‘The Mandalorian’: Who’s That Guy in Jeans and a T-Shirt? And More Burning Questions From Episode 4

(SPOILER ALERT: Do not read on if you have not watched the fourth episode of season 2 of Disney Plus’ “The Mandalorian.”)  

Anyone who thought we’d be treated to Ahsoka Tano swinging into lightsaber action this episode isn’t quite in tune with the pace of “The Mandalorian” quite yet.

The show has settled into a fits-and-burts pattern, where one episode will introduce the shocking return of a “Clone Wars” character like Bo-Katan Kryze and drop an Ahsoka bombshell, while another will just be Mando and Baby Yoda fighting off some big scary spiders.

“The Siege” is more of a marking-time episode, as Mando and his little Child return to Nevarro for some repairs to meet up with some old friends.

We discover that Cara Dune (Gina Carano) has become the marshal of Nevarro and has worked with Greef Carga (Carl Weathers) to clean up the planet in Mando’s absence. The Mythrol (Horatio Sanz) whom Mando captured way back in the series’ first episode is also still hanging around.

It all seems to be fun and games between the three chums, until Carga asks Mando to help them clear out what they think is the remnant of an old Imperial base.

However, once they start moving through it, blasting hapless stormtroopers out of the way, they discover that it is in fact a lab used by Pershing (the scientist from season 1 played by Omid Abtahi) for some kind of nefarious purposes.

But no more stormtrooping around, here are some burning questions from Chapter 12:

Who is that guy in jeans and a t-shirt?

It may not be as bad as leaving a coffee cup on a medieval high table (looking at you “Game of Thrones”), but this episode had a pretty obvious mistake in it. In a scene where Mando, Cara and Carga exchange fire with some Stormtroopers, a man in jeans and a t-shirt is visible in the very far left of the screen, clearly trying to make himself invisible. He could be an alien master of disguise who has been watching Mando’s exploits every step of the way, or, more likely, the director, showrunner and editors somehow missed a crew member edging into the shot. Either way, the mistake won’t detract too much from the episode, unless the internet makes it into a new “CoffeeCupGate.”

When is Baby Yoda going back to school?

This episode gave us the privilege of seeing Baby Yoda’s first day at school. Those Yoda’s grow up so fast! While Mando and his friends are off a-blasting, they leave Baby Yoda in a classroom, where the other kids start whispering behind his back. Only nice things about how cute his big ears are, I’m sure. But Baby doesn’t exactly endear himself to them by force stealing what look like some bright blue macaroons from the nearest classmate. Mando clearly needs to teach Baby a thing or two about personal property. Just because all you’ve eaten today is some grimy soup, doesn’t mean you can use your considerable force powers to steal someone’s biscuits.

What were Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) and Pershing up to in that lab? 

The purpose Gideon and his creepy scientist acolyte’s lab isn’t entirely clearly. We learn from a hologram message that Pershing took some blood from Baby Yoda and tested it for some reason, and that he would have killed the Child by taking more. The lab is lined with vessels containing unidentifiable alien and possibly human forms suspended in a blue liquid. Perhaps it all has to do with midi-chlorians, and Gideon is trying to transfuse them into different bodies? But who knows.

What does Gideon have planned next?

The episode ends aboard Gideon’s massive Imperial ship, where we find out that he had an engineer place a tracking beacon aboard Mando’s ship. What does he have planned? Well, we see that his preparing to launch a whole squadron of shadow stormtroopers, who must have a better aim and a better chance of denting Mando’s Beskar. “We will be ready,” Gideon declares ominously to end the episode, with a signature evil smirk from Esposito.