'The Mandalorian' May Never Be the Same After the Latest Baby Yoda Reveal
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The Mandalorian season 2 episode 5 spoilers follow, and they're major.
The Mandalorian season two has changed the way we see Star Wars in more ways than one. Connections to Snoke, Boba Fett, and even the most hated parts of canon have made a lasting impact on this franchise as a whole, but it wasn't until the fifth episode of season two that The Mandalorian flipped things around and decided to change everything we thought we knew about this show specifically.
Ever since Din Djarin first adopted Baby Yoda, otherwise known as the galaxy's most feared egg-destroyer, The Mandalorian's primary goal has been to reunite the critter with a member of the Jedi. It seemed that only someone who is Force sensitive could help unlock the secrets of Baby Yoda and set him on the right path.
Thirteen episodes in, it looked like Mando had finally reached his objective. Thanks to some help from Bo-Katan, Din was able to track down Ahsoka Tano, a mysterious Jedi whose name will instantly elicit a squeal from any die-hard fan of the wider Star Wars universe.
After an initial clash — which elicited a squeal from us — the pair teamed up to take down the Magistrate, prompting a bunch of pew-pew fights that rank among the best this series has portrayed so far.
Funnily enough though, it was the conversations held in between these battles that enthralled us most. First up, yes, we need to talk about The Child's real name — Grogu. Is it as cute as 'Baby Yoda'? No. Is it painfully adorable when Mando now uses this name and Grogu looks up at him with those big round eyes? I think we all know the answer to that question.
But that's not all we learned this week. Thanks to Ahsoka's mind meld with Grogu, we also discovered a great deal about his past. It turns out that Baby Yoda (yes, we refuse to let that go) was trained by Jedi Masters for many years on the planet Coruscant. That all ended when the Empire rose to power. Grogu was hidden away until someone took him from the temple.
At that point, The Child's memories go dark, and all Ahsoka can sense are his feelings of isolation. That is, until he met The Mandalorian. Ahsoka proceeds to test Grogu's affinity for the Force, and at first, he refuses to participate. It's not until Din steps in that Baby Yoda engages with the task and proves that his abilities have not diminished after being forced to hide them for so many years.
But there's a problem. Ahsoka can't – or won't – train Grogu. Not only does she sense a great deal of fear in him, but specifically, it's Baby Yoda's connection to Mando that worries her most. "His attachment to you makes him vulnerable to his fears, his anger."
As a former apprentice of Anakin Skywalker, the man who eventually became Darth Vader, Ahsoka knows all too well "what these feelings can do to a fully trained Jedi knight, to the best of us." Rather than risk setting Grogu down a path of darkness, Ahsoka would rather let his abilities fade completely.
Mando hopes that Ahsoka might change her mind, but even after he helps her fight the Magistrate, she still refuses to train Baby Yoda. Imagine how Ahsoka would have reacted if she had known all the naughty hijinks he'd been up to already...
All hope is not lost though. Following this refusal, Ahsoka tells the Mandalorian that he must take Grogu to some Jedi ruins on another planet where he can connect directly with the Force using a "seeing stone" located on top of a mountain because, Star Wars. There, Baby Yoda can choose his own path, and when he reaches out with the Force, one of the few remaining Jedi left may even sense his presence and come searching for him.
Up until this point, The Mandalorian has been focused almost entirely on the quest to find someone like Ahsoka. But of course, no one wants this show to end any time soon, so now that she's made her live-action debut, it's smart of the writers to reframe Mando's direction moving forward.
Sure, Baby Yoda could still use some help from the Jedi, but the focus now is on Grogu finding his own path, one which may turn out be far darker than anyone expected when this cute little muppet first appeared to us last year.
In season one, fans suspected something strange might be up with Baby Yoda when he used the Force Choke, a Jedi move usually reserved for those who lean towards the Dark Side. And this year, we've all joked about The Child's genocidal love of eggs, but it wasn't until Ahsoka voiced her concerns that we've been given concrete evidence to suggest Baby Yoda might indeed sway towards darkness.
Of course, it's possible – and likely – that everyone's favorite "baby" will eventually overcome these impulses and choose the path of righteousness. But in the world of Star Wars, there are no guarantees that heroic figures will always be heroic. Sure, Grogu is cute and all, but there's a small chance that The Mandalorian's breakout star could also end up becoming its greatest villain.
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