The Mandalorian Season 3 episode 7 issues a fun return to form this week! After last week’s guest star leaden cast, the show deals with the return of a threatening figure, bringing warring sections together, and how to deal with Grogru.

With the adventure back in gear, how did this week’s episode fair? Read on to discover what I thought of this week’s episode of the Mandalorian, The Spies.

That’s a Better Cold Open

Okay, that was much better!

Last week’s cold open introduced characters that didn’t matter and gave a fake-out on a threat, teased from the week before. This week, we cut to the chase and got some answers!

Agent Kane, the “reformed” Imperial officer, we all guessed still represented Team Gideon, gets approached by a probe droid, and boom! Moff Gideon is back. Kane informs him the Mandalorians have stopped his plan to subjugate the Outer Rim. He’s none too happy, but we get confirmation that he is still out there and that Agent Kane is indeed working for him.

Gideon leaves the chat to enter another group chat with other Imperials, called the Shadow Council. Here we meet some important Imperials. Captain Palleon makes his live-action debut. Palleon tells everyone that Thrawn is coming! Spoiler alert! He does show up in the next Star Wars show, Ashoka. We also meet another Imperial, Brendan Hux, which is a relative of General Armitage Hux who goes on to lead the First Order.

Gideon outmaneuvers them all to get more ships and Praetorian guards.

During the cold open, I wondered where Gideon was actually located. I thought he might be on Coruscant, hiding in plain site, but I was wrong. Although the reveal felt slightly expected, it still had a good vibe.

We Are Family

Now that we know who the bad guys are again, we turn our attention to blending the Mandalorian sects. Din Djarin’s family tribe – the ones that take their culture as a religious experience, they don’t remove their helmets, and they have rituals, and Bo-Katan’s group that is freer must come together to resettle on Mandalore. Of course, they aren’t going to see eye-to-eye on things.

As the Imperial-made ships fly into the area, they show off their might, and it’s a good fake-out. The painted Mandalorian symbols on the bottom of the ship felt like a nice touch. I wonder why Din couldn’t have given Greef a heads up that they were coming though. I bet the director chose to do this for the visual, and it felt powerful.

Once they touch down, we are treated to the obligatory meeting. The tension between them is apparent, and we know that things will go down.

There’s no great way to go about this blending. You can’t have the two sects coming together right away with no friction, but you also can’t have too much friction. Regardless, this scene setups things to come.

Things will come to ahead later in the episode between the main faces of each sect. As they war, Bo-Katan theorizes that there’s no way to break up the fight because one side of the other would be favored. Then Grogru breaks up the fight. Which is a cool character beat for him.

Grogru’s Got A New Ride

While I usually hate taking time away from the main story, I think Grogu’s side story this week worked well.

While Din adventured through the season, Greef Karga had the Anzellans finish working on IG-11. Instead of repairing the droid, they created a mech suit for Grogru. He slips inside and walks around Karga’s office. It’s such a cute and playful moment between Grogu and Din Djarin. It reminds of dealing with my son. The Anzellans have also built the Bluey Yes/No button into the machine. Grogru can now communicate with a yes or no – which doesn’t really add much. He could already shake or nod his head. It would have been nice to have more communication, but you also don’t want him to talk through a computer too much.

While Grogru and Din walk back to the encampment, Grogru pushes the buttons continuously like a child would. I waited for Din to snap, but he keeps his cool. Of course, this entire thing is a setup for something later. Grogru is becoming more independent.

Taking Back Mandalore

After a tense dinner with both tribes, Bo-Katan lays out her plans for the Mandalorian warriors to travel to their wrecked home world and clear out a way to return home. Many Mandalorian warriors step up and off they go.

They arrive on Mandalore go in search of the Great Forge but are quickly met by a sand ship carrying Mandalorians from home.

The ship looked impressive from the distance, it was a great visual, but I felt like this moment, and the ship were just plot devices. The Mandalorians knew what they would be doing once they got to the surface, and they could have taken a ship down. The Mandalorians aboard the ship were there to force Bo-Katan to admit to giving up to Moff Gideon before all of the destruction.

Bo’s revelation hits hard. It shows how much she loves her people and the lengths she would go. The speech brings the two sects together. But would it have been more impactful if the local Mandalorians hadn’t pushed her to tell. It felt weird to shoehorn three new Mandalorians to push her to admit the truth and then have all hell break loose minutes later. These newcomers might play an important part later, but I would have rather her admit the past in a different way.

Into the Caves

Things broke down a little storywise as the group sailed to the forge. I thought Din and Bo-Katan were close to the forge in episode two, but apparently not. As we sail, a giant creature I couldn’t identify crawls out of the ground, crushing the sand boat. The Mandalorians fly off, most surviving and retreating underground, which turns out to be the location of the forge. Seems contrived, but it was action-packed, so I’ll allow it.

Troopers with jet packs start to approach the Mandalorians from above. It’s Stormtroopers. And these stormtroopers can hit their targets! The Mandalorians scramble and head further underground where they run into Moff Gideon’s forces.

Gideon set up his hidden base on Mandalore. Troopers overwhelm the Mandos, and Gideon manages to separate Din from the rest. Everyone watches on as Din gets captured. Then Gideon appears in his own Mandalorian-inspired armor. His armor looks like a cross between a Mandalorian, Darth Vader, and a child’s toy. It didn’t land for me. There are already so many armor-clad characters in the series; why add more?

Din gets taken away, and Gideon taunts Bo-Katan. In reply, she cuts an escape hole in the door with the Dark Saber and attempts to lead her people to safety.

A Noble Sacrifice

Paz Vizsla lays down cover fire to aid the escaping Mandalorians and then engages with the Stormtroopers solo. The giant Mandalorian takes them all out, while his gun overheating.

Then, in another surprise, three Praetorian guards show up to take on Vizsla. The Praetorian guards are the red-clad troopers from The Last Jedi.

Vizsla dies a hero’s death at their hands, and the episode ends.

How Was The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 7?

I enjoyed The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 7. While the story does wander a bit, the action makes up for it. We got momentum on the main storyline and some great character-building on the side stories.

I do have questions, though.

Whose story is this right now? The first two seasons were Din Djarin’s. This season has veered on giving the spotlight to Bo-Katan. She has done most of the heavy lifting. But when Din gets isolated and captured, it felt like he regained the focus. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

Why title this episode The Spies? We know about the one reformed Imperial that has been acting as a spy. But that’s a singular spy. One theory I’ve seen is that the Armorer is the other spy since she took a group to space instead of journeying further into Mandalore. I question that since Gideon didn’t seem to know the Mandalorians had foiled his pirate plan a few episodes ago.

This episode had more tension and joy than the last, and I’m here for that. I can’t wait for the next one to discover what happens and who the focus is.