The Mandalorian just delivered season 3’s first great episode
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
The Mandalorian season three's promotional material promised a lot of things. In the first full trailer, we saw sweeping shots of Mandalore and heard Din Djarin opine about how his people had been scattered across the stars.
Pedro Pascal himself told us that the season would focus on "expanding the lore around Mandalore and including more characters", noting how "The Creed and the culture around it have so many interesting facets that are relatable, and to get more into the flesh of that, under the armour, is fascinating."
Unfortunately, by episode six it was looking unlikely we would get anything close to the kind of thoughtful exploration of Mandalore, its history and its divided people the show was teeing up.
In fact, we weren't really close to getting much of anything. We'd spent limited time with the show's core cast, and the way that Grogu returned in The Book of Boba Fett meant any work on developing the bond between everyone's favourite little green freak and his dad was handled off-screen.
Sure, we learned a little more about the Children of the Watch and saw Bo-Katan being embraced by The Armorer, but it was all fairly shallow. We didn't see much of life underneath the Mandalorian armor, and we didn't learn the importance of The Creed or why it appeals.
Perhaps most notable was the way the show bungled the passing of the Dark Saber back to Bo-Katan, especially since the potential rivalry between her and Din was the major narrative cliffhanger of season two. To be honest, we spent longer than we should have whizzing around planets, meeting Lizzo and scaring off pirates.
We understand that the 'side quest' element of The Mandalorian is key to the show's identity. But we're three seasons in and the stakes have been laid out: Moff Gideon is out there, the Empire is stirring, Mandalorians need a new home and a new ruler. The show's reluctance to move any of these forward left us asking "what are we doing here" more than once.
Enter episode seven. The episode kicks off with Moff Gideon, returning in person to the show, holding a Zoom meeting with a group of Imperial bigwigs to plot their next steps. Beyond setting up the presence of Grand Admiral Thrawn and attempting to explain the immortal "somehow Palpatine returns" line, the show catches us up with Gideon and fairly elegantly sets up his role for the finale.
To be honest, it feels like a great opening scene for the season and got us quite excited to see Giancarlo Esposito chew some scenery – it's just a shame there's only one episode to go.
The rest of the episode does a brilliant job delivering on the promise of The Mandalorian's third season by putting the two remaining tribes of Mandalore in close proximity.
The cult-like Children of the Watch and Bo-Katan's old mercenary troop make for strange bedfellows, and the tension between the two groups could have made for plenty of interesting stories. Luckily we see this idea borne out in episode seven, starting with the revelations Bo-Katan makes about Mandalore's final days, and Din Djarin's response to them.
At dinner on a pretty awesome sand-ship, Bo-Katan says "I did surrender. After our forces were annihilated in the Night of a Thousand Tears and defeat was imminent, I met with Moff Gideon. In exchange for submitting to the Empire and disarming, all remaining cities and Mandalorian lives were to be spared. I didn't trust him, but it was the only chance I had to save our people."
Later on, a quiet moment between Din and Bo-Katan offers a window into how the two tribes grew so far apart, and what might bring them together in the future.
Din shares that the Watch had blinders on about the remaining Mandalorians from the start, saying "We were taught that everyone but us had forsaken the Way. That you were selfish and uncaring." To which Bo-Katan replies "You were right. I was selfish. And this is what it wrought."
This moment of honest communication is actually one of The Mandalorian's most well-written and believable scenes. When Bo says that she doesn't know how to keep their groups together and that "this blade is all I have to unify our people," it's genuinely moving.
This vulnerability goes such a long way to characterising both her and Din, giving us a much-needed glimpse into their internal struggles.
Din reassuring her that who wields the Dark Saber doesn't matter to the Watch and that "honor, and loyalty and character are the reasons I serve you, Lady Kryze" feels like actual character progression – a big step forward from the wooden dialogue between the two at the beginning of the season.
'The Spies' also gives us glimpses into Mandalorian culture and history through surprisingly natural dialogue and small scenes in between its big set pieces.
When one of the injured Mandalorians the group encounters asks The Armorer whether The Children of the Watch are 'Death Watch', a long-standing paramilitary organisation that endured both the Clone Wars and the rise of the Empire, she replies "[Death Watch] shattered into many warring factions."
Bo-Katan follows up by declaring "Our people have suffered time and again from division and squabbling factions. Mandalore has always been too powerful for any enemy to defeat, but it is always our own division that destroys us."
It's a small moment that answers a tiny question for super nerds (where did Death Watch go?) but also characterises Mandalore clearly. These little tidbits of lore and storytelling sustained fans through many of the Filoni-verse shows, and this episode proves that the technique still works.
One final small moment that sums up what makes this episode great is the game of space chess being played by Paz Vizsla (sad) and Axe Woves. The pair bicker over their competing house rules, "only the wing guard can flank jump", and turn a friendly competition into a brawl.
Their disagreement on sanctioned tactics is a clear metaphor for how the groups have divergent philosophies on Mandalorian culture, hammered home by Woves saying "These primitives have their own rules for everything."
It's the sort of scene that begs a follow-up. What did the pair say to each other afterward? What did their dinner prep look like the night before?
These small, defining moments go a long way to making the Mandalorians feel like real people, but it's a shame we only get our first taste near the end of season three.
The Mandalorian season 3 is streaming on Disney+, with new episodes on Wednesdays.
You Might Also Like
