Now that the Living Waters have been visited and Din's back in the covert, I guess the writers had to figure out what to do next. As such, this feels a lot like filler and turned this season into "The Meander-lorian". I'm also getting a "Beware the Grey Ghost" vibe from it.
Din volunteers Grogu for combat training, but their sparring is interrupted when a winged beast snatches another foundling. As Din and Paz run out of jetpack fuel while trying to pursue the creature, Bo-Katan shadows it back to the lair in her ship. She promptly volunteers to lead a hunting party to rescue the foundling. Meanwhile, Grogu is forced to stay with the Armourer, who forges him an extended flashback of how he escaped the Great Jedi Purge; he was spirited out of Coruscant by Jedi Master Kelleran Beq, aided by several members of the Royal Naboo Security Force.
Despite this episode being a filler, it's not actually that bad. It's cool to see Bo-Katan leading the hunting party and gain acceptance amongst the covert. Through her, we learn more about the practices of this particular group of Mandalorians. We also get to Paz Vizsla get some more depth. In his first appearance, he accused Din of cowardice by taking an Imperial bounty. In The Book of Boba Fett, he challenged Din for the Darksaber, and in the earlier episodes of this season he always disparagingly referred to him as an apostate. But he still works with them, especially when it's later revealed that the foundling who was snatched is his son. He's also a lot nicer to Bo-Katan; when the hunting party is camped, Din explains that the Mandalorians find a secluded spot to eat so they can remove their helmets. Paz tells Bo-Katan that as the leader of the hunting party, she can stay by the fire.
The rescue sequence gets tense as they climb the mountain with grappling lines and later encounter chicks in the creature's nest. In a similar vein, we get some more blazing action during Grogu's flashback as he and Kelleran are pursued by clone troopers. It's also great to see that not everyone agreed with the purge, as Kelleran's allies fight the clones. It's implied they're part of Padmé's security detail, whome she probably sent to extract any Jedi they could while she went to find Anakin on Mustafar.
Of course, I can't talk about this episode without talking about Kelleran Beq. Apparently he was a character who appeared in some game show, but this is his first canonical appearance. He's also played by Ahmed Best, who previously played Jar Jar Binks in the prequel trilogy. Alright, Jar Jar was a reviled character, and Ahmed Best got a lot of flak for playing him. But I wish him well, and I'm happy he was able to find another role in the franchise. I couldn't help but draw a parallel with the aforementioned episode of Batman: The Animated Series which featured Adam West.
Although I'm still wondering what else happened to Grogu. That could be its own story.
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