'The Mandalorian' S3, E1 Is a Perfect Start to Mando's Redemption Arc

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Come one, come all, fans of The Mandalorian. Each Wednesday morning, we're breaking down the newest episode, from the best Grogu closed-captioning moment, to the latest friends and foes in Mando's redemption arc, to what it all means for the rest of the galaxy far, far away. Pop on The Mandalorian theme and dive in. This is the way.

"Chapter 17: The Apostate"

Disney+'s Cryptic Plot Summary: The Mandalorian begins an important journey.

Main Players: Mando, Grogu, Greef Karga, and a nasty—but easily disposable—band of pirates.

Director: Rick Famuyiwa, who has helmed some of the best episodes of The Mandalorian, including the standout "Chapter 15: The Believer," which also features a surprise pirates attack. This is Famuyiwa's fourth time behind the camera for The Mandalorian.

Can't-Miss Star Wars Easter Egg: The chaotic band of Anzellans, which throws us back to the time we wanted Grogu and Babu Frik to fight—which... sort of happens this episode!

Best Grogu Closed-Caption Moment: [Grogu gurgles curiously.]

Captain's Log

Ridin' Dirty

We open up this season with the Armorer, who isn't—as it initially seems—crafting a pizza stone. Turns out, it's baptism day for a young Mandalorian, and he needs a helmet. Just as the kid's reciting the Mandalorian Creed, a ginormous Floridian space gator emerges from the water, and starts gobbling people up. The cumulative power of jetpacks, blasters, and bombs can't stop the creature, until—bum bum bum BUM BUMMMM—Mando and Grogu swoop in on that sweet Naboo starfighter and blows the baddie to a mess of blood and guts. Talk about an entrance.

Take Me Back!

The Book of Boba Fett already made Season Three's plot clear: this is Mando's redemption story. After taking off his helmet to make eyes with sweet Grogu—and finally let us see Pedro Pascal's beautiful face—Mando has been exiled from his tribe. The only way to rejoin the Mandalorians? Fly to their home planet, Mandalore, and bathe in the water beneath its salt mines. But in this episode, everyone insists to Mando that the world has been ravaged and poisoned, so much so that it isn't worth visiting. The man won't take no for an answer, and so the quest begins.

Famous Friends

Mando and Grogu travel to the closest thing this series has to a home base: Nevarro, which is hardly the sketchy bounty-hunter planet it used to be. The duo meets up with Carl Weathers's Greef Karga—who has leveled himself up into the High Magistrate of the joint, as he tells Mando. Nevarro is now a booming trade sector, full with schools and citizens who run away from trouble for once, and he'd like to keep it that way. Karga wants Mando to stick around as the city's marshal, keeping law and order amidst visits from random space pirates. He says Mando and Grogu can finally settle down! (It's funny that, over in HBO's The Last of Us, Pedro Pascal and his other young friend just received a similar offer.) Nope. Mando's going to take his bath at all costs. He stuffs Grogu in the droid hole and jets away.

You Stole My Laser Sword, Man

After fending off a band of pesky pirates, Mando says hi to another old acquaintance: Bo-Katan Kryze, who is... really pissed that Mando is the one holding Darksaber! Turns out, her whole mission to become the Manda'lor went kaput when her followers realized she wasn't wielding the weapon. She passive-aggressively tells Mando that they'll do anything he says if he swings the Darksaber—which, sadly, we don't see in action this episode—back and forth. Meanwhile, Mando just wants to bathe! Let him do that! He asks Bo-Katan for the move. Apparently, he needs to travel to Sundari, Mandalore's capital city, where the entrance to the mines is location. Not really giving a damn that Bo-Katan is just stewing in the middle of nowhere on an uncomfortable-looking throne, he peaces out and the episode ends. Sorry, Bo.

Official Grogu Metric Rating™

Seven Grogus out of ten. You can feel The Mandalorian shaking off its detour to CGI Luke Skywalker Boot Camp in The Book of Boba Fett, returning to the basics that made us love the show in the first place. Meaning? Lingering shots of Grogu and Mando cuddling in spaceships. (Grogu awe at hyperspace was genuinely this episode's most beautiful moment.) Quality time with old friends. A couple vintage Star Wars action set-pieces, for good measure. And just enough plot to keep the overarching story—Mando's redemption quest and Grogu's continuing education—merrily rolling along. It's safe to say that The Mandalorian is back, as good as it ever was. Give your Grogu plushie a high five.

Next Week on The Mandalorian...

I'd expect to see more table-setting before Mando really gets going on his quest. Remember: The Book of Boba Fett aside, The Mandalorian's Season Two finale aired in December 2020. (Feels like only yesterday that I spent 90 minutes on Zoom, mid-pandemic, with Giancarlo Esposito and his bedhead.) We're still warming back up to this corner of the Star Wars-verse. Bet on team Mando-Grogu making another pit stop to see an old friend, before they properly jet off to see if Mandalore is truly poisoned. I'm thinking that Grogu needs to pay a visit to Auntie Amy Sedaris.

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