Mandalorian Episode 4 complements Baby Yoda's clone theory

The Mandalorian Season 2 episode 4 brings the series back to Nevarro, the planet where Mando first got the mission that led him to The Child. So it should come as no surprise that our trip there revealed more about the Empire’s plans for Baby Yoda than anything else this season.

Even better than just the Empire’s plans, this episode could also represent a nice bridge between the Empire and the eventual rise of the First Order and its leader.

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Mandalorian season 2 episode 4, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker]

If you remember back to the first season of The MandalorianYou will likely remember that Nevarro was the home base of the least favored scientist of all, Doctor Pershing, who nudged and nudged Baby Yoda on behalf of The Client and the Empire. Pershing returned just in time this week to provide us with some extremely helpful information about the kind of experiments he’s done with Baby Yoda.

It turns out he took blood from The Child and transferred it to test subjects – at least one of whom is willing to take part in the process. Unfortunately for the subjects, these experiments did not go well and only the last volunteer remains. The problem is, they are running out of blood, and Pershing says it will be difficult to find replacement blood with such a high “M” value.

Yes that’s true. Midi-Chlorians did it The Mandalorian. It seems that Pershing is just as aware of Baby Yoda’s formidable powers as we are, and that is why he used the child’s blood for his experiments. All of this surely sounds like the Empire’s plan is to give power powers to non-force sensitive beings to unleash them upon the insurrection.

In fact, this plan likely extends to clones as well. In season one, when we had a clear view of the stain on his shirt, we learned that Pershing has some connection with Kamino, the clone planet on which the Army of the Republic was founded Attack of the clones

. This is aided in episode 4 by the various tanks we see in the background as the Pershing explains his plan. These tanks certainly look like clone tanks, although this is not explicitly made clear below.

A little snake? Perhaps. It's floating in a tank of green liquid, probably Bacta.

There are several bodies in the tanks, including one that looks suspiciously like Snoke, who we learned was a clone to begin with Rise of Skywalker. But since this film offered no real explanation for the cloning – or Palpatine’s cloned resurrection – it appears The Mandalorian could step in to give us some answers. If Pershing is indeed trying to bestow powers of power on those who don’t already have it, it could all be in preparation for the eventual creation of Snoke and the resurrection of Palpatine.

At the moment, the Empire and its envoy, Moff Gideon, appear to have more immediate plans for these experiments. At the end of Episode 4, we see Gideon inspecting a room that is filled with strange new infantry units. They are definitely not your standard white armored grunt. Instead, these soldiers are huge and wear black armor – much like the Imperial Death Troops that Gideon uses in Season 1. They’re also connected to an external breathing device and generally seem pretty reminiscent of Darth Vader himself. It’s also possible that this is simply armor that Gideon wants to give to anyone who can get through Pershing’s tests in one piece, or maybe even droids.

While they don’t give us a full explanation in the episode, it seems like Moff Gideon is building a force-sensitive stormtrooper squadron himself. These new opponents, combined with Ahsoka Tano who is likely to appear in the next episode, mean that The Mandalorian could include a lot more of power in the near future.