Well, that was a rather staid and uneventful season premiere, wasn’t it? Or, at least it was if you had dutifully watched all of The Book of Boba Fett and knew what transpired between little Grogu, Luke Skywalker, Ashoka Tano, and Din Djarin during the three episodes within that series that served as a season 2.5 of sorts for The Mandalorian. While I assume most viewers did their homework (either watching it as it aired or catching up thanks to the myriad articles out there in the lead up to today’s season three premiere warning that if you didn’t watch that other series you would be out of the loop), if you didn’t, a quick primer: Grogu decided to leave Luke and return to Mando, who took off his helmet to see the little guy face-to-face before they both helped Boba Fett with his Cad Bane issues on Tatooine.* So, here we are, rehashing some of what happened in those episodes – namely that Mando is now an apostate and needs to bathe in the waters of the mines of Mandalore in order for his cult to take him back – and starting on yet another quest, this time without the question of whether or not Grogu will be heading back into Jedi training anytime soon.
*A lot has been made in the last couple of years regarding Marvel’s decision to keep its Disney+ series tied tightly to their feature releases – creating a “gotta catch ‘em all if I want to understand everything” feeling among the fanbase. We’ve certainly started to see some MCU fatigue (if box office numbers are a sign and if general discussion around the web is any indication), and I suspect the same complaint might ring true for this extended Star Wars universe moving forward. However, in this case, what’s happening is a clear division in quality vs. quantity. The Book of Boba Fett was the weakest of the live action television shows by a wide margin (followed by Obi-Wan Kenobi, which was also a miss, albeit one that doesn’t particularly impact this post-Return of the Jedi storytelling all that much). With Andor hitting such incredible storytelling highs, however, The Mandalorian needs all the help it can get to keep up to that same level – and putting key elements of storytelling in a lesser series was not the best move for Dave Filoni and his team.
One thing I had forgotten, after the taut, complex, and wonderfully written ride that was Andor season one, was just how slow and methodical The Mandalorian is as a series. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that – different narrative means work for different types of stories (this being a slow-going Western means we don’t get the same depth of character development and the same crisp dialogue as a spy thriller with a clear fixed end point like in Andor). But it was quite the switch to have an episode that accomplished only two minor things: reminded us just what Mando’s overall mission is for the season (return and be purified), and introduced us to a villain in Gorian Shard who has it out for Mando in the immediate present. Sure, there are some other bits of exposition that were (awkwardly) relayed to us: Cara Dune is off with the Special Forces (never to be seen again), Moff Gideon is being interrogated by the Republic, Bo Katan is sulking and lost her army when she lost her chance at the Darksaber, and Greef Karga is now in charge of Nevarro after cleaning it up. But we know the main points of this section of Mando and Grogu’s tale: get to Mandalore and avoid Gorian Shard.
Will other issues arise, preventing them from their goal? I’m sure they will. Bo Katan doesn’t seem the type to sit around and just wait for destiny to find her – and we know Mando won’t willingly take up the mantle of leader of the Mandalorian remnant, although I suspect he might find himself doing so at some point, further angering Bo in the process. Moff Gideon – and Giancarlo Esposito – is too interesting of a character to keep locked away for the season. Plus, he knows far too much that we need to understand to not check in on him at some point. And I suspect Karga might have some issues down the line that require Mando (and Mando needs to pop back for his refurbished droid once he finds that memory card – which you know he will because we all want more Taika Waititi in this series voicing that droid). So, we’re going to see our old friends and enemies down the line. But for now, it was lovely to see little Grogu back on our screens, looking as adorable as ever, hanging out with his surrogate father once more.
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