The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 8 Review: Satisfying Ending with A Somewhat Rushed Pace | Chapter 24
Cast: Pedro Pascal, Katee Sackhoff, Emily Swallow, Giancarlo Esposito
Director: Rick Famuyiwa
Streaming Platform: Disney+
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4.5/5 (four and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
The Mandalorian Season 3 has been much more irregular than the previous ones now The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 8 (Chapter 24). As many fans, including myself, have pointed out, the series sometimes kicks off a multitude of new plotlines without resolving the ones that are already underway. This is something that can be done if it doesn’t break the pace, but in this case, there have been several episodes that have done just that. That being said, the previous chapter made me doubt the conclusion of this installment, but in the end, it pleasantly surprised me. Moff Gideon keeps The Mandalorians in check, after an incredible surprise move that – as mentioned in the review of The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 7 – completely reversed the fate of Din Djarin and his allies, who returned to their home planet to reclaim their roots. The Darktroppers are stronger than ever, enhanced with the beskar, the same villain played by Giancarlo Esposito is close to implementing his tremendous plan: to combine the battle skills of The Mandalorians with the power of the Jedi force, to provide what that remains of the Empire an unparalleled war force.
Bo-Katan’s troops are cornered, Din has been captured, and little Grogu is separated from his mentor. The premises for a dramatic season finale for, in short, The Mandalorian Season 3 were all there. What is certain is that, as we will see in our review of The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 8, this last episode of the season demonstrated how much the Star Wars series available on Disney+ had clear ideas right away, despite an episodic structure that was not always excellent and standoffish. There’s a refreshing sense of fulfillment in seeing how the seemingly unrelated storylines find a way to dance together in just under 40 minutes. The result is an ending that excites and involves, and which leaves the doors open for an unexpected continuation, with an increasingly broader vision.
The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 8 Review: The Story Plot
Here, let’s get our hands on those who expected that tragic turning points or great revelations would come from this season finale given the future of Star Wars or the “Filoni-verse” (after all, it was reasonable to expect some connection with Ahsoka) could remain disappointed. Starting from the title of Chapter 24: The Return, portends something sensational to boil in the pot. A little cunning, that of showrunners and creators, who instead winks at the closing of a circle and an entire storyline: that of The Mandalorian people, and of the protagonist himself, who arrive at the (final?) showdown with Moff Gideon and his army of dark stormtroopers.
Even a relatively short finale of just 41 minutes – including credits! which perhaps runs a little too far in reaching its resolution, seemingly closing the entire narrative arc that has begun since Gideon’s appearance in the first season of The Mandalorian. We get to put a point on various elements: on the villain himself, because it is difficult to imagine yet another return by Esposito that appears truly coherent, on the experiments conducted on the Child and the famous cloning process. Everything, at least in appearance, concludes, including the path of rebirth and restoration of Mandalore after a bitter battle with Gideon’s army.
It all led to this. To a smile of exaltation as the title of the series appears in large letters; to that entertainment that the saga created by George Lucas has always promised to offer; to the showdown between our protagonists and the archenemy presented decisively. The return is the final episode of the season that finally shows all the muscles and qualities that the series of Favreau and Filoni has hidden this year. A ride is full of action and tension that, honestly, seemed to be missing for too long. Mandalorians, unite! On their home planet takes place the final confrontation between a people ready to take back their identity and the post-imperial forces of Moff Gideon. Between man-on-man, droid-on-droid combat, between ship-to-ship shootouts and in-flight confrontations, we will witness a veritable continuous siege for our senses. There are some revelations (net of some fairly quick and easy solutions) that will delight the most hardcore fans of the saga.
The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 8 Review and Analysis
Yet, although it was legitimate to expect more incisive twists, it must be admitted that the story staged during this episode remains coherent and functional to the role of each protagonist. Nonetheless, it should also be emphasized that we have witnessed – a bit like the first season – a more independent and mature narrative arc, united from the extreme fanservice that we had in any case appreciated in the review of The Mandalorian 2. In short, inevitably summing up, this season finale seems to be the reflection of an entire season, the third, which proved to be the most controversial and discontinuous of the adventures of Mando and Grogu, between episodes of unexpected political insight – like the third – or heartbreaking flashbacks in the wake of the fourth, all alternating with decidedly more subdued moments (the season premiere and the sixth episode) and moments of pure epic as in the fifth and seventh.
The fact remains that, thanks to the excellent direction of Rick Famuyiwa, The Mandalorian Season 3 gives us an epilogue full of action and entertainment, with a decisive battle between The Mandalorian army and exquisitely cinematic dark troopers. With an ending that closes a circle and opens another more indefinite one, projecting us towards new adventures for Din and Grogu which will have a different flavor from now on. Still waiting for Ahsoka and what the future of the Favreau and Filoni Mandoverse has in store for us. It’s called The Return, but there are many returns in these 40 minutes. First of all: the return to a more intimate and sincere dimension between Din Djarin and Grogu. The series seems to remember, perhaps a little too late, what made its fortune. A few moments together are enough, you just need to savor that emotional relationship between the two to remember how much we are tied to those characters and how much potential they can offer.
The more playful and amused dimension also returns: the preponderant action, the upheavals of balance, the feeling of real danger, and the construction of a spectacular epic are elements that have been missing for (too) a long time and which find the perfect outlet here. At the expense, it must be said, of some narrative balance. Some narrative elements are resolved in a short time and without major jolts, as well as giving – especially in the final stages of the episode – an emotional weight to certain upheavals. Precisely in the finale, beyond the general fun, the fruits of a slightly frayed and unbalanced season are reaped compared to the previous two, as if one felt the urgency to close a storyline that by now had little to offer to change the very nature of the series.
This eighth episode of the third season of The Mandalorian closes with the same fade-out with which the films closed as if to symbolize the true end of a narrative cycle, even more, definitive than the other two seasons. Without giving in to the easy temptation of spoilers, it is enough to say that the situation in which The Mandalorians and, especially Din and Grogu will find themselves, will have the feeling of a new beginning. The recent statements by Jon Favreau come to mind, who did not see a real conclusion on the horizon for the events of our two protagonists. The Mandalorian is forced to change its nature, shifting the needle towards a perhaps smaller and more personal dimension (like what happened at the beginning of the series) and giving up that expansion of vision that the third season, with ups and downs, he had proposed.
A season is closing, therefore, but the sensation is that of a more definitive closure, at least of the version of The Mandalorian we know (and who knows if it is a sudden choice due to the new Star Wars film projects or a necessary renewal to continue one of the Disney+ greatest hits). Now we just have to ask ourselves if, having reached this point, 40 minutes are enough to rekindle a passion that promises to be even necessary to continue Din and Grogu’s journey with them. Because there is a need for different writing, more focused and attentive to detail, and at the same time a novelty effect that can truly rekindle the hearts of enthusiasts in the long term. Only time will tell what the future of The Mandalorian will be (and, curiously, the entire Star Wars brand is in this limbo between curiosity and uncertainty), but at the moment, of all the returns of this episode, the most heartfelt and moving is right out of Star Wars. We really missed him.
For the first time since it began, The Mandalorian has had a very quiet conclusion, in which we see Din in the role of a father. He and Grogu move into a small house in Navarro, and it seems that they will try to avoid the hectic dangers to which they were so frequently exposed. Now that their family, Mando works for the New Republic, and Grogu is a full-fledged apprentice, it seems like the perfect time for a time skip to show us Grogu’s future. Both characters may reappear in the Ahsoka series, which premieres this summer, similar to their role in The Book of Boba Fett. That being said, I think this season has been very good, but also very uneven, and I can’t help but wonder why the third episode was necessary.
The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 8 Review: The Last Words
The Mandalorian Season 3 leaves us with a spectacular and bombastic ending that reserves few twists but closes the narrative arc of The Mandalorians and of the Din/Grogu couple themselves. From here on, the adventures of Mando and the Child will certainly have a different flavor, all to be written, with possible connections to the sequel trilogy that will have to manifest themselves in more concrete ways than that. An epilogue that closes a season of ups and downs, but still of quality, with a more marked identity and maturity than the previous two. The third season finale of The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 8 is an action-packed visual feast. There isn’t a breather in these 40 minutes in which we find (perhaps a little too late) everything we missed about The Mandalorian. An ending that, net of writing not always capable of giving due weight to events, has the flavor of a new beginning, and which rekindles the passion for a saga still forced to face a problematic period of identity.
