Super plot, super weapons and a Super Battle Droid

The Mandalorian’s direction has so far been near flawless. The story has been engrossing. The acting, particularly from a helmet hampered Pedro Pascal, has also been first rate. And all of these plus points were accentuated in the Deborah Chow directed episode three.

This 40 minutes of top-tier television effectively laid the groundwork for what this series is likely to become. Mando delivers ‘The Asset,’ otherwise known to you and me as The Child – no, it’s not Baby Yoda, ok – but he is clearly concerned for the well-being of his little green force sensitive friend.

Unsurprising given the fact that The Child saved Mando’s bacon in the tussle against the Mudhorn, and at the end of episode two we saw signs that our bounty hunter was concerned for the well-being of the kid.

The fact that Pedro Pascal is able to convey so much emotion despite his face being concealed is credit to the detail he’s applying to his performance – the little head nods, posture and even down to how he operates his weapons or the dials on his ship – jamming them into place or loosely gasping them, clearly distracted by impending decisions.

Decisions like whether to go and save The Child from the Empire.

The details are where this episode stands out for me. The scene in which Mando breaks into the facility that’s holding The Child – and subsequently blasts his way out – is absolutely engrossing. The final battle scene is superb, but it’s this close quarters, high-tempo sequence that takes the cake for me and it’s because of the subtleties.

I love the way that the stormtroopers have to pause to jam the torches alight atop their E-11 blasters. I love the fact that the camera positioning gives you a sense of Mando’s lightning reactions to new threats. It places us right in the centre of the scrap. And I absolutely love the ingenuity of the Whistling Bird.

It would have been easy for Jon Favreau and co, to stick with the wide array of weapons already forged in a galaxy far, far away. The armoury is more than big enough. Mando buys these deadly darts with the Beskar earned for delivering The Child and uses them to kill four stormtroopers that had surrounded him during his attempted escape after reclaiming the kid.

The fact that the Beskar he used to buy the Whistling Birds to take out the stormtroopers would have been the same Beskar stolen from Mandalore during The Purge makes for a beautiful narrative rhyme. *Insert George Lucas quote.*

Mando’s not just protecting The Child at this point. He’s dishing out revenge for what The Empire did to Mandalore and that earns the episode’s grand conclusion, as the Mandalorian protectors swoop in to bail Mando out as he is surrounded by disgruntled bounty hunters who all find their tracking fobs locking back onto the newly freed and lucrative ‘Asset.’

Yep, episode three is technically the best episode so far – amazing set pieces, plenty of heart and huge amounts of intrigue. Oh, the intrigue.

Mando escaping with The Child has really opened the series up going forward. He’s now effectively on the run. We still don’t really know what the remnants of the Empire wanted with The Child. And not to mention the fact that as his new armour is being forged, we see more detailed flashbacks to what we presume to be Mando’s traumatic childhood, as he stares a SUPER frickin’ BATTLE DROID in the face.

Yep, yep, yep – a Super Battle Droid, folks. This really is a series to unite all Star Wars fans.