In the closing moments of The Mandalorian Season 3’s penultimate episode, things take a bad turn for Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff), Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), and the rest of their allies. The episode, titled “The Spies,” follows The Mandalorian’s central heroes as they finally set out to retake and rebuild their home planet of Mandalore only to discover that their greatest enemy, Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), has secretly been hiding out on the planet.
Gideon’s Beskar-armored troops lead Bo-Katan and her followers straight into a trap that not only results in the death of Paz Viszla (Tait Fletcher) but also Din’s capture. Gideon additionally orders a surprise assault on Bo-Katan’s Mandalorian fleet, which is floating unsuspectingly above Mandalore’s atmosphere. Altogether, these twists give Gideon a definitive edge over Bo-Katan and her Mandalorian followers.
Unfortunately, it’s possible that things are only going to get even worse moving forward.
Has Din Djarin’s fate been sealed?
By the time “The Spies” has come to an end, Din Djarin has been captured by Moff Gideon’s troopers and taken to their leader’s “debriefing room.” The fact that Gideon doesn’t just kill Din at the end of “The Spies” is, frankly, a bit surprising, especially considering the message he would have sent to Bo-Katan by doing so. Just because Moff Gideon hasn’t killed Din yet, though, doesn’t mean the fan-favorite character is going to make it out of The Mandalorian Season 3 alive.
For most of its run, Din has been sidelined in The Mandalorian’s latest season in order to let Bo-Katan sit in the driver’s seat. Sackhoff’s formidable Clone Wars hero has, consequently, emerged as a viable replacement for Din as the new lead of The Mandalorian, which is a possibility that even the Disney+ show’s creative team has acknowledged in recent weeks. While Bo-Katan has always been beloved by Star Wars fans, too, The Mandalorian’s decision to focus more on her than Din Djarin this year has come as a surprise to many of the show’s viewers.
But what if The Mandalorian Season 3’s increased focus on Bo-Katan isn’t just the result of her new role in the potential reconstruction of Mandalore? What if Mandalorian writers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni have secretly been building up viewers’ interest in Bo-Katan so that they could kill off Din without having to worry about retroactively filling the space his death would leave behind?
The thought of Din dying in The Mandalorian might initially seem too far-fetched to ever happen. However, now that Din has been captured by Moff Gideon, it’s easy to view The Mandalorian Season 3’s treatment of its longtime lead as preparation for his death. Indeed, not only has Din taken a backseat to Bo-Katan this year, but his character development has also come to a standstill. The Mandalorian Season 3 has repeatedly treated Din as if his story has come to an end. It is, in fact, Bo-Katan’s story that feels like it’s just getting started.
“The Spies” also places a heavy emphasis on how divided Bo-Katan’s followers remain. Taking that into account, Din dying or sacrificing himself for his fellow Mandalorians could be the event that helps bring them together once and for all. It’s easy to imagine that happening, especially given how often Din has demonstrated his devotion to Bo-Katan’s cause in front of her Mandalorian followers. He even went so far as to give up control of the Darksaber in order to do so.
In The Mandalorian’s latest installment, Din also goes out of his way to bolster Bo-Katan’s spirits and remind her of how strongly he believes in her. “Your song is not yet written. I will serve you until it is,” he tells her, which feels like exactly the thing that Bo-Katan needs to hear right now and the kind of thing a heroic character might say just before they meet their end.
The Inverse Analysis — Star Wars fans will have to wait a week to see what happens to Din now that he’s been captured by Moff Gideon. Up to this point, The Mandalorian hasn’t signaled whether or not it’s willing to do something as narratively drastic or depressing as killing off its lead hero Game of Thrones-style. That doesn’t mean the series won’t do just that, though.
While Din’s death would make his faithful companion, Grogu, an orphan once again, it’s worth noting that Grogu hasn’t even been hanging out with Din much in recent Mandalorian episodes. Din has actually left Grogu with other people multiple times throughout The Mandalorian Season 3, and the latter character has even taken to sitting in Bo-Katan’s lap more as of late than his actual guardian’s. None of this, of course, means that Din is destined to die next week, but that very twist would do a lot to explain some of The Mandalorian Season 3’s many odd creative decisions.
