‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Episode 1 Review – A Welcome Return Sets The Bar High For Newest Season

After two years and some change, we are finally back with Din Djarin and fan-favorite Grogu. With the season three premiere Rick Famuyiwa and Jon Favreau sets the stage really high for this third season. Episode one sets up a good amount from Din’s own personal mission to become a Mandalorian again to what Bo-Katan is planning for the future. Rick Famuyiwa does a great job bringing characters back together; seeing Din back on Nevarro and meeting up with Magistrate – sorry, High Magistrate Greef Karga – was hilarious and awesome all at the same time. Witnessing those little droids hold up High Magistrate Karga’s cape was too funny and the whole standoff between Captain Gorian Shard’s men and Karga was so Rick Famuyiwa – he just has this badass way of directing action that can hold attention no matter if it’s a short scene or a long one.

What this episode does beautifully is it enhances worlds that we’ve already seen like Nevarro, which used to be a run-down place owned by bounty hunters and pirates but is now a place of wealth and education. It also downgrades other planets like Mandalore, but rest assured it still holds high importance. Mandolore used to be one of the most planets in the galaxy, but now it’s reduced to ashes in terms of education, wealth, agriculture – basically anything that holds a society together. Where its importance has shifted is to its people. The way of the Mandalore is the way of loyalty, and you can’t find that much in the galaxy far away. It is probably one of the key motivations for Bo-Katan in this series. She feels betrayed by another section of her people because they chose to ignore the Purge that laid waste to Mandalore as a planet.

Your cult gave up on Mandalore long before the Purge. Where were you then? The children of the watch and all the faction that came before fractured and shattered our people.

During this episode you see Din teaching Grogu how to navigate the galaxy so that he will never be lost. It would be great to have Din teaching Grogu important lessons in each episode about what it means of becoming a Mandalorian. Along with that, hopefully Din finds his way of becoming something more than just a blind follower of the Mandalorian way. Din’s biggest motivation right now is to be forgiven so that he can be a part of The Children of the Watch again, but even in season two you can see how conflicted he was with the knowledge he knows about the Mandalorian as a whole. Hopefully, in this journey, he will learn the complete truth and decide for himself what he truly needs.

The creed teaches us of redemption.

Seeing that Din wanted to get IG-11 back online again shows how much he’s grown as a character. Will his return diminish his sacrifice back in season one? For me, it doesn’t, but it’s a fair criticism to bring up. At the same time, it was a nice excuse to see Babu Frik’s race, the Anzellans, and they are just pure joy! Hell, even Grogu loves them.

This is a fantastic episode! It was a great choice to pick Rick Famuyiwa as the season premiere director. The action was well-directed and the choice of framing for Bo-Katan was badass for her character. Setting up Din’s motivation felt consistent with what we know him as and getting more of that world-building was great to see as always! I can’t wait till episode two!

The premiere episode of The Mandalorian is currently streaming on Disney+ with new episodes debuting every Wednesday. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Znsa4Deavgg]