The Mandalorian is back, and you know what that means. Season 3 episode 1 is a concentrated burst of entertainment showcasing all the best bits of Star Wars: laser gun shootouts, soaring space battles and tentacle-faced pirate captains.
Hang on, is this still Star Wars we’re talking about? It sure is — after season 1 and season 2 of the Disney Plus series were influenced by the cowboys’n’gunfighters of the Western genre, season 3 of the Mando’s adventures sails into uncharted waters: the kind of monstrous swashbuckling we know and love from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Avast, me hearties!
Read on for our recap of The Mandalorian season 3 episode 1 (or chapter 17 in the series as a whole), complete with Star Wars easter eggs and some first thoughts on how the new season will shape up. Beware spoilers, ye scurvy seadogs!
Pre-recap recap
OK, before we get into chapter 17, let’s remind ourselves where we’re up to in the adventures of Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal, also currently searing the screen in acclaimed HBO series The Last of Us), and his cute buddy Grogu (AKA Baby Yoda). In the finale of season 2 the Mando dropped off Grogu with everyone’s favourite Jedi Luke Skywalker. So why are Grogu and Din back together?
Well, in between seasons, the stars of the Mandalorian appeared in an episode of another Disney Plus series, The Book of Boba Fett. It was one of the best installments of the otherwise underwhelming series and is well worth a watch, but that doesn’t change the fact season 3 of the Mandalorian only just started and you already have homework. Thanks, Disney.
The fifth episode of Boba Fett’s series explained why Mando and Grogu got back together and why they’re traveling in a new spaceship akin to the Naboo star fighters seen in The Phantom Menace. That episode also reveals a chunk of backstory about the Mandalorian’s sect, the Children of the Watch, and why they left Mandalore — check out our full Book of Boba Fett episode 5 recap for more details and links to the Clone War TV series.
The new series also opens with a brief recap showing droid IG-11 self-destructing in a battle with imperial stormtroopers in season 2. Voiced by Taika Waititi, the droid’s story clearly doesn’t end there.
As for the show’s other major characters, the villainous Moff Gideon has been carted off to face a New Republic war tribunal. And Cara Dune is no longer Marshall, having been recruited by New Republic special forces. Given actor Gina Carano’s very public controversial statements, that’s probably the last we’ll hear of Cara Dune.
This is the Way
The episode opens with the sound of hammering. Like the Mandalorian warriors themselves, their Beskar armor is forged in fire and repeatedly beaten. Their leader, the Armorer, builds a new helmet in a fetching shade of turquoise, carried onto a beach where a youngster feels the sun on their face for the final time. “The words of the Creed shall be forever forged in my heart,” the youngling intones, but never actually completes the vow to keep the helmet on because they’re interrupted by a gigantic space alligator. Woo, Star Wars!
That kicks off an intense battle in the air and beneath splashing waves, like the start of Saving Private Ryan if it was, y’know, about space helmets and giant aliens crocodiles. Luckily the Mando swoops in to save the day. See you later alligator!
Is the Armorer grateful? No, she’s still banging on about Din removing his helmet. She insists that redemption is impossible as the mines of Mandalorian were destroyed by the Empire, but Din offers some hope with a crystal which may be a relic of their home planet. Din reckons this is proof that Mandalore is no longer poisoned, and the Armorer seems to agree to welcome the apostate back into the fold if he can prove it. That sounds like a quest to me!
Baby Yoda back up to the old tricks.
Disney PlusPirates of the Outer Rim
So once again the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda head for Nevarro, the planet where the Mando once dropped off Baby Yoda and subsequently rescued him in season 1. This scummy fringe planet has gone up in the world under Magistrate, sorry, High Magistrate Greef Karga, to become the “gem of the Outer Rim”.
Karga even offers Mando a parcel of land to hang up his blaster. But it isn’t long before old trouble finds them, as they face Vane, henchman of pirate king Gorian Shard. Vane and his thirsty pirates insist on a drink for old times’ sake, reminding Karga that he paid them for murder and mayhem back in the good old days. The High Magistrate is having none of it but shows he hasn’t grown soft, drawing back his fine robes to reveal a blaster. A proper Western-style shootout ensues, and Vane is sent packing with a message for the pirate king.
After a classic Star Wars asteroid-dodging dogfight, the Mando and Grogu encounter Gorian Shard in space. This seaweed-encrusted freebooter looks inspired by the fantastical creatures of the Pirates of the Caribbean, warning Mando that he better start believing in ghost stories because he’s in one. Wait, wrong movie — actually he demands the Mando’s ship. But our hero sails away, leaving the pirate king cursing. We’re guessing we’ll see more nautical naughtiness from the space pirates soon.
IG’ll be back
Nevarro has raised a statue of the bounty hunter droid IG-11, which sacrificed itself fighting Imperials. It turns out the statue is made of the droid’s actual remaining parts, allowing the Mando to resurrect the bot. He quickly changes his mind when it defaults to old programming and goes all Terminator on little Grogu. Leave Baby Yoda alone! Another statue solves the problem, although there was no need for Mando’s dreadful pun.
Mando takes the remains of IG-11 to the Anzellans, jabbering animatronic mechanics in delightfully Star Wars style. It’s great to see the Mandalorian continues that grand Star Wars tradition of delightfully fleshy aliens coming in all prosthetic shapes and animatronic sizes. It’s a massive squee from us when Grogu tries to give the little cutie a squeeze.
Sadly IG-11’s memory is fried, but we’re sure something will turn up.
Bo Katan’s castle
Next stop: Kalevala, a world in the Mandalorian system, complete with a concrete-gray brutalist Mandalorian castle. The helmetless and bitter Bo Katan is on a throne but overthrown, as without the fabled Darksaber weapon her forces have melted away to become mercenaries.
Katan insists there’s nothing magic about the mines of Mandalore, and Din’s quest is based on superstition. But we’re sure her interest could be revived if Mando and co. prove her planet isn’t as ravaged, plundered and poisoned as everyone thinks.
Come back next Wednesday for the next Star Wars adventure. The Mandalorian season 3 episode 2 streams on Disney Plus March 8.
Easter eggs and observations
- The episode is directed by Rick Famuyiwa, a director usually known for more grounded stories like coming-of-age drama Dope, true story Confirmation and TV series The Chi. That said, he was originally set to direct DC’s The Flash movie, but given that film’s troubled history he’s probably glad to be working on Star Wars instead.
- While in hyperspace, Grogu sees some kind of… space whales? Creatures living in hyperspace? Trippy.
- The pirates include a Klatooinian, a Trandoshan and a Warthog.
- Klatooinian criminals were among the antagonists in the Book of Boba Fett (and whose name calls to mind the famous alien catchphrase “Klaatu barada nikto” from 1950s sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still).
- The Trandoshans also appeared in the Boba Fett series. A notable member of the lizard-like race is Bossk, a contemporary of Fett on the bounty hunting scene.
- A warthog is, er, a warthog.
- Look out for those Salacious Crumb monkey dudes in a tree.
- The Anzellan mechanics are voiced by Shirley Henderson, the award-winning actor who also lent her distinctive voice to Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter films.
- Pirate king Gorian Shard is voiced by Nonso Anozie, who played Xaro Xhoan Daxos in Game of Thrones.
- Vane is played by Marti Matulis, who played the Monstrosity in 2022 horror hit Smile.
- For the scenes in which The Armorer forges Baskar armor, the credits list a “forging double” — blacksmith and artist Heather McCarty.
