What Does ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Premiere Have in Store For Us? How Will The Darksaber & Cara Dune Factor In?

 

Caution: This overview of Disney+/Lucasfilm’s The Mandalorian season 3 premiere “The Apostate” contains spoilers. Read ahead with caution!

The Mandalorian is back to excite us with spectacular action sequences spilling forth with Star Wars mythology. Bully pirates, asteroid field spaceship chases, and a gargantuan alligator in Lake Powell (the original shooting site of the Planet of the Apes movie) keep our eyes glued to the screen as we finally get some answers on plot points left hanging since last season!

This season’s opening scene concludes with the captivating exchange between Pedro Pascal and Katee Sackhoff as Din Djarin and Bo-Katan, respectively. The two converse about an amazing topic: the enigmatic darksaber! Keep scrolling to find out more.

As the actress who portrayed Cara Dune, Gina Carano, was let go from The Mandalorian due to her provocative comments on social media, we are given a few hints regarding where she might be lurking. Rick Famuyiwa – Executive Producer of the show and director of Season 3’s opening episode “The Apostate” – revealed that outcomes for Dune were at the center of attention in this season’s writers’ room.

How was Dune’s sifting away, explained away?

During the episode, Din meets up with his old pal Greef Karga (Carl Weathers), who is now living luxuriously as Nevarro’s high magistrate. However, he still has to deal with troublemakers like a group of squid-like pirates. But Din and Greef manage to shoot most of them except for one called Vane that they allow to go free. With Cara Dune gone, Greef tells Mando he needs someone strong enough to be a new marshal in her place.

Wah happened?

Greef tells Din, “After she brought in Moff Gideon, she was recruited by special forces.”

Meanwhile Gideon (played on the show by Giancarlo Esposito) “was sent off to a New Republic war tribunal,” adds Greef.

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The scene of “The Apostate” is set on the banks of Lake Powell in Utah, or as it’s known to Star Wars fans – something else. Here, we witness a powerful ritual unfold; the Armorer has just crafted a brand-new helmet for one lucky candidate that will join the Children of the Watch Mandalorian sect and swear never to remove his protective mask. Could this be Din’s long-awaited flashback into joining his own tribe? It certainly appears so! A group of helmet-clad men by the lake come under attack from an immense alligator emerging from the waters. No amount of laser guns or tiny bombs can vanquish this beast, until Din rushes in with Grogu/Baby Yoda on his sleek spaceship and blasts it to oblivion! This was no flashback–it actually happened.

Din is given time with the Armorer (Emily Swallow), following his act of removing his helmet, which is strictly forbidden within their sect. To atone for this sin and be forgiven by all he must go to Mandalore to immerse himself in the sacred hot springs found beneath its mines – a process known as bathing in the living waters.

“Redemption is not possible since the destruction of our home world,” says the Armorer. And Din is all, ‘Well, I’ll show you’.

Din, the mayor of Nevarro, is keen to honor IG-11 – an assassin droid turned into a servant voiced by Taika Waititi – in the city square. By reviving him as a memorializing monument, he hopes that people will recognize and be inspired by this remarkable character’s courageous journey.

Desperate for a droid he can rely on to check out Mandalore, Din informs Greef. In the attempt of reviving IG-11, the robot reverts back to his old programming and starts attacking those around him. Din is about to take action with his blaster when a golden bust belonging to Greef falls onto the head of IG-11 instead. Grogu, Greef and Din rush over to an elven troll droidsmith looking for help in restoring him but their efforts are futile as they need something else—a memory circuit that could only be found elsewhere. With no other choice left than going out himself, Din says he’ll come back soon with what they require.

Din’s journey ultimately leads him to the planet Kalbala, in the Mandalorian system. There is a castle belonging to the Mandalorians, where Bo-Katan awaits on her throne with possession of the Darksaber. As Dave Filoni’s Star Wars cartoons depict it, she who holds this legendary weapon possesses dominion over all of Mandalore. Unfortunately after its destruction at Imperial hands, Bo-Katan was stripped of her power and lost ownership of this iconic saber—until now!

Din enters her throne room and announces “I’m here to join you.”

“There’s nothing left to join,” Bo-Katan answers.

“What are your plans to retake Mandalore?” he asks her.

“When I returned without the darksaber my forces melted away,” Bo-Katan responds defeated.

Where is the stolen fleet?” asks Din about her posse.

“Making their way through the galaxy as mercenaries,” she says.

“Do you still have the saber?” Bo-Katan asks Din. She doesn’t budge from her throne.

“I do,” says Din.

However, in this finale, what’s intriguing is that Bo-Katan isn’t even challenging Din to a fight over the sword. That’s odd, considering she was hellbent on getting it from Gideon last season.

“Then you lead them,” Bo-Katan tells Din, “Wave that thing around, they’ll do whatever you say.”

Din is befuddled by the fact that Bo-Katan has given up her desire to retake Mandalore.

“Your cult gave up on Mandalore long before the forge,” she responds coldly.

“The Children of the Watch, and the factions that came before, fractured and shattered our people; go home — there is nothing left,” she tells Din.

Din asserts his desire to go to the Mandalore hot springs, but Bo-Katan exclaims “You’re a fool.”

You can never go home, Mandalorian. It’s a broken place.

But, he’s too thick skulled.

Din rebuts, “I will find out if the planet is really poisoned.”