Mission to Mandalore: Funny Things Happen in Episode Three of Pedro Pascal’s Theoretical Return to His Home World
Success has its privileges, including the freedom to get off to the relatively slow start that “The Mandalorian” indulged with its third-season debut, reintroducing the central players and a few peripheral ones, while laying out the bones of a plot that might be called Mission to Mandalore.
In one of the stranger aspects of Mandalorian tradition, removing his helmet has branded Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal, or at least, his voice) an apostate, prompting him to go to his home world in an effort to atone.
A visit to his old friend Greef Karga and another visit to Bo-Katan are needed before the journey can be completed. (Karga did explain the absence of Cara Dune after Disney opted to part ways with the actor who played her, Gina Carano, due to offensive social-media posts.)
What that left, in an episode written by executive producer Jon Favreau, were enjoyably small bits of comedic business, most of them involving Grogu, a.k.a. Baby Yoda was amused by a number of things, from being mistaken for a small alien for a pet to exploring the wonders of a chair.
Disney+ didn’t make the episode available to critics in advance, which fed expectations the first episode might contain some kind of revelation or surprise, perhaps like the major cameo that capped off the second season.
“The Apostate” – Why Do The Mandalorians Ever Want to Come Back and See the Things That Haven’t Been Done?
The new and improved planet of Nevarro is where The Mandalorian is following Mando as it tries to copy that classic Star Wars magic. It can be hard to remember what it was like to see Grogu and the other small alien creature brought to life with puppets in this era of larger than life Star Wars narratives. The episode moves so quickly that you never get a chance to appreciate all of its rich detail, which makes it feel like the episode is just checking off a series ofgeneral scene-setting boxes rather than trying to more deeply explore this universe.
The Apostate makes clear that the Mandalorians place more value on their traditions than any other members of their family, and as a result, they can be expelled from one family because of it. Compelling as the motivation behind Din’s quest to find and then purify himself in the living waters of Mandalore is, “The Apostate” makes short work of using the plot beat as a reason to send Mando and Grogu on yet another series of space errands that all feel like the show retreading familiar territory in order to check in with figures like Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) and Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris).