The Mandalorian recap: Everything you need to remember about season 1

What do fans need to remember from season 1 of The Mandalorian? We’ve got you covered!

While The Mandalorian season 1 is just eight episodes (or chapters) long, so much happened in it.  More Star Wars lore was built upon: we learned much more about Mandalorians, the fall of the Empire and just how much people knew about the Jedi and the Rebels. And even more so, we were introduced to the greatest gift of all: Baby Yoda.

But that’s just a small snippet of everything that happened in The Mandalorian season 1. Here are the key things that fans need to remember:

The Mandalorian season 1 recap

“Chapter 1: The Mandalorian”

The show’s titular character is a formidable Mandalorian bounty hunter named Din Djarin. Flashbacks in this episode and others throughout the season reveal that Din is a foundling who was saved and raised by Mandalorians.

Din spends most of his time now collecting on bounties assigned to him by the Bounty Hunters’ Guild and their leader Greef Karga on Nevarro.

Everything changes for Din when he takes a job to retrieve a mysterious and rare “asset” for a figure known as the Client, who has clear ties to an existing remnant of the defeated Galactic Empire.

Din takes the job and discovers that the “asset” is a child. The child is an adorable and smaller version of the Yoda species. Even though the character is usually referred to as the Child in the show, most fans refer to him as Baby Yoda.

“Chapter 2: The Child”

In his quest to leave the planet Arvala-7 and return to Nevarro so he can give the Child to the Client, Din witnesses the Child using a mysterious power to levitate a mudhorn. While Din doesn’t know about the Force quite yet, this scene makes it clear to the audience that the Child is Force-sensitive.

“Chapter 3: The Sin”

Din returns to Nevarro to collect on his bounty and hand over the Child to the Client. It doesn’t take long before Din is consumed with regret for giving the Child to such nefarious forces.

He takes the Child back and has to fight through stormtroopers, Greef Karga, and members of the Bounty Hunters’ Guild to escape Nevarro. Din and the Child are only able to escape when the Mandalorians on Nevarro emerge from hiding and fight alongside their brother-in-arms.

“Chapter 4: Sanctuary”

The next few episodes feature Din and the Child forming a closer bond and engaging in a series of adventures as they evade the array of forces that have been sent after them.

In the fourth episode of the series, they help free a village from a group of raiders on the planet Sorgan. During this adventure, they meet and work with a former Rebel shock trooper named Cara Dune.

“Chapter 5: The Gunslinger” & “Chapter 6: The Prisoner”

New adventures with some of the galaxy’s scum and villainy also unfold when Din’s ship needs to be repaired on Tatooine and when he works with mercenaries from his past to free one of their own from a New Republic prison. These episodes contain plenty of other developments, though these details are less important to the show’s overarching narrative.

“Chapter 7: The Reckoning”

The story returns to Nevarro as Greef Karga reaches out for help. He wants Din’s assistance in removing the increased Imperial presence on Nevarro, promising that Din’s help would mean an end to Din and the Child being endlessly pursued by the Bounty Hunters’ Guild. Din agrees, but only with the help of old friends like Cara Dune and Kuiil.

The Child performs another miraculous feat as uses the Force to heal Greef Karga’s fatal wounds. Greef Karga was originally going to betray Din, but he changes his mind and is determined to help them after the Child saves his life.

Din and his allies eventually reach the city and confront the Client so they can execute their plan. Their plan gets blown up when Moff Gideon kills the Client, surrounds Din and his allies with a legion of Imperial soldiers, along with his soldiers killing Kuiil and taking the Child.

“Chapter 8: Redemption”

The droid IG-11 — who was reprogrammed by Kuiil — saves the Child from Moff Gideon’s soldiers. Din, Greef Karga, and Cara Dune are pinned down by Moff Gideon and his troops. Moff Gideon makes it clear how badly he wants the Child while also revealing secretive details that he knows about the pasts of Din and Cara Dune. The situation looks hopeless until IG-11 arrives to provide much-needed reinforcements.

After Cara Dune and Greef Karga escape into the sewers with the Child, IG-11 heals a badly wounded Din, who reveals his face to the audience for the first time. When Din and IG-11 reunite with their allies in the sewers, Din learns that the Mandalorians who helped him escape Nevarro were massacred by Moff Gideon’s forces. The Mandalorian Armorer is introduced to the Child and instructs Din to reunite the Child with his people.

To help the group escape, IG-11 sacrifices himself to destroy the stormtroopers in their path. Moff Gideon swoops in via the TIE fighter he’s flying, but Din takes the ship down.

Greef Karga tells Din he and the Child will no longer be hunted by the Bounty Hunters’ Guild and that Din will even be welcomed back into the Guild with open arms. Din appreciates that they will no longer be hunted but rejects a return to the Guild so he can do as the Armorer told him — to reunite the Child with his people.

After Din and the Child depart Nevarro, it’s revealed that Moff Gideon survived the TIE fighter crash as he emerges from the ship wielding the iconic Darksaber.

For more coverage of The Mandalorian, keep up with The Mandalorian category on Dork Side of the Force!