Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) bathed in the living waters of Mandalore last episode, officially redeeming himself in the eyes of his tribe of Mandalorians. But what has Dr. Pershing (Omid Abtahi), who experimented on Grogu in Season 1, been up to?
This episode is almost entirety dedicated to answering that question. Pershing, along with Elia Kane (Katy O’Brian), a former communication officer on Moff Gideon’s ship, have been accepted into the New Republic’s Amnesty program for former imperial employees. They are given their own apartments and are given employment with the New Republic.
However, the program has much to be desired. For one, it doesn’t help former imperials find relevant work, as Pershing is tasked with cataloguing imperial records that are set to be destroyed, when he should be doing relevant medical work. We see him plea in front of the Senate that the work that he pursued for the Empire was for originally good intentions and that cloning can have benefits — like creating a new heart for someone that needs it. However, the New Republic bans cloning.
Elia convinces Pershing to steal a mobile lab unit from the New Republic-controlled scrapyard of imperial equipment. Spoilers ahead.
Elia gains his trust and then sets him up, which in turn gains her favor with the New Republic Amnesty officers in charge of his treatment. It is alluded to that she wipes his memory in treatment. Her motives are murky, as Gideon is captured and Pershing was unlikely to offend had she not coerced him into pursuing his research, even though it was clear he had a desire to. I think Elia has a personal score to settle with Pershing — what she does to him feels personal, though what for is unclear.
This is an interesting worldbuilding episode, but it does derail the story in a major way. It was interesting to see more of the incompetence of the New Republic and how many politicians see it as no different from the Republic or the Empire before it, and how a lack of nuance is crippling it. We see Pershing frustrated, as the New Republic has acquired valuable imperial assets, yet is intent on letting them go to waste or be destroyed because their creation and past uses were not altruistic. In reality, much of what they have can do a lot of good if used responsibly.
Going forward, I’m not sure what we’ll see of Elia and I think this might be the last we see of Pershing, other than perhaps pre-recorded holo-messages. For Din, he is back with his tribe and is need of a new mission. Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) also bathed in the living waters and is accepted by Din’s tribe as Mandalorian, so I think she’ll use her new standing to rally them into taking Mandalore, enlisting Din in the process.
This episode does provide plenty of things to dwell on in terms of what state the New Republic is in now, but it does suffer from pacing issues that hold it back — it could have been more succinctly told. It also steal the spotlight from Din and Grogu, though I’m sure next episode will follow-up on Din’s redemption in an interesting way.
“Star Wars: The Mandalorian” Season 3: Episode 3 “The Convert” gets a 7/10
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