To paraphrase Shmi Skywalker, “you can’t stop Star Wars fans from hating Star Wars, anymore than you can stop the suns from setting.” After two shockingly well-regarded seasons of The Mandalorian, Star Wars fans reverted back to their feral state and turned on the show. Among a vocal and persistent swath of the fandom season three of the show is considered a turning point for both the show and really the whole Disney+ era and from here on in the response to new Star Wars projects has been mostly hysterically negative (The Acolyte) or apathetic (Skeleton Crew, The Bad Batch, Visions, Ahsoka) or in the case of Andor, hysterically positive. As we await imminent theatrical return of Star Wars on the big screen, the Disney+ experiment seems to be over.
Now that's not to say that the season is not without its flaws. Even for a show that has been notable from the beginning for its herky-jerky pacing and emphasis on weird side-quests, season three of The Mandalorian takes a lot of unexpected detours. Some of this is to do the heavy work to establish some important plot points for the overarching New Republic storyline shared by the other Mandoverse shows. This show is from the director of Iron Man 2, after all. And some of the other excursions are just…weird. But Star Wars should be weird, so that’s okay.
Some have complained about the ascension of Bo Katan as almost a co-lead this season. I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all. I have always been of the opinion that the Mandalorian monicker does not exclusively refer to Din Djarin. I enjoy Bo Katan’s relationship with Mando and Grogu and the way the three seem to be forming a family unit in this season. Besides, Bo Katan is also an important character to help tell the larger story of the reunion of the Mandalorian people, a story she has been involved with since The Clone Wars and Rebels. And this larger story of the Mandalorian people is a major focus of season three.
This show was clearly never going to be about Din Djarin becoming the Mand'alore but there is a certain segment of men online who project their insecurity onto fictional characters and view Mando’s support of Bo Katan and disinterest in ruling as some kind of weakness. For some men, a male character who is not a total dick, is somehow a “cuck” or a victim of “wokeness.” Sigh.
While season three may lack the simplicity and focus on the prior seasons, it is stuffed to the gills with awesome Star Wars and brings the first phase of the story of the Mandalorian to a satisfying close. Also there are lots of cool connections to the wider Mandoverse and Star Wars lore in general and also does a lot to characterize the reality of the New Republic, the government established by the Rebel Alliance after the war. The season features some interesting references to the Sequel Trilogy and helps to lay some much needed groundwork for those later movies. There are awesome new creatures, troopers, and other characters. There is even what is perhaps the greatest and most meaningful cameo in the history of Star Wars. More on that here.
We start off with the Children of the Watch who have replenished their numbers and moved to what is essentially Space Australia—beautiful oceanfront property that is riddled with deadly prehistoric fauna. Din has located the community but because he had previously removed his helmet, he is considered an “apostate” and is tasked to bathe in the waters of the mines of Mandalore to redeem himself, a difficult proposition since that planet has been bombed into oblivion and believed to be uninhabitable.
In order to do this, Mando decides he need a droid to help him navigate the ruins and he returns to Nevarro with the idea to restore IG-11 the bounty-hunter turned nanny who sacrificed himself to save Din and company at the end of season one. The Mandalorian famously dislikes droids, so this was an important relationship for him. En route and in hyperspace, Grogu notices a pod of Purrgils—hyperspace capable whale-like creatures—which figure prominently into both Rebels and Ahsoka. Indeed, it’s possibly the same set of Purrgils that Ahsoka rides to Peridia in the first season of her show.
Once on Nevarro we see how much the location has changed since its gritty introduction in season one. Nevarro has been a hub of the series from the beginning, in the same way Tatooine is in the Skywalker saga. Here Grief Carga (the dearly-missed Carl Weathers) has led the town into a new prosperity and respectability, despite pirates hovering around on the periphery. Mando is told by the local tiny Anzellan droidsmiths (think Rise of Skywalker’s Babu Frik) that he would need to find a new memory board to restore IG-11 and they are very rare. Side quest granted.
Mando then visits Bo Katan to join her on an expedition to Mandalore only to find her alone and embittered after her forces left her when she failed to acquire the Darksaber, which Mando still carries. Remember for a certain sect of Mandalorians, possession of the Darksaber is seen as a designation of leadership and it can only be won by combat. Ironically, among Din’s community neither bloodlines or possession of the Darksaber are valued, only faithful observation of The Creed. Indeed, most of them are not even connected to Mandalore. This season is very much an exploration of what it means to be a Mandalorian. Alone and defeated, Bo Katan sends Din on his way.
Their quest for a droid takes them back to Tattooine and frequent ally/babysitter Pelli Motto. It is Boonta Eve in Mos Eisley and Pelli gives Mando a deal on a new droid, none other than R5-D4, the droid Owen Lars almost bought instead of R2D2 in A New Hope. R5 has a storied history in the old Expanded Universe, a various times having been a Rebel asset who blew his motivator on purpose to ensure R2 got to Luke or even "Skippy the Jedi Droid." The EU was certainly a vibe.
Mando, R5, and Grogu head to Mandalore to begin their search for the Living Waters but Mando is trapped and captured by a truly gnarly creature, a gross cyborg who traps him and begins to drain his blood. Grogu makes his way back to the ship and heads off to get Bo Katan. Let's talk about this awesome creature for a second. It is Star Wars in the best possible way in that it is weird and beautifully designed and leaves you asking more questions than it answers. A truly good Star Wars design should leave you speculating and leave your imagination spinning off wild back stories. It should be provocative and imaginative enough so that people are writing comics about it years later. I think this design is that cool.
Bo Katan and Grogu return to Mandalore and rescue Din Djarin, with Bo Katan expertly wielding the Darksaber which the cyborg had removed from Mando. Mando's faith and earnestness begins to pull Bo Katan from her funk and she agrees to help him find the mines. They make their way to the there and both descend into its waters with Bo Katan getting a glimpse of the legendary Mythosaur, seen as a symbol of the Mandalorian people and their rebirth.
They return to the Mandalorian culvert in Space Australia and Bo Katan joins them after the Empire destroys her castle. She spends some time with these Mandalorians and learns their ways...which are weird and involve a lot of shooting their guns into the water for no reason. For example, we learn that these fundamentalist Mandos cannot even eat in front of one another. Their rules seem super arbitrary and impractical. Like can married couples see each other unhelmeted? Do they wear their helmets during sex? Make it stop. It's so dumb.
Meanwhile the aforementioned pirates have invaded Nevarro and Grief Carga petitions the New Republic for help. However, the show makes it clear that the New Republic suuuucks. This is some decent table setting for the sequel trilogy, in which the New Republic's failures have allowed it to fall prey to the First Order. We spend a decent amount of time on Corscant this season. First following the cloner Dr. Pershing in the New Republic amnesty program, which shows us that the grinding bureaucracy of the New Republic is not that much better than that of the Empire.
These sequences have some ominous THX-1138 vibes and Pershing is subjected to dehumanizing droid-led "counseling sessions" and eventually torture after he is framed by another reformed Imperial who is secretly working for the remnant. Later, X-Wing pilot Carson Teva attempts to rally New Republic forces to assist Nevarro and he is rebuffed partially by the same Imperial agent who has infiltrated the New Republic military.
Teva then turns to the Mandalorians, who defeat the pirates and liberate Nevarro in a thrilling sequence. It is awesome to see so many Mandos in action kicking pirate ass. Despite being granted land to live openly on Nevarro, the Armorer-who is the spiritual leader of the Children of the Watch-decides that it is time to retake Mandalore and unite the Mandalorian people. She grants Bo Katan the freedom to remove her helmet, stating that she "walks both paths" and can "unite the Mandalorian people." Um...okay. Can she make it so that everyone can take off their helmets? Cause the helmet rule is super dumb.
In the weirdest episode of the season-and the one that some people refer to as proof that the show lost its way this season-Mando and Bo Katan track her former Mandalorian followers to a planet called Plazir-15 and a city that looks like Epcot Center concept art. It is a utopian city and as we are reminded several times, a "direct democracy."
This episode is so quirky that I think it was secretly directed by George Lucas. It is so weird that its opening scene ends with a Quarren and a Mon Calamari making out. It's so weird it has a reverse Mos Eisley Cantina. It's so weird it ends with Christopher Lloyd ranting about Count Dooku.
It has bizarre cameos from Jack Black and Lizzo. Jack Black plays an ex-Imperial called Colonel Bombardier (a George Lucas character name if there ever was one.) In order to be given access to the Mandalorians that are working on the planet as security, Din and Bo Katan are given the side quest to investigate a series of droid-related crimes on the planet which they do in full television procedural style complete with a consultation with a "medical examiner." It also has echoes of the detective subplot in Attack of the Clones. I kinda love it because it's weird, unexpected and prequel-ly. I also love when Star Wars plays around with different genres.
Bo-Katan and Din Djarin meet up with and recruit the lost Mandalorians. She defeats Axe Woves in combat. Din also reveals to the Mandos that Bo Katan is actually the rightful owner of the Darksaber since she slew his cyborg captor in the mines of Mandalore. In the characterizations of Mando and Bo Katan the show has wisely avoided expectations in how these two would interact in a third season of the show. The easy and predictable dynamic might have been one which pitted the two against each other for the Darkaber or depicted Bo Katan as some kind of lazy "vengeful woman" trope. Instead the show takes the more interesting route of them being mature human beings who have a mutual respect and affection which outweighs any ambitions for power they might have. It's actually refreshing to see that Favreau and the writers have avoided a stupider version of this season based on dumb and easy conflict.
The united Mandalorians-an uneasy mix of the Armorer's "zealot" followers and Bo Katan's more cosmopolitan Mandos invade Mandalore and discover two things: first the planet can sustain life and survivors hide in the wasteland and, second, Moff Gideon has escaped from New Republic custody and has made a base there complete with beskar-armored commandos and a pair of Praetorian guards (a squad to these red-armored warriors were famously in The Last Jedi) that he has petitioned from the Imperial Remnant council. The idea of Mandalorian "Super Commandos" goes back to the ideas that Lucas had when he created Boba Fett who was originally envisioned as a kind of super Stormtrooper.
We learn that the remnant is fractured and working on different projects and some are awaiting the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn, lost in Rebels prior to A New Hope and others, the eventual First Order faction, are working to clone Palpatine. The show is doing some legwork to provide the "somehow" of Palpatine's survival. Thrawn is also who Ahsoka is currently tracking in her own show concurrently with this season. Gideon however has been working this whole time to create force-enhanced clones of himself and we see him show up wearing some sick black Mandalorian armor.
Mando, Bo Katan, and Grogu defeat him, losing the Darksaber in the process and destroy the clones. Although, it must be asked, did they actually defeat him or one of his clones? The door definitely seems open for a return.
The Mandalorians retake their planet and reignite their sacred forge, under the political leadership of Bo Katan. It should be noted that Din Djarin and his new apprentice Din Grogu, decide to live on Nevarro where they have a homestead. IG-11 has been restored and is now serving as the Marshall of Nevarro. The vibes here are very series finale, with the Gideon story arc apparently concluded as well the longer-in-motion story of the Mandalorian diaspora told over decades and multiple projects.
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