13 Burning Questions ‘The Mandalorian’ Finale Must Answer, Or Else

When I asked my kids if they had any burning questions about The Mandalorian finale, my son said: “…no???” Meanwhile, my daughter wanted to know if Grogu was gonna force choke Moff Gideon to death. And frankly, that’s a valid question. “Chapter 15: The Believer” was the first episode of the series to leave the artist formerly known as Baby Yoda off screen entirely. With his mastery of The Force growing, there’s a bit of a question about what will happen to Grogu, and whether Mando (Pedro Pascal) will have to save him… Or if he’s off screen getting swole, and will end up saving himself?

This is a big one, and has become even more interesting to explore in Season 2. As we’ve discovered over the course of these episodes, The Empire, thought destroyed at the end of Return of the Jedi, isn’t on its last legs; it’s resurgent. And as far as The Mandalorian is concerned, Moff Gideon is right at the center of all of it. So why does he need Grogu? What is he doing with the M-Count in his blood? Is Gideon trying to become a Force user himself? Or is he doing something way, way worse? And on that note…

In “Chapter 12: The Siege,” Mando and friends invaded a very much still operational Empire lab on Nevarro, discovering some cloudy, strange tubes there and clear genetic experimentation via Dr. Pershing (Omid Abtahi). Though this is far from confirmed, it’s looking more and more likely that what Pershing is doing for Moff Gideon is tying into both The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker, the final movies in the Skywalker saga: Pershing is making Snoke.

As we discovered in Rise of Skywalker, Snoke, the leader of The First Order, was actually a creation of Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), who himself was kept alive by a heady combo of cloning, the Dark Side of the Force, and pure hatred. The tubes seen in “The Siege” certainly look similar to the tubes seen in Rise of Skywalker, and the timeline fits, too. The First Order didn’t come out of nowhere, and Snoke didn’t start leading them overnight.

One tiny piece of evidence that might help back this up? In this season’s penultimate episode, “The Believer,” Imperial officer Valin Hess (Richard Brake) explains what he thinks the people of the galaxy need to Mando, something that he believes this new version of the Empire will provide: “Order.”

Like Chekhov said, if you introduce a darksaber in the first act, you’ve gotta use it in the third act. While we’re not quite there yet, if the weapon isn’t used in this finale, it’s a missed opportunity. And though it’s three times his size, given how Grogu was reaching for the blade in Moff Gideon’s hand, how killer a moment would it be if we got to see Baby Yoda wield the sword? You know, right before he topples over from the weight.

There are about a million supporting characters who have shown up on Season 2 who could come back for the finale — and we’ve already seen that The Mandalorian is perfectly willing to tie things up in a bow by getting the band back together. So who will everyone’s fave masked hero call on to help with the assault on Moff Gideon’s ship? Bo Katan (Katee Sackhoff)? Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson)? Frog Lady (Misty Rosas)?

Here’s what we know: at the beginning of Return of the Jedi, Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison, on The Mandalorian) was thrown into Sarlacc Pit to be digested for the rest of his incredibly short life. Then on The Mandalorian, his armor showed up in the possession of Cobb Vanth (Timothy Olyphant), thanks to some Jawas. And later it turned out Boba Fett was okay, too, albeit a little worse for the wear.

So what happened? There are non-canon stories to explain his escape, and the Chuck Wendig written Star Wars novels that introduced Cobb Vanth teased the explosion of Jabba the Hutt’s sail barge in RotJ injured the Sarlacc. But will we get an explanation from Boba on screen? That would be nice.

As my colleague Meghan O’Keefe speculated, it’s entirely possible that The Mandalorian brought back Boba Fett just to watch him die. Or rather, to give him a proper death, versus the oft made fun of ending he got in RotJ. Not only would that potentially provide Din Djarin with a new ship, the Slave 1, after his own Razor Crest was blown up; but it would help repay Boba’s debt to Din. Other speculation has focused on maybe Din Djarin dying, and Boba Fett becoming the new Mandalorian of the title, but that seems to, uh, defeat the purpose of the show?

If Boba Fett doesn’t die, and Mando doesn’t get Slave 1, what ship will replace the Razor Crest? It’s not called Stuck On A Planet Wars, after all. One option: what if after beating Moff Gideon, Mando and company take over his Imperial light cruiser? That would be pretty sweet, and definitely amp up the scale for Season 3.

The big, emotional journey for Season 2 other than the bond between Grogu and Mando has been Din Djarin’s belief system being challenged in various ways. This all culminated in last week’s episode that found him removing his helmet in order to get info on Grogu’s location, and then being forced to leave it off for an extended period of time. With everyone from Bo Katan to Mayfeld (Bill Burr) challenging Din’s religion on a weekly basis, will his Beskar helmet come off permanently in Season 3?

This might be a stretch, but at the end of Season 1 we found out that most of the Mandalorians who were living on Nevarro left for elsewhere after their safe haven in the sewers was violated. So where have they all gone? And will they once again show up to help Din in his hour of need? Or are they too busy learning their cheer routines? Oh wait, sorry, that’s “Navarro.”

By this point in the Star Wars timeline, there are only a handful of Jedi we know about who could answer the call Grogu made on Tython; and of all the dumb things I’ve claimed are “burning questions” in this article, the only one that is actually a burning question is this one… If someone doesn’t show up for Grogu at the end of this week’s episode, The Mandalorian has made a serious error somewhere along the way.

So who’s it gonna be? The most popular answer is Luke Skywalker, but given Lucasfilm has been very careful to mostly not recast parts, they’re certainly not going to draft 69 year old Mark Hamill to play thirty-something Luke Skywalker, even with digital make-up.

Slightly more likely, but still a long shot is Samuel L. Jackson showing up as Mace Windu, last seen falling out a window in Revenge of the Sith. Like Boba Fett, he’s due for a good second chance at redemption. Also, he’s Samuel motherf**king Jackson.

More likely, though, we’ll see the live action debut of Star Wars: Rebels Ezra Bridger. This season has already introduced live action characters from the animated side of the universe, and he was last seen wandering the galaxy at the end of Rebels.

Or maybe it’s Yaddle.

This one is less pressing, but now that we know there are two spinoffs in the works taking place the same time as The Mandalorian — Ahsoka, and Rangers of the New Republic — how much work will the Season 2 finale do to set these up? We don’t know when either debuts, and chances are the finale won’t specifically say, “well Boba Fett and Fennec Shand, I guess you really are… Rangers of the New Republic.” But it’s also possible there might be some sort of teases for these upcoming series; particularly since The Mandalorian Season 3 won’t debut until Christmas, 2021.

According to my colleague Brett White, who bit the bullet and paid $49.95 for these tie-in cookies, the answer is “yes.”

Stream The Mandalorian on Disney+