Spoilers for The Mandalorian Chapter 19, “The Convert”
A full eight minutes of action before the opening titles. That’s how you draw in Star Wars fans. The Mandalorian Chapter 19: The Convert is animated Star Wars brought to live action on the bookends, but in the middle, we are…subjected to? No…treated with an Andor-like story of redemption, subterfuge, and betrayal. We’re getting unexpected peeks into the early rumblings of The First Order from the stalwart loyalists to the Empire. Callbacks to seasons 1 and 2 give us more perspective on early mysterious characters and the lengths people will go to fight for their cause.
Dr. Pershing has pure motives, but he’s dancing on the edge of the blade of ethics. Bo-Katan is either converting to a new Mandalorian creed, or she’s deceiving the Children of the Watch. She’s already deceiving Din, but we’ll get into that. Judging by the title, “The Convert” refers to Bo-Katan, so deception for the sake of it or the long game is probably not her plan. She will reveal what she saw at the end of “The Mines of Mandalore,” but she will wait for the opportune moment. The Mythosaur revealed itself to her while Din was unconscious, so she definitely sees herself as the Mand’alor. By the end of the episode, she will see what we see. She’s welcomed into a flock looking for a leader. This is her way.
After confirming Din Djarin did not see the Mythosaur in the Living Waters beneath the Mines of Mandalore, Bo-Katan Kryze saves her shocking discovery up her sleeve with the rest of her plans to reclaim Mandalorian rule. Din collects a vial of the water to bring back to the Armorer as proof he’s been redeemed. On their way into orbit, they are intercepted by…TIE Interceptors. A small squadron of Warlord-sponsored fighters attacks Bo-Katan’s ship for some of her past interactions. Amidst the action, she drops Din over his ship so they can fight off the fleet together.
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Did I say fleet? Yes, they dispatch the squadron easily enough, but they are followed by a group much too large to be a simple Warlord faction. The First Order begins here (note the red exhaust ports on the TIES, something that does not happen until the sequel trilogy). TIE Bombers destroy Bo-Katan’s castle on Kalevala, so she is left with no choice but to go with Mando to the Children of the Watch. The action that takes us to this point is top-notch. Bo-Katan uses a maneuver that should impress the best star pilots in the galaxy.
Coruscant. You’re there for the next 38 minutes. Settle in with some popcorn, and don’t blink. What you see may seem irrelevant to The Mandalorian and everything we expect this season, but the Darksaber is a means, and the Mand’alor is an end. That doesn’t mean it’s the only toy in the sandbox. We will be getting hints to, among other things, Grogu’s origins, the unnamed order’s intentions, and possibly a foreshadowing of Grand Admiral Thrawn’s entrance. Rumors of Gideon’s escape are a red herring or, at best, a vehicle to deliver us to Thrawn. A fleet as large as the one that attacked Bo-Katan’s ship is likely backed by a Star Destroyer built in the far reaches, outside of The New Republic’s influence. One commanded by Thrawn.
The Amnesty Program that saved Dr. Pershing’s life gives him a position in the New Republic. Valuable assets from the lost Empire were given an opportunity at redemption, albeit in a well-guarded arena. While Gideon is supposedly off facing a war tribunal, Pershing is delivering spin-tastic speeches to the hoity-toity elites of the New Republic. Pershing twists his mother’s fate as a victim of a heart defect into an appeal to continue his research into genetics.
Listen again, and you might read: eugenics. That might be lost in his revelation of an unnamed authority who wanted to use cloning technology to secure more power for himself. Are we getting into Dark Empire (Dark Horse Comics) or Heir to the Empire (Timothy Zahn’s first Thrawn Trilogy) territory? Left unnamed, I’d call it the latter. Emperor Palpatine should have easily been named if he was the subject here.
Pershing, aka Amnesty Scientist L52, feels secure in his new position within the New Republic, but amongst other players in Amnesty Housing, he meets a familiar face. Elia Kane (Katy O’Brian), aka G68 (Gideon’s Communications Officer), befriends him the way prisoners befriend each other when they want power or a favor. Instead of contraband, however, she delivers his favorite Imperial biscuits to his door.
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“Following orders blindly is how we got in trouble in the first place” is the exact brand of gaslighting G68 needs to manipulate him into following his own train of thought to a conclusion he initially deemed felonious without permission from the authorities that be. The upper decks on Coruscant can sell Utopia to anyone. When one has desires (e.g., genetic engineering expressly forbidden by the Coruscant Accords), one might feel the necessity to justify those desires as something that would do the New Republic good.
It’s not long before G68 has L52 convinced. They travel outside their legal bounds to a shipyard of Imperial stock scheduled for scrap. Inside a cruiser is a mobile lab station that has Pershing acting as a kid in a candy store. He grabs the equipment he needs, but they are arrested once they are ready to leave. But everything is not what it seems. Either corrupt New Republic police or Imperial loyalists allow G68 to leave with Pershing’s equipment.
Pershing finds himself in a lab with a Mon Calamari who sounds suspiciously like Jim Gaffigan. G68 (Kane) has submitted a report that paints L52 (Pershing) as a traitor. She will continue to work as a mole in the New Republic while Pershing is mind-flayed. A moment that should feel tense is somehow turned into comedy. Will we see Pershing again? G68 turned the Mitigator knob up to eleven, so it’s unlikely he’ll ever be the same.
Back to Mando. Bo-Katan and Din land their respective ships at a Mandalorian Covert to bring his proof of redemption. By default Bo-Katan also bathed in the Living Waters, so she is also welcomed into the Creed. The cogs are turning in her head, and Katee Sackhoff does a brilliant job showing it through her helmet. That’s a good thing because it seems Bo-Katan has her eye on becoming Mand’alor. She may have found her flock with the Children of the Watch, and they expect her helmet to stay on.