The Mandalorian Season 3 Finale Theory Points to Huge Villain Twist

This Star Wars: The Mandalorian article contains spoilers.

As we dust off our best beskar armor and head to the Great Forge on Mandalore, The Mandalorian is poised to deliver the biggest finale of the show’s three-season run. More than just the inevitable battle between Moff Gideon and Bo-Katan Kryze — presumably with the latter riding in on a Mythosaur, right? — fans are also predicting a villainous reveal that would rock Mandalore to its core.

Since her arrival in The Mandalorian premiere, Emily Swallow’s stoic Armorer has become a staple of the series despite never revealing her face or true name. While there have been plenty of theories about which famed Mandalorian is presumably hiding under the majestic horned helmet, “The Spies” might’ve just set up an Armorer twist for the ages.

As a quick refresher, “The Spies” featured the Armorer’s covert and Bo-Katan’s forces journeying to the Great Forge on Mandalore. But they’re caught in an ambush, with Gideon and his troop of beskar-clad Imperial commandos having turned the former heart of Mandalorian society into his new base of operations. Interestingly enough, just before Din Djarin and company are trapped by Gideon underground, the Armorer conveniently flies back to the Mandalorian fleet to treat injured survivors they encountered on the planet’s surface.

Although some fans think the episode’s title, “The Spies,” refers to Elia Kane snooping on the New Republic for Gideon and the top-secret Imperial Shadow Council, the idea that the Armorer is also Team Moff has been picking up traction online. But who is she? Long before this latest development, there were wild theories she would turn out to be a live-action version of Rook Kast. Appearing as a villain in The Clone Wars, Rook Kast was a Mandalorian warrior who was a member of Death Watch as well as Maul’s Shadow Collective. She, alongside another Mandalorian named Gar Saxon, aided Maul’s takeover of Mandalore in the final years of the Clone Wars, helping him dethrone and kill Bo-Katan’s sister Duchess Satine.

The Mandalorian episode 7 gives a major wink to the Armorer being Kast when she confirms the Children of the Watch tribe of religious extremists she now leads were formed from the ashes of Death Watch. Whereas Bo-Katan left the rogue Death Watch when Maul took charge and absorbed it into the Shadow Collective, Rook Kast remained loyal to the cause until the end of the Clone Wars. Her ultimate fate after being captured by Bo-Katan and the Republic during the Siege of Mandalore that finally deposed Maul is currently unknown. It’s very possible Rook escaped and assumed the role of the Armorer to hide under a helmet.

Some fans have actually pointed to the Armorer’s helmet having similar horns to Maul’s signature look as a key clue to her true identity. If you remember from the Clone Wars, Gar Saxon also wore a helmet with horns to signify his affiliation with Maul’s group, while Gideon’s new and improved Dark Trooper beskar suit and helmet echo this design as well. The fact that Gideon and the Armorer both favor this specific helmet design does seem suspicious, even if Gideon has nothing to do with Maul. Tying everything together, Gideon’s new Imperial commandos also call back to the Mandalorian ones who served under Rook Kast and Gar Saxon.

The conspiracy goes deeper than that, though. Earlier in The Mandalorian season 3, the Armorer allowed Bo-Katan to remove her helmet and encouraged Kryze to make peace with Axe Woves and her former followers. This eventually led to Din Djarin handing over the Darksaber so that Bo-Katan could assert her claim to rule Mandalore, just before the Armorer decreed everyone should now head on over to their ravaged homeworld…where they’re ultimately ambushed by the Empire. As Gideon says once he’s sprung the trap, “Thank you for gathering the Mandalorians in one place.” Is that a wink at his accomplice who’s now safely off-world?

If the fleet of Mandalorian ships is decimated in the finale, viewers might assume the Armorer is dead, perfectly setting up a shocking twist at the end of the episode where she returns to reveal she’s been Rook Kast all along and has been helping Gideon manipulate events in secret. After all, since her late colleague Gar Saxon had no issue serving the Empire after the end of the Clone Wars, it stands to reason Rook would have similar affiliations. And The Mandalorian has shown with everyone from Fennec Shand to Boba Fett, Luke to Ahsoka, Bo-Katan to Grand Admiral Thrawn, that the Mandoverse loves a surprise comeback, so the Rook theory at least seems plausible in that sense.

Since we know Kryze has so much history with Rook, we question why Bo-Katan hasn’t clocked the Armorer’s voice, but then again, no one realized Darth Vader was a charred Anakin Skywalker…or that a maskless Ben Kenobi was secretly Obi-Wan Kenobi. This is par for the course in Star Wars. While it’s entirely possible the Armorer is some random Mandalorian or a redeemed Kast trying to atone for her past sins, it’ll be a much more dramatic finale twist to give her a Ghostface-inspired reveal as Gideon’s right-hand woman. Either way, director Rick Famuyiwa is surely hoping to top the jaw-dropping arrival of Luke Skywalker in season 2, so we should expect a few surprises next week.

The Mandalorian season 3 streams Wednesdays on Disney+.