‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3, Episode 8: Recap & Ending, Explained: What Happens To Mando And Grogu?

The Season 3 finale of Disney’s “The Mandalorian” finally premiered, bringing an end to an almost two-month-long journey of the Mandalorians in search of their home planet while trying to defeat the big bad of the season—Moff Gideon. In the previous episode, Gideon trapped the Mandalorians and isolated Din Djarin to be taken away, while Bo-Katan Kryze and the others had to flee using the Darksaber. In this episode, Mando and Grogu work as a team to go up against the Beskar-wearing, bisento-wielding Gideon, but do they manage to bring down the evil? Additionally, what happens to Bo-Katan and the rest of the Mandalorians, and do they manage to reclaim Mandalore? Here’s what happens in the finale episode of Season 3.

Spoilers Ahead


Escaping The Stormtroopers

The finale begins immediately after Bo-Katan cuts a hole in the door with the Darksaber and escapes with the rest of the Mandalorians; while fighting her way out, she informs Alex Woves about the latest updates. Moff Gideon is alive, and he’s utilizing Mandalore’s resources to strengthen his position. She commands him to gather every fighting man and make use of the capital ship as a distraction before the attackers reach the Mandalorians. As Woves flies up into the clouds, his signal with Bo-Katan breaks while she thwarts the advancing Stormtroopers by detonating a bomb and buying them some time. 

Meanwhile, Mando is being taken away to face unimaginable horrors when he decides to fight back. Stripped of his weapons and having to rely on just his fists, Mando gets a few good hits in until one Stormtrooper begins strangling him with a cord while reaching for his blaster. Just then, the IG-12-wielding Grogu walks in and punishes the soldier as Mando knocks the Stormtrooper out. After being helped up, Mando tells Grogu that they can’t run from Gideon anymore and need to face him, and together, they go after the evil wannabe Sith lord. Mando contacts Bo-Katan, who tells him that she needs to get her troops to safety, and the Captain of the ship they met in Episode 7 offers to take them to a safer place. While the TIE fighters go out in droves to destroy the Mandalorian fleet, Bo-Katan and her crew fly out of the cave they’d been trapped under using their jetpacks.


Fighting Their Way In 

Moff Gideon watches a live map of the base as Din Djarin and his ward are heading for him and vows to take the advancing threat down himself. Realizing that it’s not possible to locate Gideon in such a vast area without help, Mando contacts the R5 droid that was hiding nearby and asks it to provide a schematic map of the area. After a brief protest, the droid uploads a map of the base to Mando, who then asks it to start deactivating the barrier laser shields one at a time. The droid and Mando work together remotely, with R5 bringing down the shields on his commands and the show’s protagonist defeating the Stormtroopers two at a time. The scene gives the sense of a video game where waves of enemies come at the player, with the weapons and enemies’ skills intensifying as more and more shields come down. While Mando is already at odds fighting with the new and improved Stormtroopers, who wield shields, blasters, and laser staffs, R5 is being harassed by a mouse droid. However, the Mandalorian ally manages to scare the pesky little droid away and bring down the last shield as Mando defeats the final two Stormtrooper guards. As a host of mouse droids return to arrest R5, it flies away using its jet pack while Mando proceeds toward the command center with Grogu.


Bo-Katan’s Army

Meanwhile, Woves alerts the capital ship to bring every available soldier down to help Bo-Katan, and he stays back to handle the TIE fighters. The Mandalorians use their jetpacks to shoot off to the various smaller ships while Woves mans the guns against the oncoming raiders. The mosquito-like attackers manage to fire multiple laser rounds at the ship, but the huge guns start bringing down several TIE fighters.

The Captain brings Bo-Katan and the rest into a cave that looks straight out of a flora garden, with lush greenery growing everywhere, These are the farms the remnants of Mandalorians planted to create food caches and underground hideouts. They’d been able to cultivate farms of flora that’d remained dormant for centuries, and once the planet was abandoned, these plants began sprouting. This proves beyond doubt that Mandalore isn’t cursed or toxic, and that it can become a healthy place to live, grow food, and sustain life. Just then, Bo-Katan is alerted by the Armorer that the reinforcements are here, and she rallies her people to go and take back their planet from the invaders for good this time. The Armorer and her crew join Bo-Katan and the rest, and the entire army of Mandalorians fly down towards the advancing Stormtroopers, with both parties preparing for a clash. Bo-Katan brandishes the Darksaber while the Armorer clangs her tools as the rest of the crew whip out the blasters. When the two forces collide, the Mandalorians give a fierce fight, hacking and slashing through the opposition.


Encounter With Gideon

On their way to the command center, Mando and Grogu encounter several incubation chambers with rows upon rows of clones being developed. Mando informs his kid that these are Moff Gideon’s clones and not him, actually, but the child is still scared. The Mandalorian begins fidgeting with the control board when one of the clones opens its eyes, terrifying Grogu. Just then, Mando powers down the system as all the chambers begin exploding, and every clone gets fried, hence terminating the unholy seed of Gideon.

Upon entering a large room, Gideon’s terrifying voice reaches them, and Mando asks Grogu to seek shelter as the black armor-wearing Gideon appears and curses Mando for destroying his clones. He was developing the clones with the Force, the one ability he lacked—the power that he’d gathered by drawing Grogu’s blood all the way back in Season 2. Din Djarin and Gideon begin attacking each other, but Mando begins to fall short before the enraged Gideon, and as if that wasn’t enough, the three Praetorian guards who’d killed Paz Vizsla arrive and begin attacking Mando. He tries fighting them off, but the electro-bisento acts as a Taser to push Mando down to one knee, which makes Grogu come out of hiding and protest using IG-12’s “No” speech button. The three elite guards chase after Grogu as Mando cries out in fear for the kid whom he’s come to love as a son and tries chasing after them, only to be downed once again by Gideon’s missiles and cord wire.

The three Praetorians quickly cut down the IG-12, and Grogu has to jump out of the machine and escape the repeated hacks and slashes with the electro-bisentos and scythes, but it’s impossible for the kid to go after three of the guards alone. Back in the large room, Gideon repeatedly strikes Mando until he crawls away from the enemy when Bo-Katan meteors into Gideon, throwing him away. She asks Mando to go after his kid, promising that she’ll handle her old foe. As Bo-Katan launches herself at Gideon with the Darksaber, he brings out a two-sided electro-bisento, and the two begin crossing blades. Elsewhere, the Praetorian Guards have Grogu trapped and are going in for the final blow when Mando arrives and begins blasting at the red soldiers. The dad and son work together, and despite many hits, they jointly bring down the elite guards, with Grogu using the Force to sweep away the bisentos while Mando shoots them in the vulnerable areas with his blaster.


The Final Clash

However, things aren’t looking great for Bo-Katan as she’s repeatedly thrown down, and in her final attempt to hack at Gideon with the Darksaber, he brings her down to one knee, crushes the saber, and takes her helmet off. Woves informs every Mandalorian that he’s about to make the capital ship collide with the base to take it out and demands everyone vacate the area immediately. As Gideon approaches Bo-Katan to finish her off, she says, “Mandalorians are stronger together,” as Din Djarin runs in, blasting at the antagonist. Woves escapes from the crashing ship, as does every other Mandalorian, save Din, Bo-Katan, and Grogu, who are busy fighting Gideon. Grogu uses the Force to throw the two-headed bisento down a crevice as the ship comes crashing down, setting fire to everything. Gideon is shown to be burned in the ship’s fire, but what happens to the heroes? As it turns out, Grogu saved them all by using the Force to create a shield, protecting them from the raging fire until it blew out. Once the fire is out, Grogu undoes the shield and then plops down on the floor, drained.


Reclaiming Mandalore 

Later, the Armorer dips a vessel into the Living Waters to anoint Paz Vizsla’s son, Ragnar, into the Creed as he repeats the Words of the Way. Mando brings in Grogu and places him on the steps of the Waters and asks the armorer to “add him to the song,” but she argues he’s far too young to speak the Creed. Mando asks if his parents can vouch for him to be added as an apprentice and be promoted from Foundling, but the issue remains that Grogu’s parents are unknown. Din Djarin then does what we’ve waited for for three seasons now and says that he’s willing to adopt Grogu as his son! He’s finally admitted that Grogu is like his child, and the child is added to the song as a Mandalorian apprentice, and the Armorer names him Din Grogu. She then asks Din to take his child to the outer world on missions to train him in the Ways of the Creed, just like Din had been taken as a child. When Grogu touches the Living Waters, he feels them pulsating as, deep into the depths; the Mythosaur briefly opens its eyes. It’s the same sigil of the Mythosaur that’s chosen as Mandalore’s banner as Bo-Katan approaches the Great Forge and lights it once again, demonstrating the start of a new era for the planet of the Mandalorians. Axe Woves cheers “for Mandalore,” and every other resident shouts in unison in support of their new leader. Bo-Katan has heralded a new age for the planet.


Father And Son

The Dins—Grogu and Djarin—head to a planet where the Captain Carson Teva of the Adelphi base and the rest of the New Republic officers have their stronghold. Teva thanks Mando for taking Gideon out of the picture, while Grogu begins munching on the crackers at the bar while staring at the head of an assassin droid, which starkly reminds him of the IG-12. Mando asks to be recruited as a bounty hunter on a case-by-case basis, aka an independent contractor, and informs Teva that Mando needs to be careful in choosing tasks because he has Grogu with him now. It’s going to be an off-the-books arrangement, and Mando knows that Teva has already made up his mind. He also asks for the head of the assassin droid for parts.

In Nevarro, Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) generously thanks Mando for ridding the galaxy of the threat of Moff Gideon and awards him a small cabin outside the city for him and his kid to relax in when they’ve got free time between their journeys. Mando says he has a gift for Karga as well, and the Anzellans reveal the assassin droid, which introduces itself as the IG-11 and the new Marshal of Nevarro. It offers itself to serve the people of Nevarro as the citizens begin applauding and are joined by Karga.


What Happens To Mando And Grogu In The End?

Later, while sitting at his cabin, Mando watches Grogu use the Force to make a frog float in the air and then drop it into the water as Season 3 comes to an end. This is probably the first time Mando and Grogu have had a happy ending at the end of a season, and it’s a far better situation compared to the ending of Season 2, where Grogu was taken away by Luke Skywalker. The scene gives a very “Avengers: Infinity War”-like feel, where Thanos sat down outside his humble home after wiping out half of earth’s population, but only this time, it’s on a much happier note, as a father and son have been united, the evil has been thwarted, and Mando is finally able to enjoy some much-needed rest.


Indrayudh Talukdar
Indrayudh Talukdar
Indrayudh has a master's degree in English literature from Calcutta University and a passion for all things in cinema. He loves writing about the finer aspects of cinema, although he is also an equally big fan of webseries and anime. In his free time, Indrayudh loves playing video games and reading classic novels.


 

 

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