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The Mandalorian Season 3 Ep. 5 Review: Mandalore Avengers Assemble!
The Mandalorian Season 3 episode "Chapter 21: The Pirate" finds swashbuckling action leading to a renewed sense of purpose and more.
It might sound like a broken record, but the recurring theme of The Mandalorian is finding purpose. And that's especially true when it comes to our protagonists, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff), and Grogu, as they find their new home among the Mandalore tribe known as the Children of the Watch. Meanwhile, unrest never ends, mainly as the New Republic establishes itself from the remnants of the Empire, but not everything is as it seems. The following contains minor spoilers for the episode "Chapter 21: the Pirate."
The Mandalorian: Mandalore Avengers! Assemble!
As they recover from their exhausting mission to save Paz Vega's (Tait Fletcher) son, we find the pirates trying to mark their territory at the expense of Greef Cargas (Carl Weathers) on the planet of Nevarro. As resistance is relatively light, he calls in a favor as the citizens flee for their lives. Three seasons in, it doesn't take much intuition to see what happens next as Din gets word from a familiar face in the New Republic's Captain Carson Teva (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee). As isolated as the Children of the Watch are, Paz riles the troops into a frenzy to join Din and Bo.
Our surprise guest of the week is Tim Meadows, who plays Colonel Tuttle. It's not really anything that takes advantage of his comedic talents, as it's about as straight a role as it gets. It doesn't really amount to much other than giving us a reason to point at the screen, saying, "Hey, I know that guy," as Star Wars fulfills another actor's dream of appearing in the franchise. Perhaps Meadows' Tuttle will get interesting later since his unwillingness to help Nevarro drove Teva on his secret mission. As the pieces start to fall into place, it will be interesting to see how Katy M. O'Brian's Elia Kane further factors in with three episodes left, especially with the plot twist at the end.
The other highlight aside from the action scenes in the ensuing battle is we see Emily Swallow's The Armorer kicking ass finally, instead of spending the entire series just offering cryptic words. Seeing the twist involving her character as the plot moves along was nice. Directed by Peter Ramsey and written by creator Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian season three is slowly finding its way, at least building a better plan as it heads toward the season finale. It's still largely underwhelming compared to previous ones, but I can appreciate its focus more on the story than leaning hard on nostalgia like the previous season, and there's a treat in store for animated series fans. The Mandalorian streams Wednesdays on Disney+.