Season three of The Mandalorian has begun with “Chapter 17: The Apostate”! This episode is directed by Rick Famuyiwa who directed last season’s “The Believer” (2020). We pick up from season two’s finale that had Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) take away Grogu to train as a Jedi. Then, there was a season 2.5 (I would just put out two episodes in an Interlude), in The Book of Boba Fett with “Return of the Mandalorian” (2022). Mando encounters The Armorer and Paz Vizsla who inspect the Darksaber. He won the symbol of ruling over Mandalore from Moff Gideon in the second season finale, “The Rescue” (2020). The Armorer fashions armor made for Grogu from the beskar spear. Paz Viszsla duels with The Mandalorian for the Darksaber, but is defeated. Still, Mando revealed that he took off his helmet in front of others which breaks his code, and The Armorer cast him out as a Mandalorian! She says he can find redemption in the “Living Waters” under the mines of Mandalore.
On Tatooine, Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris) has upgraded an N-1 Starfighter for him. In “From the Desert Comes a Stranger” (2022), Mando goes to visit Grogu. Lil’ Grogu sees a vision of his time at the Jedi Temple during Order 66. Skywalker offers Grogu to accept the former Mandalorian’s gift of the beskar chainmail or the lightsaber of Yoda! In the finale, “In the Name of Honor” (2022), R2-D2 flies Luke’s X-Wing to take Grogu to Tatooine. He reunites with Mando and helps Boba Fett and his battle with the Pykes. The episode begins with the sound of hammering. A canister of water is poured in a basin of swirling water, like a divining pool similar to the Mirror of Galadriel? There is the beskar Mythosaur icon above The Armorer’s forge and she places a disc in the blue flames. Then, she begins hammering it into a sphere. Soldering more pieces, a wrist weapon, and then a blue helmet. Drums are beaten as The Armorer emerges from a cave with a number of fellow Mandalorians in two lines joining the ceremony with flags.
A young boy, Ragnar (Wesley Kimmel) waits with his legs in the waters of a lake. The Armorer raises the helmet for silence. Then, she begins reciting the Way of the Mand’alor which the boy repeats. Paz Vizsla is there. The Armorer places the helmet on Ragnar and says, “This is the Way”, repeated by the boy, and the others. She dips a bowl to fill it with water and then recites the Creed of never removing his helmet. Before he can repeat the words, The Armorer stops him, and pulls him away as a beast roars from the lake! The Kaiju, part crocodile and part turtle, called a Dinosaur Turtle (?) laps up a Mandalorian as the others try to blast its hide. Vizsla calls for the young ones to retreat to the cave. Three Mandalorians use their jet packs to place charges on its back. I’m not certain why its crocodile hide isn’t targeted with charges. They are not too effective against Kaiju. Really, when it roars, they should toss thermal detonators in. The creature does a death roll and crushes and brings a few underwater. The Armorer rushes in with her hammers. She pulls a fellow Mandalorian ashore, but is tossed aside by the beast.
Ragnar stands in front of The Armorer and Paz Vizsla brings in his heavy cannon. The Dinosaur Turtle is struck in the side by blaster fire and The Armorer sees an N-1 Starfighter swoop past! A proton torpedo is launched which sends chunks of the lake beast flying and it finally collapses. The starfighter lands on the lake shore. Mando turns to see them and then Grogu pops out into the cockpit bubble! At her forge, The Armorer is working as The Mandalorian and The Grogu enter. She brings us up to speed about taking off his helmet. He mentions redemption and she says that it is not possible with the loss of Mandalore. He shows her a green crystal to ask about an inscription and then sits before it (this was not seen in The Book of Boba Fett). The Armorer where it came from and Mando replies that it was from Jawas who traded it from a “traveler” who said he went to Mandalore. She says the crystal shows that Mandalorian’s surface was destroyed by fusion rays. Yes, The Armorer is keeping the traditions, but it is foolish to keep out Mando who just saved her life, the life of the Mandalorian younglings, and survivors. Mando says he will bring proof that he found redemption under the mines and The Armorer says, “This is the Way.”
The starfighter moves through hyperspace. Grogu watches it until seeing a large distortion, this looks like the Purrgil space whales from Star Wars: Rebels. In the finale of the animated show, “Family Reunion - and Farewell” (2018), Ezra Bridger trained in The Force, was last seen taken away by Purrgil along with Grand Admiral Thrawn! Grogu leaves the bubble and pops up in Mando’s arms. They leave hyperspace to land on the familiar Nevarro. They walk the streets of Nevarro City, Grogu sees a tree of Kowakian lizard-monkeys! Mando sees a statue of IG-11 who sacrificed himself to save his friends. He is greeted by his “old friend”, Greef Karga (Carl Weathers), now with red robes as High Magistrate. Tiny droids hold the ends of his cape! At his office, Greef says that they are a trade hub of the Hydian Way, the hyperspace route starts at Eriadu, the homeworld of Grand Moff Tarkin. Greef says Mando can retire by the hot springs and is corrected about Grogu’s name. Promising, but Greef should know that is not a life for The Mandalorian. Mando explains that he is an apostate, a person who has abandoned a faith. They are interrupted by a copper protocol droid (Parvesh Cheena) who tells Greef there are pirates.
Greef greets Vane (Marti Matulis), a Nikto pirate, and points out that they are kept out of a building they think is a cantina which Greef says is a school. Vane points out that it was built from Greef’s part of Pirate King Gorian Shand’s treasure. Lovin’ the Star Wars names. Mando rests on a tree to the side. Greef wants them to have a drink at his office, but Vane insists on having drinks at the school. Mando cuts in asking if the Magistrate has a problem. Vane and the other pirates, it looks like a group from Jabba’s palace, spread out ready for a fight. Vane pulls aside his coat to ready his blaster and Greef does the same. Western gun fight. Greef quick draws and blasts Vane’s weapon out of his hand. The other pirates get ready, but are blasted by Mando and Greef! Quick and easy, more stylish than Boba Fett. Greef says he needs a marshal, updates Mando saying Cara Dune was recruited by Special Forces, and that Gideon was sent to the New Republic War Tribunal. The last part is strange since Mando knew about it in "The Return of the Mandalorian"! Interesting, but Cara didn’t like organizations and wanted to be independent, especially because Greef needed her as marshal.
Greef offers him the job, Mando asks if he can request the New Republic for one, but Greef wants Nevarro to be independent. Mando has other business and points out IG-11! He says that he needs IG-11 to explore Mandalore. Greef tells him that the statue is made of recovered parts of the droid. The statue is then seen with part of his arm and legs, at a work room, Mando works on IG-11. He powers up the droid, slowly he rises up, and falls back on his former bounty hunter programming! He starts to reach for Grogu to kill and Mando blasts him until tossing Grogu to Greef! The Copper Droid topples a bust of Greef to stop the droid! Later, Greef takes Mando with the droid parts to droidsmiths. He points out the Anzellans (voiced by Shirley Henderson), the little alien like Babu Frik from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), to work on the droid. The best part of this show is synthesizing the parts of Star Wars into one story! They seem very Muppet-y, I keep expecting them to sing “Mahna Mahna”, but Mando is told, in their work space, his memory circuit is broken. Greef translates for him even though the leader speaks Basic. Mando says he will find the rare part. Grogu suddenly hugs the Anzellan, funny!, uh yeah, this is gonna be a toy or stuffie that is going to be sold. The Azellan tells Grogu, “Bad baby”, best line in the show! Greef sees Mando off telling him that finding the memory circuit if the Anzellans failed is impossible.
In flight, Mando teaches Grogu navigation, showing him the hyperspace map which is referenced against the fuel gauge. He starts to point out the warning indicator when it blares red. Pirates! Vane is there with three starships to take revenge. Grogu slips into Mando’s bandolier as he goes evasive around the asteroid belt at the edge of Nevarro’s space. There are three more pirates ships. Mando slips away from the pirate starfighters and begins destroying them one by one. He pursues Vane’s fighter who contacts Captain Shard. His large corsair suddenly appears, this brings me back to the Star Wars comic book character, Crimson Jack, who appeared in Star Wars #7 (1977)! The cruiser’s blaster cannons lock onto Mando’s starfighter. Captain Shard (voiced by Nonso Anozie) is an alien that almost looks like Swamp Thing complete with red eyes, but his large mouth makes me think of Pizza the Hutt from Spaceballs (1987). He hits the accelerator ripping past Shand’s ship. They reach Kalevala part of the Mandalore system and descend towards a castle on a strip of land by the sea. A combination of Ahch-To and Maz Kanata, this episode is like the Best of Star Wars, why do you need the Sequel Trilogy? At the empty throne room, he meets with Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff). The Mandalorian pushes the story a little closer to his redemption, Grogu’s learning, and the fate of Mandalore!
Five Bars of Beskar Steel out of Five!
#TheMandalorian, #TheApostate, #PedroPascal, #CarlWeathers, #EmilySwallow, #KateeSackhoff, #WesleyKimmel, #MartiMatulis
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