'The Mandalorian' Season 3, Episode 2: 'The Mines of Mandalore' Recap and Review
Mando and Grogu reach Mandalore and the mines in a glorious return to form for the series
WARNING: Contains Spoilers
Why couldn’t they have started with this one? The episode is excels on multiple levels that include character work, story, payoff, set-up and most of all grandeur. The amazing thing about it is how big the episode feels while remaining small. The plot is simple enough, and there are only a handful of characters, but the pacing is perfect and the simplicity leaves room for subtlety that explodes into excitement. It is episodes like this that illustrate just how good Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni are at crafting a Star Wars epic.
We begin by returning to Tatooine in the shop of Peli Moto (Amy Sedaris). After conning a man out of s few bucks she is visited by her old friend, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal/Lateef Crowder/Brendan Wayne). He comes searching for a Memory Circuit for IG-11 but has no luck. Instead, Peli lets Din borrow her astromech to help explore Mandalore. Din reluctantly accepts. After a brief flight, they reach Mandalore and touch down. He sends the Droid out to test the air but it disappears off the radar and Din is forced to go searching for it. The search brings him to a cave where he finds a massive chamber within the cave that houses the ruins of Mandalore. Din is only able to marvel at it for a split second before he is attacked. The barbaric creatures get the better of him and Din is forced to use the Darksaber which carves them up with ease. Mando retrieves the droid and the air tests and they come up clean, from there, Mando and Grogu enter the cave and begin the exploration. They drop down into the Civic Center and down a large shaft he presumes leads to the mines. They find a long tunnel and follow it to a passage leading further down. As they explore they find an old helmet but its a trap, Din is captured by a large robot which takes him deep into the tunnels. Grogu follows closely. After reaching another more lived in chamber, the robot opens up and out crawls an alien cyborg who quickly strips DIn of his weapons. The cyborg turns his attention somewhere else and Grogu takes the opportunity to try and release Din but he fails. Din orders Grogu to get to Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) and Grogu flees. Grogu gets to the end of the cave but a barbarian blocks his way… briefly.
After dispatching the barbarian, Grogu reaches the ship and flies off to Bo-Katan’s planet. She is not happy seeing Din’s ship but when she only finds Grogu, she grows concerned. She takes Grogu and they travel to Mandalore. The pair reach the surface and Grogu leads her into the cave. Bo-Katan reaches the city and drops down into the shaft following Grogu. Along the way she twarts an ambush by the barbarians she recognizes as Alamites. In the cyborg’s chamber, it begins pumping the blood out of Din, but Bo-Katan quickly disables the pump. The cyborg gets the better of her but after finding the Darksaber, she turns the tides and checks on Din, But the Cyborg isn’t finished, it’s head detaches and pilots the large robot continuing the attack on Bo-Katan. Once again, the Darksaber is too powerful for the cyborg and she puts it down once and for all. Din wakes up and sees Bo-Katan and Grogu sitting by a fire. After helping him recover Bo-Katan offers to take Din back to the ship but he refuses and reiterates his goal to reach the Mines of Mandalore. Bo-Katan, taken aback by his determination, decides to lead him there. The reach the entrance to the mines and enter as Bo-Katan tells Din stories of her childhood and of her father, and of his passing to which Din sincerely offers his condolences. The reach the waters and Din looks on in awe. He begins removing his weapons and enters the water, reciting the creed. Suddenly he is pulled under and Bo-Katan dives in after him. She finds him at the bottom and carries him to the top but as they ascend, she sees what pulled him in, the mighty Mythosaur. It watches her as she passes but leaves her alone.
To say Star Wars fans have been waiting decades for this episode is no stretch. From the moment Boba Fett graced the screen with that cool skull symbol on his arm fans have speculated and dreamt of seeing a Mythosaur on screen. But not only do we glimpse the beast, it sets up for what might be the endgame for the season or series. During the Book of Boba Fett, The Armorer mentions the prophecy of A Mythosaur rising up to herald a new age of Mandalore. Couple that with Din owning the Darksaber and the story of Mandalore the Great slaying the Mythosaur we can put some pieces together that lead to Din, or Bo-Katan ushering a new age of Mandalore and ruling the planet. Speaking of Bo-Katan, Katee Sackhoff, deserves recognition for her role in this episode, the subtleties in her performance elevate the character to her best representation since her arcs in The Clone Wars series. There are so many moments in this episode that inform her character from how wells she interacts with Grogu about Jedi to how easily she wields the Darksaber but it is the quiet moments with Din that tell the most. There is something about how she acts around Din that hint at some growing admiration for him and perhaps something deeper. The character puts on this tough and dejected exterior and attitude towards Din but jumps in without hesitation to save him, quite literally at the end. From moment to moment she is surprised by how respectful and honorable he is albeit a tad too serious. Plus her and Grogu together gives off crazy step-mom vibes. This of course all relies on how well Pedro Pascal plays the hero. The small nuances in his character really shine here as it is clear how serious he is when it comes to honor, respect, and fatherhood.
It’s clear by this episode that the last was a fluke. Judging by the reception of Book of Boba Fett, it looks like they felt the need to reiterate some things and do some small set up before telling this particular story which led to that episode getting more filler than relatively acceptable for this series. But the sacrifice of the first episode was worth it if it was for the purpose of keeping this episode intact. There are big things coming for this season and after this episode, Andor has some competition for the crown of peak Star Wars.