Mandalorian Season Three

The Din Dijarin helmet from The Mandelorian

Photo by Jay Johnson

Just a few weeks ago, Disney+ released season three of its original hit show, “The Mandalorian” garnering many feelings of joy, excitement and even disappointment. 

With the first episode of the new season having picked up from where the story left off, Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin set out to visit the living waters of Mandalore to reclaim his place in the Mandalorian tribe after having taken his helmet off in season two of the show. This storyline started out strong and its allowed viewers to root in favor of Djarin, while also giving us just the right amount of suspense and action to keep us begging for more. 

Throughout the first two episodes of the latest season, viewers get to watch as this story unfolds, and we observe how Djarin and Grogu (aka, Baby Yoda) meet a variety of new creatures while also seeing old friends like Peli Motto and Bo-Katan Kryze. These creatures were really interesting to see on screen and the action scenes were very well done. However in regard to Grogu, his character was somewhat made to be overly childish. It felt in this season more than any other that the director chose to play into the idea that he is just a baby and can make the audience laugh. While it is a cute idea in the theory, this direction taken on Grogu this season wasn’t the best choice to have made since we are trying to watch his character develop into a potential future Mandalorian. 

Despite this, we witness Grogu become stronger as he fights to save Djarin against the native tribe on Mandalore as he flies Djarin’s ship to Kryze to ask for her help. This development of his character was really refreshing to see because in past seasons, Grogu has been a side character. It feels like in this season that he is being made a main character. 

As the show progresses further, Djarin, Grogu and Kryze reach the living waters after a long journey of being kidnapped, beaten and almost eaten, where they encounter yet again another creature. Within the living waters existed a monster that almost wound up killing Djarin had it not been for Kryze’s help, and with its emergence in the show, we cannot help but wonder if we will see that monster again. 

With the first two episodes having been filled with heart-stopping suspense, one would imagine that this concept would carry over into the third episode of the series. However, after Djarin goes back to his tribe and is once again deemed a Mandalorian, the story shifts to focus on a scientist, named Dr. Penn Perhsing. For the entirety of the episode, we focus on him and Elia Kane, both former Imperials, as they learn to live in the New Republic, and by the end of the first episode, Kane wipes Perhsing’s mind. 

Although this likely connects to a larger story that will be elaborated on into in further episodes, viewers might be left feeling confused and disappointed by the boorish nature of the plot. 

However, the newest episode, episode five, has once again filled fans (like myself), with lots of joy for having met our expectations for the show. This episode mainly focused on Grogu and included snippets of his past as we watched him learn and grow in the Mandalorian culture throughout the episode. After having watched this, I still can’t help but wonder why the third episode was so strangely placed and why that hiccup in the show exists. 

Overall, as past seasons have done,”The Mandalorian” is once again holding up to its name by giving us action-packed scenes, cute images of Grogu and iconic stand-alone lines that will be referenced forever. It will be exciting to see what comes next in the series.