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*Spoilers for S3E2 ahead.*

The second episode of season three has arrived on Disney+, and there’s plenty to keep you thinking until next week, so here are some thoughts on ‘The Mines of Mandalore’.

Boonta Eve

It starts in a familiar place, with Din visiting Peli Motto on Tatooine. He’s looking for parts to fix IG-11, but not even the Jawas can help out, so Peli offers her astromech, R5, instead.

There are a couple of nice touches here. Firstly, it’s Boonta Eve. This is the same day of celebration as in the Phantom Menace, when Anakin won his podrace, making it 43 years to the day since that event.

The second nice touch is R5. He’s actually the same droid that blew its motivator in A New Hope, allowing R2 and C-3PO to stay together. He’s been in the series before, but this episode gives him a much more important role in helping Din on his mission to Mandalore.

The Mines

As the title suggests, Din actually gets to the Mines of Mandalore. There is a slightly silly thing here, as he wanted a droid to check if the air was safe on the planet, but before R5 can make any scans, he disappears, and Din leaves his cockpit to go and find him, making it all a little unnecessary.

Moving on from that, though, the episode gets into its swing as Din is attacked by slightly Gamorrean-like creatures. I wondered at first if they were a result of the Empire’s bombing campaign, but no, they’re indigenous to the planet and were around before the Empire.

Throughout the episode, I couldn’t help thinking of the Mines of Moria from Lord of the Rings. They have similar design cues, being crumbling abandoned relics of a once great civilisation.

What was the cyborg that captured Din? Part of me thinks it might have been a Mandalorian who did whatever they had to in order to survive. It had definite Grievous vibes going on. Are there more like it?

Finally, there’s the Mythosaur. What’s going to happen with that?

Bo-Katan

Seeing Bo-Katan still sitting morbidly in her castle was a reminder that she had truly given up the fight for her planet and people. Returning to the mines could be enough to convince her there’s some hope left yet.

It was great to see her using the Darksaber. In many ways, she is the person who should wield it, and this has actually given her the opportunity. Technically the cyborg defeated Din and took the Darksaber, which Bo-Katan then used to kill the cyborg, so really it does belong to her now. If only Grogu could talk, he could tell Din what he saw.

Oh, and underwater jetpacks are cool!

Din and Grogu

Din’s now been to the Living Waters beneath the mines, and definitely been completly bathed in them, so he should be allowed back into the Tribe, so long as he doesn’t break any more rules. It does mean that he won’t be removing his helmet again, though, unless he has a really good reason.

Someone who got a lot of character development this episode is Grogu. He might not be speaking just yet, but he is becoming more well-rounded in other ways. The way he went to get Bo-Katan’s help, going it alone like that. Clearly Luke’s training has paid off.

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Sadly there were no pirates this week, but maybe next time!

Thanks for reading!