I’ve seen a lot of complaints online about The Mandalorian being too procedural this season, that it sets up arcs only to abandon them for Monster of the Week-style one-offs. I personally like the one-offs, but there’s a lot for everyone to like in this week’s mythology-building episode, “Chapter 13: The Jedi.” Not only does Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker’s former-apprentice played by Rosario Dawson, make her live-action debut, we also hear two more names that sent shivers down the spines of Star Wars fans across the galaxy: Ezra Bridger, a Jedi freedom fighter seen in Star Wars Rebels, and the villainous blue-skinned Grand Admiral Thrawn, a character introduced in author Timothy Zahn’s essential Star Wars novels.
“Chapter 13: The Jedi” had one more important name: Grogu. That’s Baby Yoda / The Child’s real name, as Ahsoka informs Mando. “Grogu and I can feel each other’s thoughts,” she said. “He was raised at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant,” an entire planet that’s one big city (it’s where Anakin met long-necked king Yarael Poof, Mace Windu, and Yoda in The Phantom Menace; it also means Regular Yoda and Baby Yoda likely crossed paths). She continued, “Many masters trained him over the years. At the end of the Clone Wars, when the Empire rose to power, he was hidden. Someone took him from the Temple. Then his memory becomes… dark.” How could anyone hide this cutie?
Grogu — who I will probably still call Baby Yoda, for the same reason that I still refer to Din Djarin as Mando; I am stubborn, much like Grogu — has concealed his powers from the world out of fear. And we all know what fear leads to… There’s nothing Ahsoka can do for Baby Yoda, who sees Mando as a father figure, but there might be another who can. Ahsoka suggests that the pair travel to Tython, where there’s a Jedi temple. More will be revealed when Baby Yoda is placed on the seeing stone at the top of the mountain. That should happen next week, unless there’s another one-off adventure.