The Mandalorian has already reached the third episode of the third season (3×03). The Disney Plus series starring Din Djarin and Grogu has been releasing new episodes for three uninterrupted weeks now, and after the end of The Last of Us it stands alone as the leader in audience interest.
After seeing two episodes in which Mando has been willing to revoke his exile as a Mandalorian after taking off his helmet in front of Grogu, this episode closes this first plot of the season and faces an independent story that, for sure, will soon take on a special meaning.
The epic of the Star Wars universe returns
The episode begins with what we were all waiting for: what happens on Mandalore. The protagonist of the story had just bathed to the living waters, home of the legendary Mythosaur which proves that the protagonist’s home planet is not as dead as everyone thought.
With Bo-Katan as their new faithful companion, the characters discuss whether what they have seen is real or not, making it clear that a new direction will take the series now that they know the situation on their planet. However, they soon leave to refuel and are attacked by dozens of TIE fighters.
Mando and Bo-Katan lead an epic chase against the fighters, who it is not clear where they come from or what they are doing there -a new mystery to be solved appears in the series-. But things get ugly when they destroy the palace of Kalevala, the Mandalorian’s home. At this point, Bo-Katan takes it personally: he has a new enemy to beat.
After fleeing the scene, however, The Mandalorian does something we’ve rarely seen in this Star Wars series: he moves the focus far away from there and leaves what happens to the protagonist on pause. We’ll have to wait to find out more about the surprise attack and the interest in taking down Bo-Katan, since we discover that the protagonist of this episode is someone else: Doctor Pershing.
The story of Dr. Pershing
Directed by Lee Isaac Chung (Minari: Story of My Family), this episode focuses on Crocusant, the huge planet inhabited by one billion people – as they say in the episode, although in translation it would be one billion – and which serves as the capital of the New Republic.
Here, as if it were a World War II spy movie, the series takes us to see how Doctor Pershing, after working for the Empire in the biological research of clones, is reformed by the new system. He is placed with a group of other former Empire workers, and soon tries to make a new life for himself adapted to the New Republic system.
Throughout the episode we see how the Star Wars world works; they explain what happens to the former Imperials, what democracy is like in the galaxy and what happened after the sixth episode of the saga, when Luke and Han Solo finally put an end to the Empire.
But, as it happens in the Andor series -many point out that this episode seems to be taken from this Disney+ fiction-, not everything is as nice as it seems in the New Republic. Disappointments soon begin to appear; Doctor Pershing is not at all happy with his new job, and he has been completely forbidden to continue researching cloning since it is forbidden in the New Republic.
Pershing, likewise, tries to adapt to the system he has been forced to live in, but the pressures of his partner Elia Kane begin to surface. Kane strikes up a nice relationship with him and tells him that he should follow her research. He then invites him to sneak into an old Imperial ship, which is protected under the New Republic, to steal lab materials that he used to use so that he can continue his research.
Doctor Pershing does not like this at first, but after being frustrated by the new jobs he has to do, he accepts the invitation. At this point, the series takes a very different perspective from what we are used to and tells of a political chase in which we see the dreams and yearnings of the former Imperials.
Finally, and as it could not be otherwise, everything turns out to be a trap and Pershing’s brain is erased so that he adapts well to the New Republic. Because the idea of the chapter is clear: to show that not everyone is so good in this system. But how will this relate to Mando and Grogu?
Apparently, this has been a seed that will be harvested soon in the season. After closing the interesting plot of the return to Mandalore, new adventures are looming over the protagonist.
