The Mandalorian Chapter 17: Reunited And It Feels So Good
Photo from The Hollywood Reporter
Chapter 17: The Apostate
After a long wait, almost three years exact, the poster child for Disney+’s streaming service which gave Star Wars a new lease on life (at least in the pop culture sense) and has since spawned one of many television universes currently being peddled by Disney in a failing attempt to recapture the minds of all the fans they’ve been spurning for years, The Mandalorian! Premiering the same day as Disney+’s debut back in November of 2019, the Mandalorian quickly captured people’s hearts and minds by showing off a drastic new direction and tone for Star Wars after the wildly inconsistent tone and stories that people were forced to sit through from 2015-2019 with the movies. The show was a new take, a full on western in space, finally promising to explore the vast world outside the Jedi and clones that only the animated shows seemed interested in. And now, here we are, 4 years later, with 2 new animated efforts as well as a direct spin off along with 2 more set to come out later this year, not to mention the Obi-Wan & Andor TV efforts, it’s safe to say that the Mandalorian has become more than just another show, it's a pop culture staple at this point.
When we last left off with Din & Grogu, they were reuniting after what series co-showrunner and main writer Jon Favreau stated to be a significant period of time since they’d last seen each other at the end of Mando S2, in which Din gave the child to Luke to be trained as a Jedi. However, they reunited in the Book of Boba Fett when Grogu volunteered to return to him, forgoing his Jedi training. After the detour that was the Book of Boba Fett, or as Favreau basically admitted, Mandalorian 2.5, the two of them are back together and going on a new adventure in the Season 3 premiere, “Chapter 17: The Apostate,” written by Favreau and directed by long time series director Rick Famuyiwa, who will also be directing the finale and one other episode. After they save several members of their Mandalorian subsect the Watch, which includes another series mainstay, the Armorer, from a giant alligator/turtle hybrid, Din shows the armorer the crystal that was supposedly recovered from Mandalore, despite long standing rumors that the planet became uninhabitable after the Clone Wars. He seeks to once again take his place back in the Creed, which has since kicked him out for removing his helmet of his own free will. His only chance at redemption: to go to Mandalore and bathe in the sacred waters underneath the planet.
So the mission is set, which means it’s time for sidequests! As much as we love the Mandalorian, having sat through 2 seasons now we as viewers all know the show’s biggest flaw is that it doesn’t have enough of a story to last 3 episodes, let alone a full 8. So Favreau’s long standing tradition is to fill the remaining episodes with as many side quests as possible, and it starts here, with Mando returning first to Navarro to meet old friend Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) who has since turned Navarro into a paradise with the mining money they’ve made, also taking a minute to explain away Gina Carano’s firing from the show with a typical “she got a promotion” cover up to explain Disney’s major disagreements with Carano’s demonstration of her politics. Then they fight some pirates which results in an awesome starship fight showing off the power of a large scale budget on the streaming scale, before Mando meets up with another old friend, Bo-Katan Krieze, who’s since given up her pursuit of restoring Mandalore as none of the other factions would follow her since she failed to recover the Dark Saber. Overall, it’s the same as pretty much any premiere episode for a big show: lot’s of fun, a lot of set up, and not a whole lot happened.
Recaps are provided by Dom of @movienerdreviews
