'The Mandalorian' Season 3 Episode 2: Has Din Djarin not been a true Mandalorian all his life?
Spoilers for 'The Mandalorian' Season 3 Episode 3 - 'The Heiress'
Through all his ups, and downs and perilous courses, there has been only one thing that guides Din Djarin's (Pedro Pascal) every choice - the way of the Mandalorians. "This is the Way," he tells himself, as he throws himself headlong into one deadly situation after another in service of a people on the run, a people who took him in and raised him as a child. He has dedicated his life to following their ways, never once removing his helmet or allowing others to remove it for him, always living by his code of honor, for that is the Way.
Or is it?
In the latest episode of 'The Mandalorian', Din Djarin finally locates the people he's been looking for - other Mandalorians. To his shock, however, on meeting him they immediately remove their helmets in greeting, revealing Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) and her allies. Din has already seen one non-Mandalorian with Beskar steel armor already and when he sees the strangers remove their masks, he naturally assumes that they're also people who have taken Mandalorian armor for themselves. To his shock, they reveal that they are, in fact, true Mandalorians and that the people who raised him are in fact, zealots who cling to a way of life that most modern Mandalorians have abandoned.
Fans have long noted the discrepancies between the Mandalorians portrayed in 'The Clone Wars' with the Mandalorians on 'The Mandalorian'; the former have never had any trouble removing their helmets both on and off the battlefield. It's been pointed out that the Mandalorians who raised Din Djarin were all members of the Deathwatch clan - a splinter group who rebelled against what they believed was a pacifist government, choosing a more barbaric, ancient way of life that restricted Mandalorians to the permanent path of a warrior. The Deathwatch clan are considered extremists by most of the galaxy, but it looks like Din Djarin was unaware that the Mandalorians lived any other way.
Since the Empire took control of Mandalore, Mandalorians have been scarce, whether they belong to the Deathwatch clan or otherwise. Din Djarin has not seen any Mandalorians outside of the people who raised him and as the past few episodes have proven, they've been notoriously difficult to track down. It's no wonder that he knows so little about the culture he's been adopted into and the ways it has move on from the beliefs of the Deathwatch Clan.
Din Djarin has just discovered that there's a lot more to Mandalorian history and culture than he's aware of. If he ever wants to consider himself a true Mandalorian, he has a lot of catching up to do, followed by a fateful choice as to whether or not he still believes that the Way of the Deathwatch is the only Way there is.
The next episode of 'The Mandalorian' airs November 20, on Disney+.