Credit: LucasfilmIt’s been a hot parsec since we had The Mandalorian (2019) on our screens. Of course, we caught up with Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his young Jedi foundling Grogu in The Book of Boba Fett (2021), but for his own title show, it’s been a long time. Rest easy: Mando’s back.
The episode opens with the Armorer (Emily Swallow) forging a new helmet. As she exits a cave to a full procession of Mandalorian warriors, we see she is presenting it to a young Foundling. It’s the ceremony of him swearing his oath to their creed.
The moment is interrupted by a huge beast emerging from the water. The warriors spring into battle. It takes everything they have to fend off the beast. The Armorer herself even gets involved, taking an injury and almost losing her life, before Din Djarin and Grogu arrive in their refurbished N-1 Starfighter and slay the monster with a well placed proton torpedo.
Inside the cave system, Din is speaking to the Armorer one to one. She reminds him of his oath-break from removing his helmet, and that redemption is impossible due to the destruction of Mandalore. He presents her with proof that something still exists there, a relic from Jawas, who in turn got it from a traveler who claimed to have visited the surface of the planet.
Din says if he can prove he has visited Mandalore, bathed in the living waters beneath the planet’s mines, then he will have earned his redemption. She reluctantly agrees. Grogu coos in agreement.
In hyperspace, we see Grogu spot some of the giant space whales that ride the hyperspace lanes as they journey to Nevarro. He cuddles up to Din in an extremely cute little moment.
The pair make their way through the thriving Nevarro marketplace, and spot a tribute to IG-11 (Taika Waititi), Grogu’s old assassin-turned-nanny.
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Greef Karga (Carl Weathers), now High Magistrate, greets him. The planet has been transformed into a place of happiness and prosperity. He offers them a homestead to settle down in. Din appreciates it, but says he has more to do. Grogu is, as usual, snacking.
Their meeting is interrupted by pirates in the courtyard. Greef recognizes one as Vane (Marti Matulis). He reminds Greef of a debt he owes to the ‘Pirate King Gorian Shard’. They say his money is what transformed the local saloon into a school, and insist on drinking there still. Things escalate into a showdown. Greef wins, disarming his opponent.
As they make a move to take him out again, Din takes out the rest of the posse, leaving Vane to scramble away. They let him go to spread the word.
Greef says Cara Dune was recruited by Special Forces, while Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) is at a war tribunal with the New Republic. Greef says he plans to make Nevarro truly independent. Din tells Greef he wants IG-11 back to help him explore Mandalore.
They use parts — kept safe as part of his memorial — to restore IG-11 as much as possible. He comes back, but comes back fully restored, to his assassin settings. He defaulted to his old programming. They need a better droidsmith. It’s a group of Anzellans, the same species as Babu Frik (and also voiced by Shirley Henderson).
They tell him he can’t be fixed and his memory circuit won’t work. But if they can get a new part they’ll fix it. Grogu grabs one of the Anzellans and cuddles him, causing quite a scene.
Grogu and Din depart. On their route, he is teaching him how to navigate — just as Vane finds him again with two other pirates. They’ve come for payback. A fierce chase ensues, and Din appears to have the upper hand until he is led to the pirate king’s flagship. Shard (Nonso Anozie) confronts him, but Djarin speeds away in time.
The pair head to Kalavara, another planet in the Mandalore system. They’re visiting a castle there, the current home of Bo Katan (Katee Sackhoff). Bo says the loss of the Darksaber has cost her everyone. They left her after she failed to win the blade. She tells him she has given up on her quest to retake the home planet and dismisses his beliefs around the mines providing absolution.
But she does tell him where the mines are located, beneath the civic center in the city of Sundari. The pair exit, leaving Katan stewing on her throne.
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