The Mandalorian Spoiler Recap: Chapter 21: The Pirate
The plot! It thickens!
After an insular outing last week, focused mainly around Din, Bo and the rest of the cohort on a rescue mission, this week Chapter 21: The Pirate broadened the story scope out to the rest of the galaxy, revisiting concepts that will surely see us through the end of the season, if not beyond. I admit, it is giving me a bit of whiplash, revisiting my own expectations for this series, but I think Season 3 has struck that balance I’m looking for. It’s gradually growing into an ensemble piece, rather than focusing solely on Mando and Grogu, but the unintended side effect of that is that I find myself missing everyone else when we focus back in on the titular Mandalorian.
The episode opens on Nevarro, with Greef Karga planning ways to help his thriving settlement thrive even more, until a call disturbs everything. Pirate king Gorian Shard is back, and he is not taking too kindly to Karga and Mando gunning down his men in the street. As Shard’s corsair opens fire on the streets and the people flee for the lava flats, Karga sends out a message to the one person he thinks will help. Not Mando, but…
Captain Carson Teva, currently unwinding in a hangar bar on a beach with a bunch of other New Republic pilots. The bartender delivers Karga’s plea for aid, and Teva decides to step in and help. But not before requesting aid from the New Republic for additional forces. Hopeful as he seems, getting help from the New Republic for a non-member world is going to be tricky, at least according to fellow New Republic Zeb Orrelios - a treat for Rebels fans. Teva is undeterred, and heads to Coruscant to make the request in person.
Teva arrives to speak with Colonel Tuttle, an administrator who seems perfectly happy to send at least some aid, until a certain shady Amnesty Program graduate - G-68, aka Elia Kane - pokes her head into his office for a mundane reason, then plays dumb long enough to derail Teva’s request. Non-signatory worlds shouldn’t be the beneficiary of New Republic aid, she reasons. A line of thinking Tuttle is only too happy to go along with. Teva challenges Kane’s reasoning, but his hostility is chalked up to discrimination against her for being a part of the Amnesty program, particularly when he brings up the fact that Moff Gideon, Kane’s former commander, never made it to trial.
From Tuttle’s point of view, and really from an objective one removed from prior knowledge the audience has about Carson Teva and Elia Kane, it’s understandable why Tuttle reacts the way he does. We know Kane is clearly not “liberated” from the constraints of the Empire and is playing some kind of game of her own. But how many people who genuinely want to make things better - like, say, Dr. Pershing - are subjected to the same sort of treatment from people who aren’t as fundamentally decent as Teva? The captain winds up leaving with half-hearted platitudes from Tuttle, and Kane looks a little too happy by this turn of events.
Out of options, he turns instead to another old friend: Din Djarin. He asks the Mandalorians for their help, and the group puts it up to a debate, where Din argues in favor of helping the people of Nevarro, and reasoning that the Mandalorians can themselves settle on the planet when the matter is resolved. To everyone’s surprise - or mine, at least - Paz Vizla agrees with Din. Teva leaves them to it, with Bo and Din coordinating the efforts to liberate Nevarro.
With the Mandalorians united in common cause, they soon dispatch the last of Gorean Shard’s pirates, and with Karga’s blessing settle down to once again make their home on Nevarro. The Armorer pulls Bo aside and asks her to remove her helmet, telling her that as someone who “walks both worlds” - those who walk the Way and those who don’t - she’s the one who can unite their people and bring more Mandalorians in exile to live with them on Nevarro.
Which now begs the question: what is going to happen to these Mandalorians when they do arrive on Nevarro? Will they be asked to take the Creed and permanently cover up? Or is this the birth of a new Mandalorian sect where culture and commonality outweigh dogma? For my part, I sincerely hope it’s the latter, or I’m going to have a really hard time getting behind this. I can attribute the Armorer’s change of perspective to a desire to see her people thrive at any cost. But when acceptance and community is dangled like a reward for compliance, that’s where it crosses the line into dogmatic regimes the like of which we have too many in the real world. And those regimes, I can assure you, are not the hero in any narrative.
The episode ends with a twist reveal, with Teva on patrol where he spots an abandoned shuttle with a hull breach. The New Republic crew inside are all dead, and a quick scan reveals it to be the same shuttle that was transporting Moff Gideon to trial. The absence of his body points to it being an extraction, and the presence of beskar in the wall points to the Mandalorians being behind it.
As much as the Mandalorians have every reason to take Gideon and beat the living daylights out of him for what he did to Mandalore, I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t part of a larger ploy, and the Mandalorians are being framed. For one, Elia Kane knows too much, or at least her face suggests she does. For another, if Gideon’s supporters send the New Republic after the Mandalorians, then they’re not exactly catching on to the Empire still existing in some capacity. Teva has his (correct) suspicions, but will this throw off his scent? More importantly, will we have a peek at the rise of the First Order this season? That felt like a pipe dream before the season started, but now? Now it feels likely.
What do you think? Are Gideon’s supporters trying to frame the Mandalorians? How much does Elia Kane know about this? Where is Kallus and why is he not with his husband Zeb? Let us know on Twitter!
The Mandalorian airs new episodes every Wednesday.