The Mandalorian season 3 finale recap, review & ending explained

Open Go TV / April 20, 2023 / Reviews

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In the final episode of The Mandalorian season 3, the people of Mandalore fight back against the Imperials to retake control of their home planet. The episode is streaming on Disney+.

Recap

Axe Woves heads to the upper atmosphere as Bo-Katan leads the other Mandalorians to safety. They reach a dead end and the survivors tell her that they know of a place to hunker down.

She tells Axe about the Imperial fighters and bombers heading for the capital ship before the connection is cut off. As soon as Axe reaches outer space, he tells the rest of the Mandalorians to get on the drop ships while he uses the light cruiser as a decoy.

Din Djarin is taken to a different location but he manages to fight off his captors. They appear to gain the upper hand until Grogu shows up in IG-12 and helps him defeat the Imperial commandos.

Moff Gideon knows that Djarin has escaped and says that he’ll deal with the problem on his own. Djarin calls out to R5 and asks it to connect to the mainframe and find out where Gideon’s command center is.

After beating several commandos, Djarin and Grogu arrive at a room with several tanks. These tanks contain clones of Moff Gideon inside them and Djarin makes sure they are destroyed before moving on.

Bo-Katan and the others are taken to an underground cavern filled with plant life and the survivors explain that these are farms planted by them and all of these plants are endemic to the planet.

The Armorer arrives with the rest of the army and they head back to the Imperial base. Djarin and Grogu reach the command center and Gideon confronts them.

He discloses that those clones were created to be better versions of him because they had the Force within them but Djarin destroyed their chances of survival before their first breaths.

He then faces off with the Din Djarin, eventually joined by the praetorian guards. Grogu pulls the attention of the guards away as Gideon and Djarin continue to combat each other.

The other Mandalorians fight the commandos in a massive dogfight as numbers on both sides fall. Bo-Katan sees Gideon and Djarin fighting on the platform and she joins them.

She tells Djarin to help his son while she fights Gideon.

The Mandalorian season 3 ending explained:

What happens to Moff Gideon?

While Gideon and Bo-Katan fight it off on the platform, Djarin fights off the three praetorian guards with some help from Grogu and succeeds in killing them.

Gideon crushes the Darksaber in Bo-Katan’s hand and then claims that she is nothing without it. Bo-Katan retorts that she has her fellow people by her side which is when Djarin shows up to assist her.

She fights him alongside Djarin and Grogu when Axe Woves contacts them with the message that he’s crashing the capital ship into the base.

All the other Mandalorians evacuate while Bo-Katan and Djarin are saved from the explosion thanks to a Force shield from Grogu. Moff Gideon is engulfed in the explosion and perishes.

What happens to Mandalore?

The Mandalorians reclaim their planet as Bo-Katan lights the flame of the Great Forge once again. The members of the Children of the Watch take the Creed in the Living Waters with Ragnar Vizsla officially taking his oath.

Djarin takes Grogu to the waters so that he can take the Creed but the Armorer says that he is too young. Djarin asks if he could with his parent’s permission and then announces that he will accept Grogu as his son.

The Armorer accepts his claim and dubs Grogu as Din Grogu, Din Djarin’s Mandalorian apprentice.

What lies ahead for Djarin and Grogu?

Djarin visits Carson Teva and tells him that since Grogu is now his apprentice, he wants to be selective of his work and offers to take care of Outer Rim problems for the New Republic off the books.

Teva agrees and Djarin says that in return he would like the head of a defunct assassin droid they see in the bar. He then visits Greef Karga who gifts Djarin with a cabin on the outskirts of the city where he can spend his downtime.

Djarin reveals that he has a gift of his own as IG-11 appears, fully restored to its old self and announcing that it will be the new marshall of the city.

Djarin is then seen relaxing on his front porch as Grogu plays with a creature from the pond outside, both of them happy with whatever is in store for their future.

Review

The season finale has a genuine cinematic feel about it with all the action that takes place. Visually there is a lot going on in the episode and all of it is magnificent.
The sound is equally up to the mark and Ludwig Göransson and Joseph Shirley deserve major props for this episode and how they built up the excitement.
From a narrative perspective, the fact that Moff Gideon was making clones of himself with the Force embedded within them felt undercut but how close to the end they left it. As soon as it was introduced, it was shut off with the explanation coming immediately after.
The Mandalorian season 3 culminates wonderfully in this finale with everything being wrapped up in a satisfactory fashion.