A Star Wars Easter egg may reveal The Mandalorian’s endgame for Baby Yoda

Three episodes into The Mandalorian and Baby Yoda is still a complete mystery. The tiny green Force-baby just floats along in its little sleep pod while the rest of the galaxy, apparently, fights over who gets to be his caretaker.

The reason why is unknown, but the show’s latest episode, “The Sin,” provides viewers with a hint at what the Empire — or at least the remnants of the Empire — might be planning.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for the first three episodes of The Mandalorian and speculation about the rest of the plot.]

In The Mandalorian’s third episode, we get a glimpse of Dr. Pershing working on the captured Baby Yoda. For a split second, we also get a better look at his uniform. On it is a patch with an insignia that looks like one broken line with a dot at the top, next to another line. While this may not seem like much initially, it turns out it isn’t the first time we’ve seen it in Star Wars.

Lucasfilm

The emblem first shows up in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, when Obi-Wan visits the planet of Kamino. If you don’t remember that part ... well, you’re forgiven ... the movie is ... not great. Here’s a quick refresher: Kamino is the planet where scientists cloned the bounty hunter Jango Fett into an entire army to serve the Republic. (Fett, notably, wore Mandalorian armor, even though he wasn’t actually a Mandalorian, much like our hero, The Mandalorian.) On the arm of each of the clones’ uniforms, we can see this very same symbol that Dr. Pershing wears.

Lucasfilm

The two symbols look extremely similar, with the one difference being the horizontal line under the two vertical lines on Dr. Pershing’s sleeve. While we know that the Empire shut down the Kamino cloning facilities after taking control of the galaxy, that doesn’t necessarily mean it killed the cloning science. It seems possible that the Empire seized the technology and put it under their own control, thus the slight change in emblem.

Wait, is Baby Yoda a clone?

The Easter egg lends credibility to the the theory that Baby Yoda has something to do with cloning. This could be a hint that Baby Yoda really is a Yoda clone. Or it could mean that The Client wants to clone Baby Yoda. Perhaps that’s why they talk about “extracting material” from it. Either way, it’s also important to wonder who exactly is trying to get Baby Yoda as well.

Lucasfilm

Based on their Stormtrooper thugs, The Client and Dr. Pershing appear work for the remnants of the Empire; Werner Herzog’s character wears a necklace with the Empire’s emblem on it, after all. It’s possible that these two work for the same organization that will eventually become the First Order, or maybe they’re allegiances lie only with the Empire. Since The Rise of Skywalker’s trailers have already hinted at the idea that Emperor Palpatine isn’t really dead, perhaps The Client is working on his orders. There’s probably a reason why Disney Plus schedule the penultimate episode of season 1 before Rise of Skywalker and the finale after.

Whatever his intended purpose is, we’re sure to learn more about it as The Mandalorian continues. For now, we can just rest safe in the fact that Mando went back Baby Yoda and saved him from whatever clone-centric plot he’s involved in.