Spoiler warning: the following story contains plot details from the seventh and penultimate episode of the first season of The Mandalorian.
- Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) finally made his Mandalorian debut.
- The character would appear to be the first season's final and primary villain.
- His screen time was brief, but we'll surely learn more next week.
In its second-to-last chapter, The Mandalorian seems to have done what every Star Wars story needs to do: establish it's main villain. As the story is beginning to set in for the first season's final stretch, that villain appears to be Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito). With a very dramatic entrance near the end of the episode, Gideon is a character we don't know all that much about, but he's wearing all black, comes from an Empire background, and is commanding a rather large group of storm troopers.
The majority of the seventh episode (directed by Deborah Chow, who also directed the season's third episode) revolves around a plot that would theoretically see The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) finally eliminate the threat that's been following him all season: former Empire figures chasing after Baby Yoda (who officially in the show's lore is referred to as 'The Child'). In a theoretical plan, Mando, Cara Dune, and Greef Karga will lure in The Client (Werner Herzog) using Baby Yoda as bait, and take him out, thus ending the threat.
They don't anticipate The Client answering to someone higher, though, which is exactly how Moff Gideon enters the picture. Right in the middle of their encounter, The Client takes a call from Gideon, and at that exact moment—upon hearing that The Child has been brought to the location—Gideon orders the storm troopers to take The Client out, and rides in on his Tie-Fighter. Through an intercepted conversation, they learn that Baby Yoda, in fact, is not at this location; they manage to catch up to Kuiil and gun him down. At the episode's close, we see a blanketed Baby Yoda picked up and taken for whatever Moff Gideon and his team have planned.
Next week's finale will surely deal with this plot development, and, also likely introduce a major cliff-hanger for the show's second season (which is already in production).
Fans almost certainly will recognize the actor who plays Gideon—Giancarlo Esposito—from his other TV role, as one of the most memorable villains of the decade: Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul's Gus Fring. Here, Esposito trades in his glasses and button-down shirt for a cape and a dark uniform.
And while we did think that there was a good chance that Gideon was the mystery character seen walking toward Fennec Shand's body at the end of the fifth episode, there was no spur sound when he was walking in his appearance here. His cape and dark attire matched the shadowy figure we saw walking through the snow, but that spur sound leaves a little bit under interpretation. Maybe the Boba Fett theories aren't as far off as they may have seemed? Surely more clarity on that will come soon as well.
“This guy is a fierce guy. You have a great amount of expectations surrounding his appearance because we don’t know whether he’s good or bad,” Esposito told TheWrap prior to the episode's debut. “The universe has fallen. Someone is trying to put it back together. Is it an organization? Is it a government? What is it? Is it a militia? Who is this person, who seems to know everything about everyone? We have a bit of a mysterious character, but once you see him and you get to know him, you’ll be intrigued by how he wields his power.”
That quote is interesting to think about, because while we're clearly meant to think of Moff Gideon as a villain, there's also the chance that this could be a misdirection. After all, we did see Baby Yoda rather instinctively use a force choke on Cara earlier in the episode for basically no reason at all. Maybe he's on to something? Probably not, but we'll have to wait until next week's episode to find out for sure.
