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The Mandalorian season 3 episode 2 recap – there and back again

Check our The Mandalorian season 3 episode 2 recap to learn more about this week's adventures of Din Djarin and Baby Yoda as they visit Mandalore.

The Mandalorian season 3 episode 2 recap - Baby Yoda

Our Verdict

Lots of fun things to look at, but the repetitive back-and-forth makes for an unadventurous start to the adventure.

The Mandalorian season 3 episode 2 recap. Last week’s episode of The Mandalorian was a somewhat tedious, if entertaining introduction to The Mandalorian season 3 where Din Djarin was tasked with going to Mandalore to redeem his sins. This week, in The Mandalorian season 3 episode 2, that quest really begins.

This latest episode begins with the glorious (or annoying, depending on your perspective) Peli Motto’s doing her stuff, running her unscrupulous shipyard on Tatooine. Din Djarin shows up as he has so many times before. He’s on Tatooine for a part to fix IG-11, as the not-Babu Frik Anzellans told him last week. He reveals that he wants IG-11 fixed up to help him explore the mines of Mandalore.

Moto sells Djarin a veteran – though clearly cowardly – R5 astromech Star Wars droid to help on his journey instead. With the new droid, Mando and Baby Yoda head over to Mandalore to get the adventure started.

The Mandalorian season 3 episode 2 recap – into the mines

Because the gizmo has interrupted the gonzo, once they land on the planet they won’t be able to communicate with anyone outside of the planet. That doesn’t bode well too well for our heroes. When on the surface, Djarin sends his new droid to scout out some caves before they venture down for themselves.

The droid doesn’t come back, though, so Djarin goes down to investigate. He gets an astonishing look at the underground mines of Mandalore, not too dissimilar to the mines of Moria in Lord of the Rings movies, before he gets attacked by three very big, very angry troll guys.

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He whips out his darksaber, and cuts through them without too much trouble. So, he collects Baby Yoda and the two begin their journey down, down, down into the dark depths of Mandalore together. There’s dripping water, which Djarin figures out must lead to the living waters (which, if you remember, Mando needs to bathe in to redeem himself for the sin of removing his helmet).

When inspecting a vacant helmet from some dead Mandalorian, Djarin is enclosed in the grasp of some giant insectoid-robot. With him in its grip, it travels deeper underground. The vigilant Baby Yoda follows in pursuit, and watches a creepy, new Star Wars villain climb out of the machine and leave Din Djarin unconscious. Spooky.

Baby Yoda uses the Force, thanks to his training from Luke Skywalker, to attempt to free his space-dad but the slimy underground space insect notices his attempt, and attacks Baby Yoda. Din Djarin gives the command for Baby Yoda to flee and get help from Bo-Katan, and the little Star Wars alien dutifully hops back into his pod and makes his way back to the surface.

The Mandalorian season 3 episode 2 recap - Mandalore

The Mandalorian season 3 episode 2 recap – Bo-Katan joins the adventure

He jumps into Din Djarin’s new ship and, flying solo, gets to Bo-Katan. When Grogu arrives, Bo-Katan scoops up the little alien and they get into her ship to return to the mines of Mandalore. She doesn’t seem too concerned for Din Djarin though, and it’s hard not to suspect that she just wants to collect the darksaber of Djarin’s corpse. She is ruthless after all.

Bo-Katan and Grogu are attacked by the same ogres that attacked Din Djarin, Alamites apparently, which she quickly despatches with much more grace than Djarin achieved. They manage to find their way back to Djarin, who is having his blood extracted from him by his robot insect captor.

The alien and Bo-Katan duel, and she grabs Djarin’s darksaber and uses it to chop her attacker up into pieces. She wields the darksaber like a Jedi knight using their lightsaber, whereas Djarin was far clunkier with it in his hands.

The Mandalorian season 3 episode 2 recap - Baby Yoda Monster attack

The Mandalorian season 3 episode 2 recap – at the living waters

Bo-Katan, Din Djarin, and Baby Yoda make their way back up to near the surface, where Din Djarin says he’s going back down once again, on his quest to find the living waters. Bo-Katan tells him that his beliefs are nothing more than fairytales told to children. But Din Djarin is determined, and Bo-Katan says she’ll help him get to where he wants to go.

They arrive at the living waters without too much trouble, but once he’s actually in the water itself to purge his sins, he’s grabbed yet again by another nasty unseen creature. More and more, he’s just a bumbling dork really.

Bo-Katan pursues, to retrieve Din Djarin once again and brings him back to the surface. But, the big reveal is that in the water is a truly fearsome, humongous monster. If he wants to redeem himself, if Din Djarin going to have to fight that thing?

The Mandalorian season 3 episode 2 recap - Baby Yoda

The Mandalorian season 3 episode 2 – the verdict

The Mandalorian season 3 episode 2 is like a game of table tennis, and the characters are the ball. They arrive on the surface of Mandalore, go into the mines and fight a big monster, go out of the mines, go into the mines and fight a bigger monster, go out of the mines, and go back into the mines and fight the biggest monster.

Along the way there are some neat new baddies to look at (though none present a particular threat) and the destroyed city itself is visually impressive. But it’s all very repetitive.

By far the most interesting aspect is Bo-Katan’s motivation. Why is she so intent on saving Din Djarin? It must be for the darksaber, so it feels like we can expect her to betray Din Djarin and take it for good at some point in the near future.

Here’s hoping that the continuation of the adventures next week can feel a bit more, well, adventurous.

For more on Star Wars check out our guides to the other Star Wars series like Andor season 2, Obi-Wan Kenobi season 2, and the Ahsoka release date. Or stay with The Mandalorian and learn more about Gorian Shard from last week.