After meeting with the Armorer to confirm he can redeem himself, Din travels to Nevarro to bring back an old ally to aid him in his quest.
Tropes:
- Ace Pilot: The Hotrod N1 has its first real throwdown here, and Din deftly turns the fight in his favor despite the badly mismatched force sizes, exploiting his Ace Custom N1's maneuverability to do hit-and-fade attacks to thin out their numbers before flipping from being the pursued to the pursuer.
- And Call Him "George": Grogu can't resist hugging the (most definitely not amused) Anzellans.Anzellan: Not squeeze. Bad baby!
- Asteroid Mining: Greef credits asteroid mining for the rapid growth of Nevarro, both in terms of the physical size of the settlement and the economic boom from the mined resources. Din and the pirates later dogfight around one such operation, and a disabled pirate ship crashes into one of the mining structures.
- Audience Surrogate: Greef catching up with Din on why he's still with Grogu is a way for audience members who didn't watch The Book of Boba Fett to get caught up.
- Badass Bystander: The rampaging IG-11 is taken out by Greef's protocol droid dropping a bust of Greef on IG's head.
- Bait-and-Switch: The beginning of the episode is set up as if it were a Flashback to Din first receiving his helmet. The Covert is far bigger and in a different place than we saw it last — perhaps a more prosperous past —, the boy plausibly looks like a younger version of Din, and gets focused on a lot during the incident. Then Din himself flies in on his starfighter to rescue the covert from a giant gator monster.
- Blasting It Out of Their Hands: Greef shoots Vane's blaster out of his hand when they have their showdown.
- Break the Haughty: In the previous season, Bo-Katan was prideful of heritage and her beliefs that she could reclaim Mandalore and reunite her people under one banner. But after she failed to reclaim the Darksaber, her forces all abandoned her and she is left alone in her castle. This experience causes her to be embittered at Mandalorian traditions in general, seeing them as the cause for her people's inability to unite as one, to the point she mockingly tells Din to just wave the Darksaber before her former followers to get their loyalty.
- Bullying a Dragon:
- Vane can plainly see that Greef has a fully-armored Mandalorian who has no qualms about killing them, but he still chooses to antagonize Greef. He's fortunate that Greef chose to Quick Draw with him personally, as his four goons learn the hard way when Vane orders them to attack.
- Downplayed later, when the pirates attack Din in space. Six to one and with a cruiser waiting, they aren't taking any chances and it's a testament to Din's skill that he survives the encounter. Nevertheless, four of them don't survive, and Din slips their weapons lock to escape with his ship's sublight booster.
- Call-Forward: Like Babu Frik, the Anzellans are presented as expert droidsmiths.
- Came Back Wrong: Din attempts to revive IG-11, whose surviving parts had been used as a statue. But with his memory circuit broken, IG reverts to his original programming and attempts to kill Grogu.
- Clean Up the Town: Nevarro continues its journey from Wretched Hive to a peaceful, wealthy, and prosperous trading hub. By mining the nearby asteroid belt for resources, Greef has encouraged a construction boom and offers Din a nice plot of land near the hot springs. When pirates show up causing trouble, Greef personally goes to help resolve the issue. Violently, if necessary.
- Completely Unnecessary Translator: Greef keeps "translating" for the Anzellans even though most of what they say is heavily-accented, You No Take Candle Basic. Din just glares at Greef after the first few times.Anzellan: Buy new droid. This one poodoo.
Greef: He says you should get a new one. - Continuity Nod:
- Greef expresses dismay upon learning Grogu's name, much like Peli Motto did when she learned his name.
- Din is once again forced into a space not meant for regular humanoids.
- Cuteness Proximity: Grogu's reaction to the Anzellans (think teddy bear-sized monkey-gnomes) who are trying to fix IG-11, is to hug them because they're smaller than him. Needless to say, they're not too happy about this, and Din has to repeatedly tell Grogu to stop.
- Death of Personality: Din gets IG-11 operational, but he defaults to his base programming, which unfortunately is presently "terminate Grogu". Din has to find a replacement memory circuit to restore his current memories.
- Death World: Discussed; as far as the Armorer or Bo-Katan know, Mandalore was blasted into lifelessness by the Empire, but Din obtained part of a tablet fused in glass that was supposedly found by someone who walked on the planet's surface. The Armorer believes this only proves her point that the Empire glassed the planet, but Din argues that if even a small part of Mandalore survived the bombing and someone went down there to find it, then the mines may also be intact. A skeptical Bo-Katan tells him to just go and see for himself, offering him directions to the mines.Bo-Katan: That planet has been ravaged, plundered, and poisoned.
- Double-Meaning Title: The apostate refers to a person who has deserted their creed or tradition. While it's primarily referring to Din, who broke his creed by removing his helmet in the last season, it's also an appropriate word to describe Bo-Katan in the episode. In fact, Bo-Katan fits the definition far better than Din because Din is trying to redeem himself for breaking the creed (meaning he hasn't willingly abandoned it) while she completely dismisses all the Mandalorian traditions due to her failure to reclaim Mandalore.
- Entitled Bastard: As far as Vane is concerned, since Greef used some money he got from a job with Captain Gorian Shard to build his saloon, Shard's pirates can just march in and treat the place as they please, even after it's been converted into a school and Greef is offering them a drink elsewhere.
- Evil Is Petty: The pirates are willing to threaten Greef for denying them a drink in his old saloon, even though the building has long since been repurposed as a school.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: A subdued version, as Din is telling Grogu what the different functions of the starfighter's dashboard do, when one starts blinking red and alert goes off, causing him to deadpan, "And that is the enemy proximity warning..." before the pirates try to ambush him.
- Fair-Weather Friend: Bo-Katan's followers abandoned her after she failed to obtain the Darksaber; according to her, they've since set out as mercenaries, and Bo-Katan half-seriously suggests that Din lead them, snarking that all he'd have to do is wave the Darksaber around.
- Foreshadowing: Aside from his appearance in the opening recap, IG-11's statue is clearly mismatched, with the legs and right arm being bronze while the chest and left arm are faded grey and show obvious damage. This leads into Din observing that the statue is IG-11, or the parts that survived the blast at any rate.
- Funny Background Event: While High Magistrate Karga is trying to convince Din to settle permanently on Nevarro, Grogu uses the Force to make his chair spin around.
- Giant Equals Invincible: The giant gator that attacks the new covert is unfazed by anything the Mandalorians throw at it, including the same explosive charges we once saw Din bring down a TIE fighter with. Even the lasers of Din's starfighter fail to penetrate its hide, and it's only killed when he hits it with a proton torpedo, designed for use against warships.
- Good Is Not Soft: Vane's pirates claim that Greef Karga has gone soft since becoming Magistrate of Nevarro when previously he's worked with space pirates and bounty hunters. Greef proceeds to prove them very wrong in a shootout that shows he's still as fast on the trigger as he ever was.
- Gunship Rescue:
- The ceremony for a new member of the Watch covert is disrupted by a gigantic, gator-like monster that the Mandalorians can't bring down, until Din arrives in his Naboo starfighter and blasts it dead with a proton torpedo.
- This is then pulled on Din when Vane leads him to the pirate-controlled Blockade Runner, and every turret locks onto him. Fortunately, Din's sublight booster catches them off-guard and they miss.
- Hollywood Tactics: In the opening scene, the Watch covert is attacked by a large aquatic monster. Despite literally all of them having ranged weapons and half of them having jetpacks, most of the covert holds their ground within swinging range of the creature's mouth and legs instead of backing up or taking to the air, until explicitly ordered to do the latter. This leads to many of them getting thrashed by the creature, and an especially unlucky few get eaten.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: When Din meets with Bo-Katan, her previous bravado has been replaced by depression as she sullenly slouches on a throne, having been abandoned by her allies after her failure to retrieve the Darksaber from Moff Gideon.
- Impossible Task: The Armorer gave Din his task believing it to be impossible, but Din brings her proof that it might at least be possible, which is enough for her to concede that he can come back as long as he can prove he fulfilled the task. Bo-Katan is even kind enough (though it's more from bitterness) to tell him exactly where the mines are.
- Insistent Terminology: Greef isn't the Magistrate; he's the High Magistrate, thank you very much.
- It Is Beyond Saving: Bo-Katan now holds this mindset, though it's implied she's just bitter after losing her army, rather than making a rational assessment. Din even calls her out for it.Bo-Katan: Go home. There's nothing left.
- Keep Away: Din does this with Grogu, chucking him to Greef so IG-11 will switch targets and give him more time to stop IG-11 before he can do any harm. Fortunately, Greef's assistant droid is clever enough to drop a heavy metal bust of Greef's head on IG-11's head before he can crawl over to Greef.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: High Magistrate Karga may wear a fine robe, a train with attendants to keep it from dragging, and a gold chain of office, but he still carries a blaster and is more than capable of using it.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Greef isn't too keen on learning Grogu's actual name, which, much like Peli's reaction in The Book of Boba Fett, is surely a wink at audience members who still prefer to call him "Baby Yoda", which he was called almost universally by the audience despite being given the title "the Child" until his name was revealed.
- Made of Indestructium: IG-11's upper body is revealed to have survived the detonation of a Self-Destruct Mechanism located in his upper body, which was shown to have wiped out a whole platoon of stormtroopers. It takes just a few repairs to return to near-working order, and even with half-melted armor continues to shrug off blaster bolts like nothing.
- Madness Mantra: IG-11 repeats his lines from Chapter 1 when he briefly reactivates and tries to kill Grogu.IG-11: Subparagraph-paragraph 16-16 of the Bondsmen Guild protocol waiver-immediately produce said asset-asset to be terminated-terminate asset-terminate asset-terminate asset...
- Moral Myopia: Vane describes Din as having gunned down his cohorts "in cold blood", conveniently ignoring that the pirates drew first, started the argument in the first place, and were ready to shoot Greef for something as petty as wanting to have a drink in his office instead of the former saloon.
- Mundane Utility: Grogu once again uses the infinite power of the Force to... spin in Greef's chair and take some candy from his desk.
- Mythology Gag: Grogu witnesses a pod of purgill while traveling through hyperspace.
- Never My Fault: Once again, Bo-Katan claims that the different Mandalorian factions, and by extension Death Watch, fractured the Mandalorian people and left them vulnerable to the Empire, conveniently leaving out that she was Death Watch's second-in-command and helped them do that before growing a conscience once Satine was killed and splintering off with her Nite Owls.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: The Foundling ceremony is interrupted by a gigantic, gator-like monster that pops out of the water looking for a meal. It even engages in the real-world "crocodile death roll" move.
- Oh, Crap!: Din tries to give Grogu a lesson on space navigation, only for the radar to blink red just as Din gets to it, meaning someone wants them dead.
- Orphaned Etymology: "Trinitite" actually is a real mineral
, and it really does form in the aftermath of atomic bombardment. In real life, however, its name is a reference to "Trinity", the official codename of the US Military's first atomic bomb test undertaken as part of the Manhattan Project (the name specifically refers to radioactive glass residue formed in the deserts of Alamogordo, New Mexico by the heat of the bombs' detonation). Since the Manhattan Project obviously didn't happen in the Star Wars universe, it's unclear where the name comes from. - Our Founder: Greef had a statue of IG-11 built to honor his sacrifice. It's built out of IG-11 for added authenticity, at least the parts of him that survived the blast.
- Pet the Dog:
- The Armorer seems skeptical that Din can actually fulfill his Impossible Task, but she seemingly goes along with it because Din is caring for Grogu, as she turns her head to the child before agreeing with his proposal.
- Din Djarin isn't as hard on droids as he used to be, but it's still touching how insistent he is on fixing IG-11 because it's his friend and he trusts no-one else to have his back on Mandalore.
- Though she's in a slump after losing the Darksaber and complains about his sect abandoning the cause, Bo-Katan nevertheless directs Din to the mines of Mandalore so he can complete his quest.
- Put on a Bus:
- When Din asks after Cara, Greef tells him she was recruited to New Republic Special Forces and is no longer the marshal for Nevarro. Likewise, Gideon was sent to a New Republic War Tribunal for his crimes.
- Koska Reeves is also absent, with Bo-Katan saying that her forces abandoned her after she failed to claim the Darksaber from Gideon. Axes Wolves, another member of her group, is absent as well, though he was already absent when Bo-Katan last appeared in "The Rescue".
- Quick Draw: Greef and Vane draw on each other. Greef is faster, shooting Vane's blaster out of his hand before he can fire. Then, when Vane's men try to draw their own weapons, Din draws his own gun first and he and Greef gun them down.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Although she's skeptical about whether or not it can be done at all, the Armorer tells Din that he will be redeemed if he truly does manage to bathe in the living waters of the Mandalorian mines.
- Reclining Reigner: Bo-Katan slouches on her throne, depressed over losing the Darksaber and her followers. Played with, in that her slump seems more resigned than powerful.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: IG-11's sensors change from white to red when he reverts to his original bounty hunter programming and tries to attack Grogu.
- Shout-Out: IG-11 reduced to a head, torso and arm but still attempting to kill his assigned target, even if it means dragging himself across the floor, is reminiscent of the climax of The Terminator where the similarly damaged T-800 kept pursuing Sarah Connor. He even shouts "terminate" over and over. They threw in a touch of Stylistic Suck by making it look a bit like stop-motion from that movie.
- Spare a Messenger: Din and Greef kill all the pirates except Vane, who Greef allows to return to Pirate King Gorian Shard as a warning that Nevarro is now off-limits to pirates.
- Stealthy Colossus: For a monster comparable in size to a passenger jet, the alien gator manages to sneak up on the ceremony and no-one notices until moments before it leaps out of the water.
- Swivel-Chair Antics: Grogu entertains himself by using the Force to spin Greef's chair around while sitting in it.
- Symbolic Baptism: Mandalorians practice something that is clearly heavily inspired by baptism, albeit with a couple details changed.
- The opening scene depicts a Mandalorian initiation ceremony where the initiate stands in a body of water and someone pours water on him.
- Din is setting out to do a second baptism for himself. He's trying to wash himself clean of his sins, and is told that he can do so with a ritual that involves water. This second baptism is different than the first, though, and requires a specific place.Din: If I visit the planet and I can bring you proof that I have bathed in the Living Waters beneath the mines of Mandalore, then by Creed, the decree of exile will be lifted and I would be redeemed.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: After seeing that even starfighter-grade turbolaser fire can't kill the creature attacking the covert, Din resorts to using a proton torpedo designed to penetrate shielded capital ships to finally put the beast down.
- Took a Level in Badass: Grogu no longer feels the need to turtle up in his pod the instant trouble starts.
- Took a Level in Cynic: The loss of her followers and cause has brought Bo-Katan to her lowest point since Satine's death: she's apparently living all by herself (except for at least one droid) in an abandoned castle, and is coldly dismissive of Din's quest to redeem himself in the eyes of the Watch, deriding them as one of multiple splinter groups whose defection from Mandalore weakened them to the point that the Purge was even possible.Bo-Katan: Your cult gave up on Mandalore long before the Purge. Where were you then? The Children of the Watch and all the factions that came before fractured and shattered our people.
- Too Dumb to Live: The pirates accompanying Vane have just watched Greef blast Vane's blaster out of his hands and can plainly see that Greef has a Mandalorian standing right there as backup, and still think they can get the drop on them. Every single one of them gets killed in the attempt.
- Underestimating Badassery: Vane thinks Greef has "gone soft" from his days as Guild leader where he associated with pirates. Greef demonstrates that he's just as good as he ever was by shooting Vane's blaster in a Quick Draw.
- Wretched Hive: Nevarro now averts this, having become an independent hub for shipping and quite a pleasant place. Vane and his fellow pirates trying to keep treating it as a haven for scum and villainy, however, is what leads to their conflict with Greef and Din.
