Did You Catch This Barriss Offee Easter Egg In 'Book Of Boba Fett'?
Back in a season 2 episode of The Mandalorian, Ahsoka Tano told Din Djarin, that The Child Grogu had been raised in the Jedi Temple and trained by many Jedi Masters. After the fall of the Order, he had to hide his powers for many years in order to survive. One of the many surprises of chapter 6 of The Book of Boba Fett was the scene where Grogu remembered the events around Order 66. Luke used a kind of mind-meld in order to unearth some of the memories that The Child had been hiding for so long.
In his vision we see him watching three Jedi being gunned down by a group of clone soldiers of the 501st legion during the siege of the Jedi Temple. After the Jedi were killed, the soldiers advanced towards Grogu. At this moment the vision ended.
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Ahsoka also told Djarin that Grogu was taken from the temple by someone and later hidden from the Empire. Although chapter 6 of The Book of Boba Fett did not reveal who this “someone” was, it seems that Dave Filoni, who directed this episode, might have given a clue in form of a blurred crest that can be seen on the left and right wall of the narrow corridor where Grogu witnessed the slaughter of his protectors.
It is not the first time that we saw these four diamonds forming a larger one beneath a feather-shaped arch: In the final episode of season 5 of The Clone Wars, "The Wrong Jedi," Anakin visited padawan Barriss Offee in order to find evidence that his own Padawan Ahsoka Tano was wrongly accused of murder and treason. This crest can clearly be seen both on Offee’s door as well as on the opposite wall and also inside Barriss’ quarters.
In fact, the structure of the corridor in Grogu’s vision looks very similar to that of "The Wrong Jedi," although the walls in the live-action show are more decorated than in the animated series.
Does this mean that Barriss Offee was involved in the rescue of Grogu? Only time will tell, but it would not be the first time that Dave Filoni subtly gave away the identity of a mysterious person, by revealing a symbol. In the episode “Out of Darkness” from season 1 of Star Wars Rebels, Hera Syndula and Sabine Wren visited an Old Republic base to meet with an informant named Fulcrum and to pick up some supplies. One of the crates carried this symbol:
Immediately after the episode, fans began to speculate that Fulcrum was none other than Ahsoka Tano as the symbol on the crate was similar to the markings on the forehead of the Togruta. It was only revealed much later in the season that Fulcrum actually was Ahsoka. Could Filoni be using the same trick again, revealing Grogu’s rescuer through a mere symbol?
When we last saw Barriss Offee she was in the custody of the Republic after admitting that she had committed the crimes that Ahsoka had been accused of because she had lost faith in the ways of the Jedi. Originally it was intended for her to die in her cell, but Filoni later changed his mind as he “had plans” for her. So far, these plans have not come to fruition as Offee neither appeared in subsequent seasons of The Clones Wars nor in Rebels. Like his mentor George Lucas, Filoni seldom throws ideas away, so it is quite possible that Luminara Unduli’s former Padawan might return in live-action as Grogu’s savior.
When Ahsoka Tano was put into custody, Tarkin insisted that she be tried under the jurisdiction of the Republic, not that of the Jedi, so one can assume that this also applied for Barriss Offee. During the chaos of Order 66 she could have escaped her prison, or more likely Palpatine saw the darkness inside of her and let her go, because, like Maul, he had other plans for her.
"The Wrong Jedi" showed that Offee was a skilled lightsaber fighter, but it was still unlikely that she would have stood her ground against a large group of clone soldiers when even three Jedi did not stand a chance. But if Sidious sent her there to pick up Grogu and had given the clones the order to not kill Offee and The Child, then she could have escaped unscathed.
Most of the rumors concerning Offee’s fate after the end of the Clone Wars focused on her becoming one of the Empire’s pawns, maybe even one of the Inquisitors who hunted down the remaining Jedi and gathered Force-sensitive children. Palpatine could have envisioned such a role for Barriss, but when she sensed the purity in Grogu and the chance to turn him into a Jedi who was not spoiled with the politics and intrigue of the Republic, she could have changed her mind. Instead of bringing him to Sidious, she could have gone into hiding with him.
Ahsoka told Djarin that Grogu’s memories were “dark” after he was rescued. Times must indeed have been difficult for a former Jedi who could not seek out the help of other survivors of Order 66 and was now being hunted by the Empire as well, for refusing Palpatine’s orders.
Of course, all of this is speculation just based on a symbol on a wall, but Dave Filoni surely did not put this symbol there unintentionally. The fact that Grogu’s vision was included in chapter 6 of The Book of Boba Fett is a strong indication that the identity of his savior may be revealed in the not-too-distant future. We probably will not get the answer in The Book of Boba Fett, but maybe in season 3 of The Mandalorian or in the Ahsoka series next year when Tano might meet her former friend Barriss Offee again.
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Source(s): The Direct, Twitter