The Mandalorian continues on Disney Plus with a third season that is becoming one of the most interesting batches of episodes of the series. Although we knew that there were going to be many changes from the previous ones, there is no doubt that in each episode they manage to surprise us with new plots and twists.
After seeing how Din Djarin went deep into Mandalore and survived the Mythosaurs thanks to Bo-Katan Kryze, 3×03 took a leap in the plot to present us with something that didn’t even feel like the series itself. In the last episode we went into Crocusant, the huge planet inhabited by a billion people that stands as the capital of the New Republic, and there we got to see the story of Doctor Pershing, who we are sure to see again in the series.
While it was a fairly interesting episode and one that carried over the politics of Andor to this other Star Wars series, many complained that it didn’t feel like an episode of The Mandalorian. Instead of lasting the usual half hour, it went well over an hour in length, and although the characters come up briefly in the first season they failed to hold the interest of Mando and Grogu.
However, the fourth episode of the season has shown that this hiatus was only momentary, and we have returned to meet Din Djarin and little Baby Yoda to see what happens to them once the protagonist has already bathed in the living waters of his home planet.
Entering the Mandalorian society
The loneliness that Mando transmitted at the beginning of the first season has been disappearing as the seasons have progressed, and allies and friends have become an indispensable part of what Din Djarin himself is. However, we have never seen the protagonist integrated into a society… until now.
After bathing in the living waters and being pardoned by the Armera, Mando and Grogu enter the small resistance they have created to start living with the orphans who seek to reshape the Mandalorian society. Moreover, they don’t do it alone: alongside them is Bo-Katan Kryze, who receives an interesting glow up in this chapter.
After losing her loved ones and giving up her desire to lead the new Mandalorians by not getting the dark saber, Bo-Katan ends up being accepted by the Armera. The reason? She has bathed in the living waters and has not removed her helmet since, so she can be accepted having “redeemed herself of her sins”.
We soon see how the lonely Mando and Bo-Katan adapt to this new society, as well as how the training of the new Mandalorians works. In addition, the protagonist is not willing for Grogu to simply remain a protégé, so he decides that he will train with the rest of the orphans.
Although the children laugh at him at first, Grogu faces an orphan in a training battle and manages to defeat him using the Force and surprising everyone. But the worst comes later: an alien bird arrives on the scene and kidnaps the same child to feed him to its young.
Mando, Bo-Katan and the boy’s father fly off to look for the boy’s whereabouts, and here two things happen. On the one hand we see the rescue mission, in which Bo-Katan manages to win the favor of the Mandalorian society and gain the respect of the Armera. And on the other hand we see the most interesting thing in the whole chapter: Grogu’s past.
Left alone with the Armera, Grogu travels back in time through his memories. It’s the first time we see his origin, and it’s quite interesting. In a long and interesting scene in which we return to Crocusant, we see how little Grogu is under the jurisdiction of the Jedi when they attack them in the famous purge that wiped them all out.
At this point, the jedi Kelleran Beq, played by Ahmed Best, manages to get him out of the place and save him while sacrificing himself along the way. The series insists that we see Beq’s qualities and show his power; and this is not accidental. In fact, it is a tribute by Jon Favreau and Dave Filloni to one of the most mythical actors of the saga… but whom we never really saw.
Ahmed Best was the one who played Jar Jar Binks in the prequels of the early 2000s. After his performance, he received a lot of harassment from fans as it was a character that few people liked, and his career has been dragged down ever since. But, as they did with Hayden Christensen and his Darth Vader in Obi-Wan Kenobi, things could not stay that way. And they have done him justice with a jedi master to match.
Of course, this chapter has once again shown us the best of The Mandalorian: a series of adventures without huge pretensions in which the characters are at the center. In the next chapters we will face the final stretch of the season, and it remains to be seen if they keep this tone or, as they did with 3×03, the perspective changes.
