*** Spoilers for The Mandalorian up to the first episode of season 3 and for The Book of Boba Fett. Be warned.***
The Mandalorian is officially back on Disney Plus after what felt like three million years and a half, and we’re all the happier for it—nothing like seeing Pedro Pascal travel the galaxy with his adopted child on Wednesday to restore the soul from watching Pedro Pascal survive the apocalypse with his adopted child on Saturday.
Still, if you had last seen Din Djarin bid a tearful farewell to Grogu—off to Jedi training with none other than Luke Skywalker—at the end of season 2 you might have been just a tad thrown off from seeing everyone’s favorite little green baby back with his beskar-clad dad right at the start of season 3. And that’s because, in the more than two years that passed between the two seasons, The Book of Boba Fett happened.
So what do you have to watch to catch up to the events of The Mandalorian?
The seven episodes of The Book of Boba Fett aired between December 2021 and February 2022, after the character (played by Temuera Morrison) was introduced in The Mandalorian.
While most of the story focuses on Boba’s struggle to gain control of Tatooine’s capital Mos Espa with the help of his partner, Ming-Na Wen’s Fennec Shand, the last three episodes of the series’ first—and so far only—season brought our Din Djarin back to us. The Mandalorian appears busy doing his usual Mandalorian-ing: chasing quarries, getting scolded by the Armorer, and dealing with the fact that his son is off to Jedi school.
In fact, the reason why Grogu is back with Mando in season 3 is explained right in these three final episodes from The Book of Boba Fett, and it all starts with Din Djarin trying to visit Grogu on the planet Ossus, where Ahsoka Tano tells him that if the child sees him, it will be even harder for him to focus on his training. Being the galaxy’s best dad that he is, Din leaves the gift he had brought Grogu with Ahsoka and departs, to try and give Grogu the best chance to learn the ways of the Jedi that he can.
Related: How Many Episodes in The Mandalorian Season 3 on The Escapist
What Din doesn’t know, however, is that Grogu also misses him immensely—and Master Luke senses this very well. He presents the child with a choice: Master Yoda’s lightsaber, to symbolize the path of Jedi training, or the beskar chainmail that Din had brought as a gift, to represent the Way of the Mandalorians. Considering how Grogu is now inhabiting the place on Mando’s starfighter where an astromech droid should be, I think we can all guess what choice he made.
The reunion between the two actually happens during the final battle of The Book of Boba Fett, and you best believe I was very much in my feelings about it for a solid week.
So, to recap: if you’re only interested in following the story of Din Djarin and Grogu, you have to watch the last three episodes of The Book of Boba Fett: “Chapter 5: Return of the Mandalorian”, “Chapter 6: From the Desert Comes a Stranger”, and “Chapter 7: In the Name of Honor”. They provide essential context to the events that we will see happen in season 3 of The Mandalorian—and not just about Grogu since Din Djarin is first branded as an apostate in those episodes as well.
Of course, you can also set some time aside to watch the entire season— since it’s very probable that Boba Fett and Fennec Shand are bound to make an appearance on this new The Mandalorian season sooner or later. We have to have our seasonal visit to Tatooine and its two suns, after all, and an encounter with the new Daimyo of Mos Espa doesn’t look like such a stretch of the imagination.
(featured image: Disney/Lucasfilm)
