Before Bo-Katan Kryze rescued Din Djarin from the Living Waters on The Mandalorian, no one had seen a mythosaur in many millennia. It has been so long not even the Armorer believes the famed creature and symbol of her people still exists. But rather than share her discovery in “The Convert,” Bo-Katan kept her miraculous mythosaur sighting to herself. More surprising, though, is that she (at least temporarily) enlisted with the Watch and adopted The Way. Why wouldn’t she tell anyone about the mythosaur, but join up with religious zealots? Because Bo-Katan is smart. She knows who she is, what she’s done, and what her fellow warriors think of her. And she also knows the mythosaur just changed everything she thought she knew about being a Mandalorian.
Bo-Katan’s history is one of tragedy, failure, and death. Daughter of the royal family, she served the terrorist sect Death Watch (precursor to the Watch) and fought against her own sister’s pacifist regime. That ended with Darth Maul taking control of the planet and the death of her sister. Bo-Katan fought back against Maul and became ruler of Mandalore herself, but she quickly lost her throne when the Empire came to power. Her second reign as Mand’alor many years later, which came after she accepted the Darksaber rather than winning it in combat, ended even worse. Moff Gideon destroyed the planet and killed millions, scattering the few remaining Mandalorians among the stars.
The Armorer believes Bo-Katan’s dishonorable acceptance of the Darksaber doomed their ancestral home. And most recently, the few remaining Mandalorians who followed Bo-Katan abandoned her when she returned without the legendary weapon.
No surprise then that she didn’t tell Din Djarin or anyone else about what she found in the Living Waters. Despite her bravery in battle and her unfailing commitment to her people, Bo-Katan’s past makes her the last Mandalorian in the galaxy anyone would believe saw a mythosaur. Such an outrageous claim would sound like the pathetic attempts of a disgraced ruler to regain her status and power. It would appear as a desperate ploy to compensate for not possessing the Darksaber and the right to rule it bestows on its owner. for Bo-Katan to say she saw a mythosaur—something she’s having a hard time believing herself—would make her sound like a fraud on The Mandalorian. At best. And she’s painfully aware of that undeniable fact.
That’s why Bo-Katan’s first reaction was to ask Din if he saw anything rather than just tell him about the mythosaur or even celebrate her awesome discovery. Even he wouldn’t believe her. It would be hard for anyone to convince others they actually saw a mythosaur. But no Mandalorian has less credibility among their own people than Bo-Katan.
At least she now has some people, though. Bo-Katan’s rescue of Din Djarin redeemed her in the eyes of the Watch. It does not matter that she did not “walk The Way” before. Bo-Katan technically bathed in the Living Waters. So long as she does not remove her helmet, she is now one of them. And as such, she is now a member of a clan once again.
The offer—made with sincerity and celebrated by all (minus Paz Vizsla)—couldn’t have happened at a better time, either. With the other Nite Owls abandoning her as their leader, and those Imperial bombers leaving her family’s castle on Kalevala in ruins, Bo-Katan suddenly found herself with neither friends nor home on The Mandalorian. She now has both. All she has to do—for as long as she can or must—is accept a way of life she finds absurd. It’s a partnership of convenience, one she was smart to enter into. She needs the Watch for now.
But something beyond pragmatism was almost certainly also going through Bo-Katan’s mind during her induction. She might not find those ancient ways as ridiculous as she once did. Even for a secular Mandalorian like Bo-Katan, the sight of a mythosaur must have shaken her to the core. If mythosaurs are not only real but still alive on Mandalore, what other ancient tales are also true? Is The Way truly the only creed to live by? If so, Bo-Katan might truly become a convert because she thinks the Watch might be right about everything. If they are, that would include the prophecy that the return of the mythosaur presages a new dawn for Mandalore. That’s all she wants in life, even more than another reign as Mand’alor.
For Bo-Katan, whose life is one of disappointment and sadness, seeing that giant ancient beast changed everything she “knew” about the old tales. What else might she have been wrong about? Until she finds out, and until Bo-Katan has a moment to sit with all of this and ponder what that mythosaur means for her and all Mandalorians, it’s probably best for her to keep two things: her secret and her helmet on.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike, and also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.
