'The Mandalorian' Season 3, Episode 1: "The Apostate" Recap and Review
Our hero seeks redemption and the series seeks momentum in the return to a galaxy far far away
WARNING: Contains Spoilers
It has been three long years since we last left Din Djarin with Moff Gideon in custody, sending Grogu on his way to train with Luke Skywalker. Since then, Grogu returned, Din was shunned by his group of zealots and a little shine has worn off the series. The first season of The Mandalorian was mysterious, and epic, followed by a sophomore season equally as exciting and climactic. So far, season 3 is merely… random. A lot of time has passed in-universe between seasons and yet the actions of Mando seem like things he should have done a while ago. On top of that, the events of the story that unfold seem random and unfocused. The end goal of the season has been spelled out clearly but the start of the journey has been erratic.
The season begins in the Armorer’s (Emily Swallow) forge as she shapes a new helmet for a new member of The Watch. She brings it down to the beach where a the young member is waiting. She leads through the ceremony but stops abruptly. Suddenly a creature lurches out of the water and attacks the group. They try all their standard attacks but it barely fazes the beast. Just as the fight looks to be at its worst, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) flies in on his ship and kills the beast. Back in the Armorer’s forge, she reiterates that he is no longer a member of the watch. Din seeks redemption by bathing in the Living Waters beneath the mines of Mandalore but the Armorer says that is not possible. Din shows her a relic which may show otherwise. She approves of his mission and he leaves. After a long hyperspace journey, Din and Grogu arrive at Nevarro, which has become a thriving planet since his last visit. Din takes Grogu to the center of the city where they find a statue of IG-11 (Taika Waititi) and newly appointed High Magistrate Greef Karga (Carl Weathers). Greef catches Din up with the progress of Nevarro.
They are interrupted by a protocol droid who informs Greef of Pirates in the courtyard. Greef greets Pirate Vain (Marti Matulis) and tries to convince him to leave peacefully but the pirate refuses. A quick gunfight breaks out and Greef and Din quickly take out all the pirates except Vane, whom they let go. Din tells Greef of his new mission and his need of a droid, particularly, IG-11. They take the leftover parts and Din manages to turn it back on but it reverts to its original programming and attacks Grogu. After crushing it’s head, they take it to the droid engineer Babu Frik who tells them it is beyond repair without a new memory circuit. Din leaves the droid with Babu and sets off to find a new chip. While flying through an asteroid field, Din is confronted by a group of Pirates led by Vane who wants revenge. Din takes out a few but runs into the Pirate Mothership, piloted by Captain Gorian Shard (Nonso Anozie). Din wastes no time and flees into hyperspace. Din arrives on Kalevala, in the Mandalorian system and lands at a castle. Inside he finds Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff). Din wishes to join Bo-Katan in her quest to retake Mandalore but her mission has stalled and she has given up, but tells Din where to find the mines anyway.
The question that comes to mind after watching this episode is: are they even trying anymore? The jokes in the episode are tired and clichéd, the plot is random and incidental, and Din forgets what he is doing while in the process of doing it. First, Din goes to the Armorer to confirm that he can be redeemed after being kicked out of the Watch, but he already knows how to be redeemed, so its mostly a waste of time. Then he goes all the way to Nevarro to get IG-11, fix him up and take him with him. But how did Din even know that they had IG-11’s parts and that is was even remotely fixable and if finding IG-11 was incidental then why was he there in the first place. As a reminder IG-11 self destructed while being melted by lava, seems pretty final. It seems like to only reason they are bringing him back is to bring back Taika Waititi which really cheapens the droid’s sacrifice. There is also a random run-in pirates which seems like an excuse to have a space dogfight later in the episode. They bring back Babu Frick for a cameo from the latest Star Wars series because maybe they think every episode needs a cameo. So after Din leaves to get a memory circuit for IG-11, the Pirate space battle causes him to forget all about that and instead he goes to meet Bo-Katan so he can join her in taking back their home planet. But if she was in the process of taking back the planet then why would he would assume he would find her at her castle. To be fair, Katee Sackhoff puts forth a great performance as a sarcastic and resentful Bo-Katan who really hates Din but has no real reason to. It all seems so random, unless you think about studio mandated inclusions and lazy writing.
This is a real low for the series which set a pretty high bar for quality over the first two seasons. The only aspect of the episode that worked was the set up for Din’s purpose in this season: to get to Mandalore and redeem himself by bathing in the Living Waters. The reason why this is clear is that he repeats it several times. Hopefully, the quality of this episode is not a sign of things to come. After three years of waiting for the return of Din and Grogu, a disappointing season could turn the audience against the show all together.