Review: The Mandalorian, "Chapter 18: The Mines of Mandalore" | Season 3, Episode 2
Mando gets himself as ready as possible to take a bath
“Without the Creed, what are we?”
I wondered in reviewing last week’s season-three premiere of The Mandalorian what the arc of these eight episodes would be, seeing as Mando and Baby Yoda have already been reunited. At first, Mando’s long-range task seemed to be gaining redemption by bathing in the Living Waters underneath the Mines of Mandalore. What I hoped the true arc would be is Mando grappling with what it means to be a Mandalorian, and “The Mines of Mandalore” seems like it’s at least partially confirming that hope.
Of course, it helps that by the end of this second episode, Mando is…well, literally bathing in the Living Waters underneath said mines, implying that it can’t possibly be a season-long arc if the goal is achieved in just the first two episodes. As generally stripped-down as each episode tends to be, “The Mines of Mandalore” is even more so than usual: aside from Pedro Pascal, Katee Sackhoff, Amy Sedaris, and Lateef Crowder and Brendan Wayne (the pair of stuntmen who also play Mando), there’s no other non-alien characters this week. The two key plot points are that a) Mando is convinced by his mechanic friend Peli Motto to use a different and not terribly courageous droid instead of the fallen IG-11 and b) Mando is captured by a particularly creepy creepy-crawly, requiring rescue from the still-embittered Bo-Katan Kryze, who’s alerted to Mando’s plight by Baby Yoda.