‘Star Wars: The Mandalorian’ S3: “The Mines of Mandalore”: Everything We Noticed
This week Din and Grogu make it to Mandalore to get to the bottom of some myths and be redeemed in the Mines.
This week on The Mandalorian, Din Djarin finally travels to Mandalore to see the planet’s destruction for himself and find the Mines. We’ve been waiting for this return to Mandalore for a long time, and the episode was unsurprisingly full of callbacks and references to years-old versions of the galaxy we’ve seen before.
In order to unpack the Easter Eggs and references we saw, we will have to spoil large portions of this week’s episode. If you haven’t watched yet, proceed at your own risk.
Boonta Eve
At the beginning of the episode, Din returns to Tatooine to pay Peli Motto a visit and hopefully get a droid part for IG-11. She’s running a few speeder scams and doesn’t have the part is needs but does sell him on an astromech. We’ll get to the astromech in a few moments, but first let’s talk about the day Din and Grogu arrive; it’s Boonta Eve.
Bookta Week is a yearly week-long festival celebrated by all species on Tatooine. There is usually a podrace on Boonta Eve known as the Boonta Eve. And many years prior to Din’s visit, Anakin Skywalker won the Boonta Eve podrace.
Grogu’s Force Powers
Grogu’s powers are growing every day and we saw quite a bit of that this week in his for throws, natural penchant for navigation, and his Force flips and jumps. And all of these are very reminiscent of his own very brief Jedi master, Luke Skywalker. But it is also hard not to see Yoda in Grogu’s miniature muppet flips.
R5-D4
After looking for a part for IG-11, Peli sends Din off with an R5-D4 astromech. And this little droid may look familiar to you if you’ve been paying attention since A New Hope. When Luke was first shopping for a droid for his family moisture farm he almost purchased an R5, but since that droid had a bad motivator Luke took R2-D2 (and C-3PO) instead and the rest is history.
In the anthology book, From A Certain Point of View, it’s revealed that this R5 droid sabotaged his own motivator on purpose so Luke would take R2 instead.
Is this the same R5-D4 droid? Maybe. I imagine there are a lot of droids on Tatooine.
Ruins of Sundari
We see quite a bit of the former city of Sundari, both when Din and Grogu first get there and then again when Grogu returns with Bo-Katan. And while we see very little in the way of specific and recognizable ruins from our trips here in The Clone Wars, it is easy to see that these are the same cities. The round foundation of the dome that once protected the city is still easily recognizable. And once they get underground, the architecture and general city layout are all very much of Sundari.
Bo-Katan’s Jedi Friends
While trying to reassure a nervous Grogu, Bo-Katan references the before-times, when the Empire didn’t yet exist and Mandalorians and Jedi could even sometimes get along. She mentions her own Jedi acquaintances. You may remember from The Clone Wars that Bo-Katan had a strained-but-usually-relatively-friendly relationship with Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Anakin Skywalker, even allying with them when the need arose.
The Mythosaur
In the final scene of the episode, Din makes it to the Mines of Mandalore to bathe in the waters and recite the creed. Only halfway through he is dragged under the water and must be rescued by Bo-Katan. On their way back up we see the huge face of the legendary Mythosaur. Once the apex predator of Mangalore they were thought to be extinct. The Mythosaur skull serves as the symbol of the Mandalorian people. And there is one, very much not extinct, living in the very Mines Din had to visit to redeem himself.
What did you think of this week’s episode of The Mandalorian? Did you notice any Easter eggs or details that we missed? Do you think it’s weird that we, as the audience, have spent so much time on Tatooine that we’ve seen the same holiday celebrated twice? Let us know in the comments!
May The Force Be With You, Adventurers!
