As usual, here is my written Mando S3E7 review. I found this episode of The Mandalorian to be one of the best of the series so far. However, I’ll also admit that’s not a high bar this season. As with all Mando Seasons so far, the finale is going to be slip across the final two episodes. All I’ll say for now is, so far so good, and I’m excited to see what happens in the finale next week.
As always, I will be attempting to keep this as SPOILER Free as possible. Because we are in the Season 3 endgame that will be tricky, so I will keep my explanations more brief and vague to avoid spoilers. If you want the full spoiler filled chat, Kyle Malone and I will be recording this week’s The Cantina Reviews later today. You can catch us going to town on last week’s episode Here. We will for sure get into the weeds on this one, though may with less shouting.
The Spies
If you look at all the episode titles this Season, they’ve had dual meanings. Think back to The Apostate for reference. However on the surface the title this week appears, out of place. There certainly is a spy in one scene, but it’s brief. Perhaps next week we shall discover that all we see in Episode 7 is not quite as it seems? That a super vague way to speculate on events without spoiling them, but here we are.
Look, Season 3 of Mando has had a bit more rough than smooth. There has been good moments and good episodes. However it’s always felt like we were on a slow conveyor belt running towards this eventual culmination of events. We’ve had too much filler and those episodes have been tonally way off. The main plot line though has remained steady, despite the many wanderings of the writing. Ergo, if anyone is expecting some shocking surprises this week, I would not. Things play out much as you expect they might.
However, I will stress that despite the lack of surprise, I really enjoyed how this episode was put together. We are in the comfortable hands of Rick Famuyiwa again and it shows. The visuals all look great, the shots, the action scenes themselves and the little character moments all tend to work. There is heroism, grief, and fun to be had this week. Luckily the tone is once again far more mature and we seems to have forgotten about last week’s silliness. Well, maybe save one scene, and it was my favorite scene of the episode.
Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes and a Ship
If you’ve yet to watch the episode then the repeated spamming of the word yes likely is confusing you. You’ll understand as soon as you watch it. There is a extremely humorous scene involving Grogu and Din which I will not spoil. Suffice to say this was fun and lighthearted, but it worked in that moment and was juxtaposed against an otherwise rather bleak episode.
Din and Grogu get to develop a little further this week, and that’s been lacking recently. I’d say the focus for now remains on Bo-Katan Kryze, but the two leads do get a little more, and I’ll guess that will run into next week’s finale. As for the ship, well that’s me once again thinking about shipping Din and Bo-Katan. The pair have a moment this week, not romantic, don’t get me wrong, but I also feel like eventually things could go that way. Plus, some props to the Bo-Katan character as she has grown on me as this season progresses and we get a little backstory to help push her development along
Gripes and Grade?
I’ve not got much this week, so this will be short. I guess my only real gripe is that the general overarching plot of this finale (part 1) feels very similar to the finale of both Season 1 and Season 2. Now, things could go in another direction next week, but that’s how I feel at this point of events anyway.
RELATED: Mando S3E5 Review: Good Episode But Still Don’t Like Those Pirates
Overall Mando S3E7 is solid and has a few great moments that I would be happy to watch again. The action feels more kinetic than it ever did in Book of Boba Fett and despite not having huge numbers I felt a sense of scale and consequences. I could get into various predictions for the seasonal finale, though I would hope they’re not all accurate. I won’t due to spoilers, but suffice to say I think there’s more to this week’s title than meets the eye. However, I hope there are at least a few surprises I didn’t spot coming. Doubt it though, we’e not reinventing the wheel here.
Well written, well directed, well shot, and fun from start to finish and no cartoony crap.
GRADE: A-
As always, let me know what you thought of my Mando S3E7 review. Also feel free to leave your own Mando S3E7 review in the usual spot below.
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