Well, where has this show been? After six episodes of middling nonsense, The Mandalorian is back, just in time for the end of season three. Let’s not waste any more time and get to it.
1. The Shadow Council
We’ve known that Moff Gideon is still pulling some strings even before we see him speaking with Elia Kane, but then we get to see that he’s part of a whole gang of ex-Imperials who are fighting to keep the Empire alive. We see General Hux’s dad (who plays a big role in the Phasma novel as well as some of the Aftermath stories), as well as hear a bunch about Grand Admiral Thrawn. Now, we’ve heard that name before on The Mandalorian (spoken by Ahsoka last season), but it is a name that extends back to the early 90s in Star Wars lore.
The tl;dr on Thrawn is that he’s basically the only major player from the old ‘Legends’ canon to come into the Disney-owned Lucasfilm basically unchanged. For a good primer on him, watch Star Wars: Rebels or read any of the excellent Timothy Zahn novels that feature him.
It is interesting that here, he is being treated as a returning savior for the Empire. While Thrawn is certainly a tactical genius and a great piece for the Empire, he’s not really the person you’d think would be gung-ho about the more fanatical aspects of the Empire. Part of what makes Thrawn such an effective villain is his cold, practical nature. I am interested to see how he is deployed across these various shows (leading up to Dave Filoni’s story-concluding film), because he doesn’t seem to me to be the rah-rah leader of this group.
2. Grogu Krang
Look, is Grogu adorable in IG-1112’s body? Yes. Does this help the problem of people having to carry Grogu everywhere? Absolutely. Does it let the little guy communicate a little easier? Sure. But this is a weird, lazy move. Why do you introduce a character that is visually different from everyone else around them if not to stand out and be unique? Plus, this is 100% just a Krang reference.
As far as I can tell, this has exactly two purposes for this season: 1) it allowed that moment of Grogu stopping the fight over space checkers to have everyone in one eye-line, and 2) it allows Grogu to run with the other Mandalorians at the end of this episode. Grogu is a force user, he has no reason to need a metal body for anything other than a toy.
3. The peace between our nations
I really liked the bits this week that explored the balance between the two factions of Mandalorians. I’ve seen some folks online confused as to why there is such division between the groups, and this episode helped explain that a bit to folks who maybe don’t have as good of a memory or are as versed in Star Wars minutia as some of us do. But I like seeing these two groups work together to, hypothetically, make a real start on the process of building a new Mandalorian society.
This was done through a few different moments, but the most effective of which was the dinner scene, where Bo-Katan is able to discuss exactly what happened with the purge and Moff Gideon. She isn’t lambasted by the various groups; she is sympathized with and understood. This is also seen when the survivors are found on the planet’s surface (including Skinny Pete!); they are happy to see Bo-Katan, not upset over how she was played/betrayed. It seems like Mandalorians actually want unity over division, which is something even Bo-Katan is unsure of at this point.
I wouldn’t have had Din Djarin pegged as the motivational speaker of the batch, but the way that he calms down/builds up Bo-Katan is remarkable, but he’s right: Bo-Katan impressed his covert with her actions and character, not her sword or family heritage. Her truly effective leadership is made all the more tragic by what follows.
Continued below4. Ambush
Bo-Katan, unknowingly, brings the elite of her Mandalorian forces right into a trap by Moff Gideon, who is brandishing not only Beskar armor for himself, but a new breed of troopers who are also sporting Beskar. Din is captured, Paz Vizsla is killed in a heroic standoff to let the rest of the Mandalorians escape, and things look incredibly bleak for the Mandalorians. On one hand, there is no way to blame anyone for this mistake; they thought that Gideon was in New Republic captivity, and they couldn’t have thought that he was building a Beskar army. But on the other, it seems like they were sort of played.
5. Spie(s)
This episode is called “The Spies,” and while yes, we see Elia Kane as one of Gideons spies, the title clearly implies there is another. And it makes sense that the spies would be working to bring the Mandalorian faction to the site of the forge. So, who could the spy be?
Theory #1 – It was one of the pirate-ship Mandalorians that found Bo-Katan and crew. They literally led them into the trap, so it tracks.
Theory #2 – It is the Armorer. She conveniently is off-world when everything goes wrong. Could she have cut a deal with Gideon to take out Din and Bo-Katan, and leave her as the leader of the united Mandalorians, working with Gideon? She talks with Bo-Katan, realizes she’s the chosen leader (through her seeing a mythosaur), gets jealous/afraid, and then orchestrates the removal of her main adversaries.
I could see either one being accurate, and both are sort of exciting ideas. Which will it be? We’ll find out next week!
