This article contains spoilers for The Mandalorian season 3, episode 3.The Mandalorian season 3 brought back Katy O'Brian as a former Imperial named Elia Kane, and a new theory suggests she's actually a Force-sensitive. Katy O'Brian made her Star Wars debut as an Imperial comms officer in The Mandalorian season 2, working for Giancarlo Esposito's Moff Gideon. Most viewers assumed she would never be seen again after Moff Gideon was defeated and taken to the Republic, but she returned in The Mandalorian season 3, episode 3. Now named Elia Kane, her character initially presented herself as a repentant Imperial going through the Republic Amnesty Program, but she soon proved to have her own sinister agenda.
While it's possible Elia Kane is simply a minor villain, appearing in The Mandalorian season 3, episode 3 and never again, but that would be a waste of O'Brian's talent. Elia Kane was a truly sinister villain, able to switch from an apparently spontaneous friend to a cool and calculated traitor. An exciting new theory, one that spins out rather well from the episode itself, suggests Kane may well be more than she appears - and, in fact, that she may be a Force-sensitive.
Elia Kane's Character Is Accompanied By Sithly Music
The Mandalorian serves as the bridge between the original trilogy and the sequels, and season 3, episode 3 stressed that point with distinctive musical cues. Attentive viewers noted the joy of John Williams' "March of the Resistance," a key theme from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Curiously, though, Elia Kane's scenes were accompanied by music evocative of the themes of Palpatine and Supreme Leader Snoke. This curious decision helped set up Kane's treachery from the start, hinting there was more to her than meets the eye.
There are actually striking (and deliberate) parallels between Kane's betrayal of Dr. Pershing and Palpatine's manipulation of Anakin Skywalker - a point emphasized by showing Dr. Pershing present a speech at a Coruscant opera house last seen in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, where Palpatine manipulated Anakin by telling him the story of Darth Plagueis the Wise. Elia Kane is shown to be present at this speech, as though scoping out her target. She then goes to great lengths to earn her trust, ensuring he sees her as a spontaneous free spirit and never questions her motives. Kane ultimately betrays Dr. Pershing, of course, ensuring his mind is flayed - presumably wiping all knowledge of the Empire's cloning program. This naturally suggests she's a double agent, planted inside the New Republic to serve the Empire.
It seems odd that a mere Imperial comms operative would be so skilled at subterfuge. The Sithly music accompanying Elia Kane may not just hint she is still working for the Empire; rather, she could potentially be working for Palpatine himself. Dr. Pershing's speech at the opera house in The Mandalorian season 3, episode 3 unwittingly foreshadows Palpatine's own return, after all, explaining why the Emperor would want him killed.
Elia Kane's True Nature May Be Hidden In Plain Sight
It's reasonable to assume Kane told Dr. Pershing a lot of lies to earn her trust - but the best lies contain a germ of truth. Palpatine is confirmed to have had Force-sensitive children kidnapped by Darth Vader and his Inquisitors during the Dark Times of the Empire's reign, and he had these children indoctrinated to become agents of the dark side. Many became part of Project Harvester, a project that saw Palpatine try to focus the minds of others through the Force to receive visions of the future; others were likely sent to the ancient Sith redoubt of Exegol, becoming part of the Sith Eternal cult Palpatine established there. Elia Kane claimed to have had no choice about her future when she was a child, and she said she was brought up on Coruscant - the Emperor's throneworld.
Palpatine never cared much about the Rule of Two, playing fast and loose with it, and it would be perfectly in keeping for him to have trained some of these Force-sensitive children to be his agents in the galaxy. There's even a rough parallel with the old Star Wars Expanded Universe, where Palpatine had several agents known as the Emperor's Hands - the most famous of which is Mara Jade, the Legends character who became Luke Skywalker's wife. The concept of the Emperor's Hand was introduced in Timothy Zahn's "Thrawn trilogy," the books that seem to be having such a massive influence on The Mandalorian and its related projects, so it would be exciting to see Lucasfilm incorporate it into the lore in some way.
If this theory is correct, Elia Kane was taken by Darth Vader and his Inquisitors when she was just a child, and serves the Emperor personally - explaining the musical cue. She was presumably placed on board Moff Gideon's ship to monitor him, and was subsequently assigned to Coruscant to have Dr. Pershing killed. Hopefully this theory does indeed become a reality, setting Kane up to become a dangerous threat in The Mandalorian season 3.
Episodes of The Mandalorian release Wednesdays on Disney+.