User Reviews

I know that this episode has gotten a lot of heat. It does not really fit into the Mandalorian show, as we have seen it so far. This show started out as a mostly-episodic series more akin to the original Lucas-esque roots of a serial sci-fi/space opera show. Through Grogu, it built continuity within itself, which then branched into BoBF.

But here, I think, is the most important episode for cementing Mandalorian into a broader Disney-led universe. I think it is clear now that Disney is not just running a set of series/movies that are episodic. Rather, there is an aim to unify them all together. This episode is the key to doing so.

Here, we see the dystopia of Disney's post-Endor Star Wars universe. The New Republic has won. The Empire is largely defeated, but we still have to deal with all of those former imperials. I won't get into details, but this is very 1984-ish.

But, if you think about the Disney universe, it has to be. We have to have some mechanism for how the New Republic decays from its victory at Endor to Episode 7 where the First Order has risen and the Republic is in decay. This is really the first glimpse into how/why that would occur.

In broad strokes, I think it works. I am a little unsettled by it, though. One of the nice things about the old Extended Universe (now 'Legends') was that it built the history of the New Republic in a way that did not allow it (mostly) to sacrifice its ideals, at least until decades after Endor. It was as much a happy ending as you could have whilst also exploring some political realities.

I think the differences between these two storylines are partially forced by the Sequel Trilogy's recapitulation of the Empire and episode 7 largely repeating episode 4. This is unfortunate, because its poor, unimaginative, and nonsensical storyline now requires the canon content between episode 6 and 7 to explain how we got from point A to point B. Essentially, a bad storyline now requires us to learn how it comes to be, which is not very satisfying for a fan.

The other thing, is that I think the two post-Endor storylines (Disney vs EU) are products of their time. The EU was mostly written in the 90s, after the end of the Cold War. It was a more optimistic time period than we are in now. The books thus had a feeling of improvement and progress, at least until the Yuzhann Vong. Here in the Disney universe, we are seeing creative outlets contend with our current world, which is beset by extremity, distrust, and looming fears of conflict, climate change, etc. Not to mention a recent pandemic.

It feels grittier, colder, and less fun. Although I am interested in these qualities when it comes to a show like Andor (showing why the empire is bad), I am less enthused about it in the New Republic era, even though I think these episodes are doing it very well from a writing/acting/technical perspective.

Star Wars was, for a long time, supposed to be a story of hope, of good vs evil, of underdogs winning, etc. It is also a story of redemption. Seeing those concepts backslide just doesn't feel right to me, even as I enjoy this show for its quality.

People claiming for longer episodes of The Mandalorian, but when they asked for longer episodes of the series they meant more of the Mandalorian, Din Djarin, himself not from a scientist people barely remember for season 1. Sure this might be some trigger for the season plot, but if you consider that next episode will be officially mid-season, the pacing of this season is quite slow and the only development we have seen was what happened in the end of this episode.

Unlike previous episodes of the season, the beginning and the ending were really awesome. The interactions between Din Djarin and Bo-Katan felt way better than on episode 2, not only on dialogue, but how both behaved in scene. Here we feel like Bo-Katan and Din Djarin are on the same level, both are amazing and can look after themselves.

I'm amazed this episode has so many people being negative. For my money, the Coruscant plotline - while technically a detour which takes up most of the episode's runtime - is some of the best worldbuilding, best acting and best writing to come out of any of the Disney+ Star Wars shows. It feels like Jon Favreau popped over to the Andor editing room, watched an episode, thought "hey this is good stuff, I should try that" and inserted a story of complex motivations, flawed institutions and heartbreaking intrigue. In terms of cinematography, tone and scale, it feels far closer to Andor than The Mandalorian, but what can I say? It's a welcome change from previously stilted, awkwardly structured and relatively emotionless episodes. Whatever new approach Chapter 19 was presenting, I think I prefer it.

I really enjoyed this episode! Glad to see expantion of the star wars canon by showing us Coruscant post-empire! I was intrigued by the story of Dr. Pershing and Its a great way of showing how it is to adjust to the new order and how former imperials are treated! How far can you go for something you believe in? We see a guy with a goal and a purpose, struggling to adjust to a world where ethics matter! You can feel the conflict within! This is great Star Wars! When nothing is just black and white and the characters are believeable!

The episode was intense and gave me Andor-vibes at times! There were some darker mature moments! The directing was great and I really loved the action scene! I could feel the stakes in this episode and I see a larger story forming! There were still a couple of "off moments" but not enough to ruin my enjoyment!

This was more than just generic TV entertainment and It was the best episode thus far!

A former Imperial scientist struggles with life in the New Republic.

This is a solid episode with some interesting story development.

The plot spends a short time with the lead characters, but that time is spectacular and gives Din and Bo some great opportunities to be very cool.

I quite enjoyed when the plot deviated. There's only so much you can watch every week of the title character on various missions, so for me it's a welcome change of focus. It feels slightly jarring, as it comes out of the blue in the series narrative, but hopefully it is laying the foundations for good things to come. These scenes are more reminiscent of the style and tone of 'Andor' than other Star Wars shows, which works fine for me.

As ever the fan service and visual spectacle is top drawer in all aspects. I like the art design on Coruscant and the action sequences in the opening scenes are outstanding.

Omid Abtahi leads the episode well.

Update to review after finishing season - it would appear this episode only lays the foundations for a very small aspect of the overarching narrative so it feels now like an excessive detour. I still enjoyed it slightly more than the other episodes of series 3 for showing something different.

For me it's a 7.5/10, but I round upwards.

I get it, Coruscant is a beautiful place and is part of the Star Wars heart. Although most of this episode was aimed away from Mando and focused more on some side characters with another subplot. These short shows don't have time for subplots, unless it's a short 20 minutes at the most but not an entire episode.

We had Mando at the beginning with the soundtrack department overusing Mando's two tone chime everytime he came on screen. Yes it was overused and i know it's his signature theme but do they have to use it every time we see him? The dog fight at the beginning looked weak, entertaining but it looked like something just to keep us watching.

I don't know if the rest of the episode meant something, maybe it plays a bigger part but i'm sick of sticking up for this series if it just continues to be silly like this. Please make sense, build up to something, give us the meaning. At the minute i'm confused, to the point i actually didn't care for the final scene and i know i should.

As been said, the beginning and ending were great and relevant to the main plot.

It's the middle, which is the majority of the episode, that people are rating poorly. I thought it was very good and gave great insight into the New Republic and their way of life. The seasons are short, so this is the one exception I'm willing to give as far as filler goes.

The scientist was an interesting character and now this episode pretty much wraps him up. The acting is spot on. Coruscant was beautifully rendered.

There are always going to be people who whine about the show not being 100% about the main plot every episode. If the writers did that, you might as well make The Mandalorian a movie. If you look back at season 1 & 2 which are highly rated seasons, there were episodes with The Mandalorian and the child that were deemed filler and given low ratings.

I don't think writers should accommodate lazy and ungrateful fans.

This episode invests way to much stake in a side-character. It appears to be that this investment is intended to pay-off in a future episode, but it was way too much of a deviation without any immediate pay-off or obvious progression.

There is a brief interaction with the Mandalorian before a long-cut to the side character (30 minutes roughly). The Mandalorian scenes in this episode are great, but total about 10 minutes. I feel like the 30 minutes dedicated to the side character could have been further condensed or needed to get us a lot more invested in this character. It felt like an unnecessary side-quest.

We shall see how this story plays into the future, but this episode left quite a bit to be desired.

I'm all about great story telling leading up to a big pay off, but what the hell was this episode? Why are these boring secondary characters getting so much screen time? I'm surprised so many people rated this 10 out of 10. I'm dumbfounded.

The storytelling in Andor was terrific even when there was no action, the prison episodes were truly masterful, but the difference is that Andor the focus was on the main character and occasionally cutting to the sub plots, whereas here the subplot has taken focus from the main plot. It's annoying really as the episode starts and ends well but we're treated to 40 minutes of fluff. This was the first time I stopped an episode mid way and returned to it later just to finish it, instead of watching it in one sitting as normal.

Here's hoping things return to normal in the following episode!

Finally, we get a significant amount of time to enjoy this portion of the story instead of a less than 30 minute teaser episode like we got with the first S3 episode.

This finishes Mando and Bo's visit to the magic healing waters of Mandalore... aka the magic dump and sewage planet that Mandalore has become...

Where Bo-Kataan saw something extremely significant. What part is this going to play in the story? We do not know, which is the way it should be.

Meanwhile, the focus shifts to the planet Coruscant. We had seen this planet in a couple of the Parts 1-3 films... but we never saw the inner workings of it. The scientist that we had met previously was apparently granted amnesty, and is now working to dispose of imperial junk. Lots and lots of imperial junk.

But he has higher aspirations... even though he claims to only want to do good.

So we get to see a lot of the nooks and crannies of Coruscant like we have never seen before.

Where the Star Wars films always give us a broad canvas, the Mandalorian and it's appendix show Book of Boba Fett give us the small details of what life is like in the new republic and the old empire.

So a good portion of this episode focuses on this scientist, but he runs into an associate, which is not suspicious at all?

And although all of the correct words are spoken, he is encouraged to do something that should not be done.

It is very difficult to predict where this part of the story is going to go. And this also is the way.

Meanwhile, the new family of Mando needs to set up camp at a new covert. And now Bo-Kataan is part of this. In the previous episode, she appears to have been humbled and changed for the better.

But the question is, is this a permanent change and is this an honest change? Or is there some kind of ulterior motive happening here? I hope for the former.

But the elephant in the room is this: there are two people in this story right now, who we know have designs upon Mando's magic, heavy dark light saber.

So we knew that this was going to happen before it ever happened. It's just that the pieces are gathering themselves all into one place, right here, right now. So the only question is, when is the catastrophe going to occur? But of course, every Catastrophe has a Eucatastrophe. It's magic, see?

I was ready for the new season of The Mandalorian to be another dull journey betwixt fanservice moments, fetch quests, and inconsequential shootouts but something decidedly strange happened here. Possibly trying to copy off of another Disney+ Star Wars series, namely Andor (almost as if someone from the Favreau-Filoni side of things snatched someone from the Andor writing staff and said "Okay, please show us what we're doing wrong"), the season actually has interludes of real storytelling with, like, themes and character motivations. Imagine!

Just as I was getting exceptionally tired of all the Mando stuff -- all this self-serious talk of Mandalorian creed/lore that's now more heavily focused on than his supposedly heartfelt relationship with Grogu (which was clearly meant to end in Season 2 before a tangentially related show decided "Nah, we gotta get that marketably cute little slugger back to him") -- there was an odd change of pace:

Suddenly, in the third episode of the season, we ventured into that side of the Star Wars universe we see so rarely, and got to focus on some of its less fantastical inhabitants, as a former Imperial scientist strikes up a bond with a reformed Imperial officer and we see how they react to the rise of the New Republic; how it impacts their lives; how their past within this universe's equivalent of The Third Reich affects them. This is straight out of the Andor playbook (along with its satirical, Brazil-esque dive into the workplace side of Star Wars, its greater focus on clever subterfuge than video game action, and inordinately fascinating additions to the world-building -- e.g a rock in the middle of a Coruscant street that turns out to be the peak of a mountain, the last remaining part of the planet's natural surface that's still visible) and honestly, I was vibing hard with it.

I don't think it's strictly a failure of the show to switch focus like this. It hints at the kind of varied Star Wars show I truly want to see; I don't want all Jedi stuff, all Mando stuff, all Tatooine stuff, and so on. Just give me Star Wars: The Series!

So yeah, just as The Book of Boba Fett was at its best when it focused on Mando instead of Boba Fett, The Mandalorian Season 3 is at its best when it focuses on reformed Imperial officers and scientists instead of Mando. Pretty hilarious state we're in. The episode isn't nearly as good or clever as what it's aping and the lightsaber popsicles were dumb as hell, but I'll take it.

Really enjoyed the pacing of this episode. Also redintroduces previous characters into the story who are going to really get the main story of season 3 going. I'm sure next episode the events that happened will lead to a return in Moff Gideon. Although many are saying that it was predictable, I was genuinely questioning what their intents were. Especially dr Pershing a. Not to mention the CGI is really good in this episode, especially courousant. Overall I give it a solid 9/10. Haveto spam for minimum character requirements lol.

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I'm sure the other one is just as bad for you though I don't think it was the best for the character.

With now 10 hours of Mando content (Mandalorian & Book of Boba Fett) and.... Finally! The show is actually trying to have some interesting character development. Unfortunately it's not any of the main characters (Mando & Grogu), or any secondary characters, but once again the third party characters. Characters who show up for a couple episodes before disappearing until whenever. Not the first time, ie Mayfeld, and The Client. Now it's Dr. Pershing and Elia. This show does more with third party guest characters, when it does return to Mando & Grogu all I can do is say, "Not this useless guy and baby again." Points and credit to the show for trying. However, the episode is still not good, but halfway decent for once.

For all those who said about episode 2, "Mando did not fall in, something pulled him in." NOPE! This episode confirms from Mando himself, he fell in his bath water. Bo Katan pulled him up and does nothing to revive him. Mando drowned in his helmet, and Bo doesn't even try to give him urgent CPR. This creed sucks!

Next is another pointless action sequence. Looks cool, and I love Tie Interceptors, but it's pointless. What were they doing out there and where did all those fighters and bombers come from? They weren't there to destroy Bo Katan's house because she led all the fighters from space back to her place.

Then we get 40 minutes of the most INTERESTING and INTRIGUING material in Mando since Werner Herzog's scenes in season 1. Character development, motivations, goals, conflicts, internal struggles, intentions are for good but could mean evil, consequences. BASIC STORYTELLING 101.

Even though the episode is still loaded with dumb content and problems, there's far less of it when all the focus is on Dr. Pershing and Elia. We're at 10 hours of Mando, and in 1 episode Dr. Pershing has more character than Mando and Grogu combined!

Baby Yoda fans hated this episode.... "Where's Mando and Grogu?" "What's Andor doing in my show?" "Love the action and ending, hated the 40 minute middle."

This episode is intriguing. Unfortunately its Mando and Baby Yoda fans only want "pew, pew, pew", and Grogu spinning in a chair looking all cute. They don't care about story, characters, arcs, payoffs, intelligence...basic storytelling 101. Which is a massive shame. With this fan base, this show will never be good. This episode was a shimmer of that. Thankfully, Andor is a great show and will not sink to the same depths as Mando did on Mandalore.

I loved the change of pace and the incredible storytelling of this episode! I'm so curious to see where this leads next. Also loved the directing choices and getting to see Coruscant again, the scale of the city feels so much better than the last time we saw it.

I loved the political aspect added to this episode, to the view of the New Republic from the perspective of someone who knows imperialism all too well; the talk about what happens to science when it was used for bad but was created for good.

I really want to know why Bo hid the creature from Din and how her relationship with the rest of the creed goes.

I really enjoyed this episode once I'd recovered from the whiplash of the change in pace. The opening was so quick out of the gates and so fun to watch that the second part of the episode struggled as a result. I loved the world building and return to Coruscant and the setting the seeds for stories going forwards, characters motivations are still a bit of a mystery at the moment and I'm looking forward to seeing this continue to develop, especially with Bo Katan who is being written so well over the last couple of episodes. This series is defying all expectations so far and I'm excited to see what is next especially as this feels like the end of arc 1.

Let's be frank. Who cares about this scientist? How critical can he be to the overall story? Maybe he turns out to be a key player, but we don't watch this show for imperial scientists.

This show has never been known for having great drama. Can you seriously remember one time when you found yourself biting your nails? I can definitely not. The stakes are minimal, but the show is still intriguing, enjoyable, and primarily: nostalgic. The best moments from this show are all nostalgic bait. The story is not very coherent and nothing really happens. There are no moments where you fear for the main characters. While emotional moments do occur, the most memorable scenes are those that showcase beloved, familiar characters such as Luke, Ahsoka, and Baby Yoda.

The action scenes are impressive, but they're unrealistic. There are no stakes and no drama. This whole show is about a man and his adoptive son going on adventures with no clear goal. They go around and get sidetracked every episode. They never really achieve anything. Maybe it's time to wrap it up or give us some drama. If they got no more Mando/Grogu stories, end the show, because we do not want to see these boring ex-imperials.

People compare this episode to Andor and I think that is a bad thing. Half the episode followed two ex empire officers and I could not have been less interested. I watch this series for the action and good story that the Mandalorians provide. The other story line in the episode was very boring and lack luster. The twist ending didn't leave me feeling surprised just cheated that they wasted so much of an episode on these uninteresting characters that never seemed to do anything but have frivolous and uninteresting conversations. I'm sure it is much cheaper to film so we are forced to watch it instead just following the massively more entertaining Mandalorians that people tune in for. If you want to follow the ex empire characters and their troubles adapting to their new lives that's fine but give it its own series. I won't watch that series but it won't take up any more time from the series I actually want to watch. The Mandalorian scenes were great but please don't tack on cheap uninteresting stories that have no barring on the characters that we want to see.

So many people we hate this episode as it spends very little time with our heroes.

I personally found myself no less gripped in by this episode. I found I was totally drawn in by the story line. The tension and questions about what is really going on...

This is the type of episode you would get from HBO, and will receive the same level of criticism. "It's boring" "where are the main characters" "who cares.."

Well people should care because like HBO and there incredible tv shows they let the show breath and priorities the story. Where it's going and how to make it a richer experience. This episode did that, it throws you into the world of Star Wars like we have never seen before. It's closest sibling is Andor (one of the greatest things Lucasfilm has ever done)

People will have to make there own mind up on this episode. For me though it was incredible! Does not have the repeat viewing of the first 2 episodes but it doesn't need to. This episode will in long run have made the Mandalorian a more complete complex and engaging show!! I'm very impressed they were bald enough to put an episode like this in an already limited episodes season. Maybe if boba fett and obi wan had more of this type of writing there shows would have been better.

Hope you all enjoy!!