THE SPOILERS ARE JUST TRYING TO HELP
Watching episode three of the third season of The Mandalorian, “The Convert,” a tune from The Sound of Music came to my mind in the form of a question:
How do you solve a problem like the New Republic?
While the time between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens has proven to be fertile storytelling territory, it’s largely a story told outside of the Core Systems. A Galactic Civil War was fought the defeat the Empire and restore democracy. The form of that democracy, the government meant to represent that freedom, is a restored Republic.
The New Republic we’ve come to know on-screen hasn’t been so triumphant. For example, the first time we ever see The New Republic on screen? It’s being blown to smithereens by The First Order. It lasts about thirty years (longer than the Empire to be fair), but in that time, it fails to fully overcome its adversary, which is thriving in plain sight. So, what are we to make of the New Republic? Is it a success or a failure, a beautiful idea or another example of the corruption?
In The Mandalorian, thus far, the answer is unclear. The New Republic has been represented most often by X-Wing pilots, mostly cast as cameos, except for Carson Teva (played by the wonderful Paul Sun-Hyung Lee). We saw a New Republic prison, not exactly an inspiring place to spend time. Largely, characters are either skeptical of the New Republic, unafraid of it, or can’t rely on it. The previously announced Rangers of the New Republic, which could have remedied some of this, will clearly never see the light of day.
This episode of The Mandalorian continues to complicate the New Republic narrative. The episode is not a wholesale departure from the main story, book-ended by a continuation of the Grogu/Mando/Bo-Katan redemption story and some quick, exciting starship action. I suspect this frame was meant to be sugar to help the medicine go down, because the bulk of this story is led by the unlikeliest of protagonists, Dr. Pershing.
Dr. Pershing doesn’t come from nowhere. He’s been a part of the story since Chapter 1. In this episode, which I expect will be debated quite a lot, we find him taking center stage in the first official on-screen appearance of Coruscant post-ROTJ. (Which is awesome, for the record.)
Why are we taking this detour? Because it’s not a detour at all. The Mandalorian’s story has been, all along, that the Imperial Remnant is seeking Grogu’s Midichlorian-rich blood for some sort of cloning project. We’ve seen it alluded to and directly addressed repeatedly. That’s why when our story moves to Dr. Pershing, his location circles and underlines the story that’s being told in red pen. Do we think it’s a coincidence that Dr. Pershing is presenting about his cloning research in the very same opera house where Chancellor Palpatine first told Anakin Skywalker “The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.” The very line he later repeats when he has been brought back to life with dark science and cloning? (That is a rhetorical question. It’s definitely not. I loved this attention to detail. If I wasn’t already married, I would ask for its hand in marriage.)
So, the reason for this detour is that it speaks directly to the bigger picture of whatever Favreau and Filoni are cooking up in their mobile lab. But the details of this particular episode are what bring me back to the question of the New Republic.
When we find Dr. Pershing, he is a part of the New Republic’s rehabilitation program for recovering Imperials. He’s living in Amnesty Housing, a kind of half-way house for reformed agents of evil. There, alongside other former bad guys, he meets Elia Kane, once an officer for The Mandalorian’s Big Bad Moff Gideon.
Pershing, as far as we’re able to tell, is doing his best to integrate into the New Republic. He and his fellow Amnesty Program participants marvel at the fact that they’re even given housing and a chance, acknowledging that the Empire would never be so lenient. But their dreary surroundings and half-hearted memories belie just how hard it is to lose status and access to the cause you fought for, even if that cause was tyranny.
Pershing’s cause doesn’t seem to be oppression, though, it’s continuing his now-banned research. We watch him easily talked into stealing old Imperial technology by Kane, who wins his trust with the gift of snacks from their old life, and suspicious reassurance that this transgression is for the good of the New Republic.
While admitting that his research isn’t entirely ethical, he nonetheless convinces himself, and is convinced, to walk directly into danger and a set-up. He’s hapless and easy to manipulate, but he also has his own desires that the Empire allowed him to pursue. And isn’t that the way with so many actors in a bad system? They may acknowledge that their political party is rotten, but if it gets them what they want, they’ll hold their nose and toe the line.
I imagine this episode will be compared to Andor for being about on-the-ground politics and espionage. My feeling is that “The Convert” is more in line with the general tone of Star Wars than the outlier tone of Andor. Andor was about the realpolitik of the revolutionary, but Star Wars is a morality play. It’s not about how politics works in the details, it’s about how people navigate the light and the darkness in themselves. That’s why in Andor we watch characters declare that they will sacrifice lives for the revolution; and in “The Convert,” we see two former Imperials eating frozen neon pops. Even in the midst of a story that feels more sci-fi than fantasy, “The Convert” matches clear-lined political tone of the prequels more than the gray fog of Tony Gilroy.
No, what’s foggy here is not the morality play, it’s the stage on which the play is set. Is there an implicit criticism of the New Republic in this episode? Their approach to rehabilitation won’t win any awards: mediocre housing, a droid asking canned questions, using numbers for the rehabilitated instead of names, and repurposing a torture device as therapy. I can imagine there are those who will see the Mind Flayer scene as evidence that the New Republic is the moral equivalent to the Empire, trying to dismantle the master’s house using the master’s tools.
For all the murkiness I just described about the New Republic, my guess is that the showrunners are not trying to send some sly anti-government message about the great democratic hope. The Mandalorian is a show where people say what they mean and mean what they say. Looking for subtext, I suspect, is a way to misread this particular script.
For example, I don’t believe the Mon Calamari technician who is trying to heal Dr. Pershing from his unhappy memories with what was once a Mind Flayer, and is now a “602 Mitigator,” is being disingenuous. Taking the scene at face value it makes sense: the New Republic has turned a former torture device into something therapeutic. The New Republic’s Amnesty and rehabilitation program is not intended to be insidious, it’s a genuine attempt to give Imperials a second chance. If we read this as the New Republic putting happy talk on brainwashing someone, then that’s quite a puzzle. Are we intended to root for the New Republic? Or cheer on its downfall? Maybe miscalibrated sincerity just reads as sketchy? I don’t know for sure. I just can’t see The Mandalorian being that intentionally cynical.
But there’s room for that interpretation. We, as an audience, are looking for clues. There remains something hazy and undefined about the New Republic that makes it easy to misinterpret. Are we meant to identify the New Republic with the out-of-touch opera goers who seem to not know, or care, who’s in charge? Are we meant to see them as farming out most tasks to droids? When we watch Pershing doing data entry in an room reminiscent of where Syril Karn in Andor is sent to office-purgatory, are we meant to see The New Republic as a bunch of feckless bureaucrats? Or are they endearing idealists, giving those who served the wrong side the benefit of the doubt?
I think part of what’s missing from the story so far are advocates for the new democracy. We've spent a lot of time with the Empire, and plenty of time with the Rebellion. We’ve spent almost no time inside the burgeoning, post-Civil War Republic. Our entire lens is from outside the system: the lawless, the Outer Rim, the Bounty Hunters and the Imperial Remnant. We have yet to see, for example, General Leia make a speech about the importance of representative government, or an idealistic new Senator eager to make things better for the people, or a villager talk about how much better their lives are now they have a say in their own governance.
Perhaps this is just a product of the world we live in: it’s rare to see government portrayed as effective and hopeful. It may be hard for us to imagine or the writers to write it persuasively. Still, I remain curious to see how this new government comes into focus and if, over time, it's portrayed as standing up for the ideals it was built to embody.
After all, rebellions are built on hope. So are democracies.
1) Julie Andrews would've been an amazing Mon Mothma in Star Wars: The Musical
2) i love that a portion of online fans have expressed hatred for this episode because most of it wasn't about Din. i wonder how many of them loved the Din-centric episode of The Book of Boba Fett. i thought this episode had great -- and interesting! -- storytelling that set up Gideon's return nicely.
This episode was a huge misstep in my opinion. It felt like they tried to steal some of Andor's juice and just made a mess of it. I haven't forgotten what kicked off this show, and I'm glad that story thread is finally being addressed. But this is not the way.