'The Mandalorian' Season 3, Episode 8: 'The Return' Recap and Review
The epic season finale brings an explosive conclusion to the the first saga of the mandalorian known as Din Djarin
WARNING: Contains Spoilers
It has been a long journey for Din Djarin but after 3 seasons, his first saga seems to have finally come to a close. This by no means implies that this is the last we’ll see of the Mandalorian, it just signifies the end of this particular story. Over the course of the series we have seen the evolution of this Galaxy trekking Gunslinger from cold loner to loving father as he plays an instrumental role in the reclamation of his home planet and the reuniting of his people. To be honest, this season did not start off well. The first episode seemed to retread a lot of ground while everything post episode 2 felt like a desperate attempt to string out the season and delay the inevitable and obvious conclusion. While that may be true, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni have proven once again that they know how to make epic moments feel epic. Throughout the season they hit the notes they needed to within the “stretch” moments which built up the grandeur of the finally naturally, even though the rest of the season lacked it.
Picking up right where the last episode left off, Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) leads the Mandalorian’s through the Imperial base as Axe Woves (Simon Kassianides) flies out into space to warn the Mandalorian fleet of the immanent attack. Meanwhile, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) is being dragged to an interrogation room. The second he has a chance, he fights back and attempts an escape, he is almost overwhelmed but Grogu appears in the IG-12 unit and helps Din escape. He radios to Bo-Katan and updates her of his plan to go after Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) as Bo-Katan escape the cave and the Imperial fleet heads out to attack. Din stalks the halls of the base as an R5-D4 finds him Moff Gideon’s base of operations. Axe reaches the fleet and orders a full evacuation but stays back to pilot the main ship himself as a decoy. The dropships enter the atmosphere as the imperials ascend upon the main ship. Din fights through the defenses and eventually reaches the main room. He enters a hallway filled with clone tanks of Moff Gideon, he knows they must be destroyed. He powers them down and one by one the tanks explode. Bo-Katan and the rest of the fleet reach a cave filled with vegetation where they wait for re-enforcements, which arrive with the Armorer (Emily Swallow) in command. Fresh with more troops, Bo-Katan leads the Mandalorians with the Darksaber in hand and they begin the offensive on the base. Din and Grogu reach Gideon’s room and the door closes behind him. Moff Gideon appears and chastises Din for destroying his clones before attacking. Gideon is adorned with mechanically enhanced strength and overpowers Din, and then the Praetorian Guards appear. They quickly gain the advantage but Grogu comes in and evens the odds. Grogu is forced to take on the guards himself as Gideon isolates the two of them from Grogu and the guards. As Bo-Katan and the others dispatch the troopers she sees Din and Gideon and flies in to take on Gideon one on one. Grogu does an admirable job against the guards but is almost ended until Din arrives to help and the two take out the guards. Outside, Axe pilotes the exploding ship directly at the base, just as Gideon gains the upper hand and destroys the Darksaber. It looks to be the end, but Din arrives and pushes Gideon back. Suddenly the ship crashes into the base and a fireball swallows Gideon whole but a force shield saves Grogu, Din, and Bo-Katan. Some time after the battle, The Armorer annoints the young Mandalorians in the loving waters. Din Djarin insists on Grogu being anointed as well but The Armorer refuses as he is too young. So, Din Djarin formally adopts Grogu and he officially becomes a Mandalorian apprentice. There is a great ceremony and Bo-Katan re-ignites the Great Forge, signaling the rebirth of Mandalore. Later, Din travels to a New Republic base to meet with Captain Carson Teva (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee). Din offers his services as a gun for hire and in return, he is given the head of an old IG unit. On Navarro, Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) gifts Din a cabin outside of the city and Din gives them a repaired IG-11 (Taika Waititi) in return to act as the city’s Marshall.
Mandalore has officially returned to the Star Wars Universe. From a story perspective this is huge for future storylines and series but from a marketing perspective this could bring new and old eyes back to the franchise with the mere prospect of the inclusion of Mandalore as it has quickly become one of the most exciting aspects of the franchise. Most of this episode was a fight which did not disappoint. Seeing the Mandalorians absolutely and definitively prove that they are the most skilled fighters in the galaxy in amazing airborne combat was as no less than amazing. To his credit, Gideon dominated most of the fight against Din and Bo-Katan individually but they were able to get the best of him when working together. Grogu had the most evolution in terms of effectiveness, seeing as he was able to hold off a squad of Praetorian Guards by merely jumping around. Seeing his evolution over the seasons was a treat and seeing what the future holds for Grogu will propel the franchise in the future. The center of this season was of course Bo-Katan Kryze. Her journey from someone who has given up on her goals to her overwhelming success has been a journey of acceptance and perseverance. She begins by accepting the differences of an opposing faction then persevered through challenges laid before her to unite the warring factions and ultimately lead the Mandalorians to reclaim their homeworld. One can’t overlook the role that the Armorer had in the had in Bo-Katan’s journey. The Armorer accepted Bo-Katan into her ranks then identified her as the only one that could unite the two factions and encourage her to do so. To be honest, without The Armorer, Bo-Katan would have never continued her journey. And although the Darksaber is no more, somthing that may irk the more hardcore fan base, Bo-Katan’s leadership has been solidified with the success of the their incursion. The last we see of Mando and his son Grogu is of them relaxing at his cabin after the promising of more adventures for the New Republic and this is where we leave the two until the next appearance of Din Djarin and the newly appointed Din Grogu.
Overall, this finale goes far in improving the season as a whole but not far enough. The quality of this season is the lowest of the three, that could be because of the very specific and short story that was to be told this season or is could be the holding back of some major story beats and events that will be explored in another upcoming series. Either way, the lack of deeper storytelling in the beats that mattered led to a decline in engagement and meaningful storytelling. But individually, this season finale is the epic conclusion to this saga that we deserved.