Review: The Mandalorian, "Chapter 17: The Apostate" | Season 3, Episode 1

Mando and Baby Yoda are back and on a new quest as the third season begins

Photo: Lucasfilm

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“You are a fool.”

2019 was a massive year for the Walt Disney Company. It was the year of Avengers: Endgame, and the computer-animated remake of The Lion King¹, and the conclusion of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. It was the year of Bob Iger retiring as the CEO of the Walt Disney Company after 15 years at the helm, a decision that he definitely has not reversed in the intervening period. And 2019 was the year when Disney+ launched, to largely rave reviews in no small part because of a certain launch-day premiere.

That 2019 was also the year of The Rise of Skywalker didn’t mean that things were unsalvageable for Lucasfilm. The Mandalorian premiered a month earlier, but the image of Baby Yoda was so arresting to so many people that the instantly buzzed-about streaming series almost made it so you could forget about how painful The Rise of Skywalker was.² In the last few years, Lucasfilm has not released a single film; the fifth Indiana Jones film this summer will be their first feature since J.J. Abrams concluded with a whimper the sequel trilogy he started with a bang. The Mandalorian’s first two seasons were widely successful; the show inspired social-media fervor, it was well-liked by critics, and the second season alone netted a massive 24 Emmy nominations.

The Mandalorian worked so well because its aims were mostly simple and direct. It also helps that Jon Favreau, who created the series and has written or co-written almost every episode, is actually treating The Mandalorian like an episodic television series. While each season has had an overarching quest for Mando to accomplish, those quests are separated out into discrete installments as he slowly reaches his final destination. In the first season, Mando was tasked with delivering a package to a mysterious client, only to realize said package is the adorable Baby Yoda, to whom he becomes a surrogate father. In the second season, Mando’s quest was to deliver Baby Yoda to the Jedi to be trained in the ways of the Force, with which he’s unusually strong.

The second season ended on a note of mild poignancy: Mando, who subscribes to a hyper-severe Creed of his adoptive planet of Mandalore, takes off his helmet willingly to bid Baby Yoda adieu before he’s taken away by a plastic-y and de-aged Luke Skywalker. Luke and Baby Yoda head to parts unknown, Mando is without his little friend and his now-destroyed Razor Crest ship, and the credits roll.

If you have only watched The Mandalorian, and not, say, The Book of Boba Fett, well…I would love to hear what you think of “Chapter 17: The Apostate.” When the episode begins, Mando has a new ship and Baby Yoda in tow, and there is no explanation as to why or how this is true. Full disclosure: until last week, I was like many people, in that I had not watched The Book of Boba Fett. The initial reviews of the series were tepid, and frankly, while Boba Fett (like Mando) looks super-slick in his bounty-hunter attire, I don’t care much about him as a character. But knowing that the third official season of The Mandalorian was upcoming, I not only rewatched its first two seasons, but I checked out the seven episodes of The Book of Boba Fett.

Good thing, too! If you did watch it, you know that the back half of that series turns into The Book of Sorry, We’re Sorry, Here’s Mando and Baby Yoda Instead, as Mando acquires a Naboo starfighter courtesy of the helpful and loquacious mechanic Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris), and Baby Yoda chooses to forgo Jedi training with Luke in favor of returning to Mando. Granted, these should not come as shocking developments. Of course Mando would get a new ship of some kind, and of course Mando and Baby Yoda would have to reunite before the series wraps up. The issue isn’t that these events occurred, or even how, but where. If you were hoping for the big reunion to occur on, I don’t know, a show called The Mandalorian, you would be severely disappointed.

So as I began to watch “The Apostate,” I was intrigued for two reasons. First, I was curious to see how much recapping the show did to bring viewers up to speed. The answer: …uh, almost none at all! The “Previously on” recap teases the return of Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff), and once again emphasizes how unwavering Mando’s fellow helmeted folks are about This being The Way and all, but it doesn’t show any of the clips of Baby Yoda with Luke, or Baby Yoda returning to Mando. And the in-episode explanation is so brief that it will likely take you more time to read this sentence than to hear Mando’s half-handed clarification.

The second reason my curiosity was piqued is this. As noted, the first two seasons have specific, cleanly defined arcs. But with the big question raised by the season-two finale—how and when would Baby Yoda and Mando reunite?—resolved, I could not help but wonder what this season’s arc could possibly be. If “The Apostate” is any indication, the season-long arc is this: “Will Mando be redeemed by his fellow Mandalorians?” Even saving his fellows from a nasty water creature in the pre-title sequence doesn’t do much for his chances, but Mando is unwavering in his belief that he can bathe in the living waters underneath the Mines of Mandalore. Doing so will redeem him in the eyes of the other Mandalorians, because…sure, why not.

But before he can prepare for a nice, warm bath, Mando needs help on his old stomping grounds of Nevarro. The bulk of the action takes place here, as Mando reunites with Magistrate Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) — sorry, that’s High Magistrate Greef Karga, who has really turned the planet around since its dusty beginnings in season one. Though Greef offers Mando the post of marshal, Mando needs to revive the droid IG-11 (voiced by Taika Waititi), which sacrificed itself in the season-one finale and is now revered as a local hero. Mando hopes that IG-11 can help him explore his potentially diseased home planet, and refuses to accept help from any other droid. Yet to get IG-11 back to its kinder, less murder-y personality, Mando must find a specific part first.

“Chapter 17: The Apostate,” a title referring to Mando himself, spends a great deal of time as he tries to clear his name…but for what point and purpose, exactly? The final scene comes as Mando arrives on Kalevala, a planet in the Mandalore system whose sole human denizen is Bo-Katan, having been abandoned by her fellow Mandalorians after she lost the fabled Darksaber to Mando in the season-two finale. Bo-Katan (I would argue correctly) calls Mando a fool, because he’s putting in a whole lot of work for something that still feels ill-defined. In the first season, Mando became a more compelling character not because of his rigid religious upbringing, but because Baby Yoda humanized him. The capper to his season-two quest, passing Baby Yoda to the Jedi, only worked emotionally because Mando did the one thing he’s not supposed to do: require Pedro Pascal to be on set…er, sorry, take off his helmet³.

So while “Chapter 17: The Apostate” features Mando giving Baby Yoda some exposition about his home planet and his adoptive people, I do hope that the true arc of the season is that Mando realizes he’s better off taking off his damn helmet for good. For now, he’s still unwavering on his quest — the episode ends with him getting the location of the Living Waters, but even if you skipped The Book of Boba Fett, you know that the simplest tasks end up a lot more challenging. So I doubt that things are about to get super-simple for Mando.

Stray Observations

• They say real estate is all about location, and having an armory in a cave right outside a lake where a big water monster resides does not strike me as a very good location.

• I imagine (or hope) I was not the only person who presumed the pre-title sequence was a flashback depicting a young Mando getting his helmet for the first time, before the adult Mando saved the day and made clear we were in the present.

• “His name is Grogu.” “Oh. If you say so.” If it was not painfully obvious already, I will be calling him Baby Yoda, and Din Djarin Mando. You say “Grogu” and I hear Homer Simpson telling Bart that if he changes his name to Homer Junior, “the kids can call you HoJu!”

• I must be honest, “being recruited by Special Forces” is not quite the send-off for Cara Dune I was hoping for. But then, speaking of The Simpsons, I was hoping for a “Poochie died on the way to his home planet”-style send-off.

• I will also note that while Cara Dune has been, uh, “recruited,” I have every expectation that while Moff Gideon may have been brought before a war tribunal, we may yet see the return of Giancarlo Esposito on this show.

• Baby Yoda’s first appearance—a brief kind of “Ta da!” where he pops his head out in the Naboo starfighter—is very cute. But him trying to grab an Anzellan as if it’s a pet and not a droid mechanic is my favorite moment of the episode. (Is it Babu Frik or just another Anzellan? I have largely tried to memory-hole The Rise of Skywalker, so you tell me.)

• I love the Disney theme parks, so as I watched Mando walk through the newly designed Nevarro, I could not help but wonder how much Disney wishes they could’ve figured out a way to make Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge the same planet as this one, not the planet of Batuu.

• On one hand, Mando getting impatient with Greef as the latter uselessly translates what the Anzellans are telling him is chuckle-worthy. On the other hand, Sigourney Weaver did it better in Galaxy Quest.

• “Now that’s using your head.” This one-liner put me in mind of the lifeless way Indiana Jones says, in a Disneyland attraction bearing his name, “Don’t tell me that wasn’t big fun.”

• Regarding that line reading, as much as I like Pedro Pascal as a performer, I wish to God he was not relegated to being a voice actor in almost every scene of this show, since Mando’s voice is intentionally flat and rarely brimming with emotion.

1. Few unimportant things set me on edge more than people calling Jon Favreau’s 2019 remake a “live-action” film.

2. …I said “Almost.”

3. It feels extremely intentional that Lateef Crowder and Brendan Wayne, the two stunt performers who play Mando during the action sequences (if not more), are now among the main credited cast.