The Mandalorian season 1 left us with a lot of questions that we’re hungry to see answered in season 2. For instance, what happens next to Din Djarin and Baby Yoda? How did Moff Gideon get the Darksaber? What’s Baby Yoda’s real name? There’s one big mystery set up in the show’s first ever episode, though, that we’ve all forgotten about. And that’s who’s responsible for hiding The Child away before Mando took him under his wing?
Let’s recap. In the pilot episode, the titular bounty hunter is sent to Arvala-7, a backwater Rim-world, where he’s to collect the mysterious Asset that we know is really Baby Yoda. The Asset is guarded by a troop of top mercenaries, though, and it’s only thanks to a team-up between Mando and IG-11 that they’re defeated. From then on, the story focuses on Djarin’s attempts to save the young Force-user from the Dark Side. But who was protecting him in the first place?
As ScreenRant’s pointed out, whoever it was clearly has considerable resources and power if they can hire skilled mercs and their accompanying equipment. Likewise, they must be up to date with galactic politics to know that Arvala-7 falls outside of the jurisdiction of the New Republic. And remember, The Child is 50 years old, so whoever’s behind this has been watching over him throughout the prequel and original trilogies.
There are two likely options here, then. One is that Baby Yoda has been watched over by Jedi sympathizers, though that raises the question of why they didn’t reach out to Luke Skywalker to look after The Child. The other option is that he was actually held by a separate faction of the Empire from Gideon’s. This could explain how the villain has bio-recordings of The Child, perhaps acquired before the Empire fractured.
We know that The Mandalorian showrunner Jon Favreau is playing a long game when it comes to Baby Yoda, and more answers will come out over time. As such, it’s possible that this forgotten mystery will prove key to figuring out The Child’s backstory and true nature. For now, though, we’ll just have to wait and see.
