The Mandalorian is entering its maiden season’s midway point with “Chapter 4” on Friday, and the Star Wars show has been a massive Disney+ hit. This landmark episode should feature more unforeseen twists, so it’s worth getting into some bold predictions.
With a captivating titular character and rich visual storytelling, Disney has tapped into the Star Wars magic successfully. “Chapter 4” of The Mandalorian sees Bryce Dallas Howard in the director’s chair with a script penned by show creator Jon Favreau.
Here’s a fearless forecast of what could occur in Friday’s latest entry in the epic Disney+ original series. Follow the link to see SNIPdaily’s overall bold predictions for Season 1.
We see a Mandalorian unmasking
A Mandalorian’s mask isn’t meant to be removed. This is not The Way! This doesn’t mean we’ll see Pedro Pascal’s lead character remove his helmet, but one of his people will.
As was revealed in “Chapter 3: The Sin,” there’s an underground gang of survivors from Mandalore. They came to the protagonist’s aid after he helped Baby Yoda escape.
Maybe we start with Mando and Baby Yoda as they fly off to a new system, but that soon shifts. Where was Werner Herzog’s “The Client” character during Chapter 3’s epic shootout? Well, waiting to figure into this week’s plot.
Here are the specifics: as the Mandalorians flee to relocate to another system, one’s captured. An interrogation ensues with the threat of helmet removal unless he tells where the Mandalore clan is relocating to. Under that threat, this unknown Mando concedes. His helmet is removed anyway.
It’s revealed to be false information after the Mando is killed, but bounty hunter guild leader Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) reveals he has someone undercover in the Mando camp who can track where they’re going.
The Client bounties ALL the Mandos
In light of this new intel, the Baby Yoda Client is furious and gathers everyone in his town. New tracking fobs are assigned to all bounty hunters in the area, with the navigational beacon being Karga’s undercover “Mandalorian.”
This is when wearing masks all the time backfires for the natives of Mandalore. Many of the bounty hunters in the area go off to take out the remaining Mandalorians — and retrieve Baby Yoda once again.
It’s a highly competitive situation. Internal conflict ensues among the self-serving individual bounty hunters. Most of them head to the next system.
We then follow a small group of assassins who band together in hopes of enhancing their odds of hunting the Mandalorians and seizing Baby Yoda.
New assassins hunt, then befriend dynamic duo
More of the cast ought to feature in this episode. Gina Carano’s character, Cara Dune, fought for the Rebel Alliance, but is now a mercenary in the lawless outer reaches of the galaxy.
Cara is the type of tenacious fighter who should figure into “Chapter 4.” She seems to have the experience and chops to fight a Mandalorian. Unless, well, she’s the lady who’s been helping the lead character fortify his armor with Beskar steel.
Anyway, the prediction here is Cara assembles a band of bounty hunters as they pursue the Mandalorians. But our main Mando splits off so as not to endanger the others, with the undercover member of his group slipping the secret tracker onto him.
That leads to a confrontation in which The Mandalorian convinces Cara and Co. to help him care for the child. She may even know something secret about Baby Yoda, and offer to help protect him for a split of the eventual reward — whatever that may be.
Baby Yoda scrambles fobs with the Force
Once the bounty hunters close in on our main Mando, Baby Yoda and his assassin allies on the new system, the child uses the Force in a special way.
This is particularly bold, because how could the kid know what he’s doing? It’s the will of The Force. Baby Yoda creates interference with his Force usage, and confuses the tracking.
That split bit of hesitation allows the assassins and Mando to come free from hiding and take down their pursuers. What a sequence that would be!
After getting a taste of Baby Yoda’s Force powers in Episode 2, we want more! Maybe Favreau and Co. want to save it for later in the season. Call me greedy (or Greedo!), but let’s bring out the big guns now!
Cliffhanger: Arrival at a cloning facility
Last week’s call of returning to Dagobah came up empty. While that could still happen, let’s go a little more nuts here.
There’s a shroud of mystery around Baby Yoda. Is he, in fact, Yoda’s son? The timeline of the child’s age (50) and when a son of Yoda’s could’ve been conceived — his time in exile between the first two film trilogies — match up.
But what other elements from Star Wars past could be at play here? How about cloning? In non-canon, Expanded Universe stories, Emperor Palpatine used clone bodies to resurrect after the events of Return of the Jedi. He may even do that for his return in Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker.
In canon, it was the Old Republic and the Jedi Council who oversaw the creation of a clone army in the prequels. It’s not far-fetched to suggest they could’ve secretly created a legacy member of Yoda’s unnamed species.
“Chapter 4” has a lot to play with, as we could learn more about the Mandalorian’s backstory. That’s not exactly the boldest prediction, so a big Baby Yoda revelation right in the middle of Season 1 makes a ton of sense.