Chapter 20: The Foundling

After last weeks shift in focus we are back with an episode where our main trio takes center stage! While still feeling like set-up it was an enjoyable episode nonetheless!

I liked Grogus development in the episode, as well as the flashback! It was great too learn more of how he escaped order 66, plus it doesn't hurt too se Jedi's fighting clones! Especially when one of them is played by the guy who portrayed Jar Jar Binks!

I love how we can tell what Grogu is feeling just by looking at his facial expressions, rather than having other characters tell you how he feels! He is becoming more and more his own character!

The main plot, while feeling like a side-quest, was still exciting and worked as a developmemt for Bo Khatan! The episode also ends with a tease that Bo Khatan will play a major role later on!

In some ways it is still a little unclear excactly where this is going, but since these last few episodes where mostly set-up, i hope the next episodes will bring more clarity and pay-off!

The first two seasons of the show were amazing. However, this season seems a little lacklustre. Yes, it's developing the Star Wars world and yes, it is adding more lore, but in terms of stakes, plot and emotion there is seemingly nothing. The episodes have been overall enjoyable but I just don't see where they're going. This season could have been so interesting with a mandalorian civil war or a season long story about Din discovering his identity as either a true mandalorian or a new unorthodox mandalorian and fathering Grogu whilst Bo struggles with regaining power on Mandalor. But no, nothing seems to be happening so far and there's only 4 episodes left!

After two seasons of bringing back some of the old magic from Star Wars, the writers really seem to have no idea what to do next with the mandalorian. It seems they are making it up as they go along. There is no storyline, there are no higher stakes, and everything that happens seems... filler content. Other than an interesting flash back we get some generic mando action scenes, that really add nothing to progress the story. What a complete change of pace for a show that was very entertaining in it's previous seasons. Of course it never had any grand storylines, but at least there was something there to tie all the events together. Now we're just muddling through events and episodes, and halfway the season there's still not much happening. After this episode I have completely lost interest. No storyline is bad enough, but when even logic is tossed out the window, I give up. That ending... really?

You would think they had learned from Andor. Now that was a great show with some amazing writing. Tense, gripping and gritty, with drama, action and fleshed out characters. Unfortunately, this doesn't have any of that. For it's third season this show has been reduced to yet another conveyor belt churning out content. Such a shame.

At times, it felt like a bad episode of Power Rangers. All of the depth we've come to know from some of the characters present in this episode went out the window. There isn't too much good I have to say about this one.

This very much felt like the episode earlier in the series with the Krayt dragon but not executed anywhere near as well, and with an exposition from Grogu's past which was almost completely disjointed from the rest of the episode.

Acting was sub-par, clear voice dubs for all of the Mandalorian characters and a script which felt like it came from a high school student made me wonder if I want to continue watching weekly or just wait and see what the consensus is at the end of Season 3.

Overall, this is not what I came to expect from the previous two seasons and really hope that it picks up again with more character development that I actually care about. Or even stakes which actually seem high.

The Foundling attempts to give some more background on Grogu. He is old but somehow his development has been held back. Maybe Grogu should had matured more than he has.

There are flashbacks as to how he was in danger during the siege of the Jedi temple. Grogu was rescued to safety by Jedi Master Kelleran Beq and sent to safety.

These memories come through as Grogu starts his Mandalorian combat training. Something Grogu is nervous about but the Mandalorian encourages him to go through with.

Grogu wins his training match. His young opponent is then carried away by a large raptor. The Mandalorian, Bo-Katan and others give chase to recover the boy.

Both the rescue story and Grogu's own backstory was effective in this episode.