Released on March 8th, the newest episode for The Mandalorian continues in the search for the memory circuit for IG-11. The newest chapter is titled, ‘The Mines of Mandalore’ and briefly dips in the previous episode’s conclusion. We start the episode on Tatooine with the planet celebrating Boonta Eve, the podracing competition that was featured prominently in Star Wars: Episode 1. Peli Motto (played by Amy Sedaris) is swindling a customer who requests their speeder to be fixed as soon as possible. The customer angrily leaves, and Motto is revealed to have worked with the local Jawas in getting the customer into her shop’s door. Blaming the Jawas for their annoyance and inconvenience. Din Djarin (played by Pedro Pascal) and Grogu (played by Grogu) land at Motto’s hangar, allowing a short but sweet reunion. Djarin’s need for the memory circuit takes priority in the conversation with Motto. She says that she doesn’t have it, but she gives Djarin an alternative and ready option, R5-D4 which was a droid Luke Skywalker back then found to have a bad motivator. Motto also switches Grogu’s habitation pod on their starfighter to allow the astromech to dock, Grogu ends up riding shotgun with Djarin instead. The two then depart Tatooine as fireworks explode all around the sky in a beautiful display. Afterward, arriving to Mandalore’s local space, they begin to descend into its heavy and stormy atmosphere. Djarin notes to Grogu that from then on, they’re cut from contact outside the planet, so they’ll need to be careful. R5-D4 is then sent out to test if the planet is breathable at a nearby cave entrance, the droid is scared but braves on through. Unfortunately, out of Djarin and Grogu’s sight, with time having passed for a while. Djarin seals his suit as best as he can and ventures towards the droid’s last known location, and is quickly ambushed by Alamites. Native Mandalore humanoids that have four eyes and are brutish in appearance. They’re killed by Djarin, who then helps R5-D4 up, and the two return to Grogu and the N-1 starfighter. Shortly after, R5-D4 gives Djarin the test results, which ends up Mandalore being breathable. R5-D4 is left on the fighter while Djarin and Grogu proceed into the remains of the Mandalorian capitol. The two descend into the sewers beneath the civic center, and it appears that they’re close to the location for the Mines of Mandalore. Unfortunately, a trap set by a cyborg-looking creature that is protected by a spider tank suit overwhelms Djarin. Grogu looks on helplessly and speeds back and through the sewer and ruined city on his hovering pram after Djarin tells him to contact Bo-Katan Kryze (played by Katee Sackhoff) for help. The little guy uses the force to push an Alamite standing in front of his path at the cave entrance and boards the ship, departing the planet towards Kryze. Over on Kalevala, seeing the N-1 descending from the atmosphere, Kryze still feeling annoyed about Djarin’s fanaticism wants to scare him off. Upon releasing that only Grogu and R5-D4 are on the ship, she asks Grogu where is Djarin. The three, Kryze, Grogu and R5-D4 then head back to Mandalore on her ship. Kryze with Grogu on her side, reminisces about the past where she describes the original beauty of the city and mentions the Clone War, Jedi, Mandalorian traditions and other things. The two arrive where Djarin is being held captive by the cyborg, Kryze takes on the spider tank, she obtains and uses the darksaber during the fight to seemingly incapacitate the cyborg. Grogu helps Kryze when she is distracted for a moment when trying to release a weakened Djarin and gives her the opportunity to give the final blow at the spider tank. Djarin is then released from his enclosure, he slowly recovers with the other two near the cave entrance. Feeling better, Djarin remains set on swimming in the water in the Mines of Mandalore, but isn’t sure where exactly that is until Kryze decides to just show him the way to it. She recants more of her past and knowledge, with Djarin being laser focused on dipping into the water. Reciting the oath and the moment itself being beautiful. Only for it to end abruptly because Djarin falls into a deep end of the water. Kryze jumps in to save him from drowning, using her jetpack underwater to reach him faster. She gets him and the two begin to ascend with only a dim light to aid them. That light ends up revealing an enormous dragonlike creature hibernating in the water, shocking Kryze when it opens one of its eyes. The two reach the surface and Djarin begins breathing heavily from nearly drowning. Cut to black.
The ‘Mines of Mandalore’ episode sped through what seemingly appeared to be a two part episode. We ended up not needing a memory circuit for IG-11 after all, but that might still be revisited later. The content shown in this episode revealing a live-action version of Mandalore and the city of Sundari, the planet’s capital now in ruins. As well as both Djarin and Kryze giving more context behind the Mandalorian culture and history. Quite exciting for Star Wars lore fans. It was also enjoyable seeing Grogu aid his adoptive father after Djarin having being captured by the cyborg, who continues to have faith in Kryze despite her demeanor. At first glance, the cyborg gave a possible General Grevious vibe despite that character having been killed by Obi-Wan Kenobi decades ago in canon. Grogu’s sudden appearance alone on the ship when Kryze thought of dropping Djarin out of annoyance caused a change in her heart. A vulnerability between the three characters is clearly shown, Grogu’s fear, Kryze’s disappointment and Djarin’s overconfidence. Moving on, that massive underwater creature should be the mythical Mythosaur that is said throughout the series as having been extinct, right? Kryze’s reaction clearly demonstrates the answer to that question, and we’ll be left to wonder what happens since the episode ended soon after that. That beast could change things for the Mandalorians overall, since it is quite important to their identity and culture, only the next episode could expand on that question.
It earns a 3 out of 5.
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