The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 3 Review: The intriguing fragments of Din and Bo-Katan
Cast: Pedro Pascal, Omid Abtahi, Katee Sackhoff
Director: Lee Isaac Chung
Streaming Platform: Disney+
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 3 shows us two short snippets of Din and Bo-Katan at the beginning and end of the episode, but the rest of it takes place on Coruscant. There we see a familiar face, Penn Pershing, one of the scientists who worked for Moff Gideon and who seems to be integrating into New Republic society. This twist is interesting, at first, because of the chance to see how the former members of the Empire are adjusting to the new regime. After two chapters that seemed to pave the way for Din and Bo-Katan to start retaking Mandalore or exploring its secrets, this episode does a 180-degree turn. Instead of focusing on The Mandalorians, we follow Penn Pershing, the scientist who has already appeared several times working for Moff Gideon. This change of pace and plot doesn’t quite sit well with the series, interesting as it may be to see what the New Republic is like.
After the more traditional episode, here’s the break. And we have to admit it: it leaves a very satisfying sense to discover how Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni’s serial creature is capable of changing and opening up to the unexpected, rather than limiting himself to replicating a formula that, already in the first episode of this season, risked being stale. This third episode of The Mandalorian Season 3, the longest of the series, surprises with its unusual structure, laying the foundations for a new intriguing storyline. To do this, he needs to put aside the protagonists of the story – who have already accomplished what seemed to be the main mission – to allow himself all the time necessary to focus on the story of an old acquaintance of ours, Dr. Penn Pershing, an imperial scientist who has intertwined his life several times with that of The Mandalorian, both in the first season with the Client and later alongside Moff Gideon. If this writing choice was successful, we will find out in our review of The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 3.
The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 3 Review: The Story Plot
The plot of the third episode of The Mandalorian Season 3 is divided into two narratives. The first, which opens and closes the episode, definitively conclude the path of redemption of Din Djarin and Bo Katan. Although the playing time dedicated to them is short, it is a long action sequence (with some spectacular peaks) and an epilogue that leaves a pleasant sense of curiosity about the future of the protagonists. The central part of the episode, however, focuses on a character we never thought could receive this treatment. Here, The Convert takes us back to the planet-city of Coruscant, now the seat of the New Republic’s senate, where the Amnesty program seeks to reinstate repentant pro-imperials.
We will find our scientist looking for a pardon, although still convinced of the usefulness of his theories on cloning that he has been pursuing for a long time. On Coruscant, forced into an office job, Pershing will meet Elia Kane, another old acquaintance of ours affiliated with Moff Gideon. The two will try to start a new life together, but old regrets will come back to the surface. Perhaps scientific research on cloning, however dangerous and of dubious ethics, could also serve the New Republic. The consequences will be unpredictable.
The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 3 Review and Analysis
The Mandalorian has always been the flagship series of Star Wars, a real flagship of Disney +, precisely for its ability to find a perfect balance within the canon of the saga. Never too childish nor too adult, the story of Din and Grogu has managed to involve a truly large and heterogeneous audience, giving that naive taste for space adventure of which the George Lucas saga has always been the spokesperson. Respecting the epic and myth of a project that has shaped pop culture for forty-five years, The Mandalorian has always been synonymous with what is normally considered the purest and truest soul of Star Wars. This third episode, however, is a particular exception. Starting from the extra-large duration (no previous episode arrived on time, like the premium TV series) to a less adventurous and more mature tone.
Because, if our Mandalorian, in the company of Grogu and Bo Katan, represents the most active soul of the story, the more rational and scientific personality of Pershing’s character forces the series to slow down and look at the hidden sides of the Galaxy. The entertainment gives way, slowly, to a political identity, where new shadows are cast on the New Republic and where the gaze rests on the difficulty of reintegrating on the part of the repentant, on the existential sense of having followed orders that one does not he could rebel for a long time and then find himself in a free world. In Pershing’s story there is a pain that is rarely found in Star Wars and, consequently, a much more mature tone that is much more reminiscent of Andor’s writing.
It remains to be seen whether this choice could be successful, managing to open The Mandalorian in something much more than the canonical adventure series for children. However, this sudden and unusual change of tone could be perceived as a distorting element of the series, causing it to lose that precise and accommodating identity that the viewer needs. The downside is to highlight once again a certain amount of confusion within the Star Wars brand, with important events told in spin-offs (The Book of Boba Fett which acts as a prologue to the third season and which has not received the same success as the mother series) or it could give the less passionate spectator (and who does not appreciate the more adult tone of Andor) the sensation of seeing something without a precise direction.
It is more striking than expected, however, how this third episode of The Mandalorian works especially in the moment of worldbuilding when Pershing gets lost in the streets and squares of the renewed Coruscant when one breathes the life of a populated city. These are the moments in which the story seems to stop, giving a more subdued and relaxed beat. They are also the most spectacular moments of the episode (and it doesn’t matter if perfection in the visual effects is not always achieved), which once again recall the videogame nature of the series, this time linked to exploration and entering that world, so recognizable yet so changed. Apart from these moments, the episode would be quite predictable, net of the curiosity stimulated by the arrival of the credits (at the moment we can’t imagine what they will want to tell us in the future). But isn’t that the beauty of entering the Star Wars galaxy?
The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 3 Review: The Last Words
The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 3 sacrifices Din and Grogu to focus on the story of Dr. Pershing on Coruscant as a repentant seeking amnesty. The result is an atypical episode, more mature in tone and content, which slightly diverts the identity of the series. Yet this change is a breath of fresh air and leaves the viewer with the curiosity to know the continuation of the story. Din and Bo-Katan fade into the background in a chapter focused on New Republic reentry programs. The interest in Coruscant and this society is short-lived and the episode ends up cutting off the great pace that the new season had achieved.
