Spoilers for The Mandalorian’s Chapter 11 “The Heiress”
Well that happened. Episode 3 of The Mandalorian’s second season debuted last Friday with an exhilarating, fan-fulfilling adventure. The episode titled, “Chapter 11: The Heiress”, brings back a fan-favorite character, Bo-Katan Kryze.
Bo-Katan was first featured in The Clone Wars animated series in the episode “A Friend in Need”, instantly becoming a fan-favorite. Most fans eyed her because she was the first prominent, on-screen female Mandalorian. Almost a year after her debut, she would return to the series to help overthrow the Duchess of Mandalore–which then would be revealed to be her sister. Although those episodes premiered almost ten years ago, her character has remained relevant throughout the years.
In 2017, leader of the Nite Owls, Bo-Katan, appeared in the final season of Star Wars Rebels as she assisted fellow Mandalorian, Sabine Wren in striking a blow to the Empire. Before they parted ways, Sabine Wren passed on the Darksaber to Bo-Katan. She begrudgingly accepted it, and united divided Mandalorian clans to stand against the Empire. The Darksaber represents leadership and power in the Mandalorian culture.
In case you missed it, Moff Gideon was actually wielding the Darksaber at the end of the finale for season one. The Mandalorian does indeed take place about 8 years after Star Wars Rebels, so one can only wonder what happened to Bo-Katan’s ownership over the ancient weapon. While “The Heiress” doesn’t quite answer that question yet, it does show that Bo-Katan is flipping every stone she can to be reacquainted with the Darksaber.
Although Bo-Katan was the star of this episode, there was a major reference to another fan-favorite animated character, Ahsoka Tano. Again, Ahsoka debuted in The Clone Wars movie but she wasn’t loved at first. Many fans even drew comparisons to that of Jar Jar Binks. Ahsoka has been through quite the journey. She went from being hated on to receiving online campaigns to include her in Star Wars projects. It seems that now she’s about to make her live-action debut. It’s been heavily rumored that Ahsoka Tano would be played by Rosario Dawson.
Given the nature of it’s 35 minute runtime, this episode was packed to say the least. We even got our first appearance of Moff Gideon in the season. We even received a bit of an update with the “Mandalorian code.” Since the start of the season, Mando has been on his quest to return the Child to his people, which in this is the Jedi. But he’s also been after another of his kind to guide him. After little to no progress, Mando stumbles upon Bo-Katan and her small crew. The only problem is that Bo-Katan is not a part of the same Mandalorian cult that he’s a part of, so he denies her help at first.
Many people may not have realized it, but this was a pivotal moment in the series. Just as the series begins, it is stated that no Mandalorian is to take their helmet off in the presence of another living being. The only contradictory factor was that we have seen Mandalorians remove their helmets multiple times across various Star Wars media, so this piece of lore didn’t quite make sense at first.
Overall, I still can’t process this episode. As a die hard fan of The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, I would have never in a million years guess that characters and elements from either show would be used in a live-action Star Wars project. This season still has 5 episodes left and I can’t wait to see what the creatives have in store for us! Chapter 12 begins streaming Friday on Disney+.