The highly anticipated third season of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian has recently wrapped with its eighth episode titled “Chapter 24 – The Return”. Below is a breakdown of what was seen in the episode and how it could possibly to future seasons of The Mandalorian as well as its upcoming spinoff, Ahsoka
The episode opens with the Mandalorian war party in disarray as Bo-Katan is retreating, reeling from the loss of Paz Vizsla and as Axe Woves is flying to commandeer the Imperial command ship and Din Djarin is captured. Moff Gideon looks to have the upper hand in the fight as he dispatches TIE Interceptors to destroy the Mandalorian fleet but Woves manages to overtake the command ship and places it on a collision course with Mandalore’s surface.
While Woves is piloting the command ship, Din Djarin is able to escape his brief capture and resolves to destroy Moff Gideon once and for all. During his sneaking around the Imperial base, he discovers what Gideon was up to this time, creating clones of himself and hoping to use Grogu’s power to infuse his clones with the Force to make an unstoppable army of Dark Troopers. Following the discovery of Gideon’s nefarious plan, the rest of the Mandalorians arrive to aid Bo-Katan in her continued against the beskar clad Dark Troopers. Djarin finally faces Gideon and while the Imperial officer reveals his grand evil plan like a James Bond villain, Djarin gets down to just fighting him and neither one seems to have an upper hand over the other one until Bo-Katan intervenes in the fight with the Darksaber.
Gideon seems truly unstoppable as he singlehandedly knocks down Djarin and Bo-Katan and in an even further cruel twist in this fight, Gideon destroys the Darksaber and coldly remarks that Mandalorians hilariously hold on to their trinkets. It feels especially cruel knowing how longer Bo-Katan had to search for it and what she had to do to get it back. At one point during the fight, Grogu is separated from the main group and is attacked by Praetorian guards and while he’s able briefly evade them thanks to some cleverly timed force jumps, he is eventually trapped and is about to be killed until Djarin arrives and kills the Guards. The fight between Bo-Katan and Gideon seems to be over when the Darksaber is destroyed but Djarin blasts away at him with no effect and all seems lost until Woves’ ship arrives to crash into the base and engulfs Gideon in a glorious fireball of death. The explosion almost seems to overtake Bo-Katan and Djarin until Grogu saves his dad and adoptive mom once again by creating a shield with the Force to block the fire.
With the Battle of Mandalore now over and the planet now securely in the hands of its rightful occupants, the Great Forge is reignited and Djarin formally adopts Grogu as his own and is charged with training him in the way of the Mandalore. During this ceremony, we also see that Axe Woves has adopted Ragnar Vizsla, the son of his one-time former rival. While Grogu is being sworn in the clan, he experiences a vision of the Mythosaur opening its eyes while in the Living Waters possibly setting up another encounter with the mythical creature.
Djarin and Grogu do not stay on Mandalore as they rendezvous with New Republic pilot Carson Teva and offers to take up honest contract work to continue hunting down the Imperial Remnant as that threat looms on the horizon. With honest contract work in hand, Djarin returns to Nevarro to accept the parcel of land and home gifted to him by Greef Karga and unveils the new Marshall of Nevarro, the rebuilt chassis of IG-11 who has been rebranded as IG-12. The season closes with Djarin enjoying some quiet time on the porch of his home as Grogu attempts to capture bugs.
The final episode of The Mandalorian’s third season was rather unsatisfying as many plotlines are still unresolved; the location of the Shadow Council, what will happen to the spies embedded on Coruscant, the arrival of Grand Admiral Thrawn and if more Mandlorians will arrive to join their home plant. However, following the recent announcement at Star Wars Celebration, The Mandalorian along with The Book of Boba Fett and the upcoming shows Ahsoka and Skeleton Crew are intended to set up a final battle between the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant. According to the Star Wars canon, this battle took place on the planet Jakku and its remains can be seen during The Force Awakens. This final battle will be covered in an as yet untitled film that will be directed by Dave Filoni, creator of shows like The Clone Wars, Rebels and The Bad Batch and has directed several episodes of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett and is slated to direct at least episode of Ahsoka.
While it’s unknown if or when a fourth season will be released, it’s unlikely that the flagship show of Disney+ will end anytime soon. Creator and writer Jon Favreau will be hard pressed to craft a fourth season when so much has happened in this show and across the other Mandalorian adjacent shows but at least there is a path forward to ending the Imperial Remant.
Featured Image Credit: StarWars.com
