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A couple of weeks ago, The Mandalorian ended with the revelation that Moff Gideon had been rescued or perhaps even taken by Mandalorians. That prompted fans to wonder if there might be a traitor within Din Djarin's ranks, but the truth was finally revealed in "The Spies" yesterday.
Moff Gideon is once again in charge of his slice of what remains of the Empire and has created a new class of Stormtroopers who are wearing Beskar armour. Similar in appearance to the Mandalorians who were loyal to the Empire in The Clone Wars, their suits also have elements that are at least somewhat reminiscent of what First Order Stormtroopers wore in the sequels.
At the end of this week's episode, Bo-Katan Kryze, Din Djarin, Grogu, and their fellow Mandalorians are attacked by these Stormtroopers and, as you might expect, quickly overcome by them.
It's then that Gideon arrives wearing his own suit of Mandalorian armour!
He intends to create a new Mandalore which he rules over. Explaining that he's created the next generation of Dark Trooper armour, his suit is forged from Beskar and makes him a force to be reckoned with. Gideon goes on to say he's aggregated the best of Cloners, the Jedi, and Mandalorians to create an army that will bring "order" to the Galaxy.
We know the First Order Stormtroopers weren't clones, so does that mean the soldiers wearing those fancy new suits are Force-Sensitive clones? It's a compelling possibility, though there's always a chance we haven't seen this final army yet.
What is clear is that Gideon is not working for Grand Admiral Thrawn (the beginning of "The Spies" establishes that he doesn't even believe he will return). We're now having our doubts about whether he's even partly responsible for the creation of Supreme Leader Snoke as his cloning interests are seemingly selfish.
These aren't the only familiar foes we see in this episode, of course, and you can find out more about them right here.