The Short Take:
It felt so good to be back in Mando and Grogu’s world. The new quest for the season is clear, and I’m excited for the meaningful detours we might make along the way.
Image Credit: Rolling Stone
[SPOILER WARNING: If you have not seen this episode, you are a reader no more. This is the way.]
The Long Take:
Mando and Grogu are back! And I mean that statement on two levels: for me, and for them.
The return of this series and, more specifically, this action-packed premiere brought me immense joy. From the jump, this first episode activated my Star Wars fan lizard brain with a boatload of Mandalorians, all in different armor designs, flying around in their jet packs and fighting a giant space crocodile. This is where my heart lives, friends.
Image Credit: CNET
It may seem as if this big action scene had little to do with the overall Din and Grogu plot, and was only an excuse for everyone’s favorite dad and baby to make a grand entrance. But this scene, and this scene as the opening for this season of The Mandalorian, actually conveys a lot about the thematic priorities of this season’s story. This band of Mandalorians fight off a giant creature, but the creature’s attack is an interruption, interfering with what appears to be a baptism into The Way; this shows us the current state of the Mandalorian people as lost and dwindling, desperately trying to cling to their traditions and avoid cultural extinction. The newly inducted Child of The Watch (both literal and figurative) must undergo this pivotal coming of age ceremony not amid the splendor of the glorious Mandalore we’ve seen in The Clone Wars; instead, he must do so on an unidentified desert planet, which is just the latest of many refuges his people have sought out.
In the trailer for this season, Din explains to Grogu that Mandalorians have been scattered across the galaxy like stars, and the opening scene in the premiere is visual confirmation of their wayward nomad status. I loved that we dove right back into Mandalorian culture like this, and am very excited about what the rest of the season will bring. Where will this rag tag group of scattered stars be by the finale? Will they be any more rooted than they are now?
That said, this fight scene as a vehicle for the euphoric return of Din and Grogu really worked for me too. When their modified N1 Starfighter swoops in to save the day, a sense of, “Yes! They’re back!” rushed through my fandom veins. It felt triumphant. It felt like all was right with the world.
Image Credit: LA Times
This “we’re back” feeling is one that Din and Grogu appear to feel as well. This episode, for me, was very much demonstrating that in the wake of their reunion during The Book of Boba Fett Episodes 5, 6, and 7 (which you should watch if you haven’t already; they explain a lot), The Mandalorian and The Child are better together.
The emotional satisfaction — perhaps even balance, to use a Jedi term — that the lot reunion brings has made each of them more confident and self-assured as they face obstacles together. Everything’s gelling and firing on all cylinders. When, for example, Din runs into Swamp Thing — I mean that pirate he irritated when he helped Greef Karga deal with some riff raff on Nevarro, he’s running circles around them and escaping them with ease. Din seems unable to miss a step now that he’s back with Grogu. As a viewer invested in their relationship, I found that to be a very satisfying follow-up to those The Book of Boba Fett episodes.
This “together again and isn’t it grand” mood, however, extends maybe one step too far into premature nostalgia or the wrong kind of fan service. IG-11 is one of my favorite characters from the series, and I adored his arc from assassin to nursemaid in Season 1. So it wasn’t as if I wasn’t happy to see him. And yet…I feel like trying to bring him back is unnecessary and may taint his legacy.
The explanation for his return within the show is there — Din doesn’t trust just any droid because he was already anti-droid, and IG-11 was so extraordinary and proved the exception to Mando’s rule that only he will do. But it still feels like we’re returning to a well too soon. Like we’re bending over backwards just to bring back a beloved, popular character. It doesn’t make enough sense to me at this stage, but I’d love to be proven wrong later.
Regardless, the attempted resurrection of IG-11 sets up the first side quest that will delay our trip to a ruined Mandalore. Din wants IG-11 to be their explorer drone in the mines, and they can only repair IG-11 if they first retrieve this obscure part that the band of Babu Fricks (the Anzellans) tells him he needs. This will surely launch some kind of side quest that we will have to resolve in the next episode or two before we can resume the journey to Mandalore. I do not say this with any kind of bitterness or impatience; quite the opposite — I’m excited to see where we go and who we meet next.
When I step back and think about the totality of this episode, the broader plot for the entire Season seems very clear. Din will go to explore Mandalore, will find some kind of evidence that it is once again habitable, and, in the process of atoning for his helmet removal, attract and unite the two factions of Mandalorians he’s made contact with thus far: the Children of the Watch led by The Armorer, and the now seemingly disbanded Mandalorians led by Bo-Katan, The Nite Owls.
Image Credit: Insider
Din mentions at least once in this episode that he thinks the planet’s atmosphere may no longer be poisonous. As the titular Apostate, though, it’s in his own best interest for this to be true. He needs to believe in the restoration of Mandalore to keep hope that he can actually find the cleansing waters and rejoin The Children of the Watch. I have to remind myself of this because he has no explicit ambitions to revive Mandalore; his own personal redemption comes first.
Both leaders send Din away with lukewarm tidings. The Armorer essentially says, “sure go try your crazy plan if you want; we’ll talk when you’ve got something to show for it.” (Yes, I got all that from “This is the way.”) Bo-Katan, completely disillusioned by her inability to keep her faction together without the symbolic power of the Darksaber to galvanize them, seems largely uninterested when Din shows her the artifact that suggests there’s hope for their long lost mother planet.
Image Credit: Den of Geek
While I was a little freaked out that Bo-Katan never got up out of her throne and was essentially frozen in one position for the entire conversation (maybe that was a power move on her part?), I very much enjoyed Katee Sackoff’s sarcasm and bitterness in this scene. The way she tells Din to “wave around” the Darksaber and everyone will follow him cracked me up.
On both fronts, it seems Din has an uphill battle to climb, and he’s going to have to discover something pretty substantial and concrete on Mandalore. Something tangible that will get Bo-Katan and The Armorer’s attention. Something that will convince them all to return. We’re a long ways off from that, but I’m giddy about the journey upon which we — and our heroes — have embarked.