As has been the case throughout the whole season of The Book of Boba Fett, we got a flashback sequence in Chapter 6 exploring more of what happened to a familiar character before they appeared in this series.
But this time, it wasn’t with Boba Fett – it was Grogu.
The beloved child was one of the stars of the first two seasons of The Mandalorian, and he took center stage in Chapter 6 of The Book of Boba Fett as well, starring alongside Luke Skywalker. As he trains with Luke, the Jedi Master asks him if he’d like to remember back home, and Luke helps him do so. We then see a flashback to Order 66, as the 501st clone troopers kill Jedi in the Temple. Grogu sits in his basket while three Jedi protect him, but they are quickly killed. The flashback ends as the clones spot Grogu and move toward him. Luke uses this as an opportunity to remind Grogu that the galaxy is a dangerous place (which I’m pretty sure Grogu already knows), and Luke tells him that he can help Grogu protect himself.
We were told the broad strokes of what happened to Grogu in The Mandalorian season two, when Ahsoka Tano told Din Djarin about it after communing with the child through the Force:
“He was raised at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Many masters trained him over the years. At the end of the Clone Wars, when the Empire rose to power, he was hidden. Someone took him from the Temple. Then his memory becomes… dark. He seemed lost. Alone.”
Now we’ve actually gotten a chance to see that happening, as we once again saw the tragedy of Order 66 unfolding on-screen. But there’s still a lot we don’t know – like, for example, who these three Jedi were that were protecting Grogu! Many people have pointed out that the lead Jedi here looks a lot like Cin Drallig, who led the Jedi Temple Guard leading up to and during the Clone Wars – and it really does. But the problem with that theory is that in Revenge of the Sith, we see Drallig and two padawans dueling Darth Vader as they tried to defend the Temple. So it’s pretty hard to get around that one, since Vader surely wouldn’t have let them live, and since they seem pretty clearly to be killed here. So it seems most likely that we just don’t know who these Jedi are, but that they were apparently trying to protect Grogu.
They died trying to do that, however, so what we don’t know is who actually did take Grogu from the Jedi Temple. Although there’s one really interesting clue in the flashback that, whether it’s a clue or not, is an intriguing easter egg at the very least. And it’s that the crest seen on the wall on either side of the hallway in this scene is a crest that we’ve seen before: in The Clone Wars episode “The Wrong Jedi,” where we see it in Barriss Offee’s quarters, on the door and on the carpet.
In the days following this episode’s premiere, Wookieepedia has changed the labeling of this as an “unidentified crest” instead of “Barriss Offee’s crest,” so they’re attempting to clarify some of this. And it also should be noted that this crest is seen on the door opposite of Barriss’s quarters as well, so it’s not quite as simple as saying it’s obviously hers. However, the crest does bear a resemblance to the Mirialan tattoos that Offee and others of her species wear, and the fact that it’s notably present in her quarters and not really seen elsewhere (at least not yet) is quite interesting. It’s possible that this is just a fun easter egg and that the crest refers to something more generic rather than specific, but it also wouldn’t be a surprise if Dave Filoni had more up his sleeve with this than he’s letting on right now. At Celebration 2015, during a panel about the unfinished tales of The Clone Wars (when, incidentally, the arc about Boba Fett and Cad Bane was also discussed), Filoni revealed that Barriss was originally supposed to die at the end of “The Wrong Jedi,” blowing up her own prison cell, but that he changed it. Why? “I didn’t want that fate for Barriss, so I cut that part,” he said. “I had plans for Barriss.”
There were a lot of plans for The Clone Wars that Filoni never got to fulfill, but in the years since the series was cancelled he’s been able to work them into other stories (as well as the final season of the show) – including, perhaps, The Book of Boba Fett with Bane and Boba? He’s intentional about these things, so we can never say never… and having this crest show up again could be more than just a coincidence or a fun easter egg. What if it’s actually Barriss who takes Grogu from the Jedi Temple? That would require quite a bit of explaining, as Barriss should be in a Republic prison at this point, and even if she did manage to escape, why would she return to the Jedi Temple?
So I’d say that I’m intrigued by the possibility of Barriss being connected somehow, but still not totally sold on it. What I do think is worth mentioning here is that Ahsoka says Grogu was taken from the Temple, but that then his memory turns dark and he was all alone – that doesn’t have to mean that he was rescued by a good guy. In fact, I wonder if his memory going dark could be because he wasn’t rescued but was taken by people with less than noble motives? What if Grogu wasn’t actually rescued at all, but these clones took him under orders from Palpatine?
Basically, there’s still a lot we don’t know, but this flashback did show us the tragedy that Grogu encountered as a child, and why he’s only just now beginning to open up to the Force once again.
Star Wars Thoughts 