Mandalorian season-three spoilers follow – including episode seven and its ending.
Those complaining about The Mandalorian season three dropping the ball have been bombed like Mandalore, as April 12's 'Chapter 23: The Spies' delivered a Star Wars outing for the ages.
As well as ties to the Rosario Dawson-led Ahsoka, there was a tease of how "somehow, Palpatine returned," and a shock death. All in all, director Rick Famuyiwa put the pieces in place for a truly grand finale.
'The Spies' revealed that Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) was sprung from his New Republic escort by a group of Beskar-wearing Stormtroopers – adding a new class of trooper to canon. If that wasn't cool enough, Gideon has landed himself an upgrade, with a revamped version of season two's Dark Trooper giving him some Darth Vader-esque armour. Gideon is going full Mando and even has a gnarly helmet adorned with horns.
As the reunited clans of Mandalorians set their sights on reclaiming their home planet under the rule of Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) and her reclaimed Darksaber, there was a heartbreaking reveal of what went down during the Night of a Thousand Tears.
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Bo-Katan tried to broker a surrender with the Imperial Security Bureau (a nod back to Andor) and handed the Darksaber to Gideon to save her people. Instead she was betrayed, the Purge of Mandalore went ahead, and survivors like the Armorer fled across the galaxy. Mandalore isn't as "cursed" as we were told, and it turns out Gideon has set up a new base of operations in the Great Forge.
Gideon holds the Star Wars equivalent of a Zoom meeting with the Shadow Council. These remnants of the Empire make their leap from Chuck Wendig's Aftermath novels, with notable members being Captain Gilad Pellaeon (played by The Walking Dead's Xander Berkeley) and Brendol Hux (Brian Gleeson).
Pellaeon is the right-hand man of Grand Admiral Thrawn, who was brought over from Legends canon for Star Wars Rebels, while Hux is the father of General Armitage Hux from the sequel trilogy (which is why he's played Domhnall Gleeson's real-life brother).
There are more ties to the sequels, as Gideon walks down a corridor of mysterious tanks, seemingly echoing the Supreme Leader Snoke tease in The Mandalorian season two. It doesn't take a genius to figure out Hux's "Project Necromancer" ties together cloning, their botched attempts with Snoke, and The Rise of Skywalker's divisive revenant Emperor Sheev Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid).
We're still decades away from all of this but, for the first time in The Mandalorian season three, we get a sense of how the Empire evolves into the First Order. The movers and shakers are all in place, and there's a potential conflict on the horizon as Gideon snarks that perhaps it's time to "move on" from the MIA Grand Admiral Thrawn.
For those wondering how a certain blue-skinned baddie fits into things, Grand Admiral Thrawn is clearly lurking in the shadows. While The Mandalorian has Gideon and The Clone Wars has Palpatine, Rebels had Thrawn. The whereabouts of the conniving Chiss is one of the franchise's big mysteries, after he was marooned by space whales at the end of Rebels.
Thrawn was name-dropped in The Mandalorian season two and, although we know Lars Mikkelsen will be reprising his role from Rebels for Ahsoka, our fingers are crossed for a post-credit stinger in The Mandalorian season-three finale.
It would also be a miss not to mention the farewell of Paz Vizsla as a Mandalorian staple (voiced by creator Jon Favreau and performed by Tait Fletcher). Again redeeming the sequels, we get the first canonical appearance of The Last Jedi's Praetorian Guards.
Although not as epic as Rey and Kylo Ren taking down Snoke's elite guards, seeing Vizsla duke it out with the red-armoured fighters will become a defining moment for the show's fandom.
Still, we're disappointed we never got to see Fav under the helmet. We'd gotten to know more about Paz this season, and with him being a descendant of Darksaber creator Tarre Vizsla, laying down his life so Bo-Katan and the rest can escape is a fitting way to go.
While all roads lead to Palpatine, we're sticking around this period of the galaxy for a bit longer. Star Wars Celebration confirmed Dave Filoni is working on a spin-off movie set in this franchise sweet spot between trilogies, with Thrawn tipped to be the big bad of the story.
If this is the case, elements of Timothy Zahn's lauded Heir to the Empire novel could finally be adapted, meaning now's a good time to start reading the Thrawn Trilogy. Who else will be along for the ride remains to be seen, but with the Ahsoka trailer bringing back the crew of the Ghost, Filoni's movie could effectively be a live-action Rebels season five – with a few more Mandalorians thrown into the mix.
The Mandalorian season three might have been a bit of a mixed-bag affair that felt like it was clawing back storylines from the canned Rangers of the New Republic at times, but as we head into the final furlong, we're back in Mando mode.
Things are looking dire for our heroes, but with Bo-Katan having escaped Gideon's clutches and a Mythosaur lurking in the waters of the Mines of Mandalore, we guess she'll be riding into action to save the day before the final credits roll.
The question is, will we end with another Luke Skywalker-level cameo, or will it just be Grogu's first words? Here's hoping the former.
The Mandalorian season 3 is streaming on Disney+, with new episodes on Wednesdays.
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Tom Chapman is a pop culture-loving writer and NCTJ-accredited Broadcast Journalist with over seven years of experience covering the small and silver screen.
Starting his career with a post at Movie Pilot in Berlin, Tom took on freelancing full-time with regular stints at Digital Spy, Screen Rant and Comic Book Resources.
These days, you can still find him covering all things Marvel and Star Wars at Digital Spy, while dipping his toe in bylines at Yahoo! and IGN.
Tom likes to think his spirit animal is a cross between Gale Weathers and Olenna Tyrell.
