In “The Apostate”, Mando greets Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) in her empty throne room who says his given name, Din Djarin. Mando offers to join her to retake Mandalore, but she says she was abandoned without the Darksaber. Bo-Katan says her forces turned into mercenaries and he could lead them. Also, that the Children of the Watch gave up on Mandalore before the Purge! He says that he wants to find redemption in the Living Waters. She says it is all a myth and tells Mando that the mines are under Sindari. The episode is directed by Rachel Morrison, who previously directed American Crime Story, and is notable as the first woman to be nominated as cinematographer for Mudbound (2017). It opens with some fireworks and cheers from a Tatooine arena. A Rodian in red robes is pointing out something to Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris) about a speeder. It is always great to see Peli Motto again, not an action hero, but an incredible tech and linguist, she knows droidspeak, Jawa, and apparently Rodian.
She says there are parts missing and then tells her pit droids to push the speeder out. Peli tells him that she can work on it, the speeder work will take two months, and she asks for half for the parts. Peli is a bit frustrated that she’s working on Boonta Eve. She has a pit droid check to see he has left, R5-D4 call the Jawas, and put back the missing parts! Peli sees the N-1 Starfighter she helped build and greets Din. She asks about her “guy” and Grogu leaps into her arms! He burbles something like “Peli”, which she says is his first word. Mando says he needs the IG-11 memory circuit and Peli has her droids call back the Jawas. I absolutely love Peli speaking Jawaese. They don’t have the part so Peli taps the malfunctioning R5. He says he needs a droid for spelunking, cave exploration, to test the atmosphere before he enters. R5 backs away and Peli sells it as a droid that was from the Rebellion! Peli offers to put in a droid port for half off, but R5 looks nervous. Din takes off with the fireworks bursting in the night sky.
Mandalore is a green planet with heavy clouds swirling around storms. He admits to Grogu that he has never been to the planet, but grew up on its moon, Concordia. It first appeared in the Clone Wars episode, “The Mandalore Plot” (2010). Din tells Grogu that Mandalorians must know maps so they can never get lost. He descends through the storm clouds that disrupts the ship’s systems. We do get a cockpit perspective of a planetfall like Empire Strikes Back before the clouds break to green lands. Mando notes that the fusion bombs magnetized the atmosphere cutting off communication. They land by a flattened area next to jagged, green crystal formations. R5-D4 is sent to take air samples from the mines. He shows the worried Grogu R5 on a scope with a pinging sound out of a submarine, “One ping only.” It seems like Mando can understand Grogu’s gurgling. Suddenly, R5 is gone! Din pressurizes his helmet to check on R5. He enters a darkened cave lit by green crystals and sunlight before reaching the mines!
Mando is attacked by brutal creatures, Alamites, like the Morlocks from the Time Machine (1960)! He blasts a few and then takes out his Darksaber. Din hears R5 and then sets the droid upright. They return to the ship and Mando has R5 project his scans with the air perfectly breathable. Grogu follows Din returning to the cave in his hover pod. It seems dangerous to bring his “kid” into the mines, but Grogu does give Mando someone to feed dialogue. At the overlook of the city Sunari, Mando drops down on his jetpack to the Civic Center, with Grogu. They drop down further to try to find the mines. The duo passes a growling creature. Din notes that falling water should go to the mines as the Living Water. A tiny dragon-like beast, a reptavian?, snarls from a pipe. They find a stone passage that leads to the mines of Moria, I mean, Mandalore. Din finds a triangular shape in the ground, a buried Mandalorian helmet!, he regards it almost Hamlet-like. Then, a giant, insectoid droid has him in its grasp. Grogu has taken cover and sees it take away The Mandalorian! Grogu follows it on foot and the beast locks Din into a cage machine. We see that there something organic, nasty, floating in its red, droid eye!
A hatch opens and the skeletal, droid cyborg crawls out! It is something like a IG-100 MagnaGuard with an organic eye and fleshy spines on its back. The cyborg tosses away Mando’s blaster and Darksaber. Grogu sneaks over to the machine and uses the Force to try to wrench it open. Din says, “Get to Bo-Katan” before the cyborg sends out an electrical blast! Grogu hurtles away on his hover pod, the dragon tries to chomp him, and he floats out of the city. He reaches the cave entrance when a four eyed-Alamaite drops down. It is hurtled out of the cave and Grogu leaps into the starfighter! The dragon tries to claw its way into the cockpit, but Grogu flies away. At Bo-Katan’s palace, her droid introduces her visitor. She sees outside a window, the starfighter land, Bo-Katan is angry that Mando has returned. There is only Grogu so she asks her droid to get the astromech’s flight path. Then, she leaves on her Gauntlet starfighter! Bo-Katan to the rescue! She enters the Mandalore atmo and looks wistfully at the ruins of Sundari. Bo-Katan has Grogu lead the way. R5 monitors them from the ship. I have absolute confidence that Bo-Katan, prepared, can take the cyborg. She sees the underground city and says to Grogu that it is a tomb.
They drop down, love Grogu’s flapping ears, and he is nervous around the dragon creature’s pipe. She starts telling Grogu that the Mandalorians once worked with the Jedi. Bo-Katan reaches the area where Din was lost. She takes out her pistols and blasts the ceiling which drops an Alamite. Bo-Katan is quick with her blaster and other weapons killing the Alamites. She recognizes them from the wastelands outside of the cities. The cyborg stabs Mando with a cable and then rotates the cage. His blood is being drained! Suddenly, a blast hits the strange droid pump and Bo-Katan fights with the cyborg. It hits her with his electrostaff, but she uses her grapnel to bring in the Darksaber. She is the true ruler of Mandalore! Bo-Katan makes short work of the cyborg with the Darksaber and her combat shield. Still, the head of the cyborg crawls away. Din struggles to talk and then warns her about the cyborg now in its insectoid body. She is able cut down its legs and deactivate the cyborg. Later, Din revives and thanks Bo-Katan for the rescue. She has made him pog soup which Bo-Katan is given to every Mandalorian. Din struggles to get up and continue his mission. I love the back story of Bo-Katan Kryze, not much about her sister, Satine Kryze, whom I would want to see in live action form played by Anna Graves. She was the leader, Bo-Katan was the warrior, Satine could have brought peace to the Clone Wars. This is the best episode of The Mandalorian!
Five Bars of Beskar Steel out of Five!
#TheMandalorian, #TheMinesOfMandalore, #PedroPascal, #Grogu, #KateeSackhoff, #AmySedaris
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