*** Spoilers for episodes of The Mandalorian up until season 3 and for the entire first season of The Book of Boba Fett. Be warned.***
The Mandalorian is finally back, returning the best father and son duo of the galaxy far far away once again to our screens. In the first episode, released on March 1, we saw Din Djarin and Grogu embarking on a new mission that should bring them all the way to Mandalore—the ancestral planet of the Mandalorians, which was destroyed by the Empire.
And yet, you might feel like there are some gaps in the story. When we last saw Din, in the final episode of season 2, he was bidding a teary goodbye to Grogu—who was leaving to train in the ways of the Force with none other than Master Luke Skywalker. How come they are back together now?
The answer is very simple: There are some crucial episodes in The Book of Boba Fett that are mandatory viewing before starting on season 3 of The Mandalorian because they set up pretty much everything that is going to happen in the show’s upcoming episodes.
To be more precise, the Mandalorian appears in the three final 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”.
We follow him as he deals with the aftermath of delivering Grogu back to his own kind, as was his original mission. It’s clear he misses him very much, going so far as to commission a beaker chainmail from the Armorer and trying to deliver it to Grogu on the planet Ossus, where Luke’s newly-founded Jedi Academy is.
Ahsoka Tano stops him, telling that seeing Din might make the separation all the more difficult for Grogu—but ultimately Grogu chooses to return to his dad and R2D2 flies him back to Tatooine on Luke’s X-Wing. And if you think I cried when Grogu jumps into Din’s arms during the Mos Espa chase scene, you are 200% right.
Those three episodes from The Book of Boba Fett, however, also set up Din’s new quest: reaching Mandalore to bathe in the living waters and cleanse himself from his sin. The sin in question being, of course, removing his helmet as he was saying farewell to Grogu during the second season’s finale.
Once Din reveals this to the Armorer, she declares him an apostate for having broken one of the sacred tenets of the Mandalorian creed and informs him of the only way he has to leave his new status behind. We’ll see how that goes as this new season progresses.
(featured image: Lucasfilm)
