‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Episode 1 Review - Mando Returns With A New Mission

Warning: Contains Heavy Spoilers for The Mandalorian Chapter 17

After a gap of more than two years, the duo of Pedro Pascal's Mando and Grogu finally returned to our screen this Wednesday. The first episode of Star Wars: The Mandalorian Season 3, which is now streaming on Dinsey+ continues the story where it left off in The Book of Boba Fett last year.

Chapter 17 of ‘The Mandalorian,’ titled, The Apostate begins with an oath ceremony where a kid is about to become a Mnadalore, the Armourer puts on the helmet as the kid repeats, "This is the way". When he was taking the oath to never remove the helmet, the ceremony was attacked by a giant alligator-like creature. The group of helmet-wearing Mandalorians tries to fight the creature but seems behind but not before a shuttle comes with help when needed. This is the same ship in which Mando and Grogu left in The Book of Boba Fett.

The duo is back and now they have one mission - to find out what happened on the home planet of the Mandalore. Is it really poisoned? The episode sets up the mission they will embark on in the upcoming episodes. It does include some flashy and typical Star Wars visuals and a space fight with the pirates. There is a minute-long scene of Mando and Grogu traveling at light speed, the visuals were stunning, but I guess it was teasing something else.

The episodes also answer what happened with Cara Dune played by Gina Carano, and Giancarlo Esposito's Moff Gideon. As we all know, Gina Carano was permanently removed from this series after controversy and the episode tries to put a permanent lock on the character as well. On Nevarro, Greef Karga, who is now Magistrate Greef Karga tells Mando that Cara Dune was recruited by Special forces after she brought in Moff Gideon and she is no longer a Marshal on Nevarro with him, Karga also confirms that Gideon was sent to a New Republic War Tribunal and doesn't know what happened after that.

The 35-minute-long episode was pretty average in terms of storytelling but teased what the audience could expect in the upcoming episodes. IG-11, who self-destroyed itself in Season 2, seems to have a significant role to play in Mando's mission as his first mission is to repair the Droid at all costs. The episode ended with Manndo and Grogu visiting Bo Katan on Kalevala, a planet of the Mandalore system, as she refuses to join Mando on his mission to explore their home planet.

The second episode is likely to be another chapter that will show Mando preparing for his mission by finding all the ways he could to repair IG-11, and we may see the pirates led by Gorian Shard. Overall, it's an average but still a decent start to Season 3 of The Mandalorian, however, the pace has to pick up, if Mando has to complete his mission. 

Final Score - [7.5/10]