In “The Mandalorian” season 3 finale recap, Mando and Bo-Katan are forced to fight their way out of a bad situation as Moff Gideon attempts to finish the Purge of Mandalore…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
The third season of “The Mandalorian” has been somewhat divisive amongst fans with some praising the ties to the larger “Star Wars” universe, particularly with the inclusion of Bo-Katan Kryze with the rebuilding of Mandalore. Others have complained that the show no longer feels like it’s focused on Mando himself after a vast majority of the audience fell in love with him and the adventures he shared alongside Grogu (once known only as Baby Yoda).
While the standalone adventures have always been fun — there were still a few of those this season — tying together Mando’s connection to the bigger Mandalorian culture has actually made this show feel much bigger, especially with all of the new characters introduced this season.
Yes, Mando still takes the lead but it’s been enjoyable to welcome legacy characters like Bo-Katan to join this world and the conclusion to the season starts with an epic battle and ends with a moment that will likely make those unhappy fans suddenly rejoice.
When we left “The Mandalorian” last week, things were looking rather bleak.
Bo-Katan and the Mandalorians returned to the surface of Mandalore with plans to find and relight the Great Forge as they sought to rebuild their home planet. Unfortunately, their arrival soon revealed that the planet was far from abandoned because Moff Gideon had set up shop there to mine the planet’s natural resources — namely the almost indestructible beskar alloy — while he began building a new army to help the Empire rise again.
An ambush led to the Mandalorians fighting for their lives with Paz Vizsla actually sacrificing himself to ensure the rest of his group was able to survive. Mando himself was captured by Moff Gideon after he revealed himself wearing a new Dark Trooper battle suit made out of beskar.
Unlike her last time on Mandalore, Bo-Katan refused to yield to Moff Gideon and instead used the Darksaber to carve out a hole on a blast door so she and the other Mandalorians could escape. Sadly, the prospects of them making it out alive aren’t great and Moff Gideon has also launched a secretive attack on the Mandalorian fleet lingering above the planet’s surface where no communications can reach them.
By all accounts, Moff Gideon is about to wipe out the Mandalorians and fortify his position on the planet. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned throughout this series, Mandalorians are nothing if not resilient and these warriors aren’t going down without a fight.
With that said, let’s get to our recap for “The Mandalorian” season 3 finale….
Chapter 24: The Return
Picking up right where we left off last week, Bo-Katan is leading the Mandalorians to safety away from Moff Gideon and his Stormtroopers while Din Djarin is being carried away as a prisoner following the death of Paz Vizsla.
Bo-Katan is able to communicate with Axe Woves, who was the one member of her team to escape the trap set by Moff Gideon as he flew up to warn the fleet that an attack was coming. Axe Woves is instructed to use the lead ship as a decoy so the rest of the vessels can load up on troops and return to the surface where a ground war will be fought.
Thankfully, Axe Woves gets the message just before he exits Mandalore’s atmosphere where communications are no longer available to them.
As for the rest of the Mandalorians down below, Bo-Katan and her team are able to fight back against the Stormtroopers until the remaining crew that survived on Mandalore after the purge reveal a hiding spot where they can camp out until reinforcements arrive.
Meanwhile, Mando looks like he’s about to be carried back for questioning when he quickly springs into action and overpowers his Imperial captors. Mando is nearly successful on his own until one Stormtrooper manages to lasso him around the neck and it appears he’s lost until a droid hand reaches down to dispatch the soldier clad in white.
The hand belongs to IG-12 and the driver is none other than Grogu come to save his surrogate father.
Thanks to the assist, Mando is able to escape but he’s not going to join the other Mandalorians because he knows the most important job right now is stopping Moff Gideon. He reaches out to Bo-Katan to tell her that he’s free and going after Moff Gideon alongside Grogu.
Mando then calls on his buddy R5-D4 to fly down to the Imperial base, tap into the system and give him the schematics so he can track down Moff Gideon. Simultaneously, Moff Gideon realizes that Mando has escaped and the rest of the Mandalorians have done the same but his attack on the fleet above the planet is about to begin so he’ll let that battle play out first, which will then isolate Bo-Katan and her team on the surface.
As for Mando himself, Moff Gideon decides to take care of that problem personally.
Back out in the base, Mando finds Moff Gideon’s command center but getting to him won’t be easy, especially with laser guarded shields along the route on Stormtroopers at every stop. Thankfully, R5 is able to disengage each laser shield individually, which then allows Mando to hand two guards at a time before finally make his way through the long gauntlet leading to Moff Gideon’s command center.
Just before reaching the main door, Mando realizes that all of the pods surrounding him are filled with clones — Moff Gideon clones! One even wakes up and scares Grogu as he looks back at these seemingly lifeless doppelgangers.
Mando decides to take care of the clone problem by shutting down all of the pods, thus killing the potential Moff Gideon army that he was building. Along with Grogu, they make it inside the command center to continue the search for Moff Gideon.
Down below in a hidden chamber, Bo-Katan and the rest of the Mandalorians arrive to find lush, green growing plants throughout the spot where the soldiers left behind had been surviving. It seems that Mandalore was a planet that couldn’t maintain vegetation previously but after the purge ended, the planet started to flourish again because all of the natural resources weren’t being gobbled up so quickly.
Seeing this is even more proof to Bo-Katan that Mandalore can rise from the ashes but only if all of the people do it together rather than constantly being at odds with each other.
In the sky above the planet, Axe Woves prepares the lead ship for Moff Gideon’s armada, which arrives with TIE destroyers blasting away. Thankfully the rest of the transport ships have filled with soldiers before heading back down to the surface while the command vessel is the only one left to battle back against Moff Gideon’s troops.
Obviously, Axe Woves is far outnumbered and outgunned but that was always the plan because as he singlehandedly fends off a swarm of TIE fighters, the rest of the Mandalorian army has arrived on the surface while notifying Bo-Katan that backup has arrived.
With a full compliment of Mandalorian soldiers, Bo-Katan and the rest of her team spring out of hiding and begin eradicating the rest of the Imperial threat.
Back in the command center, Mando continues to search for Moff Gideon when the blast doors close and he realizes that he’s trapped inside. A moment later, Moff Gideon — in his full armor — emerges from the shadows and reveals to Din Djarin that he had plans for those clones that were destroyed.
It seems Dr. Pershing was developing a cloning technology to perfect future versions of Moff Gideon by also imbibing him with powers from the Force. That’s what he needed to take from Grogu with plans to then use those abilities on his clones, which would then allow Moff Gideon to create the most powerful army in the galaxy.
Now a slight plot rift here — Moff Gideon went to look for Mando and then Mando arrived at his command center where they finally face off. Why exactly didn’t Moff Gideon think to protect his own clones or just stay in the command center and await for Mando to arrive so they could have this fight?
Regardless, Moff Gideon decides it’s time to finally end Mando and his sidekick.
The fight begins with Mando holding his own against a powerful Moff Gideon in his beskar Dark Trooper suit but it doesn’t take long for reinforcements to arrive as the three Praetorian guards soon appear. Mando can’t battle back against those odds but another assist from Grogo suddenly draws the attention of the Praetorian guards, who then decide to go after him instead.
Mando cries out as Grogu in his IG-12 suit backs up with the Praetorian guards in pursuit and a blast door closes behind them. Din Djarin cries out for Grogo as Moff Gideon continues to blast away at him with victory nearly at hand.
That is until Bo-Katan comes flying out of the sky on her jetpack, crashes into Moff Gideon and sends him flying. Bo-Katan tells Mando to go save Grogu because she’s got some unfinished business with Moff Gideon that needs to be settled once and for all.
In the adjacent room, Grogu was forced to abandon his droid suit and he’s been jumping from beam to beam to escape the Praetorian guards but he’s finally knocked off his perch. Just when it looks like the Praetorians will kill him, Mando arrives to save the day, blasting away at them and protecting Grogu.
Once again, Mando is doing well for himself considering it’s a three on one fight but the numbers are just too great for him to overcome — until Grogu uses the Force to begin flinging these scarlet soldiers around the room. That’s enough distraction and assistance for Mando to once again gain the upper hand and put an end to all three Praetorian guards.
As for Bo-Katan, she has the Darksaber in hand as she begins her own fight with Moff Gideon but even she’s struggling to break through this new armored suit protecting him. Eventually, Moff Gideon overpowers Bo-Katan and actually crushes the Darksaber, which seemingly ends the significance of that weapon in Mandalorian culture.
Moff Gideon is ready to strike the death blow when Din Djarin arrives guns blazing to give Bo-Katan the backup she needs to take down the Imperial warlord. Mando and Bo-Katan and getting the better of Moff Gideon in the fight but he’s still refusing to just back down, admit defeat and surrender.
It’s the Mandalorian cruiser crashing through the sky and down into the Imperial base that finally puts an end to Moff Gideon as the ship explodes and erupts a giant fireball through the command center. Moff Gideon is consumed by flames while Bo-Katan and Mando huddle together while preparing to get crispy fried until Grogu uses the Force to protect them both.
Now I think we all know Moff Gideon probably isn’t dead — he might need some sunscreen when he returns but it’s highly doubtful that we’ve seen the last of him.
Outside, the rest of the Mandalorians take down the Imperial troops and the remainder of Moff Gideon’s ships are destroyed. The day is won — Mandalore belongs to the Mandalorians again!
Following the fight, the Great Forge of Mandalore is lit once again with the Armorer welcoming Ragnar — Paz Vizsla’s son — into the order of Mandalorians. Mando wants to do the same for Grogo, especially considering all the ways the little guy saved him throughout the day but because he can’t speak the Creed, the Armorer says he must remain a foundling.
That’s when Mando pulls out the exception card by offering to adopt Grogu as his own son, which would then allow him to name the boy as his apprentice rather than just a foundling. The Armorer agrees with that course of action before officially anointing him as Din Grogu — a Mandalorian apprentice serving with his father, Din Djarin.
This is the way after all.
The Armorer then tells Din Djarin that he must take his son and explore the galaxy together so he can teach him the ways of the Mandalorian. It’s a convenient plan that puts Mando back on his own with Grogu, although the home planet of Mandalore is now flourishing once again under the leadership of Bo-Katan Kryze and the Armorer.
Mando then flies out with the N-1 and arrives on a nearby planet in the Outer Rim where he’s reunited with Captain Carson Teva of the New Republic army. Captain Teva congratulates him on finally ridding the galaxy of Moff Gideon but Mando tells him that he’s not there to celebrate — he’s got business to handle.
Now that Grogu has officially been adopted as his son and apprentice, Mando is getting back to the family business of bounty hunting but he wants to be more selective with his assignments. He also knows the New Republic can’t handle all the trouble brewing on the Outer Rim much less spend the time needed to hunt down all the Imperial warlords still roaming around.
So Mando offers to serve as an arm of the New Republic to hunt down the remnants of the old Empire in exchange for a steady paycheck — as an independent contractor of course. Captain Teva knows this will never get approved back on Coruscant but it’s too good of a deal to pass up on so Mando just accepts the gig along with a small advance — the head of an assassin droid that looks exactly like IG-11.
From there, Mando travels back to Nevarro where he’s reunited with a grateful Greef Karga.
Mando brought back a present for his friend and he introduces a new IG-11 assassin droid that’s been programmed to serve as the Marshal of Nevarro so the next time a group of pirates are stupid enough to try and land on this planet, the people will have a protector looking out for them. Greef Karga is thankful but he’s also returning the favor after telling Mando that a stretch of land along with a cabin have been fitted for him on the edge of town.
He will have peace, quiet, isolation and a place all his own.
And that’s where we leave Mando — with his feet propped up enjoying a late afternoon sunset while Grogu picks up frogs from a nearby riverbed. Father and son together and ready for whatever adventures await them in the galaxy.
That does it for “The Mandalorian” season 3 and while there’s been no official word on a season 4 renewal, it’s a safe bet that this show will be back with plenty more to do for Din Djarin, Din Grogu and the rest of the Mandalorians!
