The fourth episode of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni's The Mandalorian's third season, "The Foundling," is an occasionally thrilling but often rote recitation of information. While there is a kind of zany, pulpy, serialized adventure story verve to portions of the episode, courtesy of Carl Weathers' direction and Dean Cundey's cinematography, so much of it feels like an assortment of various story beats Favreau and co. needed to squeeze in somewhere along the way.
It feels indicative of The Mandalorian as a whole that "The Foundling" ends the same way both of the previous episodes have; on a shot of Katee Sackhoff's Bo-Katan, still thinking about the Mythosaur. That's not to say that nothing has happened in the last two episodes, but it does feel like the momentum of the fairly explicit arcs these characters were/are on has been brought to a near-standstill so that the rest of the narrative can catch up. The result is an episode full of beats for Din, Grogu, and especially Bo-Katan that feel repetitive at best and inexplicably muddled at worst.
Bo-Katan's decision not to tell Din about seeing the Mythosaur in prior episodes felt like a distinct, character-defining beat for her. Yet in "The Foundling," the character makes perplexing choices about revealing that secret that make her actions throughout this season all the more confusing and feel largely devoid of any internal logic or motivation. The script, by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, is full of individually compelling moments and ideas (Grogu furthering his journey towards being the titular Mandalorian, Bo-Katan becoming a member of the Children of the Watch, and Din's fatherly role and connections being fleshed out a bit) but seems to miss the forest for the trees.
On one hand, "The Foundling" is a welcome return to the monster-of-the-week format of The Mandalorian's beloved first season. On the other hand, said return often feels half-hearted, as the brief episode spends only a sliver of its runtime on the monster, while the rest is devoted to miscellaneous housekeeping. Many elements established here will pay off in later episodes. A key character played with aplomb by a delightfully unexpected Star Wars alumni should and almost certainly will become even more integral moving forward, but these setups do little to bolster the story of this episode.
Overall, "The Foundling" feels very similar to the first episode of this season of The Mandalorian. While there are individual moments, action sequences, and character beats that come alive, much of the episode feels bogged down in setting the table for what is to come. A tale of the Children of the Watch embarking on a quest led by Bo-Katan and Din while Grogu furthers his journey and recalls more elements of his past could be thrilling.
There are high emotional stakes inherent to that very concept, but so much of "The Foundling" feels less like actually experiencing that story and more like being read a listicle. Events unfold, with little time for resonance or reaction, in a way that leaves the viewer excited for what is to come but disappointed with the present.
New episodes of The Mandalorian air every Wednesday on Disney+.