Elia Kane has been waiting in the wings. After two seasons of skulking behind Moff Gideon, the former Communications Officer is now assimilating into the New Republic. She looks like the perfect image of a Republic convert, but Episode 3 of The Mandalorian’s third season revealed she hasn’t changed a bit; at the first chance she gets, she sells out her colleague, Dr. Pershing, to keep him from continuing his cloning research for the New Republic. Then, when left alone with Pershing, she wastes no time cranking up the Mind Flayer that’s erasing his memories to 11.
Now, in Episode 5, Elia Kane appears again, and just in time for another old villain to rear his head. Spoilers ahead.
In the last moments of Episode 5, Carson Teva finds an abandoned prison transport floating in space. The transport was supposed to bring Moff Gideon to trial; is the villain that’s loomed over Din Djarin for two seasons not done with him yet?
Now that he’s presumably on the loose, it’s safe to assume that he’s either in contact or will soon be in contact with Elia, who definitely still feels loyal to him. But what’s their plan? They’ve incapacitated Dr. Pershing so his proto-Snoke research won’t be leaked to the New Republic, but do they have larger plans to sabotage the new government?
Anyone who’s seen The Force Awakens knows the Republic fails eventually — could Moff Gideon be setting the stage? Could his work with Elia Kane lead to the creation of the First Order? They appeared fully formed in Awakens, but they have to emerge from somewhere, and there’s only about a decade on the timeline before they’re blowing up planets. There’s no telling yet, but knowing Moff Gideon’s insistence on making his intentions clear, we should find out pretty soon.
We may not know exactly what these two are up to, but Moff Gideon is at large and he has a spy on the inside. That’s a dangerous combination, one that may lead to the New Republic crumbling from the inside out.
The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 5 is now streaming on Disney+.
