Review Text
When Pirate Swamp Thing (the worst pirate design in the history of pirates) and his band of lawless bandits open fire from the air upon Nevarro and then invade it, Greef Karga makes an urgent plea to the New Republic to send a patrol to restore order. The message is received by Captain Carson Teva (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee), the X-wing officer who saved Mando from certain spider death back in "The Passenger." Teva returns to Coruscant to report the situation and ask the New Republic to intervene. Notable is how slowly this message seems to be relayed given how urgent the situation is on Nevarro. A city is being laid to waste, and this guy has to walk casually through office cubicles and file a report in person.
The New Republic does not intervene. Colonel Tuttle (Tim Meadows) — who also happens to have Elia Kane working in his office (take note) — says Nevarro is not a member world, and there's already a backlog of requests for resources on member worlds. Teva, sensing sinister Empire interference and wanting to do something to help, takes Karga's plea to Mando, whom he tracks to the Mandalorian hideout through Mando's Republic-issued droid, hoping Mando will intervene to save his friend. (Pretty big lapse in security protocols with that droid, Mando!)
As in "The Convert," the slow, overburdened bureaucracy of the New Republic and the rampant lawlessness in the Outer Rim already seem to be a recipe for the Empire's gradual resurgence. If one of the things The Mandalorian does is document how the First Order rose from the ashes of the Empire (something never adequately explained in the sequel trilogy), I'll consider that a worthy storytelling gap filled. There's a place for slow-burn serialized background plot on this show, and an episode like this is a good way to do it.
"The Pirate" is all the better because it actually advances the New Republic story, as well as the Mandalorians' story, rather than spinning its wheels as last week painfully did. Din Djarin makes a case to his fellow Mandalorians to intervene (Karga has already offered them a permanent home — above ground! — on Nevarro for Mando's role in repelling Moff Gideon), and he's joined by Paz Vizsla, who plays the "WE ARE MANDALORIANS!" card. And it's about time. What else are they going to do? Hide in these caves for the next 10 years?
What ensues is an epic battle by air and ground to take down the pirates and take back the city. It's rousing, well-motivated, and expertly crafted. This is action I can get behind, because it has real stakes and makes logical sense (as opposed to last week when the Mandalorians camped at the base of a mountain overnight while the child they were supposed to be rescuing could easily have been eaten during that time, but for plot reasons wasn't). The Mandalorians are successful, of course, but it's a grueling, sustained effort — and, more importantly, it moves their cause forward.
In the closing scenes, the Armorer talks of the Great Forge of Mandalore, the legend of the Mythosaur, and the apparent significance of Bo-Katan having seen it. She declares Bo-Katan the One who can unite the Mandalorian people and retake Mandalore, and allows her to remove her helmet so she can "walk in both worlds" — I suppose those worlds being the ones who walk the Way and the ones who don't. Absent from all this is the Darksaber, which was previously so important but has gone undiscussed for several episodes. The Armorer's cryptic doublespeak and all the nonsense with the Creed and the helmets is still arbitrary and more silly than convincing (the whole Mandalorian culture is still really amorphous and ill-defined), but this is a step in the right direction toward something new, so I'm all for it.
In an ominous final scene, Teva finds the remains of the shuttle on which Moff Gideon was being transported to stand trial. Gideon was busted out, the crew was killed, and there are beskar shards among the remains, indicating Gideon was taken by Mandalorians. As the Dude would say, that's f***ing interesting, man.
This might be the best episode of the season so far. It does the Mando thing, and it does these other New Republic things, and it puts them together in a single package where it all seems to fit and advance the narratives.
Previous episode: Chapter 20: The Foundling
Next episode: Chapter 22: Guns for Hire
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39 comments on this post
MercerCreate
While the script still has a "tell dint show" approach, wherein people are just telling us what we can already see, at least the story is finally sorta getting somewhere.
JohnTY
This is seriously just a kid's show now.
No edge, no sense of danger and totally predictable.
Dave Filoni is involved in a lot of the animated stuff I believe.
MercerCreate
While this might be the best episode of the season, it’s not saying much. I mean, at least Greef Karga doesn’t have his cape droids this episode.. No explanation given. His town, which this season is now Disney World, has been bombed by pirates. Why now? Why not earlier or later? What do the pirates gain by destroying Navarro-Land at Disney? Why does Greef seem completely unprepared for this? Why is his dialogue so awful in this episode? Why is it that this episode the normally reliable Carl Weathers decides to give worst, most overwrought performance? And we see this getting back to Coruscant.. But we are talking about like 30 people that were left without a town. What a change from Andor where Ferrix felt like a real place. Oh and I don’t remember R5-D4 working for the Republic, but, ok. And Pav Vizla Blueberry gives an impassioned speech that is exactly what you’d expect it to be.. He starts out like the jerk he is but in the end agrees with the new mission. These are not characters, these are plot devices. The action was ok, but it has all the guts of a Thundercats cartoon. I expected Din to summon the other Mandalorians with the Darksaber of Omens. The show has lost all of its grit and feels like a cartoon
Artymiss
Poor. :(
Yes the plot strands have finally advanced but it seemed so clunky and quite poorly scripted. And just unintentionally comical in places - the citizens of Navarro about the population of a village. Grogu just inserted cynically for viewers to coo over. The pirate like something out of a kid's cartoon. And too many 'Easter eggs'! The focus needs to have been more on producing a sharp script not ooo I know let's insert x into this scene here, fans will love it!
Something has gone on behind the scenes here surely to make this such a contrast to seasons 1 and 2 in terms of tone and content? (plus the earlier insertion of Mando and Grogu into the Boba Fett series so that it turned into basically 3 additional episodes of The Mandalorian - what was that doing there? Why weren't they the opening episodes of season 3?)
Mando is now a part player in what was his own show and it seems like Bo Katan is now going to be The Mandalorian. Perhaps that's because Pascal has other work he wants to get on with.
Mike Lindell
Another good episode. This show is outdoing itself with the amount of locations shown and worldbuilding being done these days. Also the forward plot progression seems to advance more rapidly, which is nice.
Rob Parry
All the special effects and all that money and acting talent..... and it was boring. No stakes and a plot you could write on a napkin
AMA
Echo the sentiments of others, though would suggest that comparing the episode to a cartoon, at least some from the same franchise, is not fair to the animated works: The Bad Batch and Rebels have both offered more compelling and dramatic offerings than this. Relatedly, the highlight of the episode for me came in seeing the return of Zeb, from Rebels.
In short, the pirates were underwhelming; the town was reduced to a few dozen extras; the New Republic lacks substance; and (although intrigued by the potential politics of various sects) the Mandalorians, due to their stoic nature, are fairly drab.
This series has really fallen off. It would be difficult to match some of the highs of the first two seasons, but this one is struggling to even meet the lows thereof. Incredibly unfortunate.
Derek
I guess I'll repeat my overall thoughts from the last few episodes since nothing really changed this week. Great action, great music...and basically meaningless. The hodgepodge of stories coming together just feel off...we've got the pirates, Coruscant sort of, the former Rebel pilot guy, the Mandos just kind of hanging out in a cave by a monster lake, and the boring cliffhanger that's been telegraphed for weeks about Gideon, etc. For a show that only does 8 episodes per season and you're lucky if they're barely 40 minutes long, each individual episode really needs to hit home and they're just not doing it this year.
Also it's yet another S3 episode where there's no reason for Grogu to be hanging around. Broken Record Thoughts, why oh why did they reset the Mando/Grogu story on a different show. I just can't get over it, lol.
However:
"He shot first." Great line, I laughed.
"He's above you!"
...
"He's below you!" Pretty good lines, I laughed again.
2.5 stars, I guess. I miss the wild fun of S1 and S2 but I think those days are long gone.
Episodenull
That was substantially better than the prior episodes this season. I wouldn't say it was near the best this series has to offer, but it was engaging, with clear goals and motivations for all the characters, and some actual development of the (stupid) Mando cult ideology.
If only wed gotten this episode at the start of the season instead of near the end.
Yanks
While I still enjoy watching this show, I think it's suffering the same fate as 'Stranger Things'
The charm of the earlier seasons has disappeared. Not much Grogu at all anymore. In 'Stranger Things' it just wasn't the same when the kids grew up.
Still tuning in.... this was probably a 2.5 star episode at best.
I was surprised at the Armor's request to Bo-Katan at the end. I thought she was testing her when she asked her to remove her helmet.
They also have taken the edge off the muscial theme. Why they think they need to change things like this is beyond me.
Yanks
Oh, and just how hard can it be to "retake" Mandalore? It's abandoned.
Gilligan’s Starship
I’m not sure what the focus of this season is…there’s only 3 episodes left.
Bo-Katan reuniting Mandalore? To what end? They never show up in the sequel films, soooo….they become isolationists?
Perhaps this is the final season, it seems to have run out of steam. We know Moff Gideon will have to show up, the Dark Saber has yet to be addressed, and there must’ve been a reason for the ep with Dr. Pershing. Maybe it’s going to tie in to the Ashoka or Skeleton Crew series. 🤔
Artymiss
@Gilligan's Starship
Favreau says he has already written season 4 (but if it's anything like season 3 has been so far I can't say I'm all that excited... ) I can't see Disney dropping Grogu any time soon, too much money to be made out of the little guy.
https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/the-mandalorian-season-4-written-ahsoka-1235531752/
Ubik
As baffling as the sudden rise in quality of Picard: Season 3 is, the sudden drop in quality of Mandalorian: Season 3 is equally baffling. It's like the writers suddenly hit a brick wall.
The first two seasons had a strong and obvious focus - what kind of man was Mando? It was about Mando transforming from a single-minded bounty hunter into a more complex man willing to sacrifice almost everything to protect his new pseudo-child.
But that arc ended. And now there appears to be literally no new story to tell. Now they're trying a shift in genre. The first two seasons were clearly a Western, with the Man With No Name learning to love and protect a child, but now the genre has switched to something more basically and generically Star Wars-y, and we are realizing the foundations have not been built to sustain that kind of story. World building is haphazard, and yet we are supposed to care about the politics of the galaxy?
Worst of all, we know next to nothing about the values of the Mandalorians. They keep saying, "This is the Way," as if a certain Way has been described for us, but other than keeping your face hidden, I have no idea what these people stand for. Originally, I thought they were bounty hunters, but now they seem content to hide around in a cave learning Samurai moves. Why do they exist? What are their goals? What are their values? When Mando asks them to help protect the city, I have no idea if this request aligns with their values or deviates from their values, and so I have no idea what is at stake in the request. It matters to me not at all what their answer is, because it makes no difference to anything.
The whole thing is just so sloppy, so empty, so disjointed. Even the action scenes are boring now, because there are no stakes for Mando in any of them. The thing is just dead on arrival, and again, I am intensely and singularly baffled.
Booming
@Artymiss
"Favreau says he has already written season 4"
The script for entire season is just one word
AWESOME!!!
Artymiss
@Ubik
I share your bafflement. I've been reading a few recent interviews with Favreau who says he wants current and upcoming Star Wars stuff to be like the Marvel universe. I'm not all that familiar with Marvel but Favreau has said he wants all Star Wars shows to feed off each other and not be standalone, with crossover of characters and storylines. This could be why The Mandalorian has so badly lost focus - instead of focusing on itself as it did in seasons 1 and 2 it's got too much interest in what might be going on in other shows, setting stuff up with storylines running over various shows. We saw this with Boba Fett which suddenly turned into The Mandalorian.
Jason R.
I can't remember the last time I saw such a precipitous decline in a series' quality. 100% agree that this is Saturday morning kids stuff. And I am talking about the execution here as much as the concept.
*Spoilers*
This kind of episode can be done well but it requires a really loathsome, charismatic, absolute scummy villain. There's an episode of Firefly involving a siege of a whorehouse that is so much better in this regard cause the villain just has it coming and you soooo want him dead by the end. In this episode the Pirate King is just a joke of a character who we barely know and barely care about attacking a town for no good reason just to be a dick. You can't hate him because you don't even understand why he is doing what he is doing in the first place.
Meanwhile, the action just falls flat. There is just no tension in this episode because we just don't know anything about the strength of these pirates or what they are really capable of. All we know is that they're probably no match for the Mandalorian coven and yup - they aren't.
Compare this with the last battle in the Book of Boba Fett. Not a great series overall, but the battle creates real tension by introducing some really powerful obstacles for the heroes in the Scorpinex Droids. And then you have Cad Bane who adds an additional layer of menace and a good one on one fight for the hero. That battle has real stakes and you are on the edge of your seat. Same deal for Mandalorian's season 2 finale with the fearsome dark troopers.
Here the tension is zero because the pirates are little more than canon fodder. They're barely more threatening than Skeletor's henchmen.
And yes, I agree with others that at this moment the Creed has become a joke. When the Armorer demanded whatshername to take her helmet off all I could think was: What.The.Fuck. Seriously?
TheSisko
@JohnTY
Animated ≠ Kids show.
Not to mention, the animated stuff he was involved with was much better than this
Bucktown
@Derek,
"Thoughts, why oh why did they reset the Mando/Grogu story on a different show. I just can't get over it, lol."
My insider gossip is that Jon Favreau was legitimately retiring Grogu with his sendoff with Luke at the end of season 2, and season 3 was going to be solo Mando bounty hunter adventures. Apparently Kathleen Kennedy is not as hands on as many think, and didn't realize this fact until it was already filmed. She was apparently beside herself angry, believing Grogu was the one and only thing people have praised about Star Wars in some time. She thought it would be financial suicide to write him off, so she mandated he be brought back immediately, which is why it's all shoe-horned in Boba Fett.
Jon Favreau then had to go back to the drawing board for his season 3 ideas, which is probably why it feels so amateur, since it was likely rushed. Also, their TV plan with Marvel is not working out so well with all the content fatigue, so they want to try it with Star Wars instead, since most of the audience aren't just tuning in to the films while skipping the shows. Star Wars now ARE the shows, while Marvel will be the movies. In order for that to work, the shows have to connect so the whole Star Wars audience keeps tuning in. Pretty bleak, cynical stuff.
Jason R.
God Kathleen Kennedy is a dunce if she's responsible for bringing back Grogu.
JohnTY
@TheSisko
True. I mean I've only seen Rebels and that felt largely targeted at kids/teens. Some of the episodes were good but I felt many were very by the numbers.
Quincy
I really don't understand why they don't have the guys that did Andor take over this? Andor kept me engaged. I binge watched the whole thing. This season of Mandalorian is so aimless and mediocre I found myself checking my phone while it was on. Jesus.
Tom
Yes, let's get the Andor writers on board. Maybe we can have more engaging scenes, like Mando eating breakfast with his mother.
dave
So Navarro is a planet with one town and about 200 residents? I have a hard time with that one to be honest.
And THIS IS THE WAY was so dogmatic that nobody could break it. And, the Armorer can just break it no problem because she said so? Yeah, her thinking was correct that to unite them they need to bring together different beliefs and factions into one; and Bo taking off her helmet helps that. But if the helmet rule was literally unchangeable then how does this one person have the power to just change it.
I am not sure if that is bad writing or they are trying to send a message that this actually is a cult and the leader just enforces rules based on her own decisions and followers suspend all critical thinking and don't ask why.
dave
@quincy
The writers of Andor could not have written this style of show. Mandalorian is pretty much intended to be a shallow action fest week after week with an adventure of the week and one small step in an over all story. Wrapped in a bow with cute baby yoda.
I agree that a lot of depth like Andor would make this a better series but I think that would completely change it's objective.
Andor and Mando just are not trying to accomplish the same thing.
dave
Sackhoff has been the standout here and I wonder if she is about to become the lead of this series going into Season 4 if there is one. Din is certainly taking a seat far at the back to her lately.
Pedro is in high demand in Hollywood now, perhaps they are not likely to get him for another full season of shooting so are transitioning?
SlackerInc
@JohnTY: "This is seriously just a kid's show now."
Yeah, I think it's mostly been that all along, but they are definitely leaning into it. Which is fine: my daughter loves it and her mom and I like watching with her.
@MercerCreate: "But we are talking about like 30 people that were left without a town."
Yeah, it's a little hard to understand why there are so many buildings for such a small population. Although I guess some of them stayed behind and are still working at the bar and so on?
How do we feel about the latex masks? It's charming in a way but also a bit weird.
@Bucktown: Wow, that's wild but it makes sense. I did think Grogu kind of derailed the show I thought we were getting (about a crusty, Wild-West-in-space bounty hunter with a heart of gold) almost immediately in season 1. It would have been interesting to see them go back to that for at least a while, since I'm not quite so captivated by "Baby Yoda's" cuteness as a lot of people are.
It's very strange though that they didn't make much effort to fill in Mando-only viewers as to what happened. I saw those episodes, but it sounds like a lot of people didn't--and they didn't even show scenes from them in the "previously on" at the beginning of the season! Weird.
@Jason R: "God Kathleen Kennedy is a dunce if she's responsible for bringing back Grogu."
I can agree that it's a bad creative choice, but I don't know how you can call her a "dunce" for it. Grogu (or "baby Yoda", ugh) became the ultimate breakout character. In the TV business, a breakout character gets featured more and/or (heh) gets their own spinoff. They don't get written out of a show, to never (or rarely) be seen again. That's just how show business works. So if a breakout character develops and it throws the balance of a show off, that's just bad luck for those of us who wanted it to stay on its original course. An executive who ditched a hugely successful breakout character for the sake of an artistic vision would be fired by the shareholders.
@Quincy: "I really don't understand why they don't have the guys that did Andor take over this?"
I don't think they want it. The basic premise is too juvenile. And unfortunately, "Andor" was far less popular than the other Star Wars shows, even "Boba Fett". I would say it's "why we can't have nice things", but we are going to get a total of 24 episodes of "Andor", so I'm counting my blessings.
@Tom: "Yes, let's get the Andor writers on board. Maybe we can have more engaging scenes, like Mando eating breakfast with his mother."
I understand you are being snarky, but to me those scenes were gold. De gustibus.
@dave: "So Navarro is a planet with one town and about 200 residents? I have a hard time with that one to be honest."
Haha, yeah. And 200 is being generous.
"But if the helmet rule was literally unchangeable then how does this one person have the power to just change it."
I really hope Din is like "Wait, so I went on this whole quest to Mandalore for nothing? WTH?"
Ubik
@slackerInc: "I really hope Din is like "Wait, so I went on this whole quest to Mandalore for nothing? WTH?""
Exactly my thought. It's an example of how haphazard the "plot progression" (and I use the term loosely) of this season has been. They made a massive deal out of Mando having to fly to a dead planet to cleanse himself in the whatever waters of death or whatnot, and now, a few days (weeks?) later, she's like, "Ah, forget it. You didn't need to go. Sorry about that."
@slackerInc: "It's very strange though that they didn't make much effort to fill in Mando-only viewers as to what happened."
This is particularly a problem since Boba Fett was largely a pretty bad show.
@slackerInc: "...since I'm not quite so captivated by "Baby Yoda's" cuteness as a lot of people are."
You are dead inside.
Gilligan’s Starship
@dave: “ But if the helmet rule was literally unchangeable then how does this one person have the power to just change it.”
Exactly. For people like myself, who watch all the animated shows as well, this is particularly frustrating because throughout the 7 seasons of Star Wars: The Clone Wars & 4 seasons of Star Wars Rebels we met plenty of Mandalorian characters such as Sabine Wren, Bo -Katan & her sister Satine Kryze, and the only time they wore helmets was in battle or when trying to hide someone’s identity. The dark saber also changed hands multiple times without any of the “rules” presented in this show. In fact, it was previously wielded by a character named Pre Vizla , voiced by Jon Favreau himself.
It would be understandable for the Mandalorian series to take a detour from the animation somewhat, but producer Dave Filoni was also the show runner on all the animated series, and is usually a stickler for those kinds of creative details to be adhered to. Il”m guessing he doesn’t have as much say-so when it comes to the live action.
Gilligan’s Starship
I’ll also add that altho the Lucasfilm animated shows are made with kids in mind, the individual episodes range from light fare, to heavy, dark drama. Favreau’s animated character that I mentioned above, met his fate via beheading at the hands of Maul, and the recent two-part season finale of Star Wars: The Bad Batch had higher stakes than any episode of Mando this season thus far.
MasterYoda
@John
Yes Filoni really flies in the face of movie canon and makes things childish and less subtle. Eg the ridiculous chips that were never in the saga nor novels.
@Ubik
It’s problem from day one is it had always been set in the Disney sequel universe thus doomed to fail from a story standpoint. Baby Yoda is be a character that would thrive in a pre ANH story - whether that is within the saga or thousands of years before. The Mandalorians too could have been a great warrior society (a bit like the Klingons) showcases in an Old Old Republic era story (from the video games).
The fact Favreau and the Disney higher ups think making Star Wars like Marvel will make it great just shows they don’t get it. Star Wars stories have always been based on a story. You never needed to refer to subsection A of comic B or novel C or tv show X to understand and enjoy movie 1. Each story was told on screen (or in a book) as effectively a self contained story meant to be enjoyed in a linear fashion. That was what George created and which various Expanded Universe book and video game writers respected.
@Quincy
Spot on. If only. I truly wish the team behind Rogue One and Andor had control of Star Wars. They both honour what George created, and have a commitment to quality - meaning writing, production, casting, cinematography, music and STORY!! Had they been given George’s sequel scripts to use I am sure they’d have done his intended sequels in his cohesive saga justice as well. The irony is that Gilroy claims he wasn’t a Star Wars fan yet he actually has made the best Star Wars since Revenge of the Sith.
Whilst those on the other end of Lucasfilm who claim their fans in the non Andor teams appear to offer nothing more than mediocrity at best. As someone mentioned above the Disney heads at Lucasfilm are lunatics. The rot started with TFA.
I only hope that the Andor team gets to make more shows or movies. That’s the only Star Wars that actually feels epic like the creator’s saga movies. I thought Liam Neeson was spot on as well that Star Wars should be about quality rather than just multiple shows for the sake of it. The irony is there are pre written stories by some superb authors like James Luceno which would make fantastic movies or streaming shows, and far better stories than this Marvel style mediocrity.
Imagine Gilroy and co. getting to make Labyrinth of Evil or Dark Lord:Rise of Darth Vader or the Plageuis Novel.
Bucktown
Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but is anyone else now interpreting this season through the lens of a right wing political analogy? We have a band of highly armed (and religiously cultish) militia members acting outside of any legal authority (who are treated as the heroes) defending what amounts to a border planet from a group of pirates (i.e. drug cartels), while also frustrated by the overworked, not extremely efficient bureaucracy of a large democracy. It almost reads as Proud Boys fan fiction.
I'm a little uneasy with this turn, given that Star Wars has traditionally offered the left-leaning politics of resistance fighters vs. fascist regimes.
JohnTY
Wow completely disagree with your review there Jammer but fair play to ya.
As I've mentioned elsewhere, this sentiment -
"If one of the things The Mandalorian does is document how the First Order rose from the ashes of the Empire (something never adequately explained in the sequel trilogy), I'll consider that a worthy storytelling gap filled." - is a MAJOR con for me.
Jason R.
"What ensues is an epic battle by air and ground to take down the pirates and take back the city. It's rousing, well-motivated, and expertly crafted."
Boy oh boy, I can't remember the last time I disagreed with Jammer on this kind of thing more strongly.
I mean I already set out my reasons above in greater detail but I felt nothing during this battle because 1) It seemed a foregone conclusion that the Mandalorians were going to make mincemeat of the clownish pirates; 2) I didn't have any sense of an overarching strategy or objective beyond just mowing down the pirates with brute force and a minor (and obvious) diversion at the outset; and 3) There was no sense that the Mandalorians were in any real danger thanks to their Beskar plot armor.
This episode was a Saturday morning cartoon, pretty much.
JohnTY
@JasonR
Agree completely.
Walding
@Bucktown: Star Wars could always be interpreted as telling "your" story if you just applied your own "lenses" correctly. The entire creation of the empire in Episodes 1-3 can be read as a right-wing story of a secret society conspiracy to abolish democracy the same way it can be read as a left-wing story.
You can see this episode as the right-wing story of a militia having to defend the border town because the bureaucy of the large democracy doesn't do its job. Or you can remember that Navarro deliberately stayed outside the New Republics jurisdiction because it didn't want to "bow to another far off bureaucracy" (also a sentiment favored by the right wing) and now has to pay the price of standing alone. That could the left-wing story of the right-wing guys wanting the state to stay away in the good times but screaming for its help when the bad times come. Or the story how Brexit turned out for Britain (of course depending on your point of view).
Leif
@JAMMER Can you please explain the significance of that clip of the actor saying fucking interesting ..if it has nothing to do with Star Wars that I can tell
MercerCreate
@leif just a joke.. a reference to a movie
Rahul
Good overall but for the pirates as antagonists and the Mandalorian reunification plan here. The story for S3 might be starting to make a bit more sense if there is something more to the pirates as working with a nascent Empire or maybe that Coruscant is compromised combined with Moff Gideon's escape and the New Republic being effectively toothless.
The part about reuniting the Mandalorians seemed to be a sudden abandonment of tradition for me if the Armorer means that an unmasked Bo-Katan can reunite all the Mandalorians (and presumably some stick to tradition and others don't). Just because she saw the mythosaur and the Armorer takes her word for it, she's special.
I suppose there had to be a follow up to "The Apostate" with the pirates attacking Nevarro, but I was always hoping they wouldn't be the season's primary antagonists. Maybe b/c their leader is dead now, that'll be the last we hear of them.
The part with Carson trying to get help from the New Republic ties into G68 who is compromised in some way -- so there's an indirect story link to Din Djarin.
2.5 stars for "Chapter 21: The Pirate" -- for a MAND episode, this one ticked all the basic boxes and raised some interesting questions but the lengthy aerial battle and ground battle scenes were foregone conclusions + the pirates are hard to take seriously. The Coruscant parts continue to interest me most with S3.
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