On this episode of X-Ray Vision, Jason Concepcion and Rosie Knight visit the forge, the heart of Mandalorian culture! In the Previously On (1:48) Rosie speed recaps Showtime’s Yellowjackets season one with a sound effects assist from Jason. In the Airlock (9:24), they dive deep (deeep) into season 3 episode 4 of The Mandalorian, recapping and discussing Grogu’s training, why the forge is the heart of Mandalorian culture, Mandalorian sexual practices, and more. Then in Nerd Out (40:53) Jason and Rosie discuss a listener theory about where the increasing number of Mandalorians might be coming from.

 

Note: Imprecise timestamps are an unfortunate side effect of a new ads system. Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve this issue.

 

Tune in every Wednesday & Friday and don’t forget to Hulk Smash the Follow button!

 

Nerd Out Submission Instructions!

Send a short pitch and 2-3 minute voice memo recording to xray@crooked.com that answers the following questions: 1) How did you get into/discover your ‘Nerd Out?’ (2) Why should we get into it too? (3) What’s coming soon in this world that we can look forward to or where can we find it? If you’re sending a theory, feel free to send only a summary of your theory (no audio needed) for Jason and Rosie to react to on air.

 

Follow Jason: twitter.com/netw3rk

Follow Rosie: IG, Letterboxd, & Rosie Recommends Newsletter

Join the X-Ray Vision Discord

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The Listener’s Guide to all things X-Ray Vision!

Rosie’s IGN Yellowjackets Season 1 Coverage

 

Leia, Princess of Alderaan (2017) – A YA fantasy novel written by Claudia Gray.

 

Shadow and Bone – the Netflix TV series based on a series of books by author Leigh Bardugo.

 

TRANSCRIPT

 

[AD]

 

Jason Concepcion Warning This podcast contains spoilers for Season one of Yellowjackets on Showtime and Season three Episode four of The Mandalorian. Be warned. Hello, my name is Jason Concepcion, and.

 

Rosie Knight I’m Rosie Knight.

 

Jason Concepcion And welcome to X-ray Vision, the Crooked Media podcast, where we dive deep in your favorite shows, movies, comics and pop culture.

 

Rosie Knight On this episode, in Previously On, I will be doing a super speedy Yellowjackets season one recap before the premiere of Season two on Showtime. In The Airlock, we will be walking on to that very dangerous lake again for season three Episode four of The Mandalorian, and we’ve got the baby with us. He’s here. A Celebrity, A theory from Sean that seeks to answer another listener’s theory from our March 10th episode on The Mandalorian Season three, Episode two Thank you. I’m loving this entire lesson theory conversations. We’re inspiring here.

 

Jason Concepcion As always. If you want to jump around, check out the Shownotes for the timestamps. They may be inaccurate. We’re working on that, but check them out. Anyway, coming up, Previously On. All right. First up, we’re going to be covering, first of all, Yellowjackets season two on this show, a fantastic first season. Catch up with it. If you haven’t. If you have, man. Now introduce at the starting line Rosie Night for the speed recap of season one of Yellowjackets on the beleaguered Showtime Network.

 

Rosie Knight Okay, forgive me if the episodes are incorrect. I did this for memory Episode one In the wilds of the woods, we see a young girl running through the forest screaming. She’s chased down and killed. We then see a group of hooded figures feasting on meat. Could it be human? Dun, dun, dun. And then in New Jersey, 1996, a girls high school soccer team head off to nationals, but their plane tragically crashes In the present. We meet some of the survivors. Shauna and unsatisfied housewife, not a recovering addict. Misty, a very.

 

Jason Concepcion Ooh.

 

Rosie Knight Misty, a very creepy caregiver, and Taissa an aspiring politician when they begin to receiving strange blackmail notes about their time in the woods, they must band together. Episode two As the girls try to survive the wreckage in 1996, Misty, an unpopular girl in high school, suddenly rises to the top of the wilderness hierarchy. Thanks to uncanny survivalist skills. Seems good, but quickly takes a dark turn when she purposefully smashes the black box. Because she wants to keep being popular, condemning them to what we now know as 19 months in the wild in the present, Shauna Rear ends a very hunky and enigmatic man named Adam, while Nat confronts Misty, suspecting she is behind the blackmail. When Misty claims her innocence, the pair become an unexpected buddy couple and go off to uncover the truth. In episode three, that quest turns tragic when Misty and Nat tried to locate Travis, one of the other survivors of that time in the wilderness, but they soon discover is already dead. So it’s not on a spy role. And Taissa’s political campaign is suddenly hit with smears about her time in the forest. And to make things worse, her son starts to see weird visions. In the nineties, the girls find a cabin hopeful, but it’s already inhabited by a dead body. Oh, terrible, terrible, terrible. Episode four Relationships are beginning to bloom. Nat and Travis cement their romance. Shauna takes Harvey under her wing. Taissa and Ben find space to continue their relationship. Lesbian affair. Love that for them. And Lottie and the religious Laura start to make a strange spiritual connection that’s going to end badly for everyone. In the future, Shauna and Adam begin an affair. Speaking of, things are going to end badly for everyone, and Taissa gets offered a massive political donation. But to get it, she would have to spill the beans on what happens in the woods. She rightfully says, Fuck you and it doesn’t happen. Episode five Nature takes its course in the forest and all the girls periods sync up. There is one exception, though. Shauna, who is revealed to be pregnant with.

 

Jason Concepcion Dun, dun, dun.

 

Rosie Knight By her best friend, Jackie’s boyfriend, Jeff. It’s his baby. And now Shauna is married to him. That’s fucked up. In the modern day, Taissa begins to see visions of wolves and Shauna and Jeff struggle with their marriage. And we learn Misty has been spying on Shauna. Misty’s feeling a way.

 

Jason Concepcion Misty, you crazy lady, you.

 

Rosie Knight Well, she’s getting crazy because guess what? She kidnaps a journalist who is asking questions.

 

Jason Concepcion That’s okay.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah, you know, But then she ties her up in a bedroom and poisons her. And it turns out she’s not a journalist at all. She’s actually a PR hired by Tyler to check that our friends wouldn’t spill.

 

Jason Concepcion I tell you, Misty’s ways, seemingly random and crazy, but they all work out in the end.

 

Rosie Knight Look, Misty’s the secret here, right? The yellow Jackets need. But in 1996, she’s poisoning assistant coach Ben to keep him weak and close. So I get it. And Mark against it. Episode six In 1996, Lori’s connection to the supernatural continues to grow after a science that leads us to believe she’s possessed, We also learn she’s had precognitive visions before that, that came true. Laura Lee baptizes Laurie, and in the future, Misty continues to keep Jessica hostage. Nat tries to find out what happens to Travis. Taissa realizes her son isn’t having visions. Good news. Bad news is it’s her. Taissa has been climbing into the tree in a very creepy fashion. Episode seven The crew tries to catch that blackmailer. It doesn’t work, but they do cover him with glitter, which will become important soon. In 1996, Taissa leads a group of girls to try and get potential freedom from the forest. But they get attacked by wolves. And one of the wolves apparently kills. Van Lotti sort of foresaw the violence with a strange vision, so people start to believe she’s supernaturally inclined and start to follow her. And we go to episode eight. Good new, Van’s alive. Bad news, she wakes up already on a funeral pyre. She’s not happy about it.

 

Jason Concepcion Check the pulse people.

 

Rosie Knight She’s literally like fire. Are you kidding me?

 

Jason Concepcion Check the pulse.

 

Rosie Knight Van’s survival and Jackie’s reveal Shauna is pregnant. She knows that it’s Jeff as the father. It inspires Laura Lee to fix up an old plane, try and fly out. Probably should’ve done that sooner. Just going to say like, but okay. Sadly, it looks like it’s all going well. Explodes over the lake and R.I.P. to Laura Lee. But to Lottie, it’s a sign the forest doesn’t want them to leave. Episode nine.

 

Jason Concepcion It might have just been a very, very old plane.

 

Rosie Knight It was an old plane, but you know, I will say in the episode is very ominous. The teddy bear that’s on fire. But yeah, it’s bad times. Episode nine is Doom is coming, Baby Is Doomed is coming to celebrate the homecoming they never got to have, the girls throw a wild wilderness party. But thanks to a mix up with Misty’s magic mushrooms, they all get extremely high and nonconsensual. It’s an accident and end up almost raping and killing Travis. Speaking of nonconsensual desktop by now, and it was Shauna who was going to slit Travis’s throat. In the modern day, she gets to finish that job. Not to Travis, but to her poor boo Adam, who she got after becoming suspicious that he may be the blackmailer. Very unrealistic and bad choice there, Shauna, but sure. So she kills her. Shauna then soon immediately realizes either this episode or next that it was actually Jeff, her husband, who is the black male attendant on episode ten. She decides to set up Adam, gets her friends to chop up the body. Misty, of course, knows how to do this because that’s kind of thing she’s into and she covers for Jeff and the pair of them kind of find their romance reignited. It’s very fucked up. Those two have got some issues. She then goes off to a school reunion with the girls. They have a very fun kind of time there. Shauna threatens people that she’s going to kill them if she if they tell about just black now. But things are not going well. Season ends badly for everyone. Jackie doesn’t survive her night outside in the snow after the girls force her to sleep out there, she dies. All right, Here. R.I.P. to Jackie. In the future, the news reports on the fact that Adam is missing and Shauna, Jeff and their daughter Carly realize like, Oh, fuck. Taissa wins her election.

 

Jason Concepcion Good news.

 

Rosie Knight Bad news, Bad news. Looks like she did some kind of weird blood sacrifice with that dog to get it, which her wife finds in the apartment. So she’s now in the probably Lottie’s cult follow up. Misty kills Jessica with a poisoned cigaretre. We’ll just say she did tell Jessica to stop smoking. If Jessica hadn’t seen a cigaret, she wouldn’t have died. And Nat is kidnaped moments before killing herself and moments before she can receive a phone call that reveals that Lottie is alive and she wiped Travis’s bank account before he died.

 

Jason Concepcion Season two of Yellowjackets begins streaming March 26th on once Again, the beleaguered Showtime Network. We will be covering that show every Wednesday, I believe. Here on

 

Rosie Knight I can’t wait.

 

Jason Concepcion The X-Ray Vision program. Up next, The Mandalorian.

 

Speaker 4 <AD>

 

Jason Concepcion We’re stepping out of The Airlock and into the Mandalorian Training Grounds for season three Episode four of The Mandalorian on Disney Plus. The episode titled Chapter 20 The Foundling, written by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni and directed by the legend himself, Carl Weathers.

 

Rosie Knight You son of a bitch.

 

Jason Concepcion Let’s start with the recap. So we’re outside of The Armorer cave the Mandalorian covered is putting itself through some rigorous training. And let’s just stop for a moment and give a real big pat on the back to whoever the Mandalorian recruiter is. Because let me tell you, folks, the Mandalorian covert is growing at an exponential pace.

 

Rosie Knight There is like at least ten times as many as there was last time. And they’ve all got armor.

 

Jason Concepcion They were like a D4 school. Now they’re like a D1. I don’t know what they’re offering these recruits. I don’t know where the bescar is coming from, but something’s happening. Something is happening and you can really feel the momentum, folks, and they’re out there just fighting. Bo-Katan is kind of like strolling around, taking it all in the Mandalorians are like hitting each other with fists, with staves, with knives. They’re shooting flamethrowers at each other. They’re shooting blaster bolts, just like over the overload, open lake and throwing grenades into the lake. Things live in there, folks. What are we doing?

 

Rosie Knight I would say.

 

Jason Concepcion Yeah.

 

Rosie Knight I don’t think they’ve learned their lesson. I think some one of the lessons that we’ve kind of been talking about a lot about the Mandalorians is this is a culture that is so focused on war and weaponry as like their main kind of mission. And I feel like the first thing they do when they get these new recruits is to once again start training them for battle. Seems like it’s a.

 

Jason Concepcion Bad idea to throw in thermal detonators until, like Grogu, who sits nearby taking it all in. Originally, I thought he was like, force arranging rocks. Yeah, but then.

 

Rosie Knight It’s definitely human to think it’s that classic force joke of, like, you’re me in the rocks. And I think GROGU maybe thinks that’s what he’s doing, but then there’s a really cute but.

 

Jason Concepcion Then it turns out that they are all crabs. And then I think Grogu certainly probably wants to eat.

 

Rosie Knight He thinks he’s going to eat it, but Din comes over and he’s like, No, no, no.

 

Jason Concepcion And Din comes over and is like, Grogu, you’re up. Okay. Everybody’s getting put through their paces. It’s your turn to get put through your paces with some light sparring with one of the other families. The referee of this particular bout is like this kid is to school. These baby. This kid is ten inches tall. And are we sure about this? But Dan is like, don’t worry about it. I’ve seen him in real action. Like, do real, real stuff. He can handle it. Let the baby cook. The challenger, who I’m assuming is the boy from episode one.

 

Rosie Knight I was thinking that. But then, like, we don’t know, like a thing here about, like, later on, about who his father is. It’s unclear. It’s another child. That is what we will say.

 

Jason Concepcion A young child, a Mandalorian, gets challenged and as the challenged gets to pick a weaponry and it’s like, well, I don’t think that kid can even, like, hold a gun, so I’m going to go guns. And then he asks Din, why doesn’t he wear a helmet? He is too young to speak the Creed dances and therefore is too young to wear a helmet. Then he’s too young to fight. I think it’s a good point. But again, let the baby.

 

Rosie Knight Go look also as well. As we will point out many times in this episode, we’re starting to learn that the rules about the mandalorians very blurry. They’re not 100% sure what’s going on with the Creed, or their helmet or anything else.

 

Jason Concepcion It’s really the one rule is helmet.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah.

 

Jason Concepcion Keep it on around other people. Everything else is kind of Calvin Ball. Like stuff’s moving around a lot. So the training guns come out and it’s like these little, like paintball paint dust, little mishmash.

 

Rosie Knight Of like the darts that we’ve seen didn’t use.

 

Jason Concepcion Bo-katan very lovingly. Straps it on to grogu’s wrist. And it’s a very, very, almost matronly, motherly fashion. Each contestant has three shots. And now here is a great example of exactly what you’re saying. The way the referee explained the rules, it seemed to me it was going to be like, okay, round one go, and each would get one shot at each other, but that’s not how it went. So they went round one and the Challenger shoots Grogu right in the chest with the little paintball. Okay, round two Challenger shoots Grogu in the chest with little paintball.

 

Rosie Knight It’s kind of more like a jewel or something. I don’t know the rules are unclear.

 

Jason Concepcion Yeah, and then Din is like gives him a little penalty. You know, it’s like time out, Coachella, time out, camera kid. And then it’s like, Listen, you can do it. I know what you can do. I’ve seen you force choke people.

 

Rosie Knight I’ve seen you do it, baby. He’s like, I’ve seen it. I know what you can do. Show him what you can do. And I’m thinking like, this guy is going to eat. This baby is going to force choke a child. I really thought that was going to be like what you’re talking about. But no, it’s Grogu.’s other impressive trick that the puppet is very happy to.

 

Jason Concepcion Show he’s leveling up that flip. Grogu, who does a forward flip into a backflip, lands exactly where he took off and then triple shot the kid right in the chest. Now, again, this seems like it would be against the rules. I thought it was one shot per round, but okay.

 

Rosie Knight Well, so as well I was like trying to work out. I was kind of like. So would they be okay with him flipping because like the one they have a jet pack or they can just see that it’s valuable to have a force user? Did feel unfair, though.

 

Jason Concepcion I got to say the Mandaloriansare kind of rednecks.

 

Rosie Knight They don’t know what’s going on.

 

Jason Concepcion They’re just out here like throwing blaster shots over the lake at nothing.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah. Also still by that same lake. Can we please recall what happened last time they were this lake. A giant alligator, like Lake Placid style alligator came out and absolutely demolished them. And like, they didn’t think just like, be in the cave. Training kills. They’re going to find out it was a bad choice.

 

Jason Concepcion So three points to the winner. Our winner, Grogu. Bo is like do you teach him that to Din? And Din says, not me. Of course it was Luke Skywalker. Ever heard of that guy?

 

Rosie Knight I think it rings a bell.

 

Jason Concepcion Yeah. Shortly thereafter, the the challenger who lost and is probably so humiliated that he was to a ten inch tall 53 year old baby gets swallowed by a bird by like a pterodactyl looking bird that just swoops down, scoops the kid up.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah, it’s like a dragon, teradactyl, but it’s terrifying. And again, seems like you probably shouldn’t be chillin in this one spot, especially when we find out this is not the first time.

 

Jason Concepcion We’ll get to that. I think we do. We choose the right planet. I don’t know the Mandalorian to like. Okay, we got to go after this bird. Good choice. But, wan, wan, wan, they start running out of gas powered cars runs out of gas chasing the bird. What’s happening? Yeah, it’s.

 

Rosie Knight Chillin, like, on set. And he, like. I mean, he’s, like, just chillin on the cliff. He’s like, Oh, I ran out of gas. I’m. I like, Did you not check before you went? Like, do you have more gas? And if so, why did you not fill up beforehand?

 

Jason Concepcion Luckily, Bo-Katan is a full on spaceship. Oh yeah.

 

Rosie Knight She’s like, absolutely not.

 

Jason Concepcion And she follows the bird all the way back to its lair a.k.a its nest. And she comes back and she’s like, Hey, I know where the nest is and a search party is arranged, but they’re not going to leave until the morning, apparently the next day. So it’s going to be a full like let’s be we’ll give it we’ll say it’s like 10 to 12 hours. Yeah. Until they set out. And there are certain rules because this bird is very canny. And we understand is, as you said, Rosie, that this is like at least the second time bird heard is.

 

Rosie Knight Oh, you know, the bird never brings them back. And I’m like my guy. What do you mean? Like this happens to you? But we need.

 

Jason Concepcion Take precautions.

 

Rosie Knight How many mandalorians are there that you’re just willing to sacrifice when I know you’re doing a good job of recruiting? But please.

 

Jason Concepcion Maybe that’s what happened to the boy from the first episode I got to. Even, by the way.

 

Rosie Knight R.I.P. to Every Mandalorian that got eaten by this bird or killed by a giant alligator.

 

Jason Concepcion So. So they start, they huddle together because again, they do have some experience with this bird seeing. Is it how it has been eating various members of their tribe for X amount of weeks. So they’re like, okay, well we can’t use jetpacks around it because it’ll hear it and it’ll eat the kid. Okay, so no jetpacks. So that means how are we going to get up to the nest? Aha. The Armorer is like, I’m going to get you the extra, extra, extra long shrapnels at a store. I’m going to go back into the storage closet and get the really long graphic.

 

Rosie Knight And Bo was also like, By the way, I just used to casually climb mountains like this when I was training, so don’t worry about it. Which also begs the question, there wasn’t one other Mandalorian, who was trained that way. You could have climbed the mountain to get back whichever kid got fed before problems in. I mean, an organization.

 

Jason Concepcion That was a very Star Wars line from Bo. You know, very like I said, I used to bomb womp rats like that kind of I mean.

 

Rosie Knight It’s true, like in the in some of the great like expanded books, especially like the Princess Leia book by Claudia Gray, which I love, you learn about the kind of challenges that royalty have to often go through in these kind of trials. They do. But yeah, I thought it was really funny. She was just like, I can climb up there. No worries. I was like, Great. I got a grappling hook for you. Those were actually well, I really well use them last time for the alligator.

 

Jason Concepcion So they all fly off in boss ship and that leaves Grogu and The Armorerer to just kind of chill. And The Armorerer is like Grogu, you’re too young to go on this on this mission. Unfortunately, you’re ten inches tall. You are 53 years old, but a baby still.

 

Rosie Knight You can do a flip, but like that’s not that impressive.

 

Jason Concepcion Not that good. So come back with me into The Armorery and let’s just have a chat.

 

Rosie Knight I want to say I feel like for Gregor. I know he loves thing, but I feel like there he is. Look at him. Exactly. I just want to say. Yeah, I feel like he didn’t want to. Like he. He didn’t choose the Jedi way. And because he was probably sick of all the training, he just likes to, like, sleep and eat. And I feel like she’s like, Come. You too. Now. She’s like, You got to learn all these Mandalorian ways. And he’s probably like, Oh, for fuck’s sake. Like, I’m not sure if I’m really into that. Like, Jedi training is intense, but Mandalorian training is, like, stupider and intense, but is actually okay because he doesn’t really have to get trained. He just has to get a cool gift from The Armorerer.

 

Jason Concepcion It’s kind of like Skyrim where you can join multiple guilds. Yeah.

 

Rosie Knight Yes.

 

Jason Concepcion Kind of like what Grogu is doing. Like he’s in the Jedi Guild already has the force, so. And has gotten training from the very, very best.

 

Rosie Knight From the from the Fanciest Man.

 

Jason Concepcion So now let’s get some Mandalorian training. So they go into the forge, and then The Armorerer is like, This is the forge. This is the heart of Mandalorian culture. I think Grogu’s got it. But by the way, like Armorer. We got it. Grogu’s, who’s been here a little while.

 

Rosie Knight Grogu was already wearing, like, a sick chain metal kind of armor.

 

Jason Concepcion Yeah, that’s kind of 101.

 

Rosie Knight He understands. He knows what’s going on.

 

Jason Concepcion That’s definitely like Mando pre 101 like, is he knows that much of it. Also, there’s only one room, there’s only one structure here and basically everyone knows.

 

Rosie Knight That he’s getting it, that.

 

Jason Concepcion It’s literally just the forge. Like you don’t have to explain the one place it’s there. And then so the Grogu looks on as The Armorer is hammering out some beskar plate and The Armorer is talking about like how, you know, beskar comes from donations, like all the other members of the tribe go out and they find different little bits, best car and they bring it back. And then the sound of the pounding, the pounding, the hammering seems to really have Grogu upset. And I get to tell you, this is the most emotionally like, vulnerable and raw puppet of all time.

 

Rosie Knight I’m telling you, he’s putting the Muppets out of business. I’m believing it.

 

Jason Concepcion I was like Armorer fucking stop hammering.

 

Rosie Knight You are upsetting the baby. You are giving him PTSD or you are awakening the PTSD already has from Order 66.

 

Jason Concepcion Look at the baby Armorer. What is wrong with you?

 

Rosie Knight He is crying.

 

Jason Concepcion You know, we see this look of of of real sadness and grief and then pain crossing over grogu’s face. And then all of a sudden we are back at the night of Order 66. In Grogu’s memories, there’s a bunch of Jedi that are trying to hold off the clone troopers. They’re getting gunned down clone troopers that the hammering that Grogu is hearing is the clone troopers hammering through this door and they get it open. And and the Jedi has managed to spirit grogu into an elevator really quickly and they send it down. And when it stops, there’s a Jedi there waiting for him. And it’s our friend Kelleran Beq, played by the one and only, Ahmed Best, a.k.a. Jar Jar Binks.

 

Rosie Knight And the crowd goes wild.

 

Jason Concepcion And the crowd  goes wild. Killeran Beq, the saborred hand carries two light sabers and boy, can he use them quite well because he makes very short work.

 

Rosie Knight Yes, he and I think this is this is really important on two levels. One, because it’s not like a character people know. It might feel a little bit anticlimactic, but this is an answer to the big question that we’ve been asking, which is to say, of course.

 

Jason Concepcion Who’s hate group?

 

Rosie Knight I love that they gave this to Ahmed. He’s been through so much because.

 

Jason Concepcion He’s been very open about the.

 

Rosie Knight Trials and tribulations of being involved in Star Wars and what it did to him. And I would love to see him kind of being brought back into the Lucasfilm fold first with some really fun light quiz shows he was doing with kid stuff. And now to see him be the one who saved the child arguably the most important role and biggest answering this question. And to get to be a badass Jedi, it’s pretty great. It was really cool.

 

Jason Concepcion So Keller and gets Grogu on a speeder and they fly off through the skyline of Coruscant Troopers in Pursuit, and it’s a wonderful dogfight. The Chase enters a train tunnel with Kelleren playing chicken with the train. He wins. And then he tells Grogu who is obviously quite panicked by all of this. Hey, don’t worry. We’re going to meet up with some friends of mine and then crash land on a platform floating above the city. And the people that Kelleran is there to meet are some soldiers from Naboo. So Naboo is involved. There’s a lot of Naboo in this series, what with the ship and.

 

Rosie Knight With prequels. Yeah, very prequelsy.

 

Jason Concepcion It feels like we’re going wherever we’re heading is going to involve Naboo in some form or fashion. And certainly it certainly appears that Kroger’s history is going to intersect with Naboo somehow. And but as soon as they land, they’re to get Grogu on this ship with the Naboo Guardsmen, the clone troopers find them. Now there’s a big firefight, and Beck and Grogan get on the Nabooian ship and they head for hyperspace. Grogu, who comes out of his reverie after, you know, his memory basically ends as they’re in that hyperspace tunnel. He comes out of it, The Armorer completely oblivious to this.

 

Rosie Knight He just still yammering on at, this is the way.

 

Jason Concepcion Hey Grogu, all the shit that you’ve heard before. I’m just, like, still talking about.

 

Rosie Knight Making you some armor.

 

Jason Concepcion Know? Hey, Grogu, did you know that Mandalorians Where Beskar armor?

 

Rosie Knight Do you know what Beskar is?

 

Jason Concepcion Right? And you know that we make it here in the Forge, By the way, is the heart of.

 

Rosie Knight I’m The Armorer, I make it.

 

Jason Concepcion I mean, she’s melting it. And then she tells him about the tithing, the act of donating. And then she makes him this little cute little chest plate. And then. I think it needs a strap, but apparently I’m not an Armorer, so.

 

Rosie Knight I’m like, is it magnetic? Does it like chill on the chest? I feel like it’s a very weighted moment. We see Grogu’s armor growing. But also I’m like, you know, at some point somebody’s going to get shot and that’s going to be what saves him. But it was very like, here it is. Know he had very Chekov’s armor.

 

Jason Concepcion So yeah, she just places it like a plate on his chest.

 

Rosie Knight Is it magnetic? That’s what we need to find out. Maybe it can again, we don’t.

 

Jason Concepcion We don’t do this. We’re not armorers. We don’t do this for a living.

 

Rosie Knight She tucks in this little cute, furry jacket, but yeah, it doesn’t look secure to me.

 

Jason Concepcion So we go over to the search party, and that includes Paz, which you can find out why he’s so interested in going on this bike.

 

Rosie Knight Minorly interesting.

 

Jason Concepcion Yeah, you did to me. He’s a very stoic guy. And then they arrive at the bird’s lair, and then they’re like, Hey. Let’s wait it out. Let’s not go right now. Let’s, in fact, wait another night. So now it’s going to be 24 hours before they go and challenge this bird. Just keep track of that time. So the first thing they do is like, it’s time to camp. And, you know, around the campfire, the food’s coming out. And Bo, who is, again, very disconnected from her Mandalorian identity, her culture is like strolls over dinners, like what do we how does it work with eating? Like, what do we do? And Din is like, you just everybody just kind of goes off on their own to eat, you know? So nobody.

 

Rosie Knight Okay. So we’re adding another layer here to this Mandalorian lore, is like, so you can take your helmet off near other people as long as they are not looking at you and you are not looking at them. But we also see people eat and drink like.

 

Jason Concepcion So I guess that’s my personal favorite. Yeah.

 

Rosie Knight You just want to see someone eat a slice of pizza, like under the helmet.

 

Jason Concepcion And Bo’s about to head off with them and Paz is like, No, no, you’re the you’re the you’re the war party leader. You get to eat by the fire. That’s like Your Honor. So that’s pretty cool. Now, you know, Chris and Sol Soup producers Chris and Sol had a good question, which I think we’re all thinking about because.

 

Rosie Knight Ask it like, Well, let’s ask that important question.

 

Jason Concepcion Because soon after this, Paz is like, Hey, peace. I know it’s been now a day since we’ve been on this hunt to get this kid back. P.S. It’s my kid.

 

Rosie Knight It’s my kid.

 

Jason Concepcion So that’s why I’m here, right? So if, like, let’s say that is his biological child, he fathered a child with another mandalorian, perhaps. You lead armor? What happens? Does it stay on? Does it take the helmet off? Right. Is it just bumper cars?

 

Rosie Knight What is this? What is the situation here? Is there like, flaps and like.

 

Jason Concepcion We need to know.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah. Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni.

 

Jason Concepcion Dave and Jon, I know you’ve thought. Don’t sit there and tell me you haven’t thought about it.

 

Rosie Knight Give us a call. We need to understand.

 

Jason Concepcion We all know what happens. So then it’s the next morning. Again, 24 hours since this child has been in the clutches of the bird. But it’s like if we try to fight the bird, it’ll kill the boy. Because that’s what’s happened before.

 

Rosie Knight Oh, my gosh. How many others, my friend?

 

Jason Concepcion Is it It’s happened before which it has taken others which.

 

Rosie Knight So now we say from one to others.

 

Jason Concepcion To potentially like, I guess, like single digits. Hey. Mandalorians like, can we set up some auto cannons or something.

 

Rosie Knight Like that to sleep in the cave.

 

Jason Concepcion High frequency, something that like, yeah, just chases away. Why are we just letting people get snatched up by birds all the time? So anyway, the bottom line is stealth. Got to be stealthy. You have to sneak up on the birds. So they use their wrist cables, they scale the cliffs. It is very hard work. But again, Bow has done this. She’s been doing she’s.

 

Rosie Knight Just she’s chillin.

 

Jason Concepcion They get and they had the really long grapple cables shouts in The Armorer thank you very much. She’s in the forge, which is the heart of Mandalorian culture. She made those grapplings.

 

Rosie Knight They’re very important. Mandalorian Culture, those grappling.

 

Jason Concepcion So they get up to you. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it is exactly what it should have been, which is a fucking huge nest.

 

Rosie Knight Birds nest.

 

Jason Concepcion Giant.

 

Rosie Knight It’s it’s very like  dark crystal and birds nest.

 

Jason Concepcion Din, Din goes to heat mode and it’s like, hey, I see a heat source.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah.

 

Jason Concepcion About 50 yards.

 

Rosie Knight And I should have been using that before you got to the nest, which is kind of work out where you can be.

 

Jason Concepcion Paz is like, That’s my son and I fucking care now and I’m going to run over and I’m going to get.

 

Rosie Knight He’s like, I’ve got gas in my jetpack now, baby.

 

Jason Concepcion But guess what? It’s just like three massive bird babies.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah, Giant baby birds. Dragons.

 

Jason Concepcion Baby.

 

Rosie Knight They’re really cute.

 

Jason Concepcion And just as it’s the bird, babies are, like, emerging from the straw. The mommy returns and immediately vomits the kid up, to which the only question that needs to be asked at this point is has this child been in this birds belly.

 

Rosie Knight For 24 hours at least?

 

Jason Concepcion And wow, the bestkar is good shit.

 

Rosie Knight Can I just say.

 

Jason Concepcion If that is if that is the case, beskar is strong.

 

Rosie Knight Would you ever. Well, it is the center of Mandalorian culture.

 

Jason Concepcion Yes. Right.

 

Rosie Knight But like, would you ever forgive your dad if you found out that he was just, like, chilling at a campfire, like eating dinner?

 

Jason Concepcion Hey we’ll go tomorrow.

 

Rosie Knight While you were being digested.

 

Jason Concepcion I know we could go right now to the birds nest.

 

Rosie Knight When they might be asleep.

 

Jason Concepcion But let’s go tomorrow morning. And then after we go tomorrow morning, let’s then camp out for another 12 hours, then go at dawn the next morning.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah. I mean, you’re going to just go home at least 48 hours in that in that bird’s belly.

 

Jason Concepcion Yeah, but if you’re going to get murked by a bird, then are you really the stuff of Mandalorian? You know, like, you’ve got to prove it.

 

Rosie Knight I feel you. I feel you. It’s like he’s. He’s going to have to live with that shame. But he did also get beat by the baby.

 

Jason Concepcion Like, what, a 24 hours for this child. Got beat by a baby flat and and the baby cheated. I was just going to say, the baby fucking cheated.

 

Rosie Knight And then everyone backed the baby.

 

Jason Concepcion Backed the baby. Was like, yeah, fuck it. Three shots in one round. Yeah, that’s fine.

 

Rosie Knight That shaded him because he said to him, You don’t speak if you don’t know if you did something wrong.

 

Jason Concepcion Like then eaten by a bird.

 

Rosie Knight Delightful.

 

Jason Concepcion 24 hours in a bird’s belly.

 

Jason Concepcion Dad. Just not really in not really a rush to save them. And then Dad almost gets his ass kicked by baby birds. But that’s neither here nor there. The momma bird freaks out that there is all these armored mandalorians in its home next to its babies.

 

Rosie Knight Which she just tryign to feed, by the way.

 

Jason Concepcion Just trying to feed like obviously you want to get the kid back, but this it’s just the doing nature. It’s just doing its motherly instinct thing. It grabs the kid in its talon foot and it flies off. The mandalorians give chase and luckily they have they have gas this time. And they remember when they said like, don’t shoot it because we’ll eat the kid. Now they’re doing everything. They’re shooting cables and they’re shooting nets at it. They’re flying up and trying to stab it in the eye with not bad.

 

Rosie Knight Just like, you know, the lose lose the kid. We got to kill the bad. Like, whatever happens.

 

Jason Concepcion Kill this bird. And then.

 

Rosie Knight Organizational problems.

 

Jason Concepcion Eventually they get the bird to let go of the kid. Din manages to, you know, jetpack down and snatch him up before the kid hits the water. The momma bird, sadly, does hit the water and is quickly swallowed up by one of those crocodiles we saw in episode one. R.I.P. to the momma bird Again, just trying to save her kid.

 

Rosie Knight To save her kid. Again, I just want to say something as well. You’re telling me that a better plan wouldn’t have just been find a mom and dad while she’s fly and holding the kid, shoot her so that she lets go of the kid and then one of you uses the jetpack to catch her? I’m saying this is basically this is very Walking Dead logic. You did 25 things to get back to the thing.

 

Jason Concepcion We at the very least, we didn’t need to wait a day.

 

Rosie Knight Exactly. Even the baby fell asleep. It was a terrible idea.

 

Jason Concepcion We didn’t need to wait a day. Also, like, why? Why are we never using the stun feature in our blasters? Only, you know, like, can we set to stun a few times, Not just when we’re shooting Princess Leia. Anyway, we head back to the covert. Everybody’s happy as they should be, including Grogu. They go to meet Bo’s ship. The war party comes out, everybody’s cheering and Din goes over, picks up Grogu, like we did it. We killed a mama bird. Yeah, Maybe it’s dead.

 

Rosie Knight We killed this bird That probably wouldn’t have attacked us if we camped anywhere else except for this extremely dangerous lake.

 

Jason Concepcion And The Armorer comes out, and she’s like, Bo-katan, you have honored your house in all of Mandalore. You’ve done the highest honor of the Creed. Saving a foundling. This is the way. This is the way.

 

Rosie Knight This is all around. This is the way, baby.

 

Jason Concepcion And Bo says, Guess what? We are more family. Wait, What? That’s right. The three babies who you thought were orphaned, you thought they were just going to starve to death? No, No.

 

Rosie Knight Bo said absolutely not.

 

Jason Concepcion Bo said absolutely not. This is kind of fucked up what we did. And I’m thankful for both for this. We are taking these three big baby burns in. And you know what’s going to happen? We’re going to see men writing.

 

Rosie Knight Writing dragon birds. Absolutely. I just. I just want to say that this is. I agree. I’m glad Bo did this. I was cheering when those giant baby dragon birds came out of the ship. I love the idea that you’d have to make helmets for them. It’s great. But this does speak to another issue with The Mandalorian.

 

Jason Concepcion Love kidnaping.

 

Rosie Knight Love kidnaping a lots of murdering a parent and then beating white flesh. I shall raise you now.

 

Jason Concepcion It’s a lot of kidnapping.

 

Rosie Knight It’s going to end badly.

 

Jason Concepcion Well, you know, to be fair, the Jedi’s flat out kidnap as well.

 

Rosie Knight Exactly. It’s it’s it’s it’s a cultural problem throughout the galaxy.

 

Jason Concepcion A very cultural problem. Lot of kidnaping. The Armorer then takes Bo into the forge, which is the heart of Mandalorian culture, to do some repairs on her armor. And Bo is like looks at the mythosaur bust on the walls, like hey, mythosaur. And The Armorer’s like yeah, mythosaur. And she’s like, you know what? Since you’re doing these repairs and I need a new padron, can you make me a mythosaur pauldron? I think so. And, and The Armorer is like, That’s fucking great. I love that.

 

Rosie Knight She’s like any Mandalorian can wear one. And that’s a big moment for Bo and that kind of reconnecting with the like, more now, more contemporary Mandalorian culture.

 

Jason Concepcion And then so Beau is like, Let me ask you a question. What would you say if I told you I saw a mythosaur. I saw it. And The Armorer is just like I’d say, you were very lucky. And Bo’ss like, No, no, no, no. You don’t get it.

 

Rosie Knight Like, I really saw it, not like a visual.

 

Jason Concepcion Yeah, a real one. Like a real one. Like I didn’t have a dream. This was like a real like I saw it. And The Armorer is just like, very flatly. Okay, great.

 

Rosie Knight This is the way.

 

Jason Concepcion That’s good. I got to. I’m going to go to the bathroom.

 

Rosie Knight THe Arnorer is like this is they way.

 

Jason Concepcion No reaction. Can I get any kind of like, I must be like, what? Like, can I get. No. Holy shit. The mythosaurs are back. No, nothing.

 

Rosie Knight I know. I wonder when she said this is the way. It’s like it’s such a it’s such a heavy line because it’s like, does she not believe Bo? Is what she’s actually saying like, this is the way.

 

Jason Concepcion Bo must be so confused now.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah, exactly. Because she’s expecting that everyone’s going to be like, Oh my God, this is it. But maybe The Armorer is acceptance is just like, Well, yeah, that’s like, that’s the way now you’re going to ride the mythosaur and mandalore is going to rise again. But it is like so funny, almost absolutely flat.

 

Jason Concepcion Just flat. But must have been like, why do I keep this secret for, like, you know, a week?

 

Rosie Knight Yeah, Yeah. Like, why didn’t I just tell Din?

 

Jason Concepcion Why don’t I just tell anybody? Because The Armorer is just like, okay.

 

Rosie Knight I mean, Bo could told me around the campfire, they probably would have been more into it. The Armorer is not bothered The Armorer because.

 

Jason Concepcion They can’t because they all walk away from each other.

 

Rosie Knight Like guys. Hey.

 

Jason Concepcion So we’re. I don’t know where anybody is, but I just want to say I saw a mythosaur.

 

Rosie Knight Who said that?

 

Jason Concepcion Who is that? This is Bo. X-ray Vision, we’ll be back.

 

Speaker 4 <AD>

 

Jason Concepcion And we’re back. Why do you think The Armorer is? Is The Armorer? Did she just, like, know it’s back or was he expecting it? What is this reaction?

 

Rosie Knight I do. I think The Armorer is whole thing is kind of like led by preordained Mandalorian kind of law and belief. So  to her it’s like, okay, this woman I never saw who was never part of a cover has now appeared. And suddenly she’s also seen amid the although she was down in the minds of Mandalore, you know, what can I what else can I say? This is the way like I guess she’s just going to I think that hints that she accepts that the myth this was a back and probably that bow maybe she thinks it’s then but I think in the way she speaks to Bo. BO is probably going to be the one who rides the mythosaur.

 

Jason Concepcion If I’m Bo, I’m like Armorer, why the fuck are we still hanging out here? The planet is open for business. We can go back. And, P.S., packed with beskar.

 

Rosie Knight So much beskar. We talked about this the other day. Like where? Why aren’t they going that mining that best hack to get even just to people who got sent there. Yeah. I mean The Armorer like probably. What would she say she should be like this is the way it is. That’s like, oh she has to say.

 

Jason Concepcion Now there are, there are some hostiles in the area, like that’s going to happen. But you guys are heavily armed.

 

Rosie Knight And the mandalorians love to kill a creature.

 

Jason Concepcion Love to kill a character.

 

Rosie Knight So they’ll just be happy to do it.

 

Jason Concepcion They’ve been doing it.

 

Rosie Knight Every episode.

 

Jason Concepcion Doing every episode, slaughtering mother birds and.

 

Rosie Knight Cool crocodiles.

 

Jason Concepcion Crocodiles that are just trying to eat. Just go. Why don’t you do it on your homeworld?

 

Rosie Knight I know it does. I do wonder this might be reading too much into it because I feel like The Armorer is a still a very animatic figure, but it does feel like The Armorer has a reason to not go back to Mandalore.

 

Jason Concepcion Yeah. What is the reason?

 

Rosie Knight That’s  what I want to know because I feel like Din went there. Dean was redeemed. So you must believe that din went into the living waters in the minds of Mandalore. If that is the case, surely you would immediately just send an exploratory group That that was a reason you didn’t want to go. And that’s what I’m kind of most interested in.

 

Jason Concepcion There must be a reason. Or maybe it’s that some of the covered still aren’t like sold on. It’s not radioactive anymore or something, but like why not just come back?

 

Rosie Knight But then why let Bo and Din in? Because, yeah, they make you sick. You know, I think it’s. Very mysterious. How many episodes is this season? Because I feel like they’re going to start to need eight episodes. So we’re halfway through at this point. Yeah, I feel like they have to start to ramp up the answers to some of these questions. As everyone knows, I’m a big fan of the sequential kind of pulpy style. Like you could go and see it in a cinema or on a Saturday morning we watch on a Saturday morning TV. So I like these kind of adventures. I love to see Carl Weathers back directing again, always the legend, having the most fun making the show. But I feel like halfway through the season, are they going to go back to Mandalore like you? What happened with that kind of and Dorian kind of cloning snoke hidden situation. Like there’s many different threads and I’m very interested to see whether the second half of this season is just going to be tying them.

 

Jason Concepcion It feels like the last. It feels like we end with the recolonization of Mandalore. It’s like they’re going home. They have to go home at some point. You can’t stay on this fucking bird infested, crocodile infested.

 

Rosie Knight They’re worried about their planet, and yet they’re staying on this planet where multiple people are getting.

 

Jason Concepcion What’s it make the nest out of? Where are the trees?

 

Rosie Knight It makes it with the bones of all the mandalorians is even because there’s others.

 

Jason Concepcion These questions and more will be answered on a weekly basis, right here on the X-ray Vision program as we cover the Mandalorian Season three. Up next, Nerd Out.

 

Rosie Knight In today’s Nerd Out , where you tell us what you love and why, or a theory that you’re excited to share. Sean from Maryland has his own theory in reply to a previous theory from listener Swati and Emily about the increasing number of Mandalorian recruits, which is very relevant to this episode.

 

Jason Concepcion Sean says he’s a longtime listener. First time emailer, quote, heard the latest fan theory posted by your listeners. The easiest explanation for the large number of recruits might be this They are leftover clone clones are based on Jango Fett’s DNA. They could be genetically Mandalorian. They would all be older and former troopers, which would also explain why they suck so bad.

 

Rosie Knight The crocodile disrespect will never end.

 

Jason Concepcion And you know what? I would not be shocked if like at least a handful of these mandalorians are Jango clones.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah, I think that’s actually a really great idea. And not just necessarily because of like and like the idea of generic mandalorians, but the whole point of mandalorians is that anyone can join and take the creed. So it would make sense that you would end up with soldiers and people who had left or escaped the empire. Putting on the helmet, never having to be seen again, not having to be recognized, being able to start a new life. I think that’s very small, actually. And I think there’s also like I know we had a lot of jokes this episode because it’s like a very funny situation, but like there’s something emotionally weighty and moving. This should be explored, and that’s kind of the thing that Star Wars does so well, especially expanding out in these stories about clones, about Mandalore and the wider world.

 

Jason Concepcion Well, I think, you know. With the inclusion of of Kelleran Beq and Ahmed Best, it is really a continuation of the kind of film philosophy that Dave Filoni has taken when approaching this material, which is. How do we fix the bad stuff.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah.

 

Jason Concepcion How do we fix it?

 

Rosie Knight And with the Ahmed Best casting, it is about fixing something that happened in the real world, which adds this kind of meta text. So I think there’s something very interesting that I would be sad to know that those wonderful, you know, people who had tried to find a new place, these troopers who were used in a way that they didn’t have much consent would end up in the mandalore. Yeah, exactly. He agrees with me that they would end up in the Mandalorian sect, then immediately die by being beaten by a crocodile. That breaks my heart. But I hope that if that is the case, that we might get to learn a little bit more about their stories, because I think that’s a great I mean, that’s a great theory. Thank you, Sean. If you have theories or passions that you want to share, hit us up a  Xray@crooked.com. Instructions in the show notes.

 

Jason Concepcion That is it for us. Rosie, Any plugs? Plugs, spark plug, plug plugs.

 

Rosie Knight Plugs, plugs, plugs. Oh. You can find me here. I have a newsletter that I started. There’s going to be a lot of recommendations because I get a lot of requests for recommendations by our listeners, and I don’t have time, unfortunately, to reply to them. So I’m going to be recommending books and comics and maybe some TV and film is called Rosie Recommends The Lovely Saul will put it in the show notes. Also, I’ll just say you should watch Shadow and Bone if you haven’t watched it. It’s on Netflix. I love it. This season, they added some really great new cast members like Lewis Tan and kind of really heavy, cool martial arts action, and it’s just a really fun and inclusive fantasy series. Also, if you’re excited for Yellow Jackets, you can check out my primer coverage over at IGN, where I’ve been writing a ton about season one and what to expect for season two.

 

Jason Concepcion Catch the next episode on Wednesday, March 29, for our catch up horror themed episode, including our discussion of the premiere of Yellowjackets Season two. Don’t forget, we’re bringing you two episodes a week that’s twice the tinfoil hat series, twice the deep dives, twice the everything. X-ray Vision podcast, Wednesday and Fridays, wherever you get your podcasts.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah. And you can also go to YouTube and subscribe to X-ray Vision there. You can see full episodes. You can see us messing around with this beautiful baby and you can follow us @XRVPod on Twitter. Exactly. And check out the Discord to meet tons of amazing fans and listeners and me and Jason are there.

 

Jason Concepcion Five star ratings. Five star reviews. We love them. We got to have them. You got to give them to us. Here’s one from SmithCakes: Obsessed with this podcast. Thank you, Smith.

 

Rosie Knight Oh, I’d love to hear it.

 

Jason Concepcion Jason and Rosie are amazingly knowledgeable and passionate. I find myself listening to their episodes about stuff I don’t watch just because I love them so much. Thank you, Smith.

 

Rosie Knight Thank you. Means the world.

 

Jason Concepcion X-ray Vision is a Crooked Media production. The show is produced by Chris Lord and Saul Rubin. The show is executive produced by myself and Sandy Girard. Our editing and sound design is by Vasilis Fotopoulos. Delon Villanueva and Matt DeGroot provide video production support. Alex Reliford handles social media. Thank you Brian Vasquez for our theme music. See you next time.

 

Rosie Knight Bye.

 

Jason Concepcion Hey Mike. This is Histoff from Maurreen. Yes. We talk about the Mandalorian team today. They got a you know, I’m a I’m a I’m a alumnus from The Mandalorian University. I just got to say, they got a five star recruit that you’re going to go crazy for. Name is Grogu. He’s now don’t look at his stats, Mike, because if you look at his stats, you’re going to be  like, what’s so special about this guy? He’s ten inches tall. He’s 53 years old with with a four inch wingspan on the arms. But Mike just kid the agility you you’re not going to believe he does flips This kid is doing full flips over back forward. He’s choking people. It’s against the league. And the referees love him like every other thing you want his the area you games. This kid’s taken five steps on every drive and the referees are just like, Fuck it, it’s fine. I’ll take my answer off the air Mike. Thank you.

 

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