The Mandalorian on Disney+ Ep 5 Recap and Speculation

Episode five of The Mandalorian Season 3 brought us some stellar action, the live-action debut of a fan favorite, and the biggest cliffhanger so far this season! Let’s break down the episode and speculate on what’s to come.

***SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 5***

The Mandalorian season 4 episode 5, “The Pirate,” brought us some of the best Star Wars action in recent memory. While most of the season so far has been setting up Mandalorian culture and building the mystery around Moff Gedion, this season brought us some non-stop adventure and set up what is bound to be an insane back half of the season. Let’s break it down.

The Return of Zeb

We’ll start by addressing the Lasat in the room, but the big cameo this week was from Zeb Orrelios, who made his live-action debut as one of Captain Teva’s fellow rangers of the new republic. Zeb was a series regular and a fan favorite on Star Wars Rebels, so it was a real treat to finally see him in live-action. His design looked incredible, and Rebels voice actor Steve Blum was able to reprise the role. This also gave us a better look at how the New Republic is trying to maintain peace in the galaxy. While we aren’t getting the Rangers of the New Republic show, it would be nice to see more of Zeb either later this season or in another Disney+ show like Ashoka.

Peter Ramsey and Pirate Captain Gorian Shard

This episode was helmed by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse co-director Peter Ramsey and he did an absolutely incredible job. His sense of movement and action has clearly carried over from Spider-verse, as the action in the episode was absolutely spectacular. Seeing Mando and Grogu shoot down pirate ships was classic Star Wars.

Sadly, this episode brought an end to Gorian Shard, and while it’s a good thing he’s no longer raiding innocent settlements like Nevarro, he was a great villain with a great design, and it’s a shame to see him go. If Star Wars has taught us anything, though, no one is ever really gone, so hopefully, we can see some more Gorrian Shard in some form later.

Uniting the Creeds and Retaking Mandalore

The Armorer got a lot of screen time in this episode, and she has had a big change of heart over the past few weeks. While she used to be the biggest stickler for following the orthodox Mandalorian creed, she is now allowing Bo Katan to remove her helmet and find other Mandalorians to help retake Mandalore. This will no doubt be the big narrative thrust for this last half of the season, and it should lead to a pretty epic finale. The big wild card, the dark saber, while it is currently being welded by Din, he has shown no interest in leading his people, so will he step up to the plate or try to find a way out of it? Only time will tell.

The Big Cliffhanger

Before the episode wrapped up, we got confirmation that Moff Gedion never made it to trial and is, in fact, on the loose.

While this isn’t necessarily surprising considering the rest of the season, it is surprising that Mandalorian beskar was found on the ship. Was this a rouge squadron of Mandalorians who have teamed up with Gideon, or are they being framed by someone else? Either way, this is bad news for Din and company, as they are either about to run in with the people who are siding with Gideon, or the New Republic is going to come after them.

We are on the edge of our seats for next week’s episode when that airs on Disney+ on April 5th.