The Mandalorian: The Foundling (3x04)

It's funny, I think my brain isn't used to genuine "adventure of the week" format in TV anymore. It's refreshing, for the most part!

Cons:

Bo-Katan is a perfectly fine character who I have no problem exploring more, but it does sort of feel like Din and Grogu don't have plot stuff to do other than just... hang out with the other Mandalorians, do some training, go on little rescue missions or whatever. It's Bo-Katan who has this more complicated relationship with her history and her people, who thinks she's seen something on Mandalore that might change their understanding of their past. It's got me wondering if they're setting her up for a spinoff, or what. And that's fine if they are, it's just sort of weird to think of Din and Grogu as like... settled. They've achieved their stated goals. I'm wondering what's going to happen from here.

I feel a little mean saying this, but sometimes the action on this show just leaves me feeling kind of bored and cold? There's nothing wrong with it, but my eyes just kind of glaze over as I wait for the character beats underpinning the action. This week it's all about saving a foundling, Ragnar, who has been kidnapped by a large dragon-type of creature. And this is good, I like seeing the Mandalorians team up to rescue a kid, but the actual travel and action is just kind of same-y to me. I'm sure people put a lot of hard work into it, and yet it didn't really make an impact on me.

Pros:

This is a short, simple episode, and I don't mean that as a bad thing. We get to see Din being a supportive father in this specific Mandalorian way, we get to see how Grogu's brief Jedi training has come to bear as he does a fun flip reminiscent of Yoda himself, and we see our darling little green puppet receive his first piece of Mandalorian armor all for himself. Adorable, sweet, simple.

We also get a glimpse of a flashback, of how Grogu escaped from Coruscant with the help of the Jedi as they're being attacked by the Empire during the purge. I'm not sure what this is going to mean moving forward, how much more of Grogu's past we're going to get to learn, but it does make me curious about how the larger story of this universe is connected to Grogu's specific past. Could be fun to learn more!

Gosh, I feel bad, I have even less to say about this episode than usual! I think accepting that this show is a fun diversion, an episodic little space romp, is the best way to enjoy it. This episode wasn't a particular favorite of mine for any reason, but I also didn't dislike it at all!

7.5/10