What the hell is happening to The Mandalorian? They have lost the way. SPOILERS FOR SEASON 3 FINALE

 

This is NOT the way! Yeah you heard that right. This is NOT the way. How did the Mandalorian fall this far from grace. I felt compelled to write this piece after ' suffering' through the turd of the episode that was episode 8. What was Favreau and filoni thinking when penning this story? While I am fine with the overall arc of Katie Sackhoff's Bo Katan Kryze  regaining her faith and stepping up to lead both factions of Mandalorian's, I can't help but feel Din Djarin and Grogu have been sidelined. And with only two episodes left of a short eight episode season, and with three squandered episodes which do little to advance the main story (the silly first episode with the IG11 resurrection, the third episodes emphasis on Dr Pershing, or the latest episode with some totally unstarwarsy celebrity cameos) I am not sure how this season is going to pull itself out of the muck. There are some great episodes scattered throughout, but on the whole, season three has been severely lacking in the writing department. Have they dropped the ball? Only time will tell. Check back again in two weeks for my final thoughts on this season.

Conclusions And takeaways 

So episode 8 of season 3 just aired. The last two episodes managed to salvage some decent arcs from what was a mostly empty and lackluster season, where Din and Grogu got sidelined for a good part of the time. The main protagonist, it seemed was Bo Katan Kryze and how she regains her faith after taking Din Djarin to the living waters beneath Mandalore, and seeing a living Mythosaur while saving Din. We follow her story arc as she is accepted into Din's tribe, and is recognized as the mandalorian to unite all the tribes by the Armorer. She gets to show the tribe that she is fully capable by leading them to save a foundling from a raptor, and later an assault on the Pirates, who attacks Nevarro. The final two episodes see a reunited Mandalorian tribe go up against Moff Gideon's beskar armor equipped Troopers as they act to reclaim Mandalore. In between the main arcs, we see Din get captured by Moff Gideon. He is saved by Grogu, and Bo Katan. They ultimately discover that Gideon has been cloning himself, and attempting to imbue his clones with the force using Grogu's blood. The season ends with Gideon defeated, Mandalore reclaimed, and Din Djarin adopting Grogu as his own so he can start training his ' apprentice'.

So have my feelings changed after watching the last two episodes? Not in the least bit. This season was all over the place, and reminded me a lot of the Book of Boba Fett, with too many side stories that derailed the forward momentum achieved every time we had something important happen. The side stories with Dr Pershing, and Jack Black's Bombardier were given way too much time, time that could be used to focus more on the shadow council, Grand Admiral Thawn's impending return, or even on Moff Gideon's secret base near the great forge on Mandalore. Some have theorized that Jon Favreau was forced to rewrite a good chunk of the script following the firing of Gina Carano. Cara Dune was supposed to play a huge role in the Mandoverse, and was to get her own series Rangers of the New Republic. I am inclined to believe this theory. Now that this story arc has been resolved, maybe, just maybe we can recapture the original 'Lone wolf and cub' spirit that worked so well in season 1 and 2. Only time will tell!

NOTE: all images used herein belong to Lucasfilm