IN REVIEW: STAR WARS: THE MANDALORIAN (S3 – EP1) Chapter 17 The Apostate

Synopsis: In The Apostate The Mandalorian begins an important journey to redeem himself for taking off his helmet. 

The Story

Picking up from where The Book of Boba Fett left things. Din Djarin has been reunited with Grogu, but he still needs to redeem himself for taking off his helmet, which is a sacrilege in the eyes of The Tribe, which is the traditional group that Din Djarin belongs to. In order to do this Din Djarin plans to return to Mandalore and bathe in the waters beneath the planet’s surface. However, this could be tricky given that the surface of the planet was all but destroyed.

In order to get some help for his mission. Din Djarin returns to Nevarro and enlists Greef Carga’s help. Din Djarin needs the services of the G-11 droid that served to protect The Child aka Grogu in the show’s first season. The problem is G-11 was destroyed. However, some parts of the droid remain and have been made into a statue. Din Djarin hopes to rebuild the Droid to help him with his mission on Mandalore.

The Acting

We get solid acting throughout this episode. Pedro Pascal continues to be convincing as Din Djarin who is very much the quiet, but very dangerous gunslinger in the vein of Clint Eastwood. I really liked the scene where Din Djarin was teaching Grogu about navigation and ship systems prior to their encounter with pirates that attempt to shoot him down as payback for Din Djarin having killed his men earlier in the episode. We also get some fun interactions between Pascal and Carl Weathers as Greef Carga tries to recruit Din Djarin to be the new Marshall. A role that was previously filled by Cara Dune who has been written out of the show and is apparently serving the New Republic in their special forces.

Katee Sackhoff gets to reprise her role of Bo-Katan Kryze who has lost all of her supporters due to the fact that she was unable to obtain the Dark Saber. She is looking like she may well be a dangerous opponent for Din Djarin in the weeks to come. 

Overall

The Apostate is a fairly solid start for the third season, which looks like it is going to focus on Din Djarin trying to retake Mandalore and restore The Mandalorian homeworld to its former glory. I look forward to seeing how that will play out and what characters old or new characters we’ll get to meet along the way.