The Mandalorian Season Three Review
Article contains brief summaries of seasons one and two of the Mandalorian, and minor spoilers for the beginning of season three.
Article contains brief summaries of seasons one and two of the Mandalorian, and minor spoilers for the beginning of season three.
The Mandalorian season three premiered March 1, 2023 on Disney Plus. It features the return of Din Djarin (The Mandalorian) and Grogu, who were last seen in the back half of The Book of Boba Fett. Returning with Din and Grogu are multiple characters from the first two seasons of the show. The show continues exploring the Star Wars Galaxy post Return of the Jedi, but before The Force Awakens.
For a brief review, season one of The Mandalorian introduced Din Djarin, who usually goes by the title of “The Mandalorian” for most of the show. At the very beginning of the show, we follow the Mandalorian on one of his bounty hunting missions. What’s routine to him, the audience is seeing for the first time. After his first mission, the Mandalorian gets a job to go retrieve an unknown treasure of some kind.
To summarize, the treasure is Grogu, “Baby Yoda” at first, to most fans. The Mandalorian retrieves Grogu, handing him over to a mysterious, Imperial organization that wants to study him. Once he realizes they intend to hurt Grogu, he ends up deciding to rescue the child. From there, season one covers most of their adventures throughout the galaxy, and ends with a finale of ex-empire troops trying to kidnap Grogu.
Season two is much the same, though we encounter characters from the Clone Wars animated series such as Ahsoka Tano and Bo-Katan. It was the first time both characters were seen in a live action TV show, and an exciting time to be a Star Wars fan. Season two also had one of the most emotional and spectacular endings of any Star Wars show ever.
And lastly, The Book of Boba Fett basically became The Mandalorian season 2.5 in the second half of its show. In the Book of Boba Fett, what you need to know is that Din Djarin visits his Mandalorian creed to find he’s been exiled. It sets up the context for episodes one and two. Additionally, he gets a new ship, which is seen in the opening episodes of season three.
In season three, The Mandaorian and Grogu are back on a mission. Din Djarin is trying to redeem himself in the eyes of his creed. To do so, the leader of his creed tells him needs to go back to the world of Mandalore and bathe in “the living waters below the mines.”
Before visiting Mandalore, Djarin makes a quick visit to Bo-Katan Kryze, another Mandalorian from a different creed. She tells him that Mandalore isn’t poisoned, but that there’s also nothing special about the living waters.
Unsure of whether or not he believes her, Djarin realizes he’s going to need a droid to help him explore the world regardless of whether it’s poisoned or not. Since he hates droids, Djarin only has one in mind that he trusts to help him. He visits the town of Nevarro to try and repair a droid who blew itself in the finale of season one.
Learning that he can’t repair the droid unless he gets certain parts, Djarin and Grogu go to visit their mechanic friend, Peli Motto, on Tatooine. They pick up an astromech–the same kind of droid that R2-D2 is–and abandon their plans to repair the other droid. In episode two, Djarin and Grogu end up exploring the world of Mandalore. When things go wrong, it’s up to Grogu to help save the day.
Episode three of the episode takes a turn we’ve never seen before. We get a brief action scene with The Mandalorians, before turning to follow the former Imperial Doctor Pershing, who appeared briefly in season one. He was the scientist who wanted to study Grogu, before him and his cronies were taken down by the Mandalorian.
Pershing is re-established as this relatable, yet somewhat awkward scientist. He just wants to move on from the life he lived with the Empire,
From the moment Pershing is introduced, most of the episodes are just boring and awkward. They take the awkwardness way too far. The camera angles, the characters, the action, the dialogue, the way that characters interact, everything. There’s no way to overstate just how awkward the entire thing feels. The only positive of Pershing’s brief episode is that we get a look into the New Republic, and the Imperial amnesty program.
The New Republic is shown in a morally gray light, and we learn that they aren’t exactly “the good guys” post Return of the Jedi.
Despite the awkwardness, Pershing’s plot actually has an interesting twist ending, before we begin following Djarin and Grogu again.
With the exception of the third episode, season three of the Mandalorian has started off great. Episode one is funny, and it’s awesome seeing Grogu and his surrogate father reunited. Episode two has some tense moments, and fans finally get a look into Mandalore since it was bombed after the Clone Wars. The final and eighth episode of The Mandalorian drops April 19. It’s been rumored that there’s a surprise on the scale of what we saw in season two finale, but nothing’s been confirmed.
