‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3, Episode 7 Review
by Frank Martin
Fans knew that Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) would return eventually, and this week’s episode of The Mandalorian he did in spectacular fashion. In many regards, this was the season’s penultimate episode. It had been building Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) up as a uniter of the Mandalorian people. She finally got to fulfill that destiny, but the episode still ended on a sour note. Nevertheless, many things came together for a very entertaining bit of storytelling, even if it didn’t go the way the heroes planned. The season isn’t over yet, though. There is still time for things to be corrected and for the season end more happily.
The episode began by really getting into the weeds with regard to how the Empire operates during this era. Moff Gideon met with the Empire’s Shadow Council, where they discussed the impending return of Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen). Meanwhile, the two factions of Mandalorians came together to return to Mandalore. They found other Mandalorians there who had been in hiding since the Empire destroyed the planet. However, they unexpectedly encountered an Imperial base where Moff Gideon was hiding out and Din (Pedro Pascal) was captured while the rest barely escaped with their lives.
It was largely speculated that these groups of Disney+ Star Wars shows were heavily interconnected. But it wasn’t truly apparent until this week’s episode, when Thrawn was name dropped, a foreshadowing of the Ahsoka series. After the sequels failed to captivate long-time fans, it’s nice to see something that’s giving Star Wars a brand new era to exist in. This isn’t like Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which was an isolated TV show that focused on one time. These are several TV shows that are linked across a singular era, way different than the way the films operated. It really is a great time to be a Star Wars fan, and this episode is an example of what’s to come.
The Mandalorian streams Wednesdays on Disney+.
