The Mandalorian Spoiler Recap: Chapter 18: The Mines of Mandalore

Well, that was fast. Whatever expectations I might have had for the season were instantly dashed after Chapter 18: The Mines of Mandalore, which sees Din Djarin…bathing in the waters beneath the mines of Mandalore. After the first episode, where he declared his intention to do so, I assumed the whole season would follow him as he acquired the necessary tools to even find the mines, with the finale following him to Mandalore for some kind of showdown before he can redeem himself. That’s not to say that the latter half of this can’t still happen, of course. But considering how much of Season 2 was focused on getting Grogu to his people to the point where it started to feel a little like a fetch-quest, how refreshing to really have the rest of Season 3 so up in the air after only two episodes. 

And so the episode begins not in hyperspace, and not on Mandalore or Nevarro, but instead on…Tatooine, in Peli Motto’s garage. Perhaps I deluded myself into thinking that the return to Tatooine would bring with it a glimpse at how Boba and Fennec are doing, but we are still only two episodes into the season. Not to mention, we do indirectly get some idea of how Mos Espa is faring under their rule. 

Peli is in an excited frenzy since it’s Boonta Eve - now apparently a week-long celebration - and this means she can work with her Jawa pals to strip speeders and get their hapless owners to unknowingly pay exorbitant sums for the return of their parts. Morally grey? Sure. But in this economy we gotta do what we gotta do I suppose, and Peli was never exactly on the up-and-up anyway. 

Din arrives looking for the memory circuit for IG-11, which Peli and the Jawas inform him is hard to come by, as they don’t make them anymore. I’d like to think this is the end of the trying to resurrect that dead horse, but somehow I doubt it. If only we could put this much effort in trying to resurrect other characters, like Ben- ahem. Sorry.

When Din explains that he needs a droid to scout for him on Mandalore, to take atmospheric readings and such, Peli proposes he buy R5-D4 off her instead. I appreciated the quick solution to his droid problem rather than having him spend the next 7 episodes going from place to place to find a memory circuit, but given the massive Easter egg that R5 is, this can’t help but feel a little like Chewie getting a medal in The Rise of Skywalker - cute, but not really the emotional resolution anyone was looking for.

Din agrees to take R5, and he departs Mos Espa at dusk, Boonta celebrations all around and fireworks in the air. If you’re like me, maybe you were picturing Boba and Fennec watching the fireworks as well. Maybe from the street, maybe from that extremely romantic balcony of theirs. I was a little confused, I will admit, when Din arrived and Peli initially asked him if he was there to take on Boba Fett. Did she forget they’re friends? Things can’t be so bad under his and Fennec’s rule if they brought back Boonta Eve and the town is more celebration than tension. Definitely a strange moment.

New droid in hand, Din at last arrives on Mandalore, bypassing the moon of Concordia where he grew up. Given that’s also where Death Watch - and Bo-Katan - were living during the Clone Wars, I can’t help but wonder how the two never intersected, and if the Children of the Watch splintered off much earlier than I had originally assumed. 

When R5 returns to the N1 starfighter after an initial analysis, Din realizes the air is actually breathable, and it’s safe enough to venture into the city of Sundari to try and locate the mines. He and Grogu slowly pick their way through the ruins, getting deeper and deeper into the city. The few obstacles, in the shape of cave troll-looking beings are quickly dispatched, but things go south when a massive spider-like, part-droid creature (that I’m sure has a real name) gets the drop on Din and carries him off. 

This then becomes Grogu’s moment to shine. However long he was training with Luke is clearly not enough time for him to take the creature on himself, and so instead he heads back up to the surface and has R5 take him to Bo-Katan’s palace on Kalevala. 

Bo is ready to crumple Din like a tin can when she sees the N1 land, until she realizes Grogu has come alone. She immediately discards the pity-party attitude and takes Grogu on-board her ship to go rescue Din on Mandalore instead. 

For fans of The Clone Wars, it’s bittersweet to see Bo return to the world she loves so much, only to find it in ruin. She, like the audience, remembers all that it was, and sees it for all that it is now, and the moment is so rife with emotion that I hope this isn’t the last time this season that Bo has to face her past. 

With some directions from Grogu, she manages to get Din out of the spit-roast cage the spider creature is keeping him in - even wielding the Darksaber to do so. I know she believes herself unworthy of it, due to her own superstition about the nature of the sword and how one should come to wield it. But it’s evident in how she uses it that it comes much more naturally and instinctually to her than it does to Din. 

The conversation she and Din have once she’s pulled him closer to the surface and out of reach of danger is perhaps the most interesting part of the episode in terms of really seeing who these two can be when they aren’t fighting others or sniping at each other.

Din points out to Bo-Katan that the planet is not actually cursed, as they had been led to believe, an assertion Bo does not share. To him, the curse begins and ends with whether the air is breathable, whether there is still actually a planet for him to come to, whereas Bo knows that what makes a planet is so much more than the air and the physical space. A hunk of rock floating in space and made up of nothing but ruins where a great society once thrived? What is that, if not some degree of cursed to someone who grew up there, who ruled there.

By contrast, Bo also scoffs at Din’s need to bathe in the waters for redemption, assuming he takes the ritual literally and believes it to be magic. This, from the same woman who didn’t take back the Darksaber when Din offered it to her because she hadn’t earned it the “right” way the last time, and her rule ended poorly as a result. Perhaps she believes in this “curse” over Din’s superstition because she thinks she has tangible proof of hers being a real curse. But words and beliefs only have as much power as we’re willing to grant them, and I’m hoping by season’s end, both Bo and Din realize this with respect to their own futures. 

She volunteers to take Din down to the mines and help him find the waters, rightly thinking that this man is actually going to get spit-roasted and eaten if she leaves him alone for too long. She tells Din that she herself has been down to the mines as part of a royal family ritual meant to please the people - though it is a little strange she mostly talks about her father and not her sister. Once again this calls into question which rituals she finds worthwhile and which she dismisses as superstition. Not to say they have to be either all true or all false, but if she could somehow resolve her hangups with the Darksaber, I’m sure Din would be all-too-willing to hand it back over.

Unless he doesn’t and the season finale is them fighting for it?? I’m getting ahead of myself.

At the Living Waters, Bo-Katan reads out the carved plaque near the edge that claims the waters were home to the Mythosaur, which Mandalore the Great was said to have tamed. The second mention of the Mythosaur in as many weeks? I wonder what it could mean?

We get that answer quickly as Din walks into the waters reciting the ritual, and is almost immediately pulled under. Bo-Katan doesn’t hesitate in diving in after him, venturing so far down I can only conclude that in all that armor, Din sank like a stone. She pulls him upward, swimming past a living, breathing Mythosaur, who was probably just wondering who could be disturbing its waters. 

What a note to go out on. Bo-Katan telling Din (and the audience) moments before about the significance of the Mythosaur makes me think the creature is likely to return. Maybe as soon as next week, given how quickly the season is progressing. Which does also beg the question of where we go from here.

With Din having bathed in the waters, and essentially earning his redemption, where does he go from here? Back to the Armorer, who will either welcome him back or else shift the goalposts yet again? Bo-Katan lamented that the biggest problem Mandalorians have was constantly fighting each other to no end. Once Din is redeemed, I worry the Armorer will latch on to the idea of having the leader of the Mandalorians be one of the Children of the Watch. Someone who follows the “true Way of the Mandalore.”

I’m not going so far as to assume that this season will see a resolution to the conflicts that exist between Mandalorians. But given how fast Din re-baptized himself as a true believer, I’m hoping that by the end of the season, he will have come to some sort of self-guided conclusion about what he actually wants out of life, instead of clinging to his old way in a misguided attempt at some form of community, no matter what shape that community takes. He tells Bo-Katan that their people are scattered and directionless without the Creed. I can only hope his journey this season is realizing otherwise.

What did you think? Were you surprised we got to Mandalore this quickly? Where do we go from here? Will the Mythosaur comes back? Let us know on Twitter!

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