- Title: The Mandalorian – Chapter 24: The Return
- wiki: link
The Third Season of The Mandalorian comes to a close with the battle over Mandalore, and, as I correctly called, not a single hero met their deaths in the action-packed but pretty predictable final episode. Even the most minor of the Mandalorian clan make it out of the battle without a scratch. There’s plenty of action here involving the Mandalorians fighting the Imperial Commandos of Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) and destroying the Imperial Remnant facility which I’m assuming must have had a greater purpose than just feed Gideon’s ego and secret experiments.
In the show’s run the polysemantic title of an episode has often been able to refer to more than one thing, but for anyone hoping for an appearance of Thrawn, the actual Imperial Remnant leadership, or any other well-known characters, you will be disappointed. This return is of the Mandalorians to Mandalore and the rise of the planet from under the shadow of its wars against the Empire and each other. Nothing more, nothing less.
Speaking of disappointment, the reveal of Gideon’s master plan of creating Force-wielding clones of himself is one of the most underwhelming sequences of the entire series. Sorry, this apparently doesn’t play into larger Imperial plans such as this timeline’s version of Joruus C’baoth or cloned Emperors. Still, the episode does offer Grogu a chance to show of his improved Force skills, sadly at the feet of his destroyed murderous mode of transportation, and sees the likely death of Gideon (a character who the show was unable to sell me on as a major threat for three full seasons). With the Mandalorians returned to Mandalore, the show find more convenient culture reasons for Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu’s wanderings to continue as the foundling begins his life as an apprentice.
