The Mandalorian season 3 episode 1 recap: Gina Carano absence ...
Warning: spoilers ahead for The Mandalorian season 3 episode 1.
The Mandalorian season 3 kicked off with a bang in episode 1, as Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu, aka Baby Yoda, made their long-awaited returns.
The absence of Cara Dune (Gina Carano) was cleared up early on after the actor was fired from the Star Wars series on Disney Plus, as Din reunited with old friends and made new enemies.
After beating Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) in a duel at the end of season two, Mando is now in search of redemption, which he can apparently find on Mandalore, the homeworld of his people.
Most importantly… after their reunion in The Book of Boba Fett, our favourite father-and-son duo are back together once again.
The Mandalorian and The Armorer have bitter reunion
As a Child of the Watch, one of the vows Din made when he became a Mandalorian was to never remove his helmet.
However, he admitted to doing so to The Armorer, having taken off his helmet when he and Grogu had an emotional goodbye in the season two finale, when the Child went off with Jedi Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill).
While Mando is now an apostate, exiled from his community, he does save The Armorer and several other individuals from a grisly death, when he intrudes on an induction ceremony for a new Mandalorian and kills a krayt dragon that had attacked the group.
There is a possible path of redemption for Mando – which requires travelling to Mandalore, the homeworld of the Mandalorians.
Cara Dune’s absence explained by Greef Karga
Cara Dune was a character who appeared in the first two seasons of The Mandalorian as an ally of the titular character.
However, Gina was fired from the show after ‘abhorrent and unacceptable’ posts that she made on social media, in which the former MMA fighter reportedly compared being under Republican rule to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.
Rather than pretend that Cara isn’t a part of the world of the show anymore, she was mentioned during a conversation between Mando and Greef Karga (Carl Weathers), who’s now the high magistrate of the revamped Navarro.
After Greef admits that he needs a marshal to maintain law and order, he explains why Cara can’t fill the role, stating: ‘After she brought in Moff Gideon, she was recruited by Special Forces.’ So there we go!
Din is desperate to bring an old friend back to life
In the first season of The Mandalorian, the lead character teamed up with a droid called IG-11, despite his full-out hatred of droids.
IG-11 ends up becoming a character that Mando was able to trust with his life, even going so far as to allow the droid to remove his helmet so that it could provide him with life-saving care for his near-fatal injuries.
When Mando visits Navarro, IG-11 has been turned into a statue… but Din wants him to be reanimated, as he believes he needs a droid that he can trust to join him on his trip to Mandalore.
While he manages to bring IG-11 back to life, the droid reverts back to his original protocol to destroy the ‘asset’ Grogu… so there’s still a bit of work to do to restore the droid back as an essential ally.
Mando and Grogu evade a pirate attack
While on Navarro, Greef is confronted by a group of pirates who want to drink at their old bar – which has now been turned into a school.
Both Greef and Mando intimidate them away, with the latter shooting four of the men dead as their leader scarpers off.
When Din and Grogu fly away from Navarro, they’re chased by the pirates, who lead them to their leader in his humungous ship.
Mando manages to jet out of their grasp, but we have a feeling this isn’t the last we’ll see of the Davy Jones-esque newcomer.
Bo-Katan Kryze sits on a throne – but it’s not the one she wants
In the second season of The Mandalorian, Bo-Katan made her live-action debut as she chased after Moff Gideon and the Darksaber that was in his possession.
Mando ended up gaining ownership of the Darksaber in a duel against Moff Gideon, which means he’s also the rightful heir to the throne of Mandalore – a role that Bo-Katan felt that she was entitled to.
Bo-Katan and Mando reunite in season three, and while she is sitting on a throne, it’s clearly not the one that she wants.
Will the pair end up fighting to see who will sit on the throne of Mandalore once and for all? Or will Din continue with his mission to get to Mandalore so that he can be redeemed for betraying his creed?
The Mandalorian is available to watch on Disney Plus, with new episodes released on Wednesdays.
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