The Mandalorian is a somewhat misleading title. It can mean someone who follows The Way, or someone who wears Mandalorian armor, but it also can just mean someone from the planet Mandalore. But Din Djarin, our heroic Mandalorian, has never visited Mandalore at all.
The last two seasons never really taught us the fate of Mandalore; it was just referred to with vague terms like “lost” and “turned to glass.” But in Season 3 Episode 2, we finally get the answers we’re looking for.
After returning to Mandalore, Din is surprised to see that it’s not nearly as “lost” as he thought. The atmosphere is breathable, and the mines are still intact. There are even some alien species running around.
But an encounter with one of these aliens leaves Din incapacitated, forcing Grogu to call on Bo-Katan for help. Once Bo-Katan arrives, we learn more about what happened to Mandalore.
We knew that Mandalore was bombed and millions of Mandalorians massacred, but this episode finally gives us more details. Bo-Katan describes what Mandalore used to be, saying, “This was once a beautiful civilization. My family ruled it all. Now it's a tomb.” Later, she finally addresses the bombing by simply saying, “The Empire set out to punish us. To wipe away our memory,” and blamed the infighting between factions for why the planet was so vulnerable.
We even see an aerial shot of Mandalore from Bo-Katan’s ship that shows the remains of a city, a shot that was also in the Season 3 trailer. It looks like the planet has been bombed to the point where it’s uninhabitable, but the last moments of the episode prove that Din is destined to lead the Mandalorian people into a new Golden Age. What better place to do that than Mandalore itself?
The planet may have been lost, but now’s the perfect time to rebuild it together with Bo-Katan, each bringing their respective factions and re-uniting them into the people they once were. It’s the perfect way to escalate The Mandalorian’s story, growing it from one man on a quest with his young charge to that man trying to save an entire culture.
