Near the tip of “The Mandalorian” season two, Baby Yoda (aka Grogu) is captured by the dastardly Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) after evading him for a very long time. Din Djarin, aka the titular Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and his compatriots find yourself defeating Gideon and taking him into custody, however we all know that he will return in “The Mandalorian” season three and nonetheless needs to get his arms on the little man. So what precisely does Moff Gideon need with Grogu? The reply appears to return right down to considered one of Star Wars’s most controversial items of canon: midi-chlorians.
Gideon has by no means shared his intentions outright, however there have been clues all through the season. During the sixth episode of the second season, “Chapter 14,” Gideon exhausts and taunts Grogu. Once he places the little man to sleep, he has considered one of his officers contact Dr. Pershing (Omid Abtahi). Pershing is the physician originally of the sequence who was making an attempt to maintain Grogu alive whereas the Client (Werner Herzog) ordered experiments on him. Gideon refers to Grogu because the “donor.”
However, we discover out what Pershing and Gideon are actually as much as in “Chapter 12.” Din finds a recording that Pershing despatched to Moff Gideon about his experiments. Mando thinks Gideon is useless and assumes the recording is an outdated one, however Cara Dune (Gina Carano) tells him the message is from three days earlier. In the recording, Pershing says that he is had “catastrophic failure” in his trials, including, “There have been promising results for a whole fortnight, however then, sadly, the physique rejected the blood.” He provides, “I extremely doubt we’ll discover a donor with the next M-count, although.” The Child was too small for him to take extra blood out of when he had him in his custody, so he must get extra.
“M-count” nearly undoubtedly means midi-chlorians, that are a mixture of science and magic that animates the Star Wars universe. Midi-chlorians reside, clever, microscopic organisms that exist in each dwelling being, however a excessive midi-chlorian depend results in Force sensitivity. Having a excessive depend lets an individual entry the Force, which then might allow them to change into a Jedi or a Sith with correct coaching. The idea of midi-chlorians was first launched in the primary Star Wars prequel film, “The Phantom Menace.”
So it appears the baddies of “The Mandalorian” are out to extract midi-chlorians from Grogu and switch them — and the powers of the Force that they bring about — to another person. Right now, they’re making an attempt to try this by way of blood transfusions, however they’ve had no luck up to now.
In the alternate “Legends” canon (consisting of supplies spun off from the unique trilogy however rendered noncanon after Disney’s acquisition of the franchise), there is a know-how that enables for infusions from somebody with a excessive midi-chlorian depend to heal somebody who’s getting ready to loss of life. While that hasn’t been touched on but in the primary, present canon, it is actually attainable that that is not less than a part of the explanation Gideon is after Grogu: to get a “transfusion” that can save his life or the lifetime of another Imperial determine.
However, the alternate clarification is a fair scarier — and possibly extra probably — one: Gideon is making an attempt to artificially flip himself right into a Jedi, or, extra precisely, a Sith lord. He already acquires a lightsaber by the point viewers meet him, carrying across the legendary Mandalorian Darksaber regardless of being neither a Jedi nor a Mandalorian. Din wins the saber from him within the season two finale, however Gideon certainly nonetheless has his eyes on it.
Lightsabers aren’t precisely a typical weapon, and so they’re generally known as a weapon used nearly completely by Force customers, so it is undoubtedly odd {that a} “regular” man, even a robust Imperial officer, would wield one with out a good motive. Pair that along with his obsession with capturing Grogu as a midi-chlorian “donor,” and it is very attainable that he is hoping to switch Baby Yoda’s Force talents to himself and change into a full-fledged Sith to revive the Dark Side and the Empire within the aftermath of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine’s deaths. We do not know his precise plans, however certainly they’re coming in season three — and a reunited Din and Grogu must cease him.
“The Mandalorian” season three premieres on March 3.