The Mandalorian helmet removal was worth the wait

The Mandalorian finally took his helmet off in the final season and for all of those that are wondering—yes, it was totally worth it.

There were a lot of pressing issues raised throughout the first season of The Mandalorian. What exactly Baby Yoda is and where he comes from is obviously the biggest one, but many more arose from there. Somewhere down the list—for some at No. 2, for others more like No. 10ish—was if we’d ever see Pedro Pascal and not just hear him.

It’s hard to spend an entire season behind a mask as an actor, but Pablo Pascal did a pretty damn good job with it, building a character with voice inflection and strategic pauses.

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It wasn’t until the season finale that he finally took his helmet off, though he did it while holding the doer at gunpoint. When it was looking like he actually might die, IG-11 convinced Din Djarin to take his helmet off for Bacta spray.

For all of a few seconds, we got to see Pablo Pascal for the first time since his head was crushed by the Mountain in King’s Landing. Or at least, that was the last time I’d seen him.

What resulted in those few seconds was a connection to the character that had previously been denied to the viewer. Even with his fatherliness and his actions, there was still a wall between us and the window to his soul as a character. Suddenly this machine that the Mandalorian had become became something different—he became human.

So human that you could see the panic in his eyes, you couldn’t miss the blood on his face, and the best part was, in so little time, there was a realization that spread across his face that everything was going to be okay.

Also buried inside of that realization was an appreciation for a droid, something Din had not encountered in his life. It’s as if his life changed just as much as ours did in that moment.

Of course, this is also not The Way. Though that didn’t seem to bother him too much. And now the question is how much of Pablo Pascal we will see in season two. There was tremendous character growth in that one little removal, so it stands to reason that any subsequent helmet removals will be used strategically and to great effect.

Personally, I’m ready for all of it.

The Mandalorian is currently streaming on Disney+.