(Spoilers for Star Wars: The Mandalorian – Chapter 24: The Return ahead.) The Mandalorian: Chapter 24 – The Return concluded a wonderful third season of the show. Since each episode of the show led by Din Djarin and Din Grogu was at least decent, I looked forward every Thursday to seeing a new episode of the season that morning.
Below are 11 takeaways from the episode. They are listed from most to least impactful on me.
1. The Way means a son for Din
The Armorer (Emily Swallow) saying “This is the way” signals that the Children of the Watch (Djarin’s religion) recognize that Grogu is the son of Djarin (Pedro Pascal, Lateef Crowder, Brendan Wayne). It’s beautiful. That’s because it was a perfect marriage of two of the main items to come from the show: the saying and the father-son relationship between Djarin and Grogu.
2. A Din-Grogu shot
To end the episode, Djarin and Grogu are featured together as the screen becomes black other than a circle around the protagonists. It was wonderful framing. And it was nice overall. And it was great to end the season with a focus on an endearing relationship – the heart of the show and what made it work so well.
3. A frog lifted up
Grogu plays with a frog with the Force to end the episode. It was a nice nod to a scene in Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett — Chapter 6: From the Desert Comes a Stranger. In the scene, Grogu lifted a frog with the Force while Jedi Master Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill, Graham Hamilton) trained him. Luke followed by lifting many frogs. And Grogu had eaten frogs prior to that.
4. ‘I don’t speak binary’
Djarin says this at one point. “Binary” is a term for droidspeak in Star Wars, undoubtedly taken from a word for computer language. It strengthens my view that the following thought maybe because I am genderqueer. However, is there any possibility that the line also gives a wink to genderqueer perspectives?
5. ‘Din Grogu’
“Din Grogu” as the Child’s new name is great. And the name taking from Djarin’s first name rather than his last works especially since names very well work differently in the Children of the Watch’s culture. (It’s like how a whale in Avatar: The Way of Water could communicate with a human-like being because it’s not a whale from our world.)
6. This time, Luke Skywalker wouldn’t need to tell Red, ‘Let’s go!’
R5-D4 certainly works great now compared to when we saw Luke Skywalker call for him in Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope to get moving. He took off great with rocket thrusters. It made me think of when R2-D2 is revealed to have some in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones.
7. Bo-Katan Kryze/Katee Sackhoff’s Appearance
She looks adorable. I want so much to look as cute as her.
8. Din Djarin and New Republic rangers
I am not saying the New Republic is of utmost nobility. However, Djarin seems to be pursuing more noble work in working for the New Republic instead of just taking anything on which he can get his hands.
More importantly, we may get Rangers of the New Republic after all, just through The Mandalorian season 4.
9. IG-11, Marshal
Making the droid IG-11 a marshal, as was done in the episode, makes sense. With such advanced artificial intelligence in the Star Wars galaxy, it’s reasonable that droids could be marshals.
10. Data port familiarity
R5 is portrayed accessing data ports like we first saw in Star Wars with R2 in A New Hope.
11. Mouse droid sirens
The Mandalorian team was creative in adding sirens to mouse droids. And it was fun to see.
Criticism of the season is over the top. The season was fun, if not quality. And that certainly includes Chapter 24 – The Return. I had positive audible reactions to it a few times.
