the episode to me. The title of the episode was "The Believer". That directly refers to Mayfield, but also applies to Din and the Imperial officer.

Mayfield started off the episode talking about there being no difference between the Empire and the New Republic - with both being "ruling" entities. But then during that conversation with Hess he's reminded about the atrocities of the Empire killing thousands of it's own officers and loyal citizens, with Hess being proud of it. Mayfield gets converted into being a "believer.

In that same conversation, we see that Hess is a true believer in the ideals of the Empire. It wasn't just a job to him, but a belief system. Even after Palpatine was gone and the Empire had fallen, he still believed that the Empire was right, and that people really wanted/needed "order" - even if that meant losing their lives to make that happen.

Finally you have Din, who has been going through a full season arc of questioning his beliefs. Really it's been a two season arc - he's a completely different person now vs the beginning of the series when he was a ruthless bounty hunter living by the creed of the Children of the Watch. Meeting Bo-Katan and realizing that his belief system has been set by what is a cult has him rethinking his beliefs. Then in this episode Mayfield directly questions his beliefs with the question of whether he can't take off his helmet or he can't show his face. When he shows his face to the terminal, we see that he's willing to let more and more of that belief system go to get Grogu back. Speaking of Grogu - notice that over the last few episodes he's moved away from talking about the quest of getting him to a Jedi, and more towards treating him as his son.

This was some really good, tight storytelling. Props to Rick F. on the writing and direction.