The Mandalorian Season 3 Episodes Ranked

The Mandalorian Season 3 Episodes Ranked 

The third season of The Mandalorian has come to an end. That means we now have 8 new episodes to rank and talk about. Let’s get started!

8. Chapter 22: Guns for Hire (Episode 6): An episode that from the very beginning I wasn’t a big fan of. Where it starts off with Bo Katan’s old friends taking a prince back to his home, but they are breaking up a romance between a captain and this prince. The dialogue and the way it’s done is really distracting and not really good. From there it goes into this side quest episode that ends with a great scene. Where the episode ends with Bo Katan getting The Darksaber and becoming the ruler of Mandalore, that is a great moment. That is a moment in which you should feel a lot greater emotions than you actually do. But the entire middle of this episode is this predictable side quest where it doesn’t tie into the plot for season 3 as a whole. And is just filled with stunt casting left, right, and center. So Mando and Bo Katan go to this planet that is very clean and kind of weird. The two rulers of this world…Lizzo and Jack Black. A duo that I never thought I would see together, but here we go. And then the general of the episode who is also the villain of the episode is Christopher Lloyd, it’s great to see him in here. But it feels like they got Lizzo, Jack Black, and Christopher Lloyd for the sake of having big name guest stars in the episode. It feels like they knew they had a weak episode and decided to cast a bunch of big name stars to make it more interesting. So an episode that had ideas and moments that were great, but an overall story that really didn’t work for me. 

7. Chapter 18: The Mines of Mandalore (Episode 2): Now given what happens in this episode with Mando returning to Mandalore, this episode should have had more emotional weight then it actually had. But this episode just sort of feels like a very generic episode of the show, it feels like typical Mandalorian stuff but not quite as fun as other episodes. Now I did think the episode got better as it went along the opening with Peli Motto feels out of place with the rest of the episode. And then the stuff with Bo Katan, Mando, and Grogu towards the end of the episode I thought kind of worked. But it still didn’t have the emotional emph that I think the episode needed to have. And then even the setting of being in the mines makes everything very dark. So at points it’s hard to see what is happening in the action scenes or just scenes of people talking. This episode isn’t bad by any means, it’s just sort of ok for me. But it is one of the weaker episodes of both the season and the show for me. 

6. Chapter 19: The Convert (Episode 3): This is an interesting episode inside of this show. Because the episode feels much more like an episode of Andor than it does of The Mandalorian. This episode focuses a lot more on politics and The Empire, and not really on Mando. Mando and Bo Katan basically book end the episode, they are barely in the episode. And the episode does focus on Moff Gideon's scientist buddy, which I thought was interesting. The place where they left his character at the end of the episode is very interesting. And it’s interesting to see a part of the Empire post Return of the Jedi. I don’t know if the scientist guy was the right guy to tell this story with. But it was interesting to say the least, it was fascinating enough to me that I do like this episode. I totally understand if people have this at the bottom of their episode rankings, I don’t agree with that but I can see their point. This episode feels like the black sheep of The Mandalorian. And now that we’ve seen the entire season, I feel that the events of this episode feel pointless and meaningless. I was expecting for the scientist guy to come back into play in the final two episodes, but that didn’t happen. So that’s another level of frustration with this episode. 

5. Chapter 17: The Apostate (Episode 1): A solid and fun start to the season that did neither great nor bad. This is an episode that is just sort of there for me, nothing about it I loved or hated. On the positive this episode delivered everything that I want from an episode of this show. It has some fun Mandalorian type action and some fun Grogu moments all along the way. And after over 2 years of no new episodes of The Mandalorian, it’s fun to be back in this world and with these characters. I also thought it did a solid job of setting up the plot lines of the season, it establishes where Bo Katan and Mando are at in life. There’s some obvious tension between the two of them after the events of season 2’s finale. But this episode is just sort of there, it’s just a good enough episode of the show. And that’s sort of frustrating since we waited TWO years for new Mandalorian episodes, and this episode is just good enough. 

4. Chapter 24: The Return (Episode 8): Now this episode is like all action with a very thin storyline tying it together. Now this episode delivers a bunch of great action, each action gets better and better. They do pay some tribute to The Phantom Menace with the hallway fight with Mando and the guards. You get Grogu joining in on the action here and it’s great, I love seeing Grogu using the force. You get the showdown where Mando and Bo Katan fight Moff Gideon, another really cool action sequence that is lots of fun to watch. And then it does close out season 3 nicely, I thought the episode did a great job of closing out the storyline for season 3 while setting up season 4 and other spin-offs. Now where this episode kind of falls flat is that it is very straightforward and very thin. The plot here is very thin and the action is just strung together by this very thin story going on here. I’m not saying I need this to be a super complex plot, the show has always been very straight forward. Other things, I wish the episode had more stakes. I wish one of our heroes died, added some emotional weight. But they didn’t, that’s disappointing but it’s whatever. 

3. Chapter 23: The Spies (Episode 7): Now I know this is an episode that it seemed like a bunch of people had in that top spot on the list. And while I think this episode is very good, I don’t think it’s good. And this episode feels like what the entire season should have been, if the entire season had this type of pacing, action and plot then it would have been so good. Finally, Moff Gideon returns to the show. I’m not entirely sure why he wasn’t in earlier episodes of season 3, but he wasn’t. He’s finally in the show and it’s great to see him again, it’s great to see where he is after the events of season 2. And then the final 10-15 minutes of the episode is this sequence where Mando and friends break into Moff Gideon’s base, and it’s a great sequence. You get some heroic sacrifices in there and just cool Mandalorian action in there. Now what I think holds it back is I wish that this episode was earlier in the season, I wish this episode wasn’t the second to last episode of the season. The ideas and plot line established in this episode should have been the threat for season 3, but it wasn’t. So that’s kind of frustrating in my mind, but in general a very good episode inside of season 3.

2. Chapter 20: The Foundling (Episode 4): After a couple of weaker episodes with episodes 2 and 3, I thought this episode was a solid episode that is one of the stronger episodes of the season. Where we get two main plot lines taking place here, both are interesting. First up, we get Grogu getting his Mandalorian acceptance ceremony from The Armorer. And from that we get a great sequence where we see Grogu’s escape from Order 66. The Jedi isn’t a super well known one and that’s ok. I’m glad it wasn’t somebody like Kit Fisto or Plo Koon. But the actor is Ahmed Best who is Jar Jar Binks. So it’s fun to see the actor return for this role. And that sequence is pretty great, it’s one of the best sequences of the season for me. I like what it did, it’s nice to view Order 66 from a different perspective. Another plot line is Mandalorian and Bo Katan helping other Mandalorians rescue a child. You get some great action with that, and it’s just a fun simple plot line to throw in here. From that we do get Bo Katan gaining the trust of The Armorer which is important. So this episode did have a lot to offer, making it one of the better episodes of season 3 for me. 

1. Chapter 21: The Pirate (Episode 5): Now this is an episode where I feel like is a great example of what season 3 should have been. This episode feels like the great episodes from seasons 1 and 2. Where you get lots of action in here, there’s like this 10 minute long ship chase and gun fight in Navarro. It’s fun to see all of these Mandalorians taking out these space pirates, and it’s stuff that I feel like was missing in season 3. In episode 1 and 4 we get a little bit of action with Mando and his buddies. But episodes 2 and 3 are kind of devoted to Mandalorian action. It’s also an episode that feels like this set up some very interesting mysteries and twists for the show. Where we have our pilot character who we followed for the first third of the episode finds the transport ship used for Moff Gideon. Moff Gideon isn’t there and appears to escape and looks at some of the material used for Mandalorian armor. That’s an interesting direction to take season 3 that adds some conflict. Having Bo Katan being more accepted into Mandalore where now they give her own little side quest. It had action and story in here and it balanced both of them very well. So this is an episode that I really dug and I wish more episodes were like this one.