Countdown to ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3: Revisiting Chapter 8 “Redemption”
As we start to gear up for the release of The Mandalorian season 3 in March 2023, we’re taking a look back at each episode of the show so far through the lens of concept art. This will be a weekly series of reviews until the premiere of season 3 next year. You may find our previous entries in this series here.
While we will be revisiting all of the artwork displayed in the episode’s credits, bear in mind that this is not a fully conceptualized review of the episode. We still have those from when each episode came out, and we’ll link to them at the end.
Tensions were high going into the final episode as fans were itching to find out what would become of Baby Yoda, who was cruelly kidnapped by scout troopers on speeder bikes at the end of The Reckoning after his protector Kuiil was shot and left for dead while Din Djarin, Cara Dune, and Greef Karga were trapped in the cantina by Moff Gideon and his troops.
Thankfully, director Taika Waititi didn’t disappoint with his Star Wars directorial debut. The concept art does show that it was always the plan to have IG-11 rescue Grogu from the troopers, but the preamble leading up to the droid’s arrival feels like it’s right out of Taika’s playbook. The scene’s irreverent humor as the troopers discuss Moff Gideon’s treatment of his men and show off their dismal target shooting skills feels like classic Taika — it’s definitely not something you’d see in a standard Star Wars story.
The episode then switches over to Mando, Cara Dune, and Greef Karga, pinned down in the cantina as Moff Gideon attempts to negotiate a peaceful surrender. There’s no concept art of this discussion, in which Gideon comes across as a super knowledgeable man — expected from a former ISB officer — and reveals that he has an E-web heavy repeating blaster, which he mentions has already killed scores of Cara’s fellow shock troopers and played a big role in The Night of a Thousand Tears. We don’t know about that event at this point in the story, but it’s hinted to be a big part of the Mandalorian people’s demise.
Things aren’t looking good until IG-11 flies in on a speeder bike, launching it into some troopers and carving through them with its dual blasters, causing chaos and mayhem. The concept art does an excellent job of envisioning its explosive intervention, with the stormtroopers clearly taken by surprise.
Din uses the distraction to jump out the cantina window and commandeer the E-web, and it seems that the tables have turned. The concept art shows the badass pose Mando strikes as he begins mowing down troopers, cape billowing in the wind.
The main difference between the concept art and the final product is that, in the show, Mando actually wrenches the blaster off its tripod stand, which gets him some serious style points. What the concept art doesn’t show is Moff Gideon slowly stepping towards him, eliminating Mando with only two shots of his pistol — one to the head, disorienting him, and other to the E-web’s battery pack, which explodes and causes serious damage to his head.
Mando is pulled inside and propped up against the wall while IG-11 cuts open the grate into the sewers. The concept art doesn’t show us the Incinerator Trooper, nor Grogu’s efforts to block the flames with the Force, but while Cara, Greef, and Grogu escape into the sewers, we get one of the big emotional moments of the season: we finally get to see Pedro Pascal’s face, and it’s crazy to think they managed not to show it until the season finale.
Din expects IG-11 to give him a merciful death, but is surprised to learn that the droid intends to heal him with bacta instead. When IG-11 states his intent to apply the bacta spray to his head, he resists… until the droid utters a wonderfully poignant line — “I am not a living thing.” Taika’s robotic delivery is excellent, with some unintentionally hilarious lines peppered throughout all the episode.
The gang is reunited in the following scene, when they discover the Mandalorian Armorer, who has stayed put since the Covert scattered in Chapter Three. I’m surprised there was no concept art of the abandoned pile of Mandalorian armors, which in itself is a pretty striking image.
We do have concept art of Cara Dune propping him up as they walk through the tunnels however, with Mando barely able to walk while recovering from his head injury. The tunnels are dark, requiring flashlights to navigate now that the Covert has left. The art does a good job of setting the atmosphere though, with daylight shining through holes in the ceiling behind our heroes, and a light smoke obscuring the background.
Din is enraged by the tragic discovery of Mandalorian armors and accuses Greef of killing them until the Armorer intervenes. She gives Din his new mission to deliver Grogu to the Jedi, and awards him his signet — a callback to the Mudhorn fight in Chapter Two — and a brand-new jetpack, which is an exciting moment for those of us who love flying Mandalorians.
They leave her behind while she waits for the pursuing Imperials. The below concept art of her calmly sitting cross-legged while the stormtroopers surround her shows the picture of a calm warrior waiting to spring into action, confident that she’ll be able to kill every single one of them with ease. It’s a sequence inspired by the old samurai stories that influenced Star Wars, and the concept art is a clear homage to a samurai calmly sat on the ground, sword sheathed on their lap.
Eventually, the gang finds a boat on a lava river out of the sewers, and ride it to safety… until Mando uses his helmet’s heat-scanning tech to spot a platoon of stormtroopers waiting for them at the exit. After a tender exchange, in which Din realizes he’s actually sad to watch a droid sacrifice itself, IG-11 steps into the lava and limps ahead of them, activating his self-destruct protocol — which was excellently foreshadowed in Chapter One — and killing every stormtrooper waiting in ambush.
It’s a beautiful moment, and this concept art captures the odds against them perfectly. Without IG-11’s sacrifice, they surely would have been killed, with Grogu captured afterwards.
Then, just as we think they might be home and free, Moff Gideon strafes them in his TIE fighter. On his second bombing run, Mando uses his new jetpack to get close to the TIE and grapple on to the ship, forcing it with an explosive to crash to the ground, and seemingly killing Gideon.
That is, until we get to the final scene. With Din and Grogu flying away on their new mission to find a Jedi, the camera pans over to the TIE fighter wreckage, already beset upon by Jawa scavengers. Then we see the blade of the Darksaber cut through the hull, and out climbs Moff Gideon, cape billowing in the wind as he surveys the area while wielding the ancestral blade of the Mandalorians. It’s a great needle drop to end the season, sending fans into frenzied roars as this historic weapon jumps right back into the story after in-universe decades away.
I think the wreckage looks even more impressive in the concept art than it does in the show, but the finished product gives us a magnificent sunset as a gorgeous backdrop behind this huge reveal. And with that, we’re made to wait another year until season 2 of The Mandalorian to see what happens next, adrenaline flowing after that final scene.
If you are interested, you can find our original review of Chapter 8 of The Mandalorian, from December 2019, right here.
Our “Countdown to The Mandalorian Season 3” series will continue next week, when we’ll be revisiting Chapter 9. Stay tuned!
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.
