joys of life so far. That's how I feel about it. In September, I'll turn.

37, I'm 36 and a half. And, you know, it's long enough, I think, to say with confidence, like what the life highlights are. And this is up there. It's up there, Joe. How about for you? Where's it right? I'm so sorry that this is just an audio podcast because I wish you could see the suit of head gleam in Mallor's eyes. She was talking about that.

That's delightful. Oh, yeah, it was incredible. It was incredible content. It was so amazing. Peda Pascal really knows the angles on how to, like, like, that. make a clip go viral. This guy knows what he's doing. Also just rocking an incredible fit. Oh yeah. He loves hot pink. He's a big hot pink guy. Amazing. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable internet means everything

for your business. And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum Business to keep companies of all sizes connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 U.S.-based support. Millions of business owners already trust spectrum business. So visit spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. It is now time

for the deep dive, which means it's time to bathe in the living waters. Steve, after this episode, we're going to need you to sub out the sound design for this segment for the sound after Bo pulls din out of the living waters of the Baskar helmets clanking against the stone

and everyone going into concussion protocol. We go with that instead in future episodes. I was like, can we have a more gentle landing? What did that sound like again, Mallory? Yeah. Please use the isomallery version of that. All right. To misquote Jurassic Park, we're back on tattooing.

Tell us how you're feeling about it. Tell us what you're feeling, Joe. Well, conflicted. Honestly, I feel, you know, similar to Justin trying to pick between a cat and a dog here because Arjuna and I were talking about tattooing last night. He texted me and he was like so many lightsabers in the sand. And I kind of feel like that should be tattooing colon, so many lightsabers in the sand. There's just like, we're constantly going back to Tatooine. This is something we've talked about a lot. However, as fatigued as I may be to be back in Tatooine, I I love Peli Moto. So I was just sort of like, I was like, uh, uh, you know, and really we just like, we were just like in her hangar pretty much, you know.

It's the, it's like shit. Oh, this is going to be, you know. We're going to talk about. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. What?

You got to be honest with us, though. How full of resentment and dare I say rage are you that we went back to Tatooine and didn't get an update on Cobb Vance. I was going to talk about Cobb Vance anyway. I was going to talk about Cobbant in this episode anyway because so many people are now like, oh, Bokutan, Din Jarn, do I ship it? And I'm like, guys, let's be really clear. Did Jarns don't on the market?

Like, he's not on the market. He has a boyfriend. His name is Cobbant. So I can't support it. But yeah, all of it would have taken as one little, like, shot of a back to tank. You know what I mean? Perhaps Cobb emerging from said back to tank? Who am I to say, you know?

I don't make this show, but maybe I should. No, I know I feel my faith restored. Now that we've seen the Mythosaur in episode two, like, the opportunities for where we're going to go are boundless in this season. So I feel I've been worried and doubting and you've been strong and confident that Cobbant is coming. I'm not worried that we didn't get him here. We'll get him. But here we get another one of those scenes that you've been talking about last week, this idea of like, hey, where did Dinger and get his fancy new ship?

We got to remind people who didn't watch Book of Boba Fett that Pellimoto, you know, he built it essentially with Pellimodo and Book of Boba Fett. Pellimoto and BD, all the folks out there who were like, oh, the only droid that Dinn ever bonded with was IG-11. No. Let's remember that meaningful time that BD and D. and Dinn had restoring the N-1 Starfighter, that little bubba holding his light and getting some feedback from Dinn on whether or not he could see. I like that the point that a lot of people are making that this interchange between Pellimoto and the Rhodian customer here.

Customer? The mark. The mark. Pellie is a scoundrel. She's running a scam. The way that the Brodian looks so fancy and the way that he is this nice blue speeder is meant to show that perhaps

like Navarro Moss Isley is on the up and up under the excellent management of one Mr. Boba Fett. I don't know. I have to be honest, this literally didn't even occur to me. I don't think that Boba has managed to get Mos Espa under control,

let alone extending to the neighboring Moes Sais. I assume this was a Bonte Eve get up, that he's like dressed up, ready for the holiday. We're just a few minutes away from fireworks. Pellie's going to start complaining about how she's got to work on the holiday. Maybe this is just his Bunti Eve garb. Perhaps I will concede that I do not know the dress protocol for Bouti Eve.

What would you wear to Bonte Eve celebration, Mallory? I'd be prepared for the pod race. You know, we got a little glimpse of some racing in the opening stretch. So am I participating in the race? Am I watching from the stands? What sort of concessions am I trying to lock down? Am I near a hut at any point? I'd factor all of this in and then I'd land at the same place I always do.

He days. Yeah, comfortable waistband. A jogger, perhaps. A pair of Airmaxes and a loose-fitting t-shirt with a zip hoodie. Speaking of joyed bonding between Dinn and our nuts and bulls, brothers. R5D4, a key original droid of the Star Wars universe. A lot of people are losing their minds over the fact that this feels like maybe a confirmation of something we probably already knew, but Pelley using the full name R5D4. Good old bad motivator himself is here to really

quickly you just sort of jettison the IG11 plot in a way that is very confusing to me. Din is like, it can only be this droid. I have to fix this droid and then it's like, never mind any droid will do, I suppose. Speaking of Mark,

Stin Jarn is definitely a mark of Pellimoto's scam here. Because if people look at the timeline, it seems like R5D4 has never left Tatween. So when Pelimoto talks about him coming back from the, like serving the rebellion.

Do you think R5D4 ever served the rebellion, or do you think this is all part of Peli Moto's like snow job that she does here? Yeah, I think, you know, Peli has been studying from a certain point of view, specifically the story of the red one in the new canon. And, you know, like the rest of the Star Wars fandom, she's like, man, this guy's been in our life a long time. You know, we spotted them back in attack of the clones, a long time, Tatooine resident, obviously in not a canonical time,

but our real lives as viewers the first time we saw him in New Hope, you know, could have been the droid with Luke and Owen, except R2 as canonized in the story in a certain point of view, basically asked R5 to throw the game, asked him to have the faulty motivator malfunction so that Luke would take R2 instead, discover the hologram within, and hey, as they say, Joe. I wonder if he means old Ben Kenobi.

I was going to say the rest of the history, but then decided to say that instead because it always makes me laugh. Hey, she's pretty hot, which is essentially what he says about his sister in that moment. Incredible stuff. But yeah, so there's, there is information in the canon about how R5 had been with the rebellion,

ended up with the Jawa's, wants to go back to the rebellion, feels like he can serve his duty best for the mission by listening to what R2 is saying here and then goes to serve in the rebellion after. and I, for one, I'm not going to, I'm not going to take that away from him. There is that clip of Dave Filoni

when they're talking about how they wanted to treat him, like how they wanted to prep him, I believe, in season one, am I remembering this correctly, like kind of wondering about maybe the alt history

on the R5 CV? So are you questioning R5's record? Though, to question R5's, War record is to take sneaky credit away from R2 and R2 is constantly on the sneak and you know

an angle, an agenda. I'd like to say that even if he never went into another droid port in an X-wing, he did partake in a meaningful moment in the rebellion with what he did there with what he did at the Lars Homestead, you know?

Perhaps. Perhaps the rat in endgame, Joe. Like where would we be without him? Wow, how do you think R5 would feel Speaking of Droid, right? How do you feel compared to a rat? A living sentient hero. How do you feel about our

How do you feel about our friend Pelly Moto when she calls R5 the help? Listen, I love Pellie. I love my time with Pellie. These scenes genuinely always make me laugh. Love some love for you. Yeah. Yeah.

I think Pellie needs to look inward and reflect on how she treats her droid pals here at the workshop. She's consistently demeaning and dismissive and rude. And I don't think that they should stand for it anymore. So when the droid rebellion comes, they're starting with Peli Moto. Is that what you're saying?

It's just like Peli. Let's reflect a little bit. Let's reflect. I mean, the only thing I'll say in her defense is she's distracted by how cute Grogu is after he flips into her arms and who can blame her. But she's never too distracted to run a scam, as you noted.

Because as soon as they're about to disembark and the N-1's about to take off into the fireworks, she's like, actually just kidding. But you can't. No take back. This is a bucket of nerves.

Sorry, by joy. All right. You want to talk about the Grogu Flip? Well, my little acrobatic gumdrop. I want to talk about less about the flip. You love the acrobatics.

I love the potential of a verbal grogu, right? Because, so there's this moment, right, where Pellie's like, you know, did he talk? Like, did he just say Pelly? Like, was that his first word? Like, is that what I just heard? And, like, parents are always not that Peli, Peli is like a godmother, let's say. But parents are always, like, looking for meaning in nonsense syllables from their, like, you know, pre-verbal children. That's the thing that happens. However, as you noted last

week, there has been a serious, serious ramp up in the babbling and the cooing and the gurgling, so much so that like we wouldn't be like it feels like they were leading up towards a verbal grogou. This is something that we are like interested in but maybe a little nervous about because I feel like the

we talked about this but like the first time we hear the Grogu voice we're going to be like is that right? But it might be similar to Grogu where when we heard that name we were like, is that right? Let's workshop it. Yeah. And now I'm like this is the most perfect thing that's ever happened in the history of the world. I never had a doubt.

Mallory, I love you so much. You are often hyperbolic, but this is a record. This is a record. This is hyperbole. Hyperbole Friday. Over under on when Grogu speaks in complete sentences. I want to wait. I want to wait a full.

I'm not ready for it. I don't think. I'm just, here's the thing. I'm having the time of my life with the gurgling. and the babbling and the cooing and the trilling and all of the other descriptions that we get. For the record, Pelly just want to say that the subtitling

on Disney Plus for this moment was, quote, babbling. So on the subtitles, at least, they think we're still in the babbling zone. But here's the thing. I'm just going to repeat what I said last week, which is, yeah, Grogh was already speaking. Did he say a word here in basic?

No, I do not think. so. I do not think this was his first utterance in Basic. However, I think he's speaking the whole time. He's communicating, just like Halo does with me. What was that little chirp? The different cadence, the tone, the volume, the urgency. I know exactly

what he means when he speaks to me. And similarly, Groko was communicating quite effectively, I think. We're about to get a really good example of that momentarily. We're mere minutes away. But before we get there, I just want to mention something that someone

did say with their mouth and words and basic, which is Pellimoto's saying may the force be with you. I thought you were going to say who taught you how to leap like a lormon. Well, that's my next tattoo as you know, but like may the force be with you feels like a really

monumental moment, especially like when we come from, as we continue to think about Grogu as someone who is both Mandalorian and force, you know, a force user. We see him use the force quite effectively in this episode, you know, in in a bid to save his dad.

And Bo speaks to him about it. About his prowess. So I just think it's, it's, they're trying to keep it at the fore for us. But I just think it's interesting, like the may the force be with you. Obviously, like, that there's that like memberberry nostalgia

key factor to it, but also just to think about the evolution of Deng Jarn's character and his relationship to the force, his knowledge of the force, its existence, what it means, and his comfort with it,

that someone could just say, I mean, whether or not they heard her over the fireworks and the roar of the engine, who knows. But, like, you know, someone who could say this to him is, I think, interesting. I love it. All right. Speaking of the intelligible babbles of one GROGU, um, Grogo and Dinn are off on an adventure, right? He says, all right, kid, you're ready for an adventure? Also, that all right kid felt very hon solo to me, right?

All right, kid, you ready for an adventure? And of course it reminded me, and I don't know if it reminded you, Mallory, of one of our favorite lines from the much maligned Rings of Power TV show that we enjoyed in the finale. Alone is just a journey now adventures. They must be shared. And so you think about, you think about when we met Dindjaran doing his, you know, doing his work alone, wandering the galaxy, bringing bounties in. So alone. Now he's got his little, his son, his partner, his buddy. He can have an adventure.

Let's go off and find the home world, kid. Let's go. Incredible. It's an adventure. I love this. Klam Mudhorn. Family. Found family.

Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Okay. But in terms of like those intelligible babbles and coos and gurgles, I think this is a really good example here. We're going to listen to Dinn talking to Grogo as they embark on this adventure. Steve?

It looks scary. I know. But it was once green and beautiful, back when the songs were written. It's Mandelor, the home world of our people. Every Mandalorian can trace their roots back to this planet and the Bescar mines deep within. And you know what? I've never been there either. I grew up there on that moon.

Concordia. And that's Calavala where we visited Boca Tan. It's in the same system. A Mandalorian has to understand maps and know their way around. That way, you'll never be lost. I can just envision based on what we were just talking about in that Hot Ones interview, Pedro Fescal listening to this and being like, I'm giving a really emotional, beautiful monologue.

And the sound designers have put it in like a, like, a, like, over the top of it. But anyway, it starts with... And it's perfect. That sound from Grogo, you know, like that little like, oh, like I'm nervous. I'm worried. I'm scared. And this is what Din says in response. And so to your point, Grogo is communicating emotions.

Absolutely. Even without forming words. There's some key words we want to pull out of this speech here. I think we want to start with homeworld of our people. Yes. This is our people. Underline, bold. Clan Mudhorn.

You're a Mandalorian. You, Grogu, are a Mandalorian. You're a foundling. We have moved officially, formally, without a doubt, from the phase of the quest and the mission into the phase of family. And the sweetness with which Din is greeting that uncertainty that you're identifying in Grogu, that trepidation, like facing so much that is. unknown and unfamiliar to him, the way that he like moves up to the little perch to look out the window, this paternal side that we're seeing in Din, but also like we talked about this last week, and I really am feeling this so, so keenly in the season so far, Din was so focused on finding

Grogo a teacher previously. And the moments now where he is embracing that role, I'm the one who will help you learn. I'm the one who will help you acclimate. I think are just even richer and more meaningful as a result of that. And he's sharing his history, too. He's sharing his life and his backstory. And that's like a vulnerable and meaningful thing, too. You know, we knew from the book of Boba Fett chapter 5 from the armorer. She had said, had our sect not been cloistered on the mood of Concordia, we would not have survived the great purge.

So we knew from the fact that Dinn had been a part of this sect that he, or we had deduced, I should say, maybe more than we knew, that he had grown up on Concordia. That was one of the many, you know, many, many, many, many data points of the children of the watch were an offshoot of Death Watch. There are a number of others. We've talked about them on many other pods. That was a big one. So, you know, I thought this was interesting, too, because we'll get too, like, bogged down in the weeds of the timeline, especially we're about to talk to Ban, about the history of, of Mandalorian warfare. But I did think this was interesting that Din said he'd never gone to Mandelor because this, he grew up.

He was rescued during the Clone Wars. Like when we saw a Death Watch rescue him, you saw that Death Watch signet on the paldron of the Mandalorian soldiers who rescued him, they're fighting B-2s. I mean, there are a lot of moments in that scene that placed that in the Clone Wars. And so the reason I mention that is just to say,

Mandelor had not been destroyed yet. The purge is after that. The purge is after the events of rebels when we see Boca Tan inherit, when we see Sabine Rang give her the Dark Sabre. The purge takes place between the end of rebels of the beginning of the Mandalorian and that slice of the timeline. So in theory, the planet was there to be visited.

Why couldn't they? Because they were exiled. The reason that they're on Gagordia is because they weren't allowed to go to. But don't you think that's interesting in terms of Dinn's larger awareness of like where his sect fits into the larger stretch of, like, was he never like, why can't we go there? Why are we not allowed to visit? I just find that's so interesting. I feel like Dyn Jarn has spent a lot of his life not interrogating much.

Like that has been his thing. and this is a whole awakening for him, leading to the larger question of, like, is this the way, right? But I think to go back to that quote that you pulled out that the armor said in the Book of Boba Fett episode, cloistered, right,

on the moon of Concordia. Like, that is just a very specific word to use. And so this idea that, like, and it is so mandolorean to, like, be so close and yet so far from your home planet, to feel entitled to something, to feel shut out from something.

to feel frustrated by that and to then burrow deeper into, because Children of the Watch, correct me if I'm wrong in any of this lore, but like if Children of the Watch are a spinoff of Death Watch, again, they're just like a much more extreme version of that because the Death Watch folks, Bocatan was one of them, they took their helmets off. Like this is not a Death Watch thing. This is a I'm burrowing deeper and deeper and deeper into the old ways sort of thing

that the Children of the Watch have adopted. Yeah, and I think that what we can glean from the nuggets of history we've gotten from the armor is that they credit their survival of the purge with adhering to the creed and thus leaned into it even more fully and it compounds and the zealotry builds, etc., etc. Like another thing that the armorer said in that Boba chapter 5 episode, the armor has said as much that the fact that they followed this creed and the way so strictly is the reason that they were able to make it out.

So that's like pretty alarming. And I think if we pair it with the way that Dan is presenting this geography lesson to Grogo and that idea of that way you'll never be lost, there's this aspect of Din's character yet again where I think we've really, I think, love talking about this in our primer pod in our conversations about this season so far,

he is already positioned, I think, to have a view that is distinct from some of the more strict adherence in their covert, and yet he really subscribes to and abides by these beliefs. So when he says something to that to Grogo, there's like the very handy,

here's where Kalaala is, reminder for the rest of this episode. You know, we've started to get the navigation set up, the Chekhov's maps last week. But that was presented as like, you never know where you might be headed next. Be ready for the unexpected. This, you'll never be lost.

These are kind of bookend ideas that you can make your home and find your way wherever you are as long as you have your clan. Grogue, the navigator that we were talking about with Ben last week as well in his lore segment potentially setting up the Pergul Grogu path to Ezra, right? Bo calls him quite the navigator in this episode. Yeah, so they're drawing our attention to that time and again. So that armor, the full quote from the armor in Chapter 5 is interesting because it is explicitly set in contrast to Bocatan. She says Bocatan Crees was born of a mighty house, but they lost sight of the way.

Her rule ended in tragedy. Had our sect not been cloistered on the moon of Concordia, we would not have survived the Great Purge. That was born of Mandalore straight away from the path, eventually the imperial interlopers destroyed all the that we knew and loved in the night of a thousand tears. Only those that walked the way escaped the curse prophesied in the creed. So, totally normal, cool stuff from the armor as per usual. Again, it makes no sense to me that Dindjarn would go to Kalaala, then go to Tatooine, and then go back to the Mandelor system.

And that's where I get that weird, like, I think that scene was pulled out. Yeah. Like, I think if you rewatch that scene, if you rewatch that scene, which I did, that ended last week's episode, there's, they land. And R5 isn't on the ship, obviously, but, like, that's something you could really easily digitally take out. And, like, I can see a version of the story where they leave Tatooine, go to Bo with R5. And Bo's like, I don't want it. I'm done. Like, no, go away.

Then they go. And then they were just there. and then they go to Mandelaura and then Grogo comes back and she's like, I told you, Dingerra, I don't want. Oh, oh, no, it's the cute baby. So, anyway. Okay, before we go to Ben, I just wanted to give you Mallory Rubin a quick second. We get Dindjaran talking about the importance of maps here.

You have some opinions about another Pedro Pescal character in maps. So here we go to Map Corner with Mallory Rubin. What do you want to say about one, Mr. Joel Miller on the last of us versus Dindjianjaran? I'm just thrilled that Pedro Pascal has the opportunity. to play a deft navigator here in the Mandalorian. No, no real contextual spoilers for The Last of Us here on a podcast about another show, but yeah, no. At least nobody shoved a dagger into Grogu's mouth and said, you know, oh my God. Show me where we are. And it better match. It better match where our five says we are. If you ever decide to catch up with The Last of Us, if you're not listening to our coverage of the

last of us, just know that Mallory is a constantly like, where are we? Mallory is a recurring bit where She talks about how shit Joel Miller is at reading maps. And so the fact that Dindjarns is like, maps are really important. It's just pretty funny. Some things work better together. Like Nars's soft matte complete concealer and radiant creamy concealer. Soft matte complete concealer erases and blurs imperfections with full coverage.

Then radiant creamy concealer evans and brightens with a luxurious texture and radiant finish. Two concealers. One flawless look. Perfect for a no foundation base. Nars. Better Together. Visit Sephora to shop now. 100 free events. 6,000 kids. One mission.

Clinic Kids is using sports and evidence-based wellness coaching to help kids build confidence, resilience, and the tools they need for life's challenges and opportunities. Up through August 2026, they're running 100 free sessions for school and community-based organizations near you. Learn more at clinickids.com slash 100K. That's Clinic with a K.

It's a registered 5.01c3 nonprofit. Sounds to me like a perfect time to go to our pal Ben Lindbergh to get some lore about mandolore. What happened from mandolar? It's too confusing to explain, I've heard. But I'm here to make it more comprehensible. It really is confusing. Bo is not kidding about that.

How do we get here, Ben? A lot of wars, a lot of conflict, just a mark. racial race and lots of conflicts with others and with themselves. So we know about the Great Purge, right, and the night of a thousand tears. But that was really just the last act of millennia of warfare on Mandelaar, which is why, you know, it's a nice place to visit, but not a nice place to live, really. Actually, it's not that nice a place to visit either. I take that back. If you're really into escape rooms, it's a nice place to visit. Yeah, sure. There's a series of cataclysms, I guess we could say, about Mandelaar. So I think maybe what the show would lead people to believe is that this was just a beautiful, verdant planet before the empire bombed the hell out of it. But that really isn't the case.

It was sort of a wasteland prior to that. There was a war between the Mandalorians and the Jedi. There were squabbles among the Mandalrians. And so it was really sort of a wasteland for a while, which is why when we visit Sundari, the lovely ruins of Sundari, it's a dome, right? It's a biodome, which preceded the night of a thousand years. So you might wonder, well, why were they living in a dome? It's because it was a desert before that.

It was a pretty barren place. So even though it's technically habitable, it's definitely not hospitable. How do you think we got from like the sandy surface that we saw in some of the animated shows to, to rebel specifically, I think, to like this shard-like situation. Right. The shards specifically seemed to be a remnant of the fusion bombs that the empire dropped, that Mofgideon dropped. But again, the people were largely confined to domes, bio-cubes, they called them, right?

So they were sort of living indoors anyway. So when Bo is talking about how it used to be beautiful, either she's talking about a long, long time ago or beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I guess. I mean, yeah, I like a dome. Yeah, sure. I mean, I'm indoors a lot. Syracuse fan, Ben, you're married into a Syracuse family, big carrier dome family. You love a dome. So long. It always looked nice when, uh, when, Obi-1 and Sateen took a stroll talking about pacifism and terrorism looked like a lovely place. Sure. Yeah. I noticed that Boe doesn't talk much about terrorism these days. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting.

Yeah, the selective version of Mandalorian history. But the purge was just kind of the culmination, really. That was just the straw that broke Mandelor's back, really, because the Mandalrians had already been decimated by just the fighting among themselves and with others. So it's really been a long painful history for them, which is why it would be quite important if they were able to come together and set their differences aside. But I guess what I wonder is what would reclaiming. mandolore even look like at this point because, I mean, again, like, I guess the planet's there for the

taking, right? So as I wrote in my recap this week, it doesn't seem like there's great intel or effort to explore the place in that everyone just seems to think that it was unbreatable air, that it was toxic, doesn't seem to have been anything stopping anyone from just landing and checking the place out, taking some air samples, right? So I wonder about just the curiosity. of the zealots here who just sort of wrote off their most sacred place as impassable and destroyed, apparently on faulty information here. But it's not a nice place. So they got it wrong to some extent, but not totally.

I want to talk about, I mean, we don't know a ton or really anything about the various critters that we encounter here on Mandelor, but I do want to talk about those in a second. But I actually want to bring up an email that we got that I plan to talk about later, but I actually really want Ben's take on this. So this email comes from Blake who wrote, do you ever feel like the Mandalorians are on a cultural level too dumb to live? I know this is not a problem exclusive to them within the Star Wars canon, the Jedi ever heard of them,

but between a battery of self-inflicted wounds, routinely falling for the grift from outsiders, a suffocatingly inflexible code, and leadership structure, a tendency to live in exclusively dangerous environments, the big shark thing last week, the living waters being three steps between a half-mile drop-off this week, and current savior Dindjarn being with love kind of hapless,

I can't help but feel that the Mandalorians are people in ten are proclaiming this is a way as they jackass themselves out of existence. Ben, will you stand for this Mandalorian slander? How do you feel? That's not wrong. Yeah. I mean, we can't call it an adaptive behavior, this society. I mean, they have kind of driven themselves extinct.

Now, not to let the empire off the hook, Yuri. but they had already driven themselves into quite a plight. And that's why when Bo is sort of bemoaning all the fights and the squabbles, you know, it's like we're all trying to find the gal who did this sort of situation because she had a hand in that. I mean, there was a new Mandalorian movement. There were pacifists. Bo's sister was in charge of that movement.

I mean, things were orderly for a hot second there. And then the Mandalarians decided, actually, we don't want peace. We want to be at war constantly. That's our tradition. It's called Star Wars. Yeah, exactly. It's not Star Peace. Come on.

So it's like, who are we if we are not constantly at war, which will maybe be a theme of this season, we will see. But when they've tried to figure that out before, it didn't take. And that's why we are where we are with the people scattered to the stars and the surface of the planet, just sort of a slag heap. Slaggy. Mal, where do you stand on The Mandalorian's Too Dumb to Live? How do you feel about that? The phrasing in Blake's email just absolutely slayed me. Iconic stuff from Blake. Thanks for chiming in. You know, I like Ben, what you said about, what you said about, Bo, something that we've been chatting about on the pod and amongst ourselves and our slacks and our text.

I think all three of us are really, like, harping on that rightly and are curious to see how much of this, like, progress that is central to Boz's Ark, which is a good and cool thing, will allow room for owning that past direct hand. But the thing I really like about it, what you're observing is it's not specific to Bo. You know, if you think about a character like Sabine Wren, another cherished Mandalorian figure across the canon who's going to be debuting in live action this year, Sabine literally made the most lethal weapon that the Mandalrians have ever had to. a face an arc bulbous generator that could specifically target the Baskar alloy in the armor.

They named it the duches to mock Sotene's passivism. And when Sabine realized what the empire was going to use it for, she left the academy. She became a part of our beloved specters. She righted her wrongs right down to destroying the machine once she realized that they had used the prototype designs to attempt to recreate badly, though, in terms of the range, a version of that machine. And Bo was a part of that arc and was the character who actually helped pull Sabine back inside of the, this is the opening couple episodes of season four of Rebels, to a more measured and hopeful and forward-looking approach rather than sinking back into the rage and the despair.

So that gives me hope for a character like Bo that these recurring patterns, the number of people who have fallen into some sort of harmful path and then have been able to work their way forward and then work their way forward even more effectively together. Maybe there's hope there for Bo and Dinn. But yeah. And I think, you know, bringing up Sabine, and you already mentioned that Bo and her sister Sotene were on opposite sides of their own Mandalorian Civil War, Sabine's is at odds with her own family also in that storyline. And so the story of Mandalorian conflict is all often story of families ripped apart, internal conflict within a family unit. And so I think it's so interesting, you know, we got a bunch of emails from people in general about this idea of like, don't Din and Bo and Grogu make kind of a appealing little family unit in this episode? It's like, I think intentionally so.

I don't know where this is going. We'll talk about it more as we go on. But I don't know if they're setting us up to be really into this connection just to rip it apart so that they can really make us feel that Civil War constant cycle of the Mandalorians, you know? Yeah. It's either like a real path to progress and a rich one and a rich redemption arc, or it's this recurring cycle that these characters can't escape, even, and this would be most tragic of all,

when they have awareness of it. And that's, I think, like a very real, what feels like a very real risk right now with Bo. Like, I keep hearing Tony Stark's voice from the beginning of Iron Man 3 in my mind watching these episodes. You know, we create our own demons. And that's just like a very present thing for the Mandalorian. figures at the heart of this story. Yeah, I'm all for Bo growing as a character. And given where she was

in the past, it would in some ways be more meaningful if she were to just lay down her arms and set aside differences. I just, I don't know whether the full arc of her character would be obvious to people who are just watching live action here without her whole history in the animated series, right? It's just sort of glossing over some of the more unsavory aspects of her past. But again, It's a lot of history. They haven't had the, hey, remember when you used to be a terrorist conversation? Yeah, exactly. But I'm hoping they will.

And not to continuously like tease the interview that's at the end of this episode, but we did talk to Katie about this a little bit. So she had some interesting things to say about that, which I'm really, which made me really excited for where this is all going to go. Ben, I know you don't have a ton of information on the Alamites, the folks that we meet in this episode, nor the eyeball spider droid. I don't know if that one has a technique. name. But any thoughts or feelings? I'm going with Spideborg.

Like a... Spideborg? Yeah, instead of cyborg, he's like a spiderborg and like, you know, makes me think again of Tony. Spiderling? Spider-Boy? General devious? I don't know. Like something like that. So what do you... What do you have to say about these critters, Ben? I love the design, at least, of the cyborg, right? I mean, that was one thing I liked about this episode is that it had this sort of almost mystical minds of more. sort of, you know, ruins of a great civilization. And that it also had just almost like a body horror aspect to it right there in the middle, you know.

And Mal and I were talking about this. But yeah, very grievous-like, just the cyborg nature, sort of the stocking. Yeah, the electrostache. Yeah. Yeah. Almost like a Dianogun eye. I mean, just a great design, I think. And like any boss, three different forms, right?

just the head form, the intermediate body form and the giant crab droid form. So I love the design. I mean, it reminded me of, I don't know, like a Geiger or like a matrix sort of, you know, just sentinels, just capturing humans and feeding off them sort of situation. I mean, you think that the cyborg probably has to be hungry because there can't be a ton of foot traffic down there, I wouldn't think. Well, let me throw this your way in real time. Theory, Theory Corner. Guys, what if the reason that everybody thinks the air of Mandelaura is poison and no one can live there is because every time someone goes to scout, this guy drains them of all of their bodily fluids and life force and they never make it out alive. And they're like, I guess the atmosphere is toxic.

Not maybe there's just one spyborg in the basement. I guess using tyburn and mountain-esque tubes to pump blood. I was thinking that the toxic air was going to be some sort of mystery. direction, right, that like someone wanted people to think that, right? Like, oh, well, it would be almost like a Camino? It doesn't appear on the star charts sort of situation. It doesn't seem to be the case. I mean, it doesn't seem like anyone's around except the Alamites and the cyborg. So we only went to one place. Yeah, right. I mean, there aren't that many places that are all that populated as far as we know, but we don't really know. I'm going to quote Joanna here, though. This is a point Joanna makes

that I think is a really smart one and a good one to keep in mind. Sometimes, Star Wars, we, we both the viewing public and people who make Star Wars are like, yeah, this one room is the whole planet. Or this one city is the whole planet. It's not. Like, Mandelaar's a whole place. Theory,

again, for you in real time. Okay. Hey, three. Three, it's a big part of our lives now. All right, I got another. This is just, this is coming to me in real time here. Another theory for you. Wow. What if the spice is flowing, ma'am? I just, so much due to fed.

What if this was propaganda and intentional misdirection from the empire and they do in fact have a base on the planet and they are still mining materials? Well, this is like, I mean, several people pointing this out, like it's similar to the Canari situation, right? Yeah. With Cassidy and or this whole like, it's an uninhabitable planet. nope, there's a group of feral lost children living on this planet.

You know what I mean? Like, yeah, it's interesting. But I think no matter what the, what we have to think about, because we go to Tatooine again, right? But thinking about Navarro and the sort of improvement that we saw in Navarro last week and thinking about what we saw in Tatooine and that they're like celebrating, you know, they're shooting off fireworks and stuff. like that. I think that to me feels like it's hitting that theme that we like to bring up again and again, which is like, what is the distinct flavor of these home worlds that the empire is looking to flatten and homogenize? And so when you get a place like Mandelora that has been literally flattened, you know, that it's like literal architecture has been sunk into the ground. That's sort of, I mean, you know, I love a theory and I love a conspiracy corner. So if there is a secret base, and I love a secret base, honestly.

That's no wrecked Mandelor, you know, something like that. But I think it stands in contrast to these other thriving communities that we see, you know, leading up to it. And when Bowen Mando talked and she calls him a fool and then she tells him to go home and he does, in a roundabout way, go to Mandelor. Is that his home? Is that their home? Is that going to be the place where all the Mandalorians flock back? Like, is that the happy outcome here? Or is it less about actually, resettling this home planet and more about making a home somewhere else among the stars. I mean, it seems like it would take a lot of terraforming. Seems like it would take a lot of effort to turn this place back into a...

Don't you think they should have mastered the art of terraforming by now in this advanced civilization, civilized age, you know? If anyone can revitalize an urban center, it is grief cargo. So I think we need to get grief. The high magistrate has got to do something. Work his magic, the Navarro magic on Mandelaar. But then we're going to end up with a pirate king, gory, and shard problem on Mandelaar a few episodes later. And honestly, who wants that? I think, like, this is interesting because I think you're both right. On the one hand, it's a very present theme throughout the show so far, but certainly in the first couple episodes, we've really had this idea.

Like we were saying, Ben, Jonah were saying last episode, like, you know, it made us think of Asgard. Mandelaar is in a place. It's a people. And we hear in both episodes, Din, talking to Grogo, about needing to be able to make your way across the galaxy, which is a number of potential implications and a lot of thematic richness, you know, that way you'll never be lost.

Like this diaspora of the Mandalorians across the galaxy and the idea that you can be at home anywhere as long as you have your family, your clan, and your customs with you is a really beautiful thing that I think the show has embraced. But also, I think without question, Mandelor is positioned by Favro and Faloni who love the Mani and Faluny,

who love the Mandalorian canon and are deeply connected to it as a special place, as a place, and we're seeing it with the Living Waters, with the Mythosaur, with the best gar minds, with the stuff that is actually specific

to that place. And so I'm kind of interested to see where those two things meet because I do think both of those things can be true at once and the characters can hold both of those truths in their heart at once, but it's not like

we're actually at the point in the story where we're saying, eh, what do we need there, really? There is stuff we need there. And I'll just say also, I think this place looks great, beautiful. You hit some sand. Listen, did a cataclysm turn your planet into an uninhabitable desert unless you're inside of biotome?

Sure. But we all love the beach. Also, you hit the beach. This is lightning. Your beautiful pillowy Southern California beach. You turn, well, it's not a beach at all anymore. Now it's like an ice skating rink, right? It's like turquoise molten sand turned to glass.

And I love it. It's gorgeous. You're in hospitable Northern California beaches. And I said that would love because I love the Northern California beaches. A rocky cliffside. Beautiful. You cannot walk barefoot along the beaches of Northern California. You'll get a gory and shard in your foot.

No, the climate doesn't be great. They're fine. I mean, maybe this was just a bad. Is the magnetic field an issue, maybe? A bad weather day. Yeah, I can't communicate off planet. That could be a positive or negative. Right.

Joe, you love Mendocino, famous for no cell reception. Isn't that part of the draw? No one can bother you? Yeah, and you're off the grid. And also, there might be an oasis somewhere. As you said, we're only seeing part of this and living waters. I mean, maybe they're bringing life to some other area. If this ecosystem is supporting alamites and cyborgs and pipe critters and a mythosur, I mean, a mythosur seems like it's got to require a lot of calories, right? So there's got to be, yeah, there's got to be something growing somewhere. Wow, you guys should join the Mandalorian Tourism Board. Look at this thriving verbing right now in real time. of the absolute planet.

Ben, before you go, is there anything else you want to say about the Shards of Mantelor or the Pirate King Gaurian Shard and how disappointed you were that he wasn't in this episode? We will see him again, I am sure. But it was tough to be introduced to him

and then not get to see him this week because I'm in this mostly for Pirate King Gaurian Shard at this point. Yeah, me too. This is a Pirate King Gaurian Shard fan podcast now. So sorry to all other characters. Thank you, Ben.

as always, you're the best. Thank you. As Ben mentioned in that segment, we as Star Wars fans don't know anything really about the Alamites other than what we learn in this episode. There isn't like some deep canon on these characters, but I think,

I mean, first of all, my first thought upon seeing them was of these creatures called the Morlocks from the H.E. Wells Time Machine. We actually got a lot of emails about that, but that was my first thought as well. coincidentally, I went to a school with a girl whose last name was Morlock, and I always thought that was a little unfortunate.

Okay, and then also, they seem to be native in Manilore. They have Tuscan lint to the Mithesore, but what is really key in this first fight with Dan and the Alamites is what we see where he is with his dark saber skills, Mal? How would you categorize them? Can I rewind for a second

before we get to the Alamites and just talk about the inbound flight? Because I was really struck by the contrast of him entering the system and Bo. Like it's just his his entrance is just so choppy. It's very clear. And obviously the magnetic field and the fusion rays of the destruction and carnage is what's causing that. But you can feel that he has never been there. They were drawing our attention to that.

And when Bo goes in, even though she has gone from, yeah, let's go where you take the planet so this place is cursed and to the point where it didn't have to say last week make up your mind, you feel the confidence with which she enters that atmosphere later. She even has a smile on her face. Oh, it's smoothed the whole way. Like she's excited to be home, but like everything she does is meant to underline how at home and competent and specifically drenched in Mandalorian, you know, weaponry and all this sort of stuff.

She is in contrast to the fumbling through of dinner. Jarn. This has been the context of her life, this place. And it just really, really stood out in those little moments. As did, and I know we've talked about R5 already, but I'm sorry, I was appalled when Din was just like, I'm not asking buddy and dropped him down out of his port into that beautiful, again, beautiful, I think, glassy surface. Grogu.

I just want to credit Grogu for having. That gentle heart that our guy, Jora Mormont, used to talk about, the way Joanna that his ears and his eyes positively droop with worry as he is watching R5 being sent against his will onto this mission. It just endeared me. I didn't think I could love him anymore. But I somehow, every time he does something, I do. I love him more.

I just thought that this was. And then the way that he turned it in and begged him to go check and see if. If R5 was okay, like we've seen Grogo do some really terrible, like some scary things, right? His power is, is intense. And these little moments. Slip it on some frog eggs. Yeah, you know, just a casual force choke to defend dad. Yeah, so he's like, frog people aren't people, but droids are.

You know, I think he's got a complex relationship with the, with the, with the, with the, with the, with the fraud people family. But the point is, the point is, it was just so sweet. It was very sweet. The larger point is, Dinjarn's skill level with the Darksaber is what we would call piss poor. He cannot. It's not just that he can't wield it with anything resembling a fully realized connection to the blade. He's right where we left him and maybe even has regressed. He can't lift it.

He's dragging it on the floor. Again, the contrasts across the episode between what we see with Din and, what we see with Bo, which those contrasts are heightened because of the parallels. We get parallel shots with Din and Grogu descending. Bo and Grogo descending. We get, of course, the kind of like instant pantheon line. Did you think your dad was the only mandolian? All these connections.

So then the contrasts are all the starker. It's a very intentional cycle through. You know, and like in, were they not trying to do this? You would say this feels a little like, oh, we're doing this whole thing again, like with a different character, okay. but the point is to show us how Dindjarn does it versus how Bocahatan does it. Steve, I had this clip scheduled for later, but can you play the armor training clip from the Book of Boba Fett here? You are fighting against the blade.

It gets heavier with each move. That is because you are fighting against the blade. You should be fighting against your opponent. Stand up. There, feel it. You are too weak to fight the Dark Savor. It will win if you fight against it. You cannot control it with your strength.

I want to try again. Persistence without insight will lead to the same outcome. Your body is strong, but your mind is distracted. I am focused. The blade says otherwise. You cannot control it with your strength. I love it. We love Dinarin, but like there is something about, and perhaps it is his affection for Grogu, but we support his affection for Grogu, so we can't call that a bad thing.

But there's something in him that is uncertain, unfocused, the blade betrays that in him. And as soon as Bo Katan later gets her hands on it, clear power, strength, clarity, all that sort of stuff. I think that like the episode went out of its way in the line that we got from Bo about, the, you know, too complicated to understand history to say to the audience, rest assured you're not going to be expected to know everything that happened in clone wars or rebels to understand season three of the Mandalorian. However, I do think this is a moment where we need to once again mention our pals, Canaan and Sabine. Because the trials of the Dark Sabre sequences that we spent a lot of time talking about in our season three primer pod are basically a direct, you map them directly onto that scene with the armor and din.

And so then if we play out that string... I almost pulled that clip instead of the armor. Yeah, but you could pull either. And it would achieve the same thing, right? Your thoughts, your actions, they become energy. They flow through the crystal as well and become part of the blade. That sword is old, heavy but powerful. Respect its strengths.

Being saying the blade feels lighter. Canaan saying you're connecting with it. It's becoming a part of you. Canaan's saying you're not fighting me. You're fighting yourself and losing these parallels. Sabine gave up the blade. The result of those lessons was not her saying, I am the one meant to wield this.

She's the one who gave it to Bo Catan, sparking this next series of events that led to Gideon and where we are now. So I think that the symmetry that we have between Din and Sabine and then the contrast that we have between Din and Bo, it leaves us asking this interesting question, which I think becomes even more interesting. at the end of this episode, when the Mithosaur enters the chat, you know, another signifier

of legitimacy of rule, your credibility as a person that the Mandalorian should follow someone who could and should rally the realm. It's like Reneira seeing the white stag. Yes, yes, yes, yes, exactly, exactly. And so is Dinn on the journey of connection so that he is the one who wields the blade, who rides the Mithsaur? We'll talk about the Mithsor more later. Or is he not on that journey? Is it going back to Bo as that where it belongs? And what I love about where we are in the season is I genuinely don't know. Right.

I don't see the clear arc here for these characters. Because, like, if you were asked me to vote, if this were a political ad and you asked me to vote who at the end of this episode should lead the Mandalorians, I would say Boca Tan. Like, Din is, you know, made extra incompetent. in this episode to highlight Beau's competency, I think. You know, like, that's something that they did narratively, right? But is that to make it even more tragic when she falls?

If she falls, if she betrays, right? And we, because we have the context of the animated series, like we've seen her play the villain already, right? And so, again, we'll talk to Katie Sackoff about this a bit, and I think there's just something really, again, And for the way in which people complain or admire the Mandalorian for its simplicity, I actually think it has so much more on its mind this season. And that's my hope for it.

Before we got this really incredible email that I cannot wait to read. But before we do, I have to bring in my guy, Darth Mall. And this is, this sounds flimsy, but this is real. Like we watch, as you mentioned, both in and Grogu and then Bo and Grogu like jump off and go. underground. We are underground in this sequence. The covert that Dindjarn belongs to, they're in caves, they're in sewers, all the sort of stuff like that. So this line from Darth Mall in this episode of the Clone Wars is really fascinating to me to think about what is the nature of, again, as we continue to interrogate, what is the nature of the Mandalorian, where do they belong? Maybe who is

Darth Mall to decide that? But Steve, will you play the incredibly attractive voice of saying what we're please. It is not the way of your people to hide here in the gutters. I mean, right? They spend the whole episode underground. Do we agree with Darth Mall that it is not the way of the Mandalorians to hide here in the gutters? Like, what do you think?

I think that the bulk of the time that we've spent with them has put that question at the fore because you have a character like Sabine, who's living her life in the air and space with new friends, with Fallon family, trying to make a lot of. make a difference, forging new connections. She's not on Mandelaar, and the moments where she has to confront the great horrors in her life are back there. But then also doing that, working through it, putting in the time, is how she reconnected with her family again, how she was able to atone to repent for some of her failures.

But like, you think about where we find the covert in season one of the Mandalorian, our guy, Paz Vizal, your personal favorite other than Darth Maul. he was so appalled when he saw the imperial ignorant of Baskar that Dinn had received his payment. You know, these are the spoils of the Great Purge, the reason that we live hidden like sand rats. There's this deep resentment that they are hidden and sequestered and cloistered. And the armor's response to that was our secrecy is our survival. Our survival is our strength. Once again, the armor of voicing,

basically the way we survive is to live in this tight, confining, rigid view of one thing that worked. Not to try to branch out, go to the surface. What happens when they go to the surface when we see them on the surface in episode one of this season? The Dino Turtle attacks them. Like, this is not where the armor wants to handle it. Exactly.

That word cloister that she used is like, seclude or shut up as if in a convent, you know, or a cloister. And you're talking about characters defined by like jet packs, by the ability to take flight and soar. Exactly. Like, that's a tragedy. Speaking of the distinct armor of the Mandalorians, as you mentioned when we were talking to Ben, there is a very specific weapon that targeted the Baskar alloy. we find a helmet here that looks roasted and toasted

as if it had been subjected to that very specific weapon. What do you make of that, Mallory? Interesting. I'll be honest, hadn't occurred to me. I thought it just looked really dirty because it had been covered in the ground and I thought it had been laid there as, you know, the trap of our guy, Spiborg.

And it reminded me just of the collection of hollowed out empty armor that the armor herself had collected at the end of season one. Like people used to wear this. Now they don't because. they're dead. But I have to be honest, I kind of like this theory because on the one hand, I think this would be almost unbearably painful if when Sabine enters live action, we have to see

her confront yet again the fact that something she designed was used by the empire to destroy her people. But wouldn't that feel true to the empire? You had the, are they going to stop? Because they failed once to recreate this thing and expand its range? No, I don't think so. How many other rebuilt prototypes that they have. So again, it hadn't occurred to me, but once you put it in the dock, I was like, damn, that would be painful,

but powerful. What they love to do when we saw this a lot in Andor, but we see it in the original trilogy as well, whatever, is like use people, turn someone against their own people. That is the thing that I do time and time again,

whether it's with the Jedi or, you know, any number of people in Andor. And so this idea of like, Sabine has not been turd against her people, but used against her own people, you know. Or you could think of it as sort of like seeing this hollowed out helmet, whether or not it's melted or roasted toasted. That's like finding a skull, right?

Of a Mandalorian. You know what I mean? It's equivalent given, you know, their connection to that armor. There's no Mandalorian who wouldn't stoop down to pick that up and think about who had maybe worn it before, which is what our guy Spyborg is counting on as he snaps din up and wraps him in this rusted. latticework coffin that almost wrapped him like a burrito.

It reminded me, I don't know what's wrong with me, but I'm gonna be honest because it's only you here listening. Yeah, it's just me. It reminded me of Chuck's sex swing on billions. The way that he was kind of like stretched prone and not Sheila in Lord of the Rings. No, no. No. My.

All right. Just me. Just me. I love you forever. being you always. Grogu fucks up some people on his desperate bid to go rescue his dad. I have to ask you, did you think

Grogu was going to pick up the Dark Sabre? Because SpyBorg has pulled it away from Din. It was on the ground. And Grogu he had hidden in his pod at first and he's watching and then he chooses his moment, gets out of his pot. He whiles over. He climbs up on a rock. He uses the force to try to free his dad. It's just like perfect all around. It's so darling. The subtitles are

straining panting, iconic, absolute Hall of Fame caliber work. And he waddled right past the Dark Sabre. And I was like, holy shit, is this it? Is this when Grogu's going to wheel the Dark Sabres? He's going to pick it up. Now, of course, that's what happens in the episode later. It happens with Boca Tan, not with Grogo. But I didn't wonder.

No, no, I thought I was pretty sure given that Dinn was like, that's where Boca Tan is that like all that was going to happen is that Grogo was going to go get Boca Tan. This is another moment, though. where we see his progression, not only in the way that he's using his powers across the episode, but when Din can only get out

one sentence, right? Get to Bo Catan, and Grogu's like, got it. I'm on it. And his comprehension is at a really high level. I, as you know,

was so appalled during the Boba Fet run by Luke using the training remote and zapping Grogu, but he was as a result of that prepared to avoid this electrow staff blast. and flipped right into his little carrier and shot off past all those creatures and fucked up that alamite.

We had seen this in the trailer. So as soon as he's, you know, we know this is going to happen here, but it was still great. And double force usage back to back. He tried to free Dinn. He attacked the alamite. Guess what he didn't need after back to back force action. A nap. A snooze.

Our guy is leveling up. This is a big deal. And then he's like, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he's like pointing at the map and communicating. with R5 and he's like, we need to go here, we need to go here. And it just, it worked. He was able to communicate what he needed to R5 and it was just amazing. I think that, I think that my understanding of what Dinn's intention there was was not like go get both so you can rescue me. Just like go to safety.

Like a very, like very. Make sure you're okay. Throwing rocks at Nymeria. Get out of here. Go to safety. You know what I mean? But Grogo's like, I'm going to come back and rescue. It's Groger's initiative. Bo jumps into action and we will, I'm just going to let Katie Sackoff talk about that and why. But before you need to talk about a certain accessory, Mallory, is this very important to you?

I was really struck by seeing her on the throne again for two reasons. One, because her droid enters to tell her that they've got an unscheduled visitor. And, you know, last episode, we chatted about the way that we found Bo. And like you said, Katie, we'll talk about this too and explain what Oroa Bo is trying to cultivate with her throne position in the premiere. But we find her

because no one's there. She's not welcoming Dinn or anyone into the room. She's not putting on an air. She is leaning forward, head bent. She's bowing in despair. And it was just really, really sad to see this. It's just a picture of defeat. And she has a blanket.

But how quickly, when she has purpose. Yes, she springs, exactly. That she snaps back into, you know, action mode. There's like a blanket, like a throw blanket next to her on the throne. Now, I love a throw. I love a blanket. I love comfort. I'm like, is she, does she never leave?

Does she just sit there all the time thinking about the ways that she's failed? This is devastating. You think she sleeps on the throne? Maybe. it's just chilly. It is a vast drastic throne room. I don't think there's good lumbar support on that thing. I don't think Bo's sleeping

on there. You know I have the Boatatat, Baskar helmet. I've got the Dark Sabre. Yes. Do we need to get you a throw? We might need the blanket, but we have Bo and I have something else in common. And it's this. When she walked out to act tough, I told you I didn't want to be

bothered to the N-1. She just starts talking She's like feet away from the glass canopy of the N1 and doesn't see that Dinhara is not in it and I'm like, I'm not the only one who needs to go the eye doctor. Boatan is talking to Dijaran and he is not there. And she should be able to see that. I await a text from Bo Katan's mother

urging me to urge her to go to the optometrist. The way the little Gros had popped up though and just cried his need to her. Wonderful. My guide. Bo takes the ship, the gauntlet. Yes. Joe, if you can keep flying the ship that you flew when you were a death watch terrorist,

you have to do it. You got to do it. Why would you, why would you remodel? Why wouldn't you just keep your little Nazi airship? You know what I mean? Unbelievable. So she's still in the same ship, the gauntlet. We get this walk and talk once they're on the planet.

We get this walk and talk. And this is where I want to hit this email that I was really struck by. Yeah. And I want to promise it. It's from a rabbi, Howard Tillman. And I want to premise it in the same way that we premise anytime we talk about religion and spirituality on the show, which is that like I'm an atheist, Malah's, you know, her own relationship that she can explain or not or whatever. But so this is not any manner of proselytizing, but what it is is these questions of spirituality and faith are so foundational to our storytelling in general,

to our broader human experience. So I always find it worth examining these various nooks and crannies of applying ideas of faith and spirituality to the stories that we're talking about. And I think specifically, once I read this email from Rabbi Howard Tillman, I was reminded that John Favro

is not just Jewish, is like a very, you know, practicing Jew and to the point where I learned this story when I was writing my book about Marvel, the MCU, but that he pressed pause on production on Iron Man in order to host a Passover Seder. And the person I was interviewing about this was like, we didn't have time really to pause for Passover, but we did.

And that was sort of the kind of set that John was running. That was point. But like, this is something that's very important to him. So, you know, this is a Faloni-Favro, co-pro, it's not just like Folony's point of view, but if this question of faith in specifically, like, Judaism and Judaism and Judaism, like,

relationship to homeland is interesting to him, I can see how it might run through the season. So here's the email from, with much ado, here's the email from Rabbi Howard Tillman, who writes, During Boca Tan and Grogu's epic walk and talk, she tells him,

quote, the empire tried to wipe out our memory from existence. Compare that to Deuteronomy, 2519, which speaks of God's command to the Israelites to wipe out the memory of the people of Amalek who attack them on their journey out of Egypt. You shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget. Last week, the armor tells Jin, Din, quote, redemption is no longer possible since the destruction of our home world. There's obviously a comparison to be made here to the destruction of Jerusalem. The Mandalorians were intimately connected to their

homeland of thousands of years and being exiled from it caused a great deal of trauma for the Mandaloreans. They've now become a people without a home. This is true in the sociological sense, but beyond that, the Armour's reference here speaks to the loss of a spiritual connection to. For the quote-unquote extremists in the children of the watch, much of their spiritual and religious identity was based on connection to a specific physical space. So too in Jewish history for about the first 1,000 years of Jewish history from the construction of the first temple in Jerusalem, approximately 950 BCE,

to destruction of the second temple, 70EC. Judaism was primarily focused on the temple in Jerusalem. That's where daily prayer services were held, where the people gathered on holidays, and most importantly here where sacrificial offerings of atonement could be made. For people who made mistakes or strayed from the path, the only way to atone was to bring it offering to the temple in Jerusalem. But after the second temple was destroyed by the Romans,

there was a radical shift. Jews asked themselves, how is redemption possible now that our temple and homeland is destroyed? For certain sex of Judaism in that era, this was an existential crisis. It is only thanks to the leadership and innovations of the rabbis of the time that Judaism was able to evolve and adapt. Instead of focusing solely on the temple in Jerusalem, the focus became community synagogues. Instead of religious systems based on sacrifices, the system evolved to focus on prayer. And instead of redemption slash atonement

being based only at the temple, the focus of atonement shifted to include ideas of repentance, justice, charity, and prayer. These are the three major themes of Yon Kapoor, the day of atonement today. Also, Bo speaks about her father. And thanks to Ben Lindbergh's great recap, I clicked on his link to Wikipedia,

to find that her father's name was Adonai, Greece. Adonai is a Hebrew for Lord and the most commonly used name for God. I suppose it could also be a reference to Georgia Bulldog's wide receiver, Adonai Mitchell. I'm not sure what to make of all these references, but I'm just so fascinated that they're there.

So great email from this rabbi. Thank you so much for writing in. I, you know, and I don't want to put this in here without just saying, I understand that the question of, like, Judaism and Homeland is like not an unfraught subject. But I think the correlation, if this is something that is on John Favreau's mind, this idea of like a specific homeland and a specific place and atonement and all of these things that run through the Jewish faith, I think that's really interesting to think about in the context of Children of the Watch versus Bow, Din versus Bo, etc. Fascinating email.

Yeah, really good stuff. There was even more. I mean, it was even longer than that. That's my abridged first. And so forgive me for abridging that. Bo fights, it's incredible. Yeah. And Bo fights specifically with these Mandalorian weapons,

the Force Shield, the whip, all that sort of stuff. Yeah. How do you feel seeing her in action here? This whole stretch was really wonderful for Bo's character, for the relationships that Boe has with the other characters. of the show with the objects, with the lore. You know, we get to see right before the fight, Bo, asking Grogu about the force, talking to Grogu about the Jedi, saying, like, I knew quite a few Jedi, you know,

and then we can think of her history with Asokon, Ezra, and Keenan, we can think about, you know, when she says, specifically, I really love the line about, like, I don't know what they taught you about us, but there was a time we actually got along quite well, fought side by side, actually then heading into a fight sequence, a battle sequence using the Dark Saber, this object that we can think back to a moment where pre-visla is using it against Obi-1 and saying since then many Jedi have died upon its blade, prepare yourself to join them and the role that object is played often as a source of division, an active weapon, a way for the Mandalrians to harm the Jedi, right? So like these scenes being back-to-back felt really

intentional to me. Like more support number one for Grogu's path as both a Jedi, a force user, whatever, whatever framing we want to use, and the Mandalorian, not needing to choose the way that Luke made him think he had to, right? It can be both. Set up for more alliances in the future. We've mentioned the Pergill, Ezra, Thron, we've mentioned Sabine, et cetera. Like these characters are all going to be in this timeline together? What alliances are they going to build in the future together? This conversation lets us think about that. Seeing Bowen action makes us think about the time she's been in action before with those characters we just mentioned. And it shows us how Bo herself has changed and evolved.

Because, you know, when I'm citing that pre-Visla Obi-1 fight, that's when Boatatan was a member of Death Watch and was aligned with him. So we think of then the bonds she made with Asoka and Ezra and Kinen and others after that. We think of the prospect of more change and ongoing evolution in the future. That's important. And it's especially top of mind when we see her. her wheeled the saber because that reflects her being deeply stuck and trapped by the things

other people think and other people tell her. Well, who does that remind us of? The Jedi. Like we've talked about these parallels so many times, right? Attachment, bad. Here's the way you're going to go wrong. The thing you're feeling, it's the path to the dark side. And so she's asking Grogu, how good are you with the force? You must be quite good. If you got to me all alone and we're like, this is just great. We love it, right? Way to recognize talent, five-star prospect, got all the tools, love it. Yeah. But once again, I think the adjacencies of these conversations and that and that fight scene with the Dark Sabre, it's not, it's not accidental. Did you think your dad was the only Mandalorian moment heading right before she even? This is like

an Alamite fight, right? Before, you know, before she then goes forward and uses the Sabre itself we're watching this like pretty horrifying blood pumping stretch with Dinn or cutting back and forth. And then when she picks up the saber, it's, it's like Syria and Aria like, can you drop a part of your arm? She's just one with the blade in a way that Dinn has not even sniffed. Like the fluidity, the ease, the grace. It's like a feather in her hand. And so, yeah, we can't help. think, like, is she supposed to have it instead of him?

And what would it mean for the characters and their forging of their new way, as we've been talking about? If she could say, fuck these people. It doesn't matter what they're saying. It doesn't matter that Mav Gideon says in the season two finale, the Dark Sabre doesn't have power. The story does. Like, if we can get past that, we can move forward.

But those rules of transference and the weight of those beliefs have to be on our mind here. Because Ben wrote about this in his piece, this has been a big conversation point among fans this week. Like there is a way you can view this scene and just say, well, Spyborg disarmed in, period. And then Bo beat Spyborg. So the Dark Saber is hers.

Now, right. I guess you could say technically that's true. My read on it, I'm really curious to know what you think, is Bo is too burdened by her losses in the past to think that that's enough. Like maybe in episode three, particularly after the Myth of Story,

years to have like chosen din. Maybe she's going to say, hey, by the way, you know how you just mentioned 10 times that I saved your life and that you're in my debt? That's mine now. Handed over, and that could be part of the split that unfolds from here if that's the way we're going. Like you said, a number of possibilities still. Maybe the pitch is in the future. I think she's just certain that she needs to win it in a more public and definitive way, not by technicality, that that's not going to be good enough, given her past. I can really agree. All right. I might sound a little different for the rest of the episodes because I had to move locations. I'm on the road. Sorry about that. But we just could not leave it there. We have so much left to talk about. We definitely want to talk about, I don't know, the Mythosaur. But before we get to that, as you may or may not know, Mallory Rubin and I used to cover a show called Game of Thrones. And we would be remiss if we did not mention some parallels we see in Din and Bo. I just want to shout out our pal Ryan area over at Green Crush for sort of all. underlining this for me. The idea of Bo Catan as sort of like a DeNaris Targaryen as someone who like,

I mean, at least before she got all depressed through a blanket on her throne, like really wanted to be the leader of Mandelor. And Dinh Dyn and comparison to John Snow, someone who's like, I don't want it. Take the dog saber. I don't care. You know, so how do you feel about, is that sound like an ominous comparison? How do you feel about that, Mallory. It's interesting because I think Bo also actually began a little bit as a John. You know, Sabine

had to kind of convince Bo that she was the one, that she was the right leader, the deserving leader, and crucially the leader that other people would follow. We see how that has crumbled or cracked

like the glass of the Mandalorian surface that she's now firing her blasters into to unearth the alibites waiting and lurking. But I like the idea of moving in and out of these states. It's a great thing for us. We love to talk about the reluctant leader trope when characters are in that spot, when they're not. And the character who moves in and out of that state, I find particularly fascinating. I think that what's so interesting, I'm glad that you noted that Ryan made this observation,

because what strikes me as really rich here is if Bo goes from the, well, then you lead them. You know, shake that thing around, wave that thing around of the season three premiere into if Din's got the saber. If Din after this episode or after next episode, perhaps who knows what the pace will be, is writing the mythosaur, is heraling that new age from prophecy

that we'll talk about more in a second when we get to that scene. And Allegiance flock to him. the way that people wanted to follow John, then yeah, that feels like the resentment, the bitterness that built and Danny could be building even further or maybe heightened because it's already there in a different way for Bo. What strikes me is the difference.

I suspect you'll agree with this, Joe, though I don't know, because I have to say Ben hit an important point earlier when we were talking to him about how much is present for Bo in the live action versus how much we as Clone Wars and Rebels' viewers bring to it. I was going to say, I think that if Beau turns heel and becomes the foe or a rival or a villain, I would buy that completely and feel like it had been pretty well established and set up.

But that's from like episode after episode after episode of animated storytelling. I wonder if live action fans would feel the same. What do you think about that? Well, I think, you know, again, we keep teasing this. We talked to Katie about this a little bit, and I feel like it's not something they're going to ignore. But the question eternally for the live action shows is how do we seed in this information from the animated series without making people feel like they're being inundated with exposition? And also in a way that doesn't make fans of the animated series feel like they're just being refed information they already have. So how do we sort of like subtly shaded in?

And again, I'm optimistic that they're going to be engaging with this. And as you say, in a way that would it, you know, if there's a Bell's moment for Bocatan, it won't be, it won't shock us that same way. I also wanted to really quickly read this email from Tyra because each of us accused the other of having written it. So I just want to thank you, Tyra for speaking for the both of us. Tyra wrote the shot of the back of them being Bow and in walking, made me think of the back shot. of Danny and John coming out of the cave on Dragonstone. Look, like, look at this power couple walking towards their kingdom, and Bo's suit is doing wonders for those hips, let me tell you.

So, yeah, Mel and I love Bo's look. We're really into it. Absolutely fantastic. And Pog Soup also seems fantastic, Joe. Bo, a lot of tension in her heart, still finds time not only to rescue Dinn, but to make a warm meal for our little family. And I'm sorry, but I can't get through the pot

without noting once again that Grogu spends this entire sequence reaching out for the soup. And our guy needs more sustenance. Dinn has got to start packing snacks when a father and son hit the road. Like, we need a lunchbox. We need a little more on hand at all times. Our growing baby boy is always hungry.

He needs nourishment. I do like though this conversation that they have here, Bo saying, you don't even soup, bro? Like you call yourself a Mandalorian, right? So like this is the ongoing conversation that we've been so interested in is like what makes a Mandalorian, right? And for Bo it's a steady diet of soup. No, I'm just kidding.

Like, you know, there's these things, these weapons that she uses in these episodes, the trappings of being a Mandalorian her culture. And for Dind Jarn, it's like, don't take your helmet off ever. You know, the fact that they could have these clashing definitions of what means to be Mandalorian is because the Mandalorian culture has set that up so well in terms of their foundling, their fractured identity, all this sort of stuff. But I love also the connection that they find because as separate and different as they are, there is this concept.

And I won't read out the email. We got this email from Anna on this concept, this idea that like in exile, in Exodus, and we got that passage from Exodus in last week's episode, in a diaspora situation, whatever, if you meet someone who's from where you're from, even if your particular flavors of that culture, of that belief, whatever it may be, there is still that sort of bond of, oh, you're from where I'm from. We have something connecting us. And so, and I just, I think, you know, I really admire the storytelling in this episode of, I feel like I understand. Boca Tan is a character, even better than I did, getting to know her in the animated series,

getting to know her last season. Like, there's just so much they did with just an episode and a scene to really get us to invest in her in a way that, like, if Katie Sackoff as Bocahattan is like the third lead of this season, I'm super interested in a way that I wouldn't have been like in theory. I mean, we love Katie Sackoff. So, like, you know, we're excited about her and we're interested in Bocahant. but like if you were like, hey, what if this is the Bocatan season? I'm like, okay, but now I'm like, okay.

And so I think, you know, that's all done in these scenes and these moments, watching her be so competent, efficient. That's all part of it, you know, but also just these quieter moments of talking about the soup or talking about her life as a royal child. And this is like new canon. Like, you know, the animated series watchers know a lot about Bocatan, but her, and we knew that she shaved against her family. we knew that she was separated from her sister all this stuff like that but this idea talking about

her father who has like no information on wukinpedia we don't know much about him so like we're learning about her father here we're learning about this idea that yes she knows the creed yes she you know that that that ceremony that we saw at the beginning of episode one of the season she did that but it was all for show it was pomp and circumstance and pop in circumstance that she looks down her nose at and so again there's that major different there's like i know this thing but you and i hold it different What do you think, Mel? Yeah, I agree completely. I think that this stretch where, again, like the episode goes out of its way to show us what is shared so that the things that are different are all the more potent and all the more potentially meaningful to overcome to bridge or impactful as a wedge, as a divide.

And so you have a moment like after she shares what she shares with Din about her father. and the ritual and taking the creed and the theater, she calls it, for the masses, but says that he gave his life for Mandelor, Dindjarn stops in his tracks, bows his head, and says, this is the way with as much emotion in his voice

as we've heard from him at any point other than when he was saying goodbye to Grogu in the season two finale. And she's, despite everything she thinks about the children of the watch, despite everything she thinks about the creed. she looks at him in a way where it's like she's almost considering him fully for the first time and thinking about the nuance and the different aspects of that belief.

But then we think back to a moment like just in the conversation prior where he says to her, hey, actually you were right. Mandelaar is not cursed and she's not so sure anymore. She says, was I? Look around. So any step back. step forward, there's a step back in whether they're seeing things the same way or not. And I liked that idea that curses come in many forms, that the way you would perceive that reality is completely specific to your experience. The curse for Beau is not just about literally

whether the air is breathable or poisoned. It's the fall of this place. It's that constant infighting that she talks about. It's the endless battling and warring and strife. It's It's the fact that that that they're walking over their shards that are all around them are may as well just be hardened to blood given the history of this place, right? And when we think about, I love the number of times in talking about this episode that you've drawn attention to what experience Dinn doesn't have. And even hearing him like listen with such, I don't know, genuine interest in her talking about her childhood and her experiences.

It's like, right. He never got to see that. And then, you know, I think that like the soup moment, can you appreciate the irony? Annie Mandalorian worth their armor was raised on them since they were his size. Well, also now Grogo was raised on it

since he was his size, which is a nice little touch there. But there's a charm. There's a quirkiness and a cuteness to the way that Boe is like, you know, winking at the situation. Can you appreciate the irony? Like, you're the guy with a dark saber

and you don't know about this, right? but I did have a hard time in terms of, again, trying to always forecast where might me be heading are these allies or these foes, not thinking about a line

that you called out in our primer pod, an outsider. Bose stance on outsiders and how she thinks about an outsider and who is an outsider to her and has she grown beyond that? Yes, we think so.

We see that. That's good. But are those elements of pure, Mandalorian write still there in a way that will maybe heighten her resentment of somebody like, Dan being the one that people follow. It's a pretty rich text, I think, whichever direction they take it in. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It's like, are you a Mandalorian if you didn't have the soup growing up? And it's like, are you a mandolorn if you take your helmet off? And it's again, from a certain point of view, because it all depends on how you say it. I think that that delivery of this is the way, which her reaction to that, his delivery of that I thought was so strong,

It goes back to the conversation we were having last week due to a listener email about this idea of like every time someone says this is the way it means something different. And so, you know, what it means here is, you know, I'm sorry for your law or, you know, there's just like a million different things that it means. But it, but it lands for Bo. And it all depends on how you see it, the curse thing that you were just talking about, this plaque that Bo reads out. We heard this at the top of the episode, this audio of the way that Kitty Sackoff or, you know, Favro or the directors decided she should read it is a mocking sort of jeering, oh, the Mithosaur, blah, blah, you know, she's like sneering about it in good humor, but sort of just sort of like rolling her eyes. And you can imagine that if Dindjaran had been the one to walk up to that plaque and read it,

he would have read it reverentially, right? And so, again, it's just, it's the same information. It's just how do you process it? And how would Boca Tan read that plaque at the end of this episode? You know, this is just like a real turning point for her. I love that question, especially because we're coming off for the second episode in a row, her mocking the idea of belief, mocking is the wrong way to put it. Her no longer being able to find her way to that belief directly.

She said to Dinn, I honestly think it's adorable that you actually believe these children's stories, but there's nothing magic about the waters. And this is something that we ask Katie about in our interview with her. People will get to hear her response to this. We chatted about this in our Mando Season 3 premiere pod. But is the Mythosaur going to rekindle her faith? or is it going to spark potentially like further resentment if the mythosauran din end up paired, much like she adheres to the weight of the story of the dark saber

and then says she doesn't believe in this other magic that is so central to her people, her history, their culture. The children's stories, language in particular here, like it made me think of, it made me think of Voldemort. Like it made me think of the fact that he doesn't know about the Hallows because he wouldn't read that he wouldn't have read the tale of the three brothers. And that like in fantasy stories, characters who dismiss the possibility of magic or the centrality and wisdom of a quote unquote children's tale are often the ones who are inclined

to fall into the dark who don't let that light into their heart. And that that was there to like make us really worried about what Bow was on the precipice of. Right. But it just feels like, and you know, dumping ahead a little bit, but it just feels like, that gasp, that underwater gasp with the like bubbles of air that accompanied it in terms of her seeing. I mean, again, she's got a mask on, but in terms of like her seeing the Mithsaore is real, again, we'll find out next week, I suppose, or I hope, like, you know, how this is landing with her. But it felt like a reawakening, a rekindling of something in that character. That's my hope anyway.

And I think that what happens next, so she reads the plaque and then then walks into the water. recites the creed. And again, to the conversation we were having at the top about this idea of putting episode one, episode two together, I just think if you're creating that as one story to start with that boy who we thought was Din Jarn and Flashback maybe when we first watched it, to start with that boy reciting the creed in the water and to end with Dan Jaran doing the same the creed in the water at the end of an episode, that just seems like a really natural sort of bookend concept to me. And then Dan Wach's forward and either falls off a cliff or gets yanked underneath. I can't 100% tell you what happened

there. Feels like a yanking, but you know, you would think we would have seen a tentacle or something. Like if that, you know, did the Mithosaur do that? The Mithosaur seemed like it was sort of chilling and napping until Bose like swam by it. So I don't really know what happened there. Baskar armor, not very buoyant as it turns out. And Dinn goes right to the bottom like Jamie Lannister falling into a suspiciously deep river after the Lutrain battle. Not urban. I always love to think of the change in water depth on the heels of loot train.

Just remarkable stuff. I think that these questions that we're asking is it's going to be a rekindling of faith. What does it mean to be a Mandalorian? I want to know something else that stood out to me, which is the way that Grogo is looking back and forth between them as they are discussing these very questions. I think this pairs with our observation of his enhanced

and heightened comprehension. He's thinking about this stuff, which I think is really cool. and interesting. We've mentioned Thrones a few times in the last couple minutes, and so I will share one more Thrones comp that honestly gave me, like, reflexive PTSD when Bo was talking, and we've, we've hit this a lot in our primer pods and these couple pods already, this like, her own role in the history that she keeps citing when she talks about, what pains me is seeing our own kind, fight each other time and time again. But when she talked about what the empire did, she said, to

wipe away our memory. And it made me think of the conversations about Bran, you know, in the long night, he wants to erase the world. I am its memory. If I wanted to erase the world of men, I'd start with you. And then like, Tyrion invoking that idea in the finale, we don't have to talk about that, but I found it hard not to think about in a way that was like, confusing. Anyway, when we get to the water, we get to the potential claw hook from the mythosaur. I thought that there was this really sweet moment when Dinn starts to disrobe or Grogor was like, am I about to see dad's face again? Like, is he going to take off the Baskar helmet?

How far are we going here? And I was like, I had other stuff on my mind. But as I know you did too, Joe. Oh, boy. Great stuff. Just wonderful. Wonderful. I mean, I want a chance for you to talk about the Mithosaur

and anything else you want to say about that. But I do here at the end, just want to really quickly read this email we got from Aaron, which circles back to that. concept of faith that we were talking about earlier with the previous email. And I love this encapsulation. Aaron writes, it strikes me that Bocatan and Mando in this episode could be interpreted as allegories for faith, spirituality, and religion. Bokutan is walking the road of the disillusioned believer who has had a crisis of faith, but who has a true connection to the true

spirit of Mandelor. Mando has only had the religion, the trappings, rituals, and rigid dogma mandolar, but he's not yet had a true connection. This experience, explains why she's so capable and he's so out of sorts. She's disillusions, but still has some internal, internal belief and faith. He is seeking a real connection via the rigid dogma he was born into, but the dogma actually weakens him. At the end of the episode, the waters and the mythosur turn out to be the real deal, the Tao, the unknowable, the Yahweh, that we cannot truly fathom in our interactions with mysticism or spirituality. That's why Mando falls in and almost drowns. He's relying on dogma, which will always fail, someone seeking truth. But Katan,

for all her skepticism is still a believer. And I think now that she's seen the Mithosaur again, it will bring them together and rekindle her faith. Mallory. That is also what I am hoping for. That is what I want and what I desire. That I think there are three, okay, I think there are three possibilities for the Mithosaur.

I thought it was so cool when the Mithosaur opened its eye and Bo. the response, again, you get these great moments on the Mandalorian where the characters wearing a helmet, but you can, you feel like you're staring at their face and seeing the response based on just the positioning in the scene. You read the, we heard the inscription on the plaque, this line about Mandelaura the Great is said to have teamed the mythical beast. You know, we talked a bit last week with Grogo and the Pergel about this idea of like the animal bond and like Ezra's history with the force and animal connections.

We're talking a lot about Din and Bo. I think the three possibilities are clear, right? Will Din ride the Mythesore? Will Bo ride the Mythesaur? Will Grogu ride the Mithesore? The line we got from the Armourer in Boba Chapter 5, The Songs of Eon Passed foretold of the Mythosur rising up to herald a new age of Mandelor. Sadly, it only exists in legends.

We heard Queal back in season one when, you know, it's time for some blurg riding training, and Dinn doesn't know how and doesn't think he can, and Quill's like, my guy. Like, your ancestor wrote the great. metasaur. So they've been planting the seeds for this for a long time and planting them specifically with Dinn in a way that for various other reasons I think makes him the leading candidate. Did the beast choose him? Will he ride it? If so, will the saber make its way back to Bo and where it seems to belong? And then they both have one of these symbols of legitimacy and maybe they can unite Mandelor in this quest together? Will it go the other way? Will Dinn keep the saber and learn to

connect with it? Will Bo, who has her faith in the stories? in the lore, in the magic, rekindled, restored hopefully by this glimpse, by this realization, will she be the one to bond with the beast, to tame it, to ride it? Well, she thinks she doesn't need the saber anymore. If that happens, wouldn't that be a cool way forward?

Just like, let's, like, the language, you know, you, you call this out already, but, like, myth, osor, Mando lore. Like, the idea of myth, lore is so central to this part of the story. Like, this is going to be, a big part of whatever happens next. I'm not rolling out Grobo though.

Who's the one literally best position to tame the mythical beast? It's our guy with the animal bond force power. But then if he's got the mythosaur and din as the saber, Beau's going to be like, fuck this, I'm out. And then we get back to the poster with the split helmet and the saber in between them. Could go that way too. What do you think?

This is a really exciting, setting us up, again, we thought this was going to be the finale. This is setting us up for a really exciting season of television. just one thing I will say aesthetically is like in contrast to some of the rancourt stuff we got in Book of Boba-Fet, like the scale of the Mithosaur, like, when you see you sort of like get what feels like a wide, even though it's CGI, what feels like a wide shot, right, of like Bo and Din look so small compared to the enormity of the Mithosaur. That is thrilling. And in the deep and the dark and all the sort of stuff like that. And then as we've been talking about faith and spirituality throughout this episode, this is another clear baptism. It's not just din that goes in the water, bow goes in the water, experiences something radical that is challenging her understanding of how the world works,

her faith in myth and legend and lore and all of that, and comes out the other side changed. Change in what way we will find out, but definitely those two characters are changed coming out of the other side of this little dip. in the living waters. So there you go. Time for corners, Mal? I just, it took, imagine the nap and snack grog who's going to need after he uses the force and the Mithosaur.

I mean, he napped for a while after using it on the rancor. He's got a big day ahead of him. I can't wait. I cannot wait to see episode three, Chapter 19. I can't wait. Will this be the next scene

when we pick up right there? I just, I'm really excited. I'm really hyped. I'm hyped. We'll be get, We'll be get a solo episode with Kara Dune, just finding out what she's up to. Who's to say? Who's to say where we'll go? But we're going to go now to our Easter egg corners.

Shout out and Easter egg from each of us that we enjoy. Mallory, what do you got? I really loved the, there were a lot in the Pelly stretch, and I loved the, who taught you how to leap like a Lerman line. The Lerman are these like almost mere cat-like pacifists in the Clone Wars. They're part of a great arc in season one of the Clone Wars, Jedi Crash, Defenders of Peace. Those are really fun episodes that are cool to watch if you're just interested in getting like a Clone Wars vibe.

But again, to mention characters who are pacifists in an episode so focused on the cost of war felt like an extra nice little nod there. So that's my pick. What about you? You're going with Chance Cubes. You love Wado. I know. I think I have to give it to this Jawa scam.

that Pellie is running with the Jawa's because it's the same exact scan they ran on Obi-1 Canobi and the Obi-Wan show. So it's just like, they're like, let's stick with what works. If it ain't broke, why fix it? If it ain't broke, break it so that then someone pays you to fix it. Yeah, it's a sound business model. All right, speaking of Pellie Motto, we got it. We have to do a wig watch corner. This one, boo-you-go.

Steve, Eugene. All right, so Boatatan, as we've already discussed, and Katie will talk about this, has a glorious new week this season. Pellemotto also has a new week this season. It's a little higher and tighter. The perm is a little higher and tighter. I saw someone compare it to like a Sigourney Weaver in the 80s, and I think it is a very, like, a very Sigourney Weaver, like, permullet situation. How are you feeling about it, Mel? Do you like it?

It pairs well with the missing tooth from the Boba Fet finale. It's really all coming together. It's a new look for Pelly and I'm here for it. I love it. I love Wigwatch. All right, the Netflix subtitle award

that Mallory likes to call Coo's and Gurgles and we'll see this week if she is branching beyond the coos and the gurgles. Here we go. Oh, darling. I already gave my winner. There were some amazing

once this week, but straining panting. Quote, parentheses, straining panting when he was attempting to use the force to free his father was historic stuff. We got a lot of panting from Gorgo. We got a lot of sputtering. We got some whimpering and lots of Gurgels, babbles, and coos. And all of them were fantastic. We got a sequence when Beau said to him, I know that you're frightened, but I need you

to guide me to him, where we got sputters, babbles, trilling. all in a row. I love a trill. A trill is the sound that I would describe. It's a sort of universal cat sound. If your cat is like sleeping or otherwise unaware of you

and you just touch it, it'll give a little like, you know, like a little like, oh hi, a little trill. I am going to stick to my side of things and not do any bibles and coos.

I'm going to do something gross because that was the origin of this. I like, I appreciate you going for Grogu, but I'm going to stick with gross stuff and say, I think this is what is. I wrote it down somewhere that I can't access right now,

but I believe it was something like plasma drains languidly. When all the bodily essence, the mana is being sucked out of denjarn in the tubes. Mahler is making horfing of horfing face. So sorry for that. Absolutely revolting. Absolutely revolting. Don't blame you, but blame Spyborg,

which brings us to our final corner. Secret Force. Yeah. Secret Force user. Let's go through the motions, but we have the same answer again. Steve, Secret Force user.

It's SpiBor. Obviously. Oh, clearly. Without question. It's the Pirate King, Dorian, Chard, and it is Spiborg. And this is the fearsome scroll army that is, or the Secret Force user army that is invading our story. All right.

Well, you've heard us tease it one million times. Why don't you just actually get to hear her speak for herself? Let's hear from the great. Katie Sackoff. All right, Katie. There is, I think we can all agree, only one place to start our discussion today. And that is Boca Tan's instantly iconic throne pose.

We need to know everything. How did you and Rick land on this particular lean? How does the Besscar armor impact one's ability to lounge and luxuriate at top of stone plinth? What are the central ingredients and the vibe that you're working to cultivate that? You know, it was, this was like a group collaboration. This was like a John and Rick and like Katie moment. And I remember just like trying. It was really hard because like I'm quite dinky compared to said throne. So for me to just like, you know, at one point I just sat in it and they were both like, oh, no, no. No, that doesn't look right. I'm like, okay. So we worked at it for quite a while. And our goal was for her to look very dismissive of it, very disrespectful of it.

And disrespectful of him and his presence. And I, you know, I think that she is in a really bad state. You know what I mean? My husband last night of the way home goes, how long was she sitting on the throne like that? So she'd be like that when he walked in. It's a great question. I know, it's a great question.

And I was like, oh, no, no, no. she was like at the window and saw him and was like ran back and was like, do I look like I don't care? Perfect. Does the disrespect come from like this is a consolation throne? This is not the throne she wanted. I'm sure. I think for for Beau, she's lost everything. Everything that she thought that was important.

Everything that she thought she knew, everything that she wanted, her family, her planet, her dark saber, her respect. She's lost everything. And I think that she is at a point where she may or may not be trying to figure out if everything she's done in her life was misguided. And she has a lot of, you know, for fans of Clon Wars and Rebels, this is a woman who has a lot of guilt. You know, and I think it's sort of playing itself out now. Speaking of Clone Wars and Rebels, it's a nice transition into something we wanted to ask about. We're big fans of the animated verse here on the pod.

We talk about it a lot. Part of our real hype for season three was bringing that backstory to the fore of live action. And you're in a really rare position of playing in live action, a character who you've voiced in the animated shows. You've been with Beaufort, a stretch of story that the well-pre-reacted. dates the Mandalorian. And Bo's past with Death Watch, with Seteen, with the Mandalorian

resistance, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, is a really complex one. And we often say on our pod, this is a frequent refrain from us, that we love a character on an arc. And so we're really curious about this, particularly given Bo's views on the children of the watch, her words to din in the premiere about how the factions that came before fractured and shattered. And our people, how does Bo's own past as a part of that fracture often influence the way that she thinks and seeks to lead today? And are there, are any of those, the more like, complex and unsavory aspects of that past? Her time with Previsla, for example, something that the character is going to actively grapple with in this stretch of the canon?

Well, I think that the easiest way to sort of explain some of the stuff that she's talking about with, with Dinn is, you know, it's sort of like one of those things like, you know, if someone's cheating on you, they, they, you know, accuse you of cheating on them all the time because it's that self- guilt. Right. Yeah. So I think that I think it's one of those things where I think that a lot of the things that she says to him are things that she hates in herself.

Yeah, times previous. I mean, like, let's be honest, you know, misguided in who she put her faith in. But I think that, you know, it's been a. a long time. We've been with Bo for a long time for, you know, over 25 years of her life, you know, she's changed and she's grown and she's learned and she's made a lot of mistakes. And I think that she's got quite a bit to atone for. So we may see a little bit of that to answer your question a little bit. Something we love about the introduction of Bo here in contrast to Dan and his covert from the very beginning, from your first appearance,

is this clash of what it means to be a Mandalorian. What does it mean for Bo? What does it mean for Den? I love these lines in episode two. Did you think your dad was the only Mandalorian? You know, or talking about the soup that any Mandalorian with their armor was raised on, you know, all this sort of stuff.

So I was just wondering, and I love that idea. The show is called The Mandalorian. But this idea of Mandalorian identity plays into all the Civil War. stories that we're talking about here. So I was just wondering if you either Katie or Bo have an idea of what it means to be a Mandalorian and what do you think about as the larger

question of the show. I mean, I do. I know what it means for Bo, for sure. And I think that one of the interesting things about the show and the way, if you, you know, to use

show's words, is that I think it's one of those things where everybody can read the same text and then just interpret it differently. And it leads to disagreements and arguments and wars and all of these things because we took the exact same words and it meant something to different people based on life experience and their own standings and the things that they've been through in their life. And so I think that it means very, very different things to a lot of different things. people. And so and we definitely, you know, you'll see that play out this season as you talked about

in episode two. You know, we definitely, we definitely hear Beau's sort of disdain for it, you know, or the spectacle of it all. You know, she believes that this, what others view as a religious ceremony was a spectacle, you know, and because she felt like a prop piece. And so she, she has this sort of like child who's, you know, she is the, the sister that was thrust into this life that, that never wanted any of it. You know, she's a warrior. That's who she is. That's who she was raised to be. And Satin was, was raised to be in government, not not Beau. Oh, boy.

Joe, another one of our favorite talking points, a reluctant leader. You mentioned a few things there, including the way that it gets to something else we wanted to ask about, which is, of course, the Dark Sabre, but not just the object itself, more what it represents and what it represents for each of these character arcs. So in episode two, chapter 18, there is this incredible showcase with Bo and the fabled blade. And the Dark Saber has been so central to Bo's story across the animated verse, across Mandalorian so far. And so this was obviously just a real thrill, but a very thematically rich one as well.

You know, Din winning the Dark Sabre from Gideon was this huge step back in Bo's mind for her quest to retake Mandelor to win the allegiance of her people. And when we meet her at the top of the new season, like you said, there's this aura of defeat and hopelessness after seeing again the proof of how difficult it is to rally the loyalty without it. So she wouldn't take the plate from, from Dinn at the end of season two when he offered it. And she had seen already that hard reality of Mof Gideon's words,

the truth of that. And so here's our question. This is something we've been talking about a lot in our preview coverage. Does the idea that the story has the power have to be true? She picked it up and wielded it

in episode two. It was like a fucking natural just to complete a total pro with it way more in sync with it than we've ever seen Dind is Bo standing in her own way here? And is there a path to Bo and Dinn both breaking free of the rigidity that could actually, if they adhere to it and let it guide them, cause another one of these catastrophic fractures

in the society. Like he helps her let go of the weight of the story surrounding the saber. She helps him take off his helmet, gets a fresh air, let Krogoo touch his cheek every so often. everyone wins. Let us look at Pedro, you know, like whatever it is. You all just want to see Pedro's face. Who doesn't?

Who doesn't? Who'st among us, you know? I mean, I don't disagree. I'm enjoying last of us. You can see his little big. Look, I think that the power and the belief that is put into the Dark Sabre is probably more powerful than the Dark Sabre. But at the same time,

that's the way that that works. you know um um i i think that that the the sword of into of itself is incredibly powerful you've seen the difference with with the way that that that din that that din is overpowered by the saber i mean it's it's very clear when watching him fight with it that it weighs a ton um you know and like you said you see someone pick it up and and it's it's it's like she's fencing. So, you know, I think that there is a little bit of potentially of her standing in her own way. You know, but she firmly believes that she needs that Dark Saber to rule.

Because I don't believe that even though Bo has one of the biggest egos of anyone, I do not believe that she thinks she's capable. And the only way to do it is with the Dark Saber. It's like a, it's her mask, if you were. if you will in a sense that if you know if she has the dark saver she doesn't have to be a good leader she just has to lead you know what i mean magical blade yeah of course so yeah i i wanted to ask you but i love that idea of you know the the metaphorical mask along with the helmets that are so central to bow and this idea we see her lounging we see her posturing we see her brushing him off

wanting to get rid of him. But when there's danger, she is immediately in heroic rescue mode. She runs to his rescue. She rescues him again and again. She does not hesitate for a second to dive into the waters after him. And this is a question that Mallory and I had coming off of season two was, you know, will Bow and will Bowen just be at odds with each other constantly, the resentment that he wound up with a blade and she didn't, etc. what is it, what is it inherent to Bo that that doesn't matter when there's danger,

that this is her instinctual response? I think that at her core, she's a warrior. And I think that when the going gets tough, she's always going to be in the front. That's who she is. But I also believe that at her core, like who she is, how she was raised, everything she's ever done from the very beginning of the moment that we need her, she's always done

what she thought was right for the mandiborian people as misguided as she may have been. And so I think that she values life. But, you know, and I also think that she values Dyn's life. You know, I think that she

sees him as, you know, I don't know. I think that She sees him as a, as another, as a warrior as well. I think she respects the warrior in him. And I also think that there's a part of her that like, you know, you got to love the kid, right? He pulls up in her heart.

He literally shows up and you see those face go from like this hardened angry, get the heck out of your face to, oh no, child is alone. Why is this kid by himself what happened to him? And then she, you know, almost feels guilty because she, she set him off on this path that she knew was dangerous and was like, have fun. Absolutely. Hi, you being. Yeah. Well, and I also think that we have to, we also have to acknowledge where Bo has come from.

Bo says as much in episode two where she talks about how she, she's known many Jedi. We saw her with Obi-Wan. We know that she knows Jedi. We know that she knows that Grogu is a Jedi. You know, I think that she understands the importance of him. I wanted to ask you a little bit about that, about Bose past this idea of her legacy. There's so much we do know from watching her in the animated series.

There's so much you know inhabiting her for so long. But then in episode two, we get some little details, like a little bit more info. about her dad, like, what does it mean to you every time a new piece of the of the House Crazy's legacy comes across your way? How is it informing and shaping your take on this character? I love it. You know, I mean, I think that, like you said, every time a new piece comes up, it is, like,

imprinted in my mind as a piece of her. But at the same time, Dave Filoni is like my encyclopedia. And I spend every second that I'm with Dave listening and talking to him about Boe. And, you know, I mean, not every second. We've obviously been friends and we talk about other things. But we will spend days just texting back and forth backstory of Bo, things that people may not ever see about her childhood and how she felt around her father and and what the teen represented to her and and all of these things I already know. And so it all

went into this season, everything that we've been talking about for years. So it's a really interesting season. So we're going to get a lot more of this the shape of this house crease story. Is that what you're saying? Well, I guess what I'm saying is that you based on what we see in episode two, you can tell that she is pained

and that there's something more going on inside of her. And I think she likes not being alone she likes when she's with Din and Grogo

because everyone else has left her and so this is a character that is very broken and you know if you know the Clone Wars and Rebels story I think it makes even more sense

why she's so broken Yeah that that was something we wanted to ask about maybe how that history is manifesting in it and actually a really interesting particular way in the first couple episodes here. You know, we hear Bo's stance on magic. And this was really fascinating to us.

Bo tells Dyn, there's nothing magic about the minds of Mandelor. They supplied Baskar or to our ancestors and the rest of superstition. But Star Wars is so often about showing us and telling us the stories about characters on some kind of journey of faith, to borrow my co-host's perfect phrasing. So, you know, do you believe in the force? That can be one version of that. Do you believe in the rebellion? Do you believe in the dark saber having this mighty heft as a symbol, et cetera, et cetera? So is Beau's stance on magic specifically and notably mandolorean magic the product of that shaken faith in herself, in her people, in her ability to forge a better future?

And will that really amazing and spine-tingling encounter with the mystical Mithosaur in the Living Waters at the end of episode two potentially reignite something there and change something fundamental about how she considers possibility and what magic represents in this universe? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I'm so glad you gave the coy short answer to that because it means we have time for one more question. the most important question on my agenda, something that I am constantly tracking and anything I watch are wigs. I love talking about wigs. You get a brand new, beautiful, sleek wig this season.

How do you feel about the new wig? Katie Sackoff. Well, she obviously has a hairdresser somewhere. So, you know, and I've said this before, season two was really, I don't think anyone thought that Bo would have maybe they did. They didn't tell me

but I don't think that they anticipated her being such a big part of the show. Like I said, maybe they did. I think that the fan reaction to having Bo in this world was really universally interesting.

I'm not going to say loved, but people, she fit in the world and I think that that for whatever reason. So in season two, we really wanted to just pay homage to the character in Clone Wars. And that was my goal. My goal was to have her be instantaneously recognizable to people who knew her,

but also not jarring and take people out of the story. And I thought that we really accomplished that in season two. I know that a lot of people had a problem with the wig. I personally didn't. I actually liked the wig. Um, um, you know, it was like a helmet. It was like, it was like, that's what it looks like when you take your mandolary helmet off. I don't understand what that is fair. That's what it looks like. Yeah. But no, so this season, when it, what it was about was that I wanted to take more ownership and I wanted to, to, to, to acknowledge that she existed in, in animation before live action, but to,

fully take ownership of the character and make her my own. And that meant, and John was the one that, that's spearheaded this as well, but we wanted her to look different this season. You know, I mean, I, the costume's a little different too, right? The costume's not different. No, the costume's not different. But it, the, you know, her wig is different. The scar is potentially a little bit more prominent this season after the freckles.

Um, because I, I just, I wanted her to look the way I wanted her to look in live action. And last season, I wanted her to look, um, the way that people expected her to look, um, if that makes any sense. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for talking to us. Yeah, no, girl got enough great. She's looking great, looking great. All right.

Well, that does it for us. It's been a very tumultuous, rocky journey down into the depths of this podcast episode. Mallory is hanging on by a thread. I have had to move locations several times. My luggage is still lost, FYI. But we did it. We wanted to talk about this episode of television. It's an incredible episode.

We loved it. We're so happy to be here to talk to you. So thanks to Katie Sackoff, obviously, right? Thanks to Ben Lindberg, obviously. Stay tuned to the feed for the Midnight Boys, PooPew, and there is a reaction to next week's episode, which we are so excited to watch. Hop on over to Prestige,

where Mal and I will be covering The Last of Us finale, so we'll be And Charles, by the way. you know, the ganktled there over on the prestige feed, go do that. Thanks for General O'Kipal for his production work on this. And thanks to the heroic editing job that I know Steve Alman is about to do on, like, nine different files that he has to wrangle. So thank you to our very own myth of Thor, Steve Alman. And we will be back next week. Bye.

Pause. Let me find this quote. Hold on. I have it somewhere. Pause. Pause. Call it in mine. The mine.

I'll just resume and summarize. Resuming, Steve. Steve, please keep all of them put at the end of the show. Keep none of it. Got it all. You can keep the sound effect, but none of the other stuff.

Resuming. Yamava Resort and casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava. Theater stage on April 30th, the powerful vocals of Demi Lovato on May 17th, and the signature Southern Country Rock of Eric Church on July 19th. Tickets on sale now at Yamava Theater.com, only at Yamava Resort and Casino,

celebrating its 40th anniversary. You in? Must be 21 to enter. You can't reason with the sun. Trust us. We've tried. This summer, it's time to put that angry ball of fire on mute. Columbia's Omnichade technology is engineered to protect you from the sun's heart. rays that can burn and damage your skin. The sun is relentless, but so is our gear. Level

up your summer at Columbia.com to spend more time outside and less time slathering on ala lotion. You're welcome. Columbia, engineered for whatever.