Summary: Bo Katan retreats and prepares a counterattack. Mando escapes from captivity and Grogu finds him. They head to Gideon's command center and find a bunch of clones which they promptly destroy. Gideon angrily confronts them afterward and Mando fights him. The fleet escape the capital ship and send reinforcements to Bo Katan, engaging Gideon's forces. Bo Katan arrives to fight Gideon, while Mando leaves to save Grogu from the Praetorian guards. Mando kills them. Gideon breaks the darksaber, but the capital ship crashes into the base and kills him. Grogu protects Mando and Bo Katan from the fire. The Mandalorians successfully retake Mandalore. Mando contacts Teva to do independent work for the New Republic. He settles down with Grogu in a cabin on Nevarro.
The Good: It took a while, but the focus finally shifted back to Mando for this final episode, and the episode is stronger for it. There are some good action scenes here, especially the one where Mando fights guard after guard on the way to the command center, and this allowed me to remember how much I missed watching Mando solve problems on his own. We haven't seen enough of him in his own show this season (see: The Bad), but this season finale spends a good amount of time with him at least. I liked how conclusive the ending felt with Mandalore retaken and Mando moving on to a new, yet familiar, chapter of his life with Grogu under his care. The Bad: But despite that, so much of this episode was poor. This entire season has been built around Bo Katan, so even though we shift gears back to Mando for this episode, he doesn't have any interesting story to tell. This season has let him down in terms of creating a story for the character. We've essentially just had a few sporadic moments of fatherhood, including some cheesy scenes here where he adopts Grogu and makes him an apprentice through a pretty stupid technicality that continues to undermine the Mandalorian culture. This is not a good enough story to build a season around, and the result is that Mando feels like a passenger throughout the entirety of season 3, which is problematic because seeing this character is the main hook of the show. Even more disappointing is Bo Katan. She essentially hijacked this show for season 3, and the show failed to come up with any compelling ideas for her to make this worth our time. She's just guilty about past mistakes and has to rise up to lead her people to success this time. It's such a simple storyline with little intrigue or conflict for her to deal with. Her rivalry with Gideon is poorly fleshed out and never becomes interesting. I'm extremely disappointed with the simplicity of Bo Katan's storyline. A few episodes ago I raised up an interesting possibility where Bo Katan may be using the Mandalorian groups for her own ends, and may have ulterior motives for everything she is doing. But sadly, the show is never interested in introducing such nuance to its characters. Everything ended up being exactly how it appeared on the surface involving Bo Katan, and that was the single least interesting direction that the story could have gone. I wish there was more to this. Gideon ended up being a spectacular disappointment. Every season he came in, talked big, and promised a menacing new threat. And every season he proved to be absolutely incompetent, getting soundly beaten almost immediately with no victories or accomplishments to make him feel like a threat. Because of this, he was sorely in need of some success this season to make him feel like a worthwhile antagonist. And the show completely let him down. Gideon manages to escape imprisonment off-screen, comes back for two episodes, and after what felt like hundreds of moments of typical villain incompetence, he finally dies in the most anticlimactic way imaginable. What a waste of Giancarlo Esposito, who can be such an asset if used correctly. Instead, Gideon was incompetent at every turn, and the grandiose performance rings completely hollow when you realize he's all bark and no bite. We finally learn what his grand plan was in this episode, and it's the most unoriginal, boring answer imaginable: he wants to clone himself and make himself stronger. Even worse than this is how we learn about the plan. Gideon gives an awful villain monologue to Mando explaining his entire plan for no reason at all. This is one of the worst villain tropes out there, and the execution in this show is terrible. Even Giancarlo Esposito could not salvage something from the terrible dialogue he was given. There was so much tonal dissonance and bad writing in this episode. For tonal dissonance, this episode had too much dumb childish comedy in the middle of intense scenes. While Mando is risking his life fighting guards, why do we cut to a dumb scene with R5 fighting an army of mouse droids? It completely takes me out of the moment. Even worse is when the Praetorian guards corner Grogu, and instead of killing him immediately like they should, they break the mech and completely fail to catch Grogu as he leaps around. This completely broke my immersion, and seeing Grogu laughing is absolutely stupid. We have seen that Grogu does understand when he's in danger and is often afraid, so to see him laughing in this life or death situation is not only tonally wrong, it's a total misinterpretation of the character for the sake of bad humour. As for bad writing in this episode, I can honestly go on forever. Last episode Gideon told his men to take Mando to the debriefing room. I thought maybe Gideon had a plan for him. Maybe he wanted something. Instead this was just an idiotic convenience so Mando can escape, and Grogu can somehow find him in the middle of an imperial base, and Gideon is somehow totally fine with this. Gideon looks so stupid for letting this happen, and even though he knows exactly where Mando and Grogu are, he does nothing and allows them to destroy his clones! This is horrible writing because Gideon makes the single stupidest decision at every turn, making everything nice and convenient for our heroes. Last episode the Praetorian guards were ruthless and intimidating. Already they have been wasted because this episode sees them not show any degree of ruthlessness and they are disposed of with frustrating ease by Mando. Now I will never view these guys as a threat ever again. The crash at the episode's end is similarly poorly written. An entire ship has crashed into this base, and you're telling me that Grogu can just use the force on some flames and that's enough to allow Mando and Bo Katan to survive? That makes no sense. Would they not get crushed by debris? How about the force of the explosion? How do they get out of there if Grogu is only holding back the flames? None of this makes sense. The handling of the darksaber gets a section of its own. This artifact was a massively important plot thread throughout the entire show. There was such fascination surrounding who owns it, how people can get it, and what it means to Mandalorian culture. After we saw a contrivance to get it back to Bo Katan, now thie darksaber gets broken in the most anticlimactic way possible. What the hell? Why did we bother investing in this thing if it breaks so easily, and nobody really reacts to it at all? The destruction of the darksaber doesn't get brought up again, and it has no relevance to the episode at all. After so much of the season 2 finale and the intrigue heading into season 3 was centered around the darksaber, I can't help but be massively underwhelmed with how it was handled this season. The Unknown: So Gideon's grand plan was to clone himself and give himself the force. Is that all there is to it? Is he dead now? Or has he managed to survive this season too? With the discovery of clones of Gideon, I have to ask if there is another clone of him out there somewhere. Is the darksaber destroyed for good? Can it not be fixed? How does this affect the Mandalorians? Will Grogu get his mech back at some point? Or has the show moved on with the new IG-11 marshal in Nevarro? What will come from Mando working with Teva? How much more will we see of Mandalore and Bo Katan in this show? Best Moment: Mando setting us his new life was a nice, sappy conclusion. Character of the Episode: Mando. Conclusion: Ultimately, this was a deeply disappointing finale to a deeply disappointing season. This episode was anticlimactic, poorly written, sloppy, and overall unsatisfying in just about every way. Season 3 was also deeply disappointing. This season was a disjointed, unfocused mess that stumbled at nearly every turn. I feel like the idea and expectation of season 3 ended up being much better than what we got. A season where Mando and Bo Katan team up to unite the Mandalorians and retake Mandalore while also defeating Moff Gideon sounds like it should be a good time. But the season was so messy, it failed to tell compelling stories, and the writing was even worse than it had been in previous seasons. Add in a couple of awful episodes in the back half of the season when the show should have been ramping up to something great, and we have a season that fails on almost every level and is even worse when you look back on it. I hope season 4 can get this show back on track. Score: 46
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Summary: Kane is a spy and informs Gideon that the Mandalorians are going to retake Mandalore. Gideon gets reinforcements from his allies. Bo Katan unites the Mandalorians and they leave for Mandalore. On Mandalore, the group meets up with another clan that has survived on Mandalore. They are loyal to Bo Katan and follow her. Bo Katan admits that she surrendered the darksaber to Moff Gideon, who betrayed her. The group get attacked by a monster and go underground to the great forge. However, it's a trap as Gideon is waiting for them. He has new troopers with Beskar that attack. Mando is captured, and Paz Vizsla is killed. The others escape.
The Good: Gideon's return is welcome for the show. He comes back and brings the plot some much needed urgency and tension as he works to stop the Mandalorians from reclaiming Mandalore to further his own agenda. It's interesting and exciting to see Gideon interacting with other Empire loyalists, showing that there is a growing threat right underneath the New Republic's nose. There's also a neat reveal showing us that Kane is still working for Moff Gideon. The opening sequence works so well at providing urgency, and it's helped greatly by Giancarlo Esposito's electric performance. I liked most of the set-up done in this episode. Mando and Bo Katan's relationship continues to develop in a nice way. They have developed a mutual respect with the journeys they have been through together, and Mando telling Bo Katan that he will be loyal to her was a good moment to conclude the tensions they have had against each other. I also quite like that the show is examining Bo Katan's anxiety of being a leader combined with the guilt of her letting down her people during the Purge when she surrendered to Moff Gideon. This is good additional depth for the character, and I like it a lot. The highlight of this episode is the action sequence at the end. This is a lengthy sequence that is packed with suspense because it felt like anything could happen. The action is beautifully choreographed, the situation is easy to follow, and Gideon's presence and interactions with Mando and Bo Katan are immensely fun to watch. It's always good to see the villain behaving competently, and Gideon is quite ruthless in his approach here, which I appreciate. I really liked the introduction to the Praetorian guards. They were strong and intimidating with how easily they disposed of Paz Vizsla, and I hope that they will be a major threat in future seasons. The Bad: Paz Vizsla's sacrifice falls a bit flat because it feels unnecessary and it feels like familiar territory for "Star Wars". How often in "The Clone Wars" did we see this exact same type of heroic sacrifice from characters who were one-dimensional and not fully fleshed out? It works better there in a children's animated story, but in a more mature live-action show it feels cheesy. It's also quite amusing that Paz Vizsla claims that there are too many men to kill, and yet he somehow manages to kill every single one himself. Every Mandalorian could have just stayed and they would have been fine! The fight over the chess game was stupid. It's melodramatic and predictable enough as is, but I'm baffled by the Mandalorian culture indicating that nobody can step in and stop this fight. Why?? This is infighting, and immature infighting over a stupid debate. Why on Earth should this not be stopped, and why wouldn't Bo Katan, the leader, do something about this? Perhaps even stupider is when Grogu stops the fight and everyone applauds him for it, with Bo Katan telling Mando that he taught him well. WHAT?? So nobody is supposed to stop this fight for some unknown reason, yet when somebody does interfere they get praised for stopping it? What the hell is this? I can't make heads or tails of what is supposed to be happening in this scene. It's very sloppily executed. Of course a random monster attack happens and forces the Mandalorians away. I bet we will never see this thing again for the rest of the series. It's disappointing because I love seeing world-building in this universe, and I would love to know what this monster was and why it was there. Instead, we get no details about it and limited reactions questioning what it was. It will ultimately go down as just another meaningless spectacle. The Unknown: Is Thrawn going to come back? Will he play a role in this show, or will he only be in the Ahsoka show? What is Project Necromancer? My best guess is that it's the plan to bring Palpatine back from the dead. Why did Gideon take Mando to the debriefing room? Does he have a plan for Mando? Or is this just the villain doing something dumb for the convenience of the story? Is the Mandalorian fleet going to get wiped out? Will their reinforcements help Bo Katan and the other Mandalorians escape? Best Moment: The action sequence at the end of the episode was exciting and intense with great direction. It had me at the edge of my seat at times. Character of the Episode: Moff Gideon. Conclusion: A good episode that gets the season moving again in time for the finale. This was the most important and high-stakes episode of the season, and it delivers an action-packed and adventurous episode with some good moments. There is still some stupid writing and cheesiness, but overall this is entertaining. Score: 66 Summary: Mando and Bo Katan head to Plazir-15 to get Bo Katan's army but they are diverted by the planet's rulers who want help for their malfunctioning droids. Mando and Bo Katan track the malfunction to Helgait, who is a Separatist. The rulers allow them to meet the Mandalorians and Bo Katan challenges Axe to a duel for leadership of the army. Bo Katan wins. Mando surrenders the darksaber to her.
The Good: This episode has some decent references to the prequel movies with the presence of battle droids, separatists, and a mention of Count Dooku. It makes sense that separatist loyalists would still be around, and I appreciate that the show touched on this idea. The final scenes of the episode had some good stuff to them. Everything that came before was useless filler, but the ending had enough plot relevance to keep me engaged. Bo Katan fighting Axe was decent fun, and it felt triumphant to see her back on top after how miserable and alone she was at the start of the season. The Bad: From the first minute, this was a bad episode. The opening sequence is intended to reintroduce Axe and his group of Mandalorians, but the sequence is really bad. We're thrust into a random situation where a boy has run away with a girl and has to be retrieved. The show actually attempts to flesh out this relationship, and it does so with some of the most disjointed and clunky dialogue I've ever heard, voiced by voice actors who are doing a terrible job. On top of that, the introduction of the Mandalorians is also awful. The dialogue is again terrible, completely lacking in subtlety with characters simply saying everything that the writers want us to know. Lines like "we're privateers, individuals for hire" and "we are [honourable] kid, all it takes are a few credits" are so cheesy and predictable, illustrating their point without a shred of subtlety. And this is not just localized to the opening scene. The whole episode is written with spotty dialogue like this. The main story is the purest definition of filler and a waste of my time. The Plazir-15 plot is filler because if you remove it from the show, absolutely nothing is lost. Bo Katan and Mando could have easily gone straight to Axe without any issue and nothing would have changed at all. Instead, the rulers of Plazir-15 are inserted into the story as a needless "obstacle", providing a random task for Mando and Bo Katan to complete, a task that I have zero investment in, wasting my time until these two inevitably complete the mission so they can move on to the important stuff. The entire story was a yawnfest. We get a sloppily executed mystery story, and it is painfully bland because it's one of those stories that gives you no reason to emotionally invest and tries to make up for it by throwing in a bunch of random plot. It doesn't work at all. The Helgait twist is extremely predictable (just look at his name, for god's sake), and it adds nothing of note to the show since separatists have played no role in this series up until now. It feels more like a poorly hidden Easter Egg instead of something interesting in the world. The rulers of Plazir-15 are terrible. Jack Black and Lizzo completely took me out of the episode, and it feels like these characters only exist to justify these cameos. They were boring and nothing meaningful was explored with them at all. The planet of Plazir-15 could be a good opportunity to explore a different society in this world with unique living conditions, but this episode does not even attempt to explore any of the deeper ideas behind this story. That's very disappointing. Oh, and we get a dumb scene where Grogu gets knighted. I literally could not care less. The ending of the episode sees Bo Katan get the darksaber back, and I could not be more disappointed with how this happened. Mando is able to give it back to her through the silliest of technicalities which makes the culture behind the darksaber seem like a joke. It also raises the question of why Bo Katan didn't just fight Mando and have Mando throw the fight so she could get it back. Furthermore, this cheap technicality concludes the arc of Mando having the darksaber in such a disappointing way. Mando getting the darksaber for himself was a pivotal moment in season 2, and now it has been undone in the most uninteresting way imaginable with minimal conflict or drama. That's a damn shame. With Grogu retrieved again and the darksaber back with Bo Katan, season 2's ending feels almost completely pointless now. It hasn't even been a full season since then, and we are already back to the status quo for Mando and Grogu. The Unknown: Was Bo Katan's army the group that freed Gideon? Was that one of the jobs that they did? Is Bo Katan going to keep the darksaber for good now? Best Moment: Bo Katan fighting Axe was the one moment that felt like it had actual stakes. Character of the Episode: Bo Katan. Conclusion: This is what I don't want to see from "The Mandalorian". 90% of this episode was spent on a meaningless filler side story, and the other 10% was a poorly written, disappointing resolution to a long-running story thread. With only two episodes left in the season, we desperately need to see something better from this show. Score: 43 Summary: Gorian Shand attacks Nevarro and Greef calls for aid. Teva, a New Republic captain, sees the order and goes to the officials but they refuse to help. Teva then goes to the Mandalorian covert to let them know. Mando proposes that they help Greef, and they agree to go. The Mandalorians defeat the pirates and Gorian dies when his ship crashes. Greef gives the Mandalorians a new home on Nevarro. The Armorer speaks with Bo Katan and selects her to bring other Mandalorians to retake Mandalore. Teva finds a destroyed ship out in space and realizes that Gideon escaped imprisonment and Mandalorians helped him.
The Good: This episode was a good way to connect several of the disparate plot threads from early in the seasons. The pirates, Greef in Nevarro, and the New Republic storyline came together nicely to create the main conflict as pirates attacked Nevarro and a New Republic captain found a surprising amount of resistance when trying to help the planet. This continued the thematic exploration of the New Republic that the show has done really well so far. Clearly the new government is just as corrupt as the last, and these scenes nicely set up the New Republic as the new major villains in this universe. Teva is trying to genuinely help, and you feel for him when he has so much trouble with a simple request that is going to save lives. Much of this episode sees the Mandalorians saving Nevarro and it's decent stuff. Teva interacting with the covert is fun, and it's nice to see Paz Viszla stand up for Mando, agreeing to help Greef. The action scenes are well shot and entertaining as usual, and I had a good enough time watching them. The ending of the episode impressed me the most. This season has felt like treading water for much of its run, but the final two scenes finally injected some momentum into the plot, making it feel like we are going somewhere. Bo Katan has earned the trust of the covert and seeing the Armorer put faith in her to bring Mandalorians together is sweet. Now we have a goal and a plan for the season: retake Mandalore with the help that Bo Katan brings back. This is solid stuff and makes me excited for what's to come. Even better is the reveal that Gideon had escaped, bringing back a key antagonist to watch out for in the second half of the season. The final scene is intensely shot and great, and it offers a great new mystery as a Mandalorian seemingly helped Gideon escape. The Bad: The pirates never feel like a genuine threat, just the usual threat of the week. As a result, there's no tension here and the well-produced action scenes are wasted here without any suspense. These action scenes are technically fine, but they lack that level of investment to make me engaged with what I'm watching. It's a familiar problem for "The Mandalorian". The main characters quipping also doesn't help things at all. Mando comes into a 1:10 battle, but since he's quipping with Greef there is zero suspense whatsoever and we know Mando will be fine. Another familiar problem is how this series handles crowds. These crowds are unrealistically gullible and always seem to agree with whatever any person says at any given time. Mando and Paz Viszla addressing the crowd of Mandalorians became a weak scene because the crowd reactions were laughable as they went with the flow in literally every moment. A lot of little things bugged me about this episode. There were some clear budget problems when Nevarro completely evacuated, and the whole settlement hilariously seemed to be just a couple dozen people. They didn't even have any children for that school in the previous episode! I was also unimpressed by the lack of shields on Gorian Shand's ship. Surely a ship this big will have some sort of shields so that your average starfighter can't easily take it out. Yet there are no shields mentioned whatsoever. I'm frustrated by the turrets on the ship. They always fire and never hit anything in these fight scenes, so what's the point of having them? Lastly, how did none of the pirates in the building hear the Armorer coming? She was loudly murdering people a couple feet away from everyone else, and yet nobody reacts to her? That's impossible to believe. The Unknown: Who broke Gideon out? Was it Mandalorians, or were they framed? Why would Mandalorians help Gideon? Where is he now? What is he doing? Will we see Vane again? Will Bo Katan be able to recruit more Mandalorians? Will she take the dark saber from Mando? Best Moment: Bo Katan being chosen to retake Mandalore finally gives this season the forward momentum it desperately needed. Character of the Episode: Teva, he made an immediate impression. Conclusion: The ending of this episode provided a much-needed injection of momentum into this third season, and there was some nice integration of plot threads in this episode. But other than that, this was just another typical episode of "The Mandalorian". Score: 59 Summary: Flashbacks show Grogu being taken out of the Jedi Temple and flown off planet by Kelleren Beq, a Jedi. In the present, Grogu trains with the other foundlings. One gets taken by a beast and Mando, Bo Katan, and Paz Viszla go after it. They kill the beast and save the foundling.
The Good: The opening sequence was decent enough fun, showing us what Grogu is capable of and giving Mando some nice scenes of fathering his "son". It was nice to see him encourage Grogu's development and show some pride in his own way. I like that the episode spent some time with Grogu, highlighting a greater reason for why he is so timid and fearful by showing us a glimpse of his traumatic past in the Jedi temple (see: Best Moment). The Bad: Seriously, 26 minutes? Good TV can have shorter episodes, but this is meant to be an hour-long drama, and this episode is half as long as it should be. Furthermore, the last episode was twice as long as this one, making it jarring to go between really long and really short episodes. Even more criminal is the fact that absolutely nothing of real value happened in this episode outside of the flashback. This episode is pure filler and a timeskip glossing over the events of this episode would be more beneficial for the story. It's not like there was any good storytelling here that we would be missing out on.. I had no investment in the Mandalorians fighting a creature (we already saw this in the season premier!), so I had zero reason to invest. You could probably poke holes into the logistics of this episode as well (it makes no sense that this creature wasn't killed earlier if it has eaten foundlings before, why did Paz Viszla make such a dumb decision to go to the nest before scouting, etc.), but I was nowhere near invested enough in the story to get to that point. This episode was too boring and uninteresting to get me to that point. Even the opening sequence that I enjoyed more than most things in the episode was very overindulgent. The show wanted to give Grogu a cool scene and was gratuitous in making Grogu look cool by beating someone who didn't know what he was capable of. It was cheesy, cliched, and out of place. The Unknown: What happened to Kelleren? Is he still alive? Where did he take Grogu? Is Bo Katan actually embracing her Mandalorian roots now? Will she try to lead the Mandalorians back to Mandalore to find the mythosaur? Best Moment: Even though we have seen it many times before, the order 66 sequence was great. Grogu's fear as he is being shepherded out of the temple carried the emotional weight of the sequence, and the directing did great to portray that. Character of the Episode: Grogu. Conclusion: A short and ultimately inconsequential episode that did not do much for me, even if it did have a pretty good flashback sequence. Score: 50 Summary: Mando and Bo Katan leave Mandalore but are attacked by TIE fighters that destroy Bo Katan's home. Mando takes her to join his group of Mandalorians, and Bo Katan, having bathed in the waters as well, is allowed to join. On Coruscant, Dr. Pershing is taken into the Amnesty Housing program. There, he meets Officer Kane who used to work for Gideon. Pershing tries to adjust to his new life but misses his research. Kane gives him a chance to get back to his research, and after some time to find himself, he agrees. They go together to an old imperial junkyard to get supplies for his lab. However, Kane is working for the New Republic and it's a trap. Pershing is taken to a Mind Flayer to be indoctrinated better into the New Republic.
The Good: At a time where "The Mandalorian" resolved many of its remaining storylines and was in need of a new interesting direction to go, we get a bold and ambitious episode that starts up a new story focused on the New Republic in a highly compelling way. I love the decision to focus most of this episode on a background character we only briefly met, humanizing him and telling a compelling story that changes our perception of the world. This personal story was highly emotional and it provided something completely different from the simplistic "Star Wars" style that we have become used to. For a franchise that is quickly becoming stale, this was a breath of fresh air. Pershing's story is really good. For this to work, we had to connect with him and understand him, and the show nails this. Pershing is so loveably nerdy and awkward, and Omid Abtahi plays the character masterfully. He comes from humble beginnings and is simply following a passion for science to get through his life. He has good intentions, but finds himself a prisoner scrambling for redemption. Yes, he makes a poor decision that ends up costing him dearly, but we understand his reasoning and his desire to genuinely help, and it's so sad to see him punished so severely for it. The episode does well to make Pershing feel like a real character to make the ending so devastating. Little moments like his questions for the droid, the fun developing relationship between him and Kane, and Pershing getting caught up in the thrills after jumping from the train are really good at humanizing the character and keeping the story grounded in reality. The themes of this episode are very effective. "Star Wars" is typically black and white, but this episode excels at showing that whether it is the Empire or the New Republic, evil will still exist in society. Sure, Pershing worked for the Empire, but we can clearly see that he had his heart in the right place and would genuinely do the same for the New Republic. But, he is treated like a villain and put through unethical torture provided by the New Republic, who think that being anti-Empire excuses any sort of evil that they do. The final scene on Coruscant is terrifying as we see these brainwashed individuals all sitting there and calmly explaining to Pershing that this will be good for him, while Pershing is terrified to lose his humanity. It's a sad moment that conveys the inherent evil that exists in governing powers, evil that is almost impossible to get rid of. Mando and Bo Katan have a small role in the episode, but what we get from them is quite good. The TIE fighter battle was well shot, and it picked up in tension a lot towards the end as Bo Katan's home got destroyed and a massive fleet descended upon them. But the best part about this storyline is Bo Katan's development. She's evidently shaken after seeing a Mythosaur, and her decision to ultimately join the Watch is curious. Perhaps she is having a crisis of faith and is going to return to Mandalorian roots, or perhaps she simply sees an opportunity to take some power for her own and is trying to use this organization to further her own goals. Many have criticized the show for not showing characters' faces, but not seeing Bo Katan's face here does wonders because it makes her next move tougher to predict. We have enough context to understand the character's emotions, but not knowing precisely how she feels has created some exciting tension in her scenes with the Watch. Grogu piping in by trying to say "this is the way" was a cute and funny moment. The Bad: I empathize a lot with people who were frustrated with this episode for spending so much time with a random other character who had little relevance to Mando. While I enjoyed this for being a radical departure because of how it gave some impetus to a show that I was losing interest in, I understand how it may be too radical a departure for others in the same way that the episodes focused on The Mandalorian were too radical of a change for me during "The Book of Boba Fett". This is not a subtle episode by any means. The main idea of the story is explicitly spelled out to you, and the good final scene with Pershing is a bit hurt by how in-your-face the thematic storytelling is. I appreciate the inclusion of these themes a lot, but the execution definitely needed some more subtlety. The fighter sequence at the episode's start was enjoyable, but it took a while for me to get invested in it. At first, it seemed like another filler action scene and that prevented me from getting into the scene for a while. This is telling of how the meaningless action sequences in previous episodes have damaged my investment and trust in the series. The Unknown: Is Bo Katan turning towards believing in the old way after seeing the mythosaur? Is she going to join the Watch? Or is she using them for her own gain? The story can go either way. Who sent the ships to attack Bo Katan and Mando? Why? Is Kane officially working with the New Republic? Does she have ulterior motives? Will we see Pershing again? How will he be changed by the Mind Flayer? Best Moment: The reveal that Kane was working for the New Republic and that they were testing Pershing by trying to emotionally manipulate him, testing his values. The realization of this was shocking, and you feel bad for Pershing who likely would not have done anything against the New Republic if it hadn't been for Kane. The lack of humanity in this approach was horrifying for me, and seeing that Kane had set up Pershing as a test was disgustingly sad. Character of the Episode: Pershing. Conclusion: This was a departure from the norm for "Star Wars" and it worked very well. While not the most subtle of episodes, the story worked very well and this paved the way for new, more interesting stories in the universe. Score: 67 Summary: Mando visits Peli, and she gives him R5-D4 to help test Mandalore's atmosphere. Mando goes to Mandalore and sends our R5, who promptly vanishes. Mando goes to investigate himself and fights several unique creatures before being captured. Grogu goes back to the ship and goes to Bo Katan. Bo Katan goes to Mandalore and saves Mando. Together, they go to the mines and Mando starts to bathe but he gets dragged underwater. Bo Katan saves him and realizes there is a mythosaur in the water.
The Good: I was impressed by how quickly the story moved forwards. I expected 1-2 more episodes of filler/time-wasting before we finally got to Mandalore, but pleasingly the story moved along quickly and Mando didn't waste any time in getting to Mandalore. I thought that the planet was visually spectacular. Seeing the ruins of the once magnificent kingdom was compelling, and it created a unique atmosphere for the episode. I was pleased to see Bo Katan play a big role in this episode. Her dynamic with Mando is good, and this episode did a nice job of highlighting their dichotomy. Both are Mandalorian, but both have very different interpretations of what that means to them. I enjoy seeing their ideologies clash. It's nice to see Bo Katan get moments to shine throughout the episode as she saves Mando twice. Grogu also gets some good moments to shine, especially when he has to go get Bo Katan to save Mando. I appreciate the idea of allowing other characters to shine alongside Mando. Peli is becoming a fun character to revisit every now and then. She doesn't have much depth and doesn't offer a whole lot to the story, but it's a fun distraction to visit her and see what she's getting up to. Through longevity of exposure, I am growing to like her. The Bad: Mando settling for the piece of crap R5 droid after going to extreme lengths to bring back IG-11 is some horrendous writing. I thought Mando needed a droid he trusted, so why on Earth is he going to take this pile of junk that is clearly terrified of doing anything? It makes no sense, and it makes Mando seem incompetent to put his life in the hands of this incompetent droid. Speaking of the droid, why did it have to venture so far into a cave to get an atmosphere reading? That makes no sense, and it looks like the droid only went so far because the writers needed a reason for Mando to risk his life. The enemies in Mandalore were cool and visually creative, but they don't feel like a real species. Instead, they feel like video game obstacles to overcome which makes it much less interesting to explore these creatures and what their lives are like. Even though they look pretty cool, they are nowhere near as interesting as many other "Star Wars" creatures. Mando was strangely incompetent in this episode. I get that Grogu and Bo Katan need moments to shine, but to manufacture this happening, Mando had to be much less careful and methodical than what we are used to. I wish that the show had found a better way to have Mando be taken out so that other characters are allowed a more organic chance to shine. This is a "Star Wars" show so of course it's very cheesy. The dialogue in particular is extremely cheesy in this episode, which took me out of the experience at several points. The Unknown: Who was Bo Katan's father? I don't believe we have seen him before. What happened when he died? What is the point of the mythosaur being here? Is this just another enemy to overcome or will it play a larger role in the story? What's next for Mando? He redeemed himself faster than I expected, so what else is going to happen in this season? Best Moment: Bo Katan seeing the ruins of her old home was a quietly beautiful moment. Character of the Episode: Bo Katan. Conclusion: A solid episode that progressed the story more than what I expected, but it got bogged down by some moments of weak writing. Score: 59 Summary: Mando returns to meet with the Armorer who tells him that he has to be redeemed in the mines of Mandalore. Mando goes back to Nevarro and meets up with Greef again. He gets the remains of IG-11, intending to bring him back to take Mandalore. After a skirmish with some pirates, Mando sees a castle in the Mandalore system where he finds Bo Katan. She has lost the faith of her people without the dark saber and tells Mando that he has to lead the takeback of Mandalore.
The Good: True to the show, this episode has a lot of fun sequences that provide popcorn entertainment, and I enjoyed it. The opening scene is a solid reintroduction to Mando, featuring a unique action sequence that came out of nowhere. This was fun to watch. I also enjoyed the Wild West showdown (its become a signature for this show) on Nevarro, and also the starship fight scene, which was directed expertly with the action playing along perfectly with the soundtrack. I enjoyed going back to Nevarro. One of the most satisfying things in a long-running TV show like this is the chance to show recurring locations change and grow over time. Nevarro is a perfect example of this and it has become nearly unrecognizable from what it was like in season 1. It's been really satisfying to see Nevarro change across the last few seasons, and I enjoyed seeing how advanced the society has become. Greef is very fun in his new role as high magistrate. I love that he has two tiny droids holding his robe up above the ground behind him, and his interactions with Mando are fun as always. Greef also gets a nice meta line responding to Mando affirming the name Grogu with "if you say so", poking fun at the community reaction to Grogu's name. As for Grogu, he's as cute and fun as you would expect him to be. The Bad: Coming off of season 2, a lot of people would be very confused if they never watched "The Book of Boba Fett". That strange choice to further Mando's story in a separate show is felt in this season premiere. The recap starting this season bafflingly doesn't even explain how Mando got Grogu back, ensuring that anyone following on directly after season 2 will have to stop watching and instead waste their life on the god awful "Book of Boba Fett" to fully understand the story. This unfocused storytelling that forces people to watch other lower quality TV shows is appalling, and it kicks off this season premiere on a negative note. But enough about the poor business decisions surrounding the show, because this episode had a few problems of its own. It has become frustrating to see how "The Mandalorian" feels so much like a video game. Every storyline sees Mando talk to a side character, get a quest, accomplish the quest, get a reward, and then inch along towards his ultimate goal. This sounds eerily like a video game, not a TV show, and that's the problem here. This episode is all about Mando getting his main quest and going on a random side quest to "unlock" IG-11 for later missions. This style of storytelling feels phony and is frustrating because it isn't interesting to watch. It's bland, unoriginal storytelling that makes it tough to engage. On top of that, this is a very cheesy episode. While you can have fun with cheesiness, and I certainly did throughout the episode, there's a limit to how engaging and entertaining television can be when everything is so cheesy. The humour involving Greef is a perfect example and it feels so unnatural and sitcom-esque. The conflicts are also frustratingly bland, contributing to their cheesiness. Vane, the pirate character, is the embodiment of every boring children's TV show villain ever. He has nothing going for him and has zero credibility as a villain. It's obvious that this idiot isn't going to get one over on Mando so I have no reason to feel any suspense and interest in what will happen - obviously Mando has the situation under control. This makes the pirates utterly boring to follow. And of course they have to be assholes who want to threaten a school because why have any semblance of depth for this characters. Lastly, the storyline of Mando bringing IG-11 back is the most predictable and unoriginal story imaginable. We know he will succeed eventually, so I don't care for this as a long-running storyline at all. Furthermore, Mando seems stupid for being so fixated on this one specific droid. We aren't given a good enough reason to believe that Mando is only comfortable trusting IG-11 instead of any other droid, especially when IG-11's programming has reset and his memory is lost. The Unknown: Did Cara Dune and Moff Gideon just get written out of the show? Will we see them again? Who will Greef get as his new marshal? Will we see Cobb Vanth again? Will Mando be successful in bringing back IG-11? Who is Gorian Shard? Will he be important going forwards? Is Bo Katan alone in her castle? Why isn't she doing anything else? What's her plan? Best Moment: The starship fight was the most easily enjoyable part of the episode. Character of the Episode: Mando. Conclusion: This was a fine, but totally unspectacular premier. There were entertaining popcorn-flick sequences, but the episode was hampered by the show's video game-esque quest-completing nature, and the predictable, uninspired plot. Score: 58 Summary: Mando finds Bo Katan and gets her help to track down Gideon. The crew steals an imperial shuttle containing Dr. Pershing and they get information from him. They all get in the imperial shuttle and sneak into Gideon's light cruiser, staging an attack from Boba Fett. Once inside, the girls fight off the stormtroopers and stage a distraction while Mando sneaks off to the cargo bay where the dark troopers are. After battling and defeating one, Mando manages to eject the others into space. Mando goes to Baby Yoda's cell and finds Gideon already there. They fight and Mando defeats him, leaving him alive. Mando returns to the bridge and learns that the darksaber is his now since he defeated Gideon. Suddenly, the dark troopers return and enter the light cruiser, trapping everyone in the bridge, which Gideon expressing that only he and Baby Yoda will survive. An X-wing appears and enters the light cruiser. Luke Skywalker is inside and he destroys all of the dark troopers. Gideon tries to kill himself but Cara stops him and knocks him out. Luke gets to the bridge and Baby Yoda decides to go with him. Baby Yoda says goodbye to Mando. Later on Tatooine, Boba and Fennec take over Jabba's palace.
The Good: The second half of this episode was really well done. I thought that the mission to rescue Baby Yoda gave this episode far more stakes compared to everything that came before and there were some excellent moments of drama that came up later in the episode. The action in particular really stood out. Mando's initial fight with the dark trooper was tense and exciting. It was great to see Mando legitimately pushed to the limit against this thing, and seeing him get utterly decimated by just a single dark trooper made it far more intense when dozens of them returned at the end of the episode. The action sequence against Gideon was also excellent. The choreography, visuals and sound were superb in this sequence, and it was a very intense fight heavy with stakes and suspense. The whole sequence felt gritty and real in a way that most lightsaber duels in "Star Wars" haven't felt since the original trilogy. I was very pleased with this skirmish. Amazingly the episode only got more intense once Gideon went down. I thought the twist of Mando getting ownership of the darksaber was a superb moment that ratcheted up the tension by suggesting some ingroup conflict that has been orchestrated by Gideon, who has become more and more enigmatic as the show has gone on. Gideon was fascinating throughout the episode no matter what he did. His attempt to get Mando to lower his guard was great, his cocky words while in custody did a terrific job of demoralizing the heroes, and his terrified reaction when Luke arrived was priceless. Speaking of which, Luke's appearance was a huge surprise that delivered on every level. Once again the jedi feel mythical in nature, and Luke's silent arrival was tense, exciting and mysterious. Seeing him mow down the dark troopers was brilliant entertainment, and an example of fanservice done well. I thoroughly enjoyed this sequence, and I thought that the decision to use CGI to bring in a younger Mark Hamill was the best choice here for the brief appearance of Luke. The ending of the episode was an emotional high for the show. Having Mando say goodbye to Baby Yoda was a sad moment, and seeing him take off the helmet without hesitation to say goodbye was very powerful stuff. I'm pleased that this season ended on such an emotional and conclusive beat, serving as a perfect conclusion to the story of Mando and Baby Yoda. I also quite liked Cara's conversation with the pilot that happened early in the episode. It was some of the best dialogue written this season and it continued to examine the show's themes. The Bad: I had several issues with the first half of the episode. First of all is the issues with logic. We aren't given any explanation how Mando's group found the shuttle that Dr. Pershing was in. How did they know that this shuttle was coming in? Without this convenient bit of knowledge, their plan would not work at all. This needed to be explained. Furthermore, it's very strange that Dr. Pershing cooperates so much with Mando's group. We don't know why he would do this and we don't even know what happened to him since he cooperated. This should have been addressed. The plan to attack Gideon's ship was pretty terrible. Had there been even a single darktrooper activated in preparation for Mando's attack that he stupidly announced last episode, they would have been screwed. The darktroopers need to charge, but can they not just have 1 patrolling the ship while the others charge? Furthermore, it's ridiculous that Gideon didn't immediately fortify Baby Yoda's holding cell. He knows that Mando is going for Baby Yoda, so everyone should have been sent to defend him. Plus, Mando sneaking around unexpectedly should never have worked, again because Mando stupidly announced to Gideon that he was coming. The final scene of the previous episode has gotten worse and worse as the story moves forward. As a final note, why did Gideon just wait for Mando to show up? He's on a ship! Just fly somewhere else. I thought the assault itself was also lacking. It was more dumb, boring action which didn't do much for me until the darktroopers came out. With the stormtroopers being portrayed as total geeks for 3 other episodes in this season, I felt no tension at all when they were attacking the main crew. Furthermore, the entire sequence was blatantly put together to provide a "strong women" moment. I'm fine with having strong women and showing it off, but it's frustrating when it's so obvious that the writers manufactured the story to make it happen in numerous ways. Some key examples being Mando being off on his own, Boba not helping out with the assault at all, and the third Death Watch member from "The Heiress" (a male character) being conveniently absent. What makes this even worse is that none of these people are well defined characters. This is proven when there is absolutely no interaction between the characters in this episode, which is a shame because fun interactions are a staple of "Star Wars". That tells me that character work was sacrificed in favour of this unnecessary scene where a group of women can dominate the enemies. Again, I am fine with portraying women like this, but the problem comes when the story and characters are ignored in favour of doing this. In this case, it badly hurts the narrative as well as my immersion. I want to return to my statement about fun interactions being a staple of "Star Wars". I firmly stand by this, and I believe that this is what made the original trilogy so engrossing. There's dramatic action, but through it all, there are very strong main characters who are fn to watch and show lots of personality when talking with each other. Nobody in this crew outside of Mando and Cara had any personality, and even Cara hardly has any since she has been handled so poorly this season. Cara had an interesting scene to start the episode where she murders the Imperial pilot who pisses her off, but she doesn't get any character work done outside of that. This is very disappointing since that initial scene didn't explore very deep into the character, and seemed to suggest a character trait that could cause problems during the assault. Instead it never came up again. Something else that never came up again was Bo Katan and Koska Reeves hating Boba for being a clone. This started up as a big deal, but like all other interesting character arcs, was dropped the moment the assault began. I would have much rather seen these stories develop during the assault instead of getting a brainless sequence of women being cool. While I loved the climax of the episode, some small things bothered me about it. For one, when everyone was making their final stand I was confused by the fact that everyone was holding blasters. Blasters don't work on the darktroopers and they know that! Why would they not prioritize using the darksaber and Mando's Beskar spear, the only two weapons in the room that could kill these guys. Also, I thought that Mando taking off his helmet for Baby Yoda had diminished impact since he took off the helmet in the prior episode. Had this been the only time he took off his helmet this season, the moment would have meant so much more. The ending sequence annoyed me a lot. I had hoped that Boba would be an addition to the main cast of this show since he would do well as an engaging supporting character. But since Disney wants more money, he becomes yet another character to get his own spin-off. I'm also very disgusted by his and Ahsoka's presence in this show as they had no impact on the story of "The Mandalorian" and only served to hype up completely different shows that Disney wants us to watch. It's the same tactic they use for the MCU and I'm very upset to see business taking precedence over telling a good story. Furthermore, we still don't know anything about how Boba survived, what he did on Tatooine, how he brought Fennec back, what his motives are, etc. I guess we'll have to watch yet another "Star Wars" TV show to find out, and that's not even a guarantee. Boba's return this season was botched really badly and I'm incredibly disappointed with the lack of character work done on him. The Unknown: What is going to happen with the darksaber? Will Bo Katan allow Mando to have it? Will she fight him for it? How will this be handled? I'm guessing that season 3 will be taking us to Mandalore to see how this is resolved. What happens to Gideon now that he has been captured? I hope we get to see a lot more of him so we can learn more about his motives which are still unclear. The character has thrived purely on Giancarlo Esposito's natural charisma, there is still a lot that we need to learn about him. Will we see Baby Yoda again? What will happen when he joins up with Luke? We know in the future that Kylo Ren will burn down Luke's Jedi temple. Will Baby Yoda die in this sequence or will he escape again? What will Boba Fett do now that he has taken control over Jabba's palace? Best Moment: Mando giving up Baby Yoda and taking off his helmet to share one final moment with the little guy. Character of the Episode: Luke. Seeing him again was wonderful. Conclusion: This episode had a lot of cool stuff in it and the second half in particular was a joy to watch with some exciting twists and dramatic moments. However, this show continues to get in its own way with its insistence on cool stuff being more important than storytelling, and it once again significantly damaged the quality of the episode. As for the season overall, I can't say I was a fan of it. It was watchable stuff, but the lack of character work in favour of self-contained action spectacles that completely lacked in personality was a very uninteresting choice for me. Looking back on this season isn't very pleasant as all I really got out of this was mindless fun that didn't capitalize on any of the potential that this series had. I had a good time for sure since a show as well produced as this will always be entertaining, but I was emotionally unengaged for 95% of this season and I finished every episode except the first one want for more character work, world building and storytelling. This is decent television, but it takes no risks to be anything more and that's very disappointing to me. Score: 62 Summary: Cara takes Mayfeld out of confinement so that he can use his knowledge to help Mando locate Gideon. Mando and Mayfeld hijack a rhydonium transport into an imperial base and enter it, with Mando taking off his armour to don imperial armour. They get attacked by pirates but they survive and make it to the camp. Mando takes his helmet off to use a facial recognition scanner to get Gideon's coordinates. An imperial officer, Valin Hess pulls Mando aside and Mayfeld steps in to save him. Mayfeld served under Valin Hess. Valin Hess asks the two of them for a drink and after discussing the past, Mayfeld snaps and kills him. Mando and Mayfeld manage to escape the facility and blow it up. Cara and Mando decide to let Mayfeld go free. Mando sends a message to Gideon to let him know that they are coming for him.
The Good: I definitely preferred the pacing and themes of this episode compared to the last one which ended up being mostly just an action spectacle. This episode told a much better story, opting to center on a supporting character in Mayfeld while exploring several interesting themes and ideas as we learn more about Mayfeld. I enjoyed this and I thought it made for a richer viewing experience as Mayfeld went from reluctantly doing Mando's bidding to save his own skin to actively working against the Imperials who seemingly abused him and his comrades when he was likely in service (see: The Unknown). I really enjoyed this story for Mayfeld and I thought that there were some unique ideas explored here like freedom vs order and the justification of the empire's cruelty presented by Valin Hess. Mando's story was pretty good as well. I love the idea of him having to take off his helmet to save Baby Yoda and I thought that this was executed mostly well with a few issues (see: The Bad). Overall I thought this was a good development and it gave the episode a more emotional and thoughtful edge to get us to question how far Mando can bend his own rules for Baby Yoda's sake before realizing that Mando is willing to do whatever it takes to get Baby Yoda back. I liked the pacing of this episode too. It was refreshing to see several characters going together on a mission while moving along their own individual character arcs in the process. This is the heart of what "Star Wars" is about, and I thought that this was missing in the previous episodes. Having a team set up and enact a plan while encountering dilemmas that forced inner conflict within the characters is a simple but effective way of storytelling, and it helped make this episode stand out. There were some details I liked. The seismic charge was a nice callback to the prequels and it was produced amazingly well. I also really liked that Mayfeld's concern for being recognized was misplaced and Valin Hess didn't remember him at all. It really showed that the lives of the soldiers who served these officers are not considered important at all. Lastly, Boba Fett's line about having a recognizable face was a clever bit of humour that made me openly laugh. The Bad: While I applaud this episode for exploring meaningful themes, I found them to be alarmingly black and white. "Star Wars" has always been about looking at the world as either good or bad, but I would have preferred to see a deeper and less simplistic view of things as a way to grow the scope of the franchise. Leaving things in black and white makes it hard for "Star Wars" to tell more meaningful stories. The whole pirate attack sequence was really bland television. It's the kind of boring action filler that I would expect from a procedural drama, not a show like this. And it wasn't even good action. So many things about this sequence made no sense. First of all, the motive of the pirates is never revealed so we don't know why they are targeting the rhydonium. This is a severe flaw because we learn later that the rhydonium would be used as a weapon to kill. So was Mando killing pirates that were simply trying to save their own planet? This should be a big deal but it is never mentioned or explored and the pirates remain as generic bad guys. It's very poor writing. Furthermore, a lot of details were horribly inconsistent. It's apparently really risky for Mando to shoot a blaster near rhydonium, yet the TIE fighter blasts were somehow acceptable? Furthermore, if rhydonium is so unstable, why would the thermal detonator need to be placed directly on top of it? Just throw the damn thing and watch it detonate! The pirates are stupid for even attempting to board the Juggernaut. The end with them all being detonated at once was also absurdly stupid. Did they really not expect Mando to throw the detonator back at them? Also it was mighty convenient that the detonators always took forever to explode when Mando needed to throw them away. This is just atrocious writing for an action scene. And as a final quibble that really frustrated me, defining these guys as pirates is factually incorrect since pirates pillage and steal, they never just destroy things without expecting to collect plunder. The writers couldn't be bothered to come up with motives for these people so they incorrectly decided to call them pirates instead. It's woeful writing made worse by the fact that having these "pirates" be village folk instead would have made for a much more compelling story. There were several moments that broke my immersion. For one, why was Mayfeld the only person that wasn't wearing a helmet? That's just incredibly suspicious and it makes him stand out when there's supposed to be a stealthy mission happening. I understand that they wanted Bill Burr's face to be visible, but it really breaks your immersion to see this. Another detail was the facial scan that had to be completed. Facial scans are meant to determine if the person accessing the system has the authority to do what they need to do. Running a facial scan to simply verify that there is a person there is a lousy system that feels like it was lazily slapped into the episode to give Mando a reason to take off his helmet. Finally, there is the convenient idea that Moff Gideon's coordinates could be easily tracked from an Imperial system. This is a very easy solution to be sure, and it's made way more ridiculous when you realize that if Gideon simply moves his ship, Mando's team would never be able to find him since his coordinates will have changed and they have no way of knowing where he went. Another immensely dumb scene was Cara and Mando deciding that Mayfeld died in the blast. I thought they sprung him out of jail in secret, so why would they acknowledge that they went with him to this planet as the reason for his disappearance? Also wouldn't Cara be in huge trouble for this? She took Mayfeld away in broad daylight and never brought him back. Plus she deserted her job posting to help Mando. Having her join the New Republic is a development that keeps getting worse and worse. It seems that the show has no interest in exploring a single thing Boba Fett has done since "Return of the Jedi". This is an unfathomable skip in character development and it leaves me feeling absolutely nothing towards Boba Fett. The final scene of the episode is highly problematic for me. Having Mando remember exactly what Gideon said to him back in "The Reckoning" is very implausible, and it made for an absurdly cheesy ending speech that made no sense. Having Mando passionately express his desire to get Baby Yoda back would have been much more relatable and emotional, but instead Mando mocks Gideon in a way that forces me to suspend my disbelief a great deal for a speech that doesn't have any emotional impact at all. Furthermore, notifying Gideon of his impending arrival seems like an idiotic idea, and unless Mando is somehow preparing a trap, this has to be one of the stupidest things he has done so far. My final point is a familiar one. Yet again we have an episode of this show where Mando goes to a new planet to accomplish a small task that he needs to do to progress the plot which results in an action sequence that has absolutely no tension because we know the characters will make it out okay. This formula has been frustratingly repetitive throughout the season and it continued to annoy me in this episode. The Unknown: Does Mando have a plan to get Baby Yoda back? If so, what is it? Who will he recruit for help? Was Mayfeld a stormtrooper in the past? What exactly was Operation: Cinder? I know it was an event from one of the video games but I never knew what it was. Will it be explained in the show? Best Moment: The table scene between Mayfeld, Mando and Valin Hess was excellent stuff, nicely exploring the character of Mayfeld and the themes of the episode. Character of the Episode: Mayfeld. Conclusion: This episode impressed me with its exploration of themes and Mayfeld's character. However, there was a whole myriad of stupid writing that plagued this episode and makes it completely fall apart under further scrutiny. Despite all I liked about it, the disaster that was the writing meant that this wasn't a good episode overall. Score: 53 Summary: Mando arrives on Tython and takes Baby Yoda to the seeing stone where Baby Yoda uses his powers and separates from reality. Boba Fett and Fennec arrive to the planet and start negotiating with Mando to get Boba's armour back. A sudden transport of stormtroopers arrives and attacks and the three team up to take them down. They are eventually overwhelmed but Boba gets his armour and chases them away. Moff Gideon arrives on an imperial cruiser and blows up Mando's ship. He sends dark troopers which take Baby Yoda and takes him. Mando goes to the New Republic and meets up with Cara as he, Boba and Fennec plan to get Baby Yoda back.
The Good: I thought that the opening scene of the episode was really good, far more emotional than anything we got in the last episode, which was quite hollow. This time we actually get to see how Mando feels about Baby Yoda, with his encouragement of his training and the realization that he won't be able to be with Baby Yoda forever since he isn't able to go with him into the world of the force. Mando isn't force-sensitive so there's forever going to be a barrier blocking him off from Baby Yoda, and he's never going to be able to cross that barrier. I enjoyed Moff Gideon's arrival in the episode. Much of what happened before he arrived was fun, but it was lacking in true suspense and tension (see: The Bad). But with Moff Gideon arriving and destroying the Razor Crest, a vehicle we have grown to love over the past 14 episodes, it elevated the stakes immediately and the episode reached a brilliant level of tension as Baby Yoda is surprisingly kidnapped and Mando loses everything he has. It's an effective sequence that serves as a surprising climax for the show while leaving an exciting cliffhanger as Mando prepares to get Baby Yoda back. Additionally, I quite liked the final scene between Gideon and Baby Yoda as it emphasized the tyrannical nature of Gideon and the angry defiance of Baby Yoda which could make him very susceptible to the dark side. I probably will not use the name Grogu. I don't like it very much and Baby Yoda sounds much cuter. The Bad: The return of Boba Fett was badly botched. This doesn't feel like the character he used to be, and not in a good way at all. Suddenly Boba has become a chatterbox which is far removed from what he used to be. And this would be fine if we got to see how he became like this, but it's never revealed to us, which is very disappointing. In fact we learned nothing about Boba at all in this episode. We don't know his motives, we don't know much about who he is, we don't know why he wants his armour, and this prevents me from relating with the character at all. He feels like he could be replaced with literally anybody else and it would not make a difference. I feel nothing towards the character and even though his return had some cool moments, it left me feeling extremely empty inside, not dissimilar to Ahsoka from the previous episode. The show is just lacking storytelling with its characters. It doesn't help that Boba's arrival has several plot holes to it. If Boba was simply after his armour, why didn't he just get in from Cobb? He clearly knew he had it, so it makes little sense that Boba wouldn't have done anything about it. Furthermore, it's been 5 years since Boba was eaten by the Sarlacc which is a long time. We needed answers for what he's been doing since then and why he hasn't gone for the armour or left Tatooine in this time. We get no such answers and that is very sloppy. Furthermore, we need to know how he survived being eaten and how he somehow ended up away from his armour. Getting no answers for this is really weak character work and it leaves me with too many questions for Boba's return to feel even slightly satisfying. Additionally, why didn't Boba confront Mando when he saw him on Tatooine? Instead he has practically chased him across the galaxy! This seems incredibly counterproductive for Boba to do. And even more annoyingly, how the heck did Boba chase Mando through hyperspace? This was established in "The Last Jedi", it does not exist yet. And it's impossible to believe that Mando flew to both Corvus and Tython without using hyperspace since Mando has clearly stated that hyperspace is essential for his survival. On top of all that, the dialogue between Mando and Boba isn't good either. Boba was just looking to get the armour which was rightfully his, knowing full well that Mando would give it once he proves that the armour is his, which as we saw, he could easily do. But instead, Boba comes in with hostility and threatens Baby Yoda while also making it seem like he was just some random guy who wanted the armour instead of the rightful owner. All he had to do was explain to Mando that his father was a foundling and the tension would have deflated. Instead Boba inexplicably kept saying the exact wrong things to make things more confrontational. It ended up being a frustrating sequence. The ensuing action sequence also did not do much for me. The stormtroopers keep getting effortlessly destroyed by the main characters so they have already lost any sense of danger that they originally had. Seeing an entire transport run away from one man wearing armour only to be blown up immediately was incredibly silly, and now even an entire legion of stormtroopers pose no threat in the show. I will never be able to take them seriously, and that removes any sort of stakes to the action as I'm never concerned for the fate of the heroes. I thought the action in this episode ended up being hollow and boring because of the lack of stakes, and I didn't get into it until Moff Gideon arrived. I found the end of the episode to be disappointing too. Mando lost everything and it feels like he should be in a really bad place right now. But the episode doesn't spend enough time focusing on what the events of this episode have done to Mando, instead they are happy to gloss over his emotions to set up a rescue mission immediately. Also, the episode reveals that Cara is now part of the New Republic. I'm very disappointed that this key decision for Cara was glossed over entirely, making it almost entirely meaningless to see her there. Furthermore, she's going to be breaking the rules immediately which should be a key point of inner conflict for Cara. Instead it's not explored at all, and the kidnapping of Baby Yoda gets Cara on board right away. Is it too much for me to expect even a little bit of storytelling and character conflict from this show? The lack of details also completely ruined the planet of Tython. Tython ended up being nothing interesting at all, which is hugely disappointing when you consider that this is a planet in the deep core that used to house a jedi temple. The total lack of worldbuilding is a massive disappointment, and I find myself wishing that we had gotten much more than what we actually got. Also, why was Fennec coming back to life not a bigger deal than this? This is literal resurrection and it should be a massive deal for this universe, instead Mando shrugs it off entirely, and the moment isn't treated like as much of a big deal as it should be. It's very disappointing since Anakin's entire turn to the dark side hinged on him wanting the power to save Padme's life. For Boba to just have this power now is absurd. As a final point, this episode wasn't even 30 minutes long which is absurdly short. It makes me even more frustrated to see so many key storytelling details skipped over when there easily could have been another 20 minutes to this episode. It's one thing to have short episodes that make me wish for more, but it's another thing to have short episodes when there is clearly a lot more story that should have been told. The Unknown: What does Mando need Mayfeld for? How will he try to get Baby Yoda back? What happened to Boba that allowed him to survive the Sarlacc? How did he lose his armour? Why does he want it back? Why didn't he get it back sooner? Why did he stay on Tatooine for so long? What are his goals? How did he bring Fennec back to life? Best Moment: The opening moments between Mando and Baby Yoda. Character of the Episode: Baby Yoda. Conclusion: This episode had a quick pace and lots of action but not much more than that. The character dynamics, worldbuilding and storytelling was hugely flawed and I did not enjoy much of it at all. This episode should have had a lot more to it. Season 2 has been fun but the lack of quality storytelling is hurting it massively. Score: 52 Summary: Mando arrives on Corvus where the planet has been desolated. A village has been taken over by Morgan, a Magistrate who is opposed by Ahsoka. Ahsoka decrees that she will come back to kill her and free the village. Mando is offered a Beskar spear from the Magistrate to kill Ahsoka. Mando finds Ahsoka and introduces Baby Yoda to her. Ahsoka learns his name is Grogu and that he was trained in the Jedi Temple before it fell. Ahsoka trains Grogu a bit but after seeing his attachment to Mando, she refuses to train him. Mando agrees to help Ahsoka save the village in exchange for her training. Together they take down the village and Ahsoka defeats the Magistrate, demanding Thrawn's whereabouts from her. Ahsoka still refuses to train Grogu and tells Mando to take him to Tython where he could potentially connect with another Jedi using the force.
The Good: Some context before I start this review. I haven't watched "Rebels" but I have been filled in by a friend on key characters and storylines in the show so I am familiar with things like what Ahsoka has been up to and with the identity of Thrawn. That being said, I thought that Ahsoka's return in this episode was near perfect. Rosario Dawson did a tremendous job of capturing the essence of the character and bringing her mannerisms, personality and charisma to a live action TV show. Never did I feel like I was watching an imitation of the character, and that's due to some very impressive work by everyone working on this episode, but especially Rosario Dawson herself. This was truly an inspired bit of casting. The opening scene of the episode was terrific and allowed for the return of lightsaber action in a tremendously enjoyable way. Seeing Ahsoka dual wielding was a treat and the entire action sequence was wonderfully shot, memorable and brilliantly choreographed. The same can be said about the climax of the episode which was very entertaining. It was a fun action setpiece with lots of superb shots and well directed action. This is certainly an episode that will please just about every Star Wars fan out there. I really liked the Japanese theme to this episode. We've seen "The Mandalorian" parallel western films before, but now we get to see it try its hand at a samurai film, complete with the imperial rulers, the samurai playing both sides, and the showdown between Ahsoka and the Magistrate towards the end of the episode. On top of that, this episode did something really unique by intersplicing a samurai-inspired duel with a western-inspired showdown between Mando and Lang. It was a unique clash of styles that offered up something I had never seen before. The standout scenes of the episode were definitely the ones with Ahsoka and Grogu. This is the most information we have got on Grogu and it was all very fascinating to learn. The biggest of course being that he has a name! It will be tough to get out of the habit of calling him Baby Yoda, but giving him a name does give Grogu a greater sense of identity as a character which I really like. I thought that his backstory was very intriguing and raised some interesting questions (see: The Unknown). I especially enjoyed the brief bit of force training that Ahsoka did with Grogu and seeing Mando excitedly helping him unlock his powers was a wonderful character moment. There were a couple other details that I really liked. I enjoyed seeing Ahsoka fighting in a style similar to "The Clone Wars" showing that this show does care about the little details in lightsaber fighting styles. I also quite liked the reference to Anakin's fate, with Ahsoka refusing to train Grogu because of what happened to him, which makes sense following her encounter with Darth Vader in "Rebels". Ahsoka has learned from her past experiences, even if it leads her to make the same biased decisions that the Jedi council made back in the prequel trilogy to not train somebody out of fear of what they could do. This is in contrast to the lessons learned by Luke in the sequel trilogy, which is a fascinating bit of deep storytelling. Lastly, I liked the nod to Grand Admiral Thrawn, who it seems will be returning in this show. The Bad: While I had just praised this episode's creativity for paying homage to samurai films and western films at the same time, I wasn't entirely happy with it. The episode ended up feeling a bit phony and inorganic because of how both of these references were thrown at us towards the end with such little subtlety. I think the episode actually lost a great deal of emotional engagement and suspense by trying too hard and being too cute with the homages. I've seen a lot of people praising this episode as near perfect and I honestly do not agree. I enjoyed much of this, but I had issues with it as well. For one, the world of Corvus was a complete disappointment. I was excited to travel to a new planet in this episode but we have pretty much no world-building done here at all. We're not given any information on this village or how it works, and we're given less information on why the Magistrate is here on this planet. Apparently she is here to just cause destruction because that's all that burning the trees is going to do. Furthermore, we also have no idea why Ahsoka is on Corvus and how Bo Katan knows this, which is a question that should have been answered. If she was simply tracking the Magistrate, would she really have stayed on Corvus for as long as she does? This episode feels very familiar. Even though a lot more happened in this episode, it still follows the same basic formula of Mando arriving on a new planet, meeting some characters, getting a quest, finishing the quest, and then leaving. This is not new content at all and it's starting to become old since the characters aren't being explored very much during these adventures. Much of what we saw in this episode was familiar stuff. The action sequences lacked tension completely and relied heavily on the gorgeous cinematography to be good. Luckily for them, they were very well done, but there's only so much I can get out of good looking visuals. Furthermore, the homages in this episode were mostly already done. The western homages are starting to get old, and the slashes homages that were present here had already been explored back in "The Prisoner" from last season. Additionally, Ahsoka's current story feels like a carbon copy of Bo Katan's. Both characters have gone to a specific planet to complete a specific mission while on the hunt to find a character that they want to fight. Both storylines are very similar, and they don't have enough storytelling potential to interest me in seeing the same idea explored twice. Looking at things like that, a lot of things in this episode were recycled and while that doesn't make this a bad episode, it blocks it from being anything truly special since I feel like I've already seen a lot of what this episode has to offer. And that is the problem I have with "Star Wars" as a whole in its current state. "The Last Jedi" was a mixed movie to say the least, but it's the only "Star Wars" product that has come out since Disney acquired the license to have a unique vision and try something new. As much fun as "The Mandalorian" is, it plays it completely safe and relies far too much on fanservice and "giving the fans what they want" to tell its story. But in doing so, the show feels rather hollow and lifeless, as if it is only focused on pleasing the fans and nothing else. The show has forgotten to tell a story that's worth watching. There is nothing underneath the surface, no emotion, no complexity, no substance. The show feels empty in spite of all that it is doing right, and this is one of the biggest reasons that I just can't view this episode as any more than good. Shouldn't Moff Gideon have found Ahsoka through the tracker he planted on the Razor Crest? The pacing feels strange since the last episode ended with such a big cliffhanger and reveal but none of that was important in this episode. While I typically like standalone episodes like the ones this series is specializing in, I feel that this show could be paced better to service the overarching story. The Unknown: Who took Grogu from the temple? How did he manage to get away in the chaos? Why was Grogu prioritized to be taken out of the temple? Has Mando led Moff Gideon to Ahsoka? Where is Thrawn? Why is Ahsoka hunting him down? What has he been doing since he was sent to the unknown regions in "Rebels"? What will Mando find on Tython? Will a Jedi respond to Grogu when he gets there? Best Moment: Mando reacting to Grogu successfully using the force. It's the closest this episode got to genuine character investment. Character of the Episode: Ahsoka. Conclusion: I liked this episode. There is a lot to love with how Ahsoka's return was handled, and there was plenty of interesting lore and mythology revealed in this episode to keep things interesting. However, this was by no means a classic episode of television. It's excellent "Star Wars" content, but unfortunately the repetitive, shallow and unsatisfying nature of "Star Wars" following the failure of "The Last Jedi" means that excellent "Star Wars" content doesn't translate to excellent television. This is merely good. Score: 63 Summary: Mando stops on Nevarro and gets help from Greef to repair his ship. He catches up with Cara and Greef and learns that they have been rebuilding Nevarro, also with the help of Mythrol from "Chapter One". But there is an inhabited imperial base that remains and they need to destroy it. Mando agrees to help and they go to the base. Once inside, they discover it's a lab where force-based research is being done for Moff Gideon. They blow up the lab and escape after a chase. Mando leaves quickly. Moff Gideon is updated that the imperials have placed a tracker on the Razor Crest.
The Good: This was another really fun episode. I thought that a lot of things about this episode were better than the previous one. For one, the story was paced better and included more world building and story progression. Last episode was good but it felt quick and had an air of unimportance to it despite the big appearance of Bo Katan. This episode felt much more significant as a piece of the story. Last episode felt as if it was structured around Bo Katan telling Mando to go find Ahsoka. This one felt like it had a worthy story to explore. The second big reason I liked this more was that the characters were more enjoyable. Bo Katan's crew were new characters and were honestly a little boring in the prior episode. Returning to familiar characters like Cara, Greef and Mythrol worked really well here and made the mission to destroy the lab much more exciting than the mission to steal the weapons from the last episode. Overall, I thought that this episode was executed better despite feeling similar to the last one. The assault on the imperial lab was a lot of fun too. This is classic "Star Wars" with a group of characters going on a mission into enemy territory together and having it result in some wild fun, which is exactly what happened here. Even though the logistics weren't all there (see: The Bad), I greatly enjoyed the chase that served as the episode's climax and I thought it was very impressive to see this whole sequence in a TV show. The worldbuilding on Nevarro was much more satisfying than the worldbuilding on Trask. We already know this planet, so it was wonderful to come back later to see how much it had changed. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the quality of life improvements on the planet and I thought it was a nice bit of worldbuilding. Thankfully this episode had lots of elements related to the overarching plot and I really enjoyed that. The mysterious message in the lab was very interesting and raised tons of questions (see: The Unknown) while the ending scenes did a magnificent job connecting the events of this episode to other aspects of the story like the New Republic and Moff Gideon. The Bad: I've compared this episode a lot to "The Heiress" and for good reason. This episode felt extremely similar in structure to that one and it felt like I was watching a very familiar episode this time around. Sure it was a better structured episode, but this one had the misfortune of coming afterwards so a lot of what happened here didn't feel as original or impressive as the content from "The Heiress". Some of what happened at the imperial compound didn't make sense. First of all, how many imperials were on Nevarro to begin with? Didn't Gideon bring his full force in "The Reckoning' last season? It doesn't make sense that there are more troops that were just hanging out and not helping with the capture of Baby Yoda. Furthermore, the design of this lab was perplexing. There are speeders intended to protect the lab, but they are almost useless because half of them crashed and burned just trying to get out of the lab because of the cliffside location. Why would they not bring more ships instead of speeders that would be useless? Finally, how did the speeders even catch up to the vehicle that Cara, Greef and Mythrol hijacked? They had such a big head start that somehow completely vanished in between shots. Lastly, the heat shaft was unrealistically dangerous to be around. Are there no health and safety regulations in this universe? It's difficult to buy into the self destruct button to be so easily accessible, and it's difficult to buy into it being so easy to fall to your death into the heat shaft. The jokes with Mythrol's cowardice got old fast and were constantly repeated to the point of annoyance. This season's jokes haven't been very good so far. The Unknown: How much time has passed between season 1 and 2? Nevarro has been drastically improved and Greef's facial hair has gone completely white. Surely it has been a while, but how long? What is being studied at the lab? Will "The Mandalorian" tie into the sequel trilogy? Are we seeing the story of how Palpatine was brought back from the dead? It seems like a plausible end goal for these research projects. Did the people say that they have another child used in experimenting? How many others are there? Who deployed the tracking beacon on the Razor Crest? Was it a character we know? Did Greef or Mythrol betray Mando? Best Moment: The mysterious lab footage. It was very intriguing stuff that built the mystery of the show tremendously well. Character of the Episode: Cara. Conclusion: This was another pretty good episode. It had ups and downs, but overall it was an effective piece of entertainment that really got this season moving. Score: 64 Summary: Mando arrives on Trask and goes to the inn in search of information. He connects with a crew of sailors who offer to take him to the other Mandalorians. Along the way they try to kill Mando for his armour, but the other Mandalorians arrive and save him. They are Bo Katan who has a small squad. Mando agrees to help them steal weapons from an Imperial ship in exchange for directions to the jedi. The group successfully steal the entire ship and Bo Katan reveals that she is looking for the darksaber. Afterwards, Mando is given directions to Ahsoka and goes to meet her.
The Good: This episode is a joy for all "Star Wars" fans with the return of Bo Katan, further information on what's happened on Mandalore and the mention of Ahsoka. The overall narrative of the "Star Wars" saga got a lot more clarity with this episode and that's definitely a good thing. But what's best about this is that even for people who aren't big "Star Wars" fans, this is still very watchable stuff and it doesn't require prior knowledge of the series to be appreciated. I liked the introduction of Death Watch. Their different lifestyle compared to Mando was intriguing and it made it very interesting to see if Mando would accept them as Mandalorians even if they take off their helmets. I was also very engaged while the episode was giving us more information about Mandalore. The attack on the ship was a lot of fun. It was all-out action with a couple of pretty funny moments thrown in there as well. It's exactly the kind of wacky fun that I want to get from this show. Speaking of wacky fun, I once again loved the opening scene. I wasn't really into it for a while since it seemed clear to me that the Razor Crest was going to stick the landing no problem. But then there was that hilarious subversion as the ship plummets into the water at the very end, a moment that made me laugh out loud. The Bad: As you can see I don't really have much to say about this one. And that's because this episode was actually less than 30 minutes of content. It feels like far too short of an episode, and some extra time would have served the show well to better develop the new characters and spend more time exploring Trask. The frog characters ended up being quite useless. Here they are just a means to watch over Baby Yoda. Furthermore, Mando risked his life and money for this mission, and the reward that the Frog Man gives him is pointing to the inn where Mando has to ask and pay somebody else for more information. Is Mando really just the world's biggest chump? Plus how am I supposed to like the frog characters now since they basically just conned Mando into helping them with his only reward being a finger point towards the inn. Simply poor writing. Something about this episode makes it feel worse than it should be. Things feel somewhat rushed the entire time and you get the feeling that the story is hampered by the writers doing their best to keep things vague. The dialogue doesn't feel natural and it doesn't feel like there are actual characters on display here. The whole episode is very plot-heavy and doesn't do much of anything for the characters at all. That makes it feel pretty dull. The Unknown: What is happening on Mandalore right now? Why does everyone die when they go there? What happened to Bo Katan after The Clone Wars? How did she lose the darksaber to Moff Gideon? Will we be seeing Ahsoka next episode? What has she been up to? Best Moment: Probably Mando learning about Bo Katan and the disconnect he felt from her. This was the only part of the episode that actually explored a character in conflict. Character of the Episode: Bo Katan. Conclusion: This was a decent episode overall. While very short, this was a significant episode for "Star Wars" and it was exciting to watch. The show didn't care enough to try to make this a special episode, but it's fine for what it is. Score: 62 Summary: Manda returns to Peli who has arranged a deal for him. She found somebody who has information on a Mandalorian living on Trask, but in exchange Mando has to help transport a new character, the Frog Lady to Trask where he gets the information. Mando accepts but gets questioned by the New Republic and flees. In his escape he crashes into an ice cave and is attacked by spiders. The New Republic people find and save him, choosing not to arrest him after searching up his record due to how he allowed for the arrest of 4 other criminals back in "The Prisoner". Mando fixes up his ship and leaves.
The Good: There were more fun Easter Eggs here, as is expected from this show. I enjoyed bits and pieces of this episode. Mando's encounter with the New Republic was fun and it was nice to see that the show had the budget to pull off a ship chase sequence. I really enjoyed the opening scene which served as an exciting standalone opening sequence, showing Mando getting into trouble but fighting off the people who attacked him. Baby Yoda had cute moments in this episode that were fun, especially after he did almost nothing in the first episode. The Bad: This was a huge step back from the first episode and I disliked vast majority of the episode. The biggest problem was how pointless this whole thing felt. Nothing in this episode was important barring a few lines of exposition early on. Quite literally nothing about this episode progressed the storyline and it felt like a meaningless side story that could be skipped altogether. To make matters worse, there was also no character work in this episode at all, and the worldbuilding was lackluster, especially when put up against the brilliant work done in "The Marshal". This was by far the most pointless episode of the show so far. Furthermore, this is the only episode of the show that didn't end with a resolution of some kind. Mando is still flying towards Trask and all that was resolved was the threat of the New Republic and the spiders which are threats that just scream filler to me. I was never emotionally engaged in either of these storylines so getting resolution to them made me feel nothing. Not having Mando get to Trask by the end of the episode was a poor decision, and it feels genuinely perplexing when you realize how short this episode was and how easy it would be to squeeze in an extra scene to finish this story. The story itself was terrible. The Frog Lady is one of the most forgettable characters so far and there were so many inconsistencies with her. For one, she somehow switches from being able to understand Mando and not being able to understand him at will. In the first scene, she doesn't understand him at all, yet when she speaks through Zero (why is he even here, surely the droid-hating Mando would have sent him away ages ago), somehow she is able to understand Mando without translations. It's very inconsistent. Even worse are her eggs. Apparently these eggs are so important that they drive the entire plot. These eggs would be her only lineage so it makes sense. What doesn't make sense are her motives. Is the criminal Mando really the best way for Frog Lady to secure passage to Trask? She is in Mos Eisley, surely there are hundreds of others that could provide passage. Yet she insists on going with Mando for some reason. How did she get here anyways if her species is only able to survive on Trask? The writers don't care enough to answer this. And also, how the hell does she not notice Baby Yoda eating her spawn? The show plays this off as cute but it is quite horrifying to see Baby Yoda eat Frog Lady's babies and I don't find it anywhere near as cute as the show thinks it is. But it also feels strange that these eggs are so important yet Frog Lady doesn't notice when Baby Yoda eats them. Mando's motives in this episode are also terrible. Quite frankly there is no way I would believe that Mando would ever risk going on this mission, especially since, as he said, it's not safe for him to fly around slowly since he's a criminal. The only motive we are given is that Peli vouches for Frog Lady with her life which seems to convince Mando (although I really don't know why Mando trusts her so much anyways). But even that is proven to be worthless since Peli has only known Frog Lady for 10 minutes! So if that's the case, there is no reason for Mando to risk this! And the mission almost costs him his life anyways, so it makes Mando look incredibly stupid for taking this unnecessary risk. The actual story of this episode is based off of contrivances as well. The entire spider plot is only set into motion by the stupidity of the characters. Baby Yoda just has to eat everything to kick off this story (eating the spider was gross television that didn't need to happen) and that is just silly. Mando should know better than to leave Baby Yoda on his own, especially in an ice cave where he could easily get lost. Furthermore, Mando should be watching Baby Yoda closely with the frog eggs being out in the open, so it's absurd that we're supposed to believe he would look away for so long. Lastly, Frog Lady marching out into the cave alone for an inexplicable reason was just awful storytelling, and it's such a bad trope to have an important character leave for no reason and get themselves into trouble. The New Republic's involvement at the end of the episode was awful. First of all, they serve as a very unsatisfying deus ex machina. Secondly, their involvement makes no sense. These guys hunted down Mando and apparently could not find him so they went to the base and ran tabs, which is when they saw who he was and decide to let him go. Yet after that they apparently decided to go looking for him anyways and find him in the ice cave? Somehow? Why on Earth would they go back to find him, especially since he would most likely have been long gone in any other case!? Furthermore, these guys proceeded to save Mando's life by killing the spiders, yet inexplicably left him in the ice cave with a destroyed ship to die. Why did they bother saving him anyways? Nothing adds up and the motives of these characters make no sense. It's horrific TV writing. Furthermore, Mando tried to hide Frog Lady's presence from them in the earlier scene. Why? We aren't given any good reason why she should be kept secret and I was horribly confused by this. The Unknown: What will Mando find on Trask? What is the lead on another Mandalorian? Will Mando have any other encounters with the New Republic? Best Moment: The opening sequence. Character of the Episode: Baby Yoda for being cute in most scenes. Conclusion: This episode stinks. It was pure filler so it was almost impossible to emotionally engage, and on top of that it featured the worst writing that I have seen in this show so far. This was a huge step back after the season premier and it's an episode that I would honestly just skip. Score: 42 Summary: Mando gets information that another Mandalorian resides on Tatooine in Mos Pelgo. Mando arrives there and meets Cobb Vanth who bought Boba Fett's old armour from some Jawas to save his village. Mando comes to a deal with Cobb: Cobb will give him his armour if Mando helps defeat a krayt dragon that's terrorizing the village. Mando and Cobb form a plan to defeat it and ally with the Tusken Raiders. The village people and the Tusken Raiders battle the krayt dragon and Mando defeats it. Cobb gives him the armour and Mando leaves. Boba Fett watched him go from a distance.
The Good: The opening sequence provided a lovely return to the star wars universe. It was a tense and fun sequence with some brilliantly choreographed action that was a ton of fun to watch. Furthermore, it neatly pushed the plot forward by sending Mando on a mission to Tatooine to locate another Mandalorian. The sequence worked well and got the episode off to a hot start. The rest of the episode strayed away from a plot focus however. I was surprised to find out that "The Mandalorian" chose to open season 2 with a self-contained story rather than a more serialized episode. I actually thought that this worked in favour of the show. We were given enough of a plot hook to invest us early in the episode, and the big reveal at the end of the episode certainly suggests that Mando's trip to Tatooine will play an important role in the story even if we don't know exactly what it is yet. So even as a self-contained episode, this had enough significance to work as a season premiere. What helped this episode most was how good the main story was. Unlike the half-baked and sloppy self-contained episodes of last season, this episode had fantastic world-building, intriguing character development and explored some interesting themes. There was much more purpose to this episode and I found myself being much more actively engaged in the storylines here. What also helped was the decision to make this episode 50 minutes long. One of my biggest complaints from last season was the short episode length and thankfully that was rectified here, allowing this episode enough time to explore its potential. The Mos Pelgo storyline was really engaging. It was tons of fun to visit a new settlement on Tatooine, allowing us to explore the planet in ways that we never did before. The amount of worldbuilding we got here was outstanding with new depth given to the Tusken Raiders, their relationships with the townsfolk, the cultures of both communities and also the various species that reside on Tatooine like the krayt dragons and those new wolf-like creatures. I also greatly enjoyed Cobb's backstory and the history of Mos Pelgo that was shown through it. I really like how the show is addressing how the dissolution of the empire has affected various areas around the universe. This was easily some of the best worldbuilding that Star Wars has ever seen, and I enjoyed every second of it. I thought that the krayt dragon was handled magnificently. Not only was it a lovely nod to "A New Hope" (a krayt dragon skeleton is seen) and apparently some of the video games as well, but it provided an engaging threat for the heroes to deal with. Unlike the AT-ST from season 1's "Sanctuary", taking down the krayt dragon felt like a genuine struggle for the characters and there were times where victory looked difficult. I appreciate the effort that was taken into making the krayt dragon a credible threat that made sure that the heroes didn't seem needlessly overpowered. Additionally, the visuals for the krayt dragon were outstanding. The episode also nailed some smaller details. The western influence of the show is still a joy to watch, and I loved how western everything felt when Mando first arrived in Mos Pelgo. I really liked the return of the mechanic character from season 1 at the start of the episode. It was a harmless cameo that continued to make the world feel lived in. I also loved things like the addition of a pearl inside of the krayt dragon, the weird blue drink that was served in Mos Pelgo and Mando hitting Cobb's jetpack in a similar way that caused Boba Fett to fall into the sarlacc pit in "Return of the Jedi". These little details are satisfying additions to the show. The Bad: Standalone episodes still suffer from the fact that it's obvious that the heroes will succeed and that the events of this episode likely won't have much consequence on everything else. Luckily, this episode avoids that for the most part with its outstanding worldbuilding and the Boba Fett reveal making this stand out further. But it still doesn't completely avoid this trapping and I was still convinced throughout the entire episode that Mando would succeed and that the krayt dragon would be killed without any major losses. While I appreciated that this episode tackled a lot of deeper concepts, I thought that a lot of them were half-baked or rushed. The conflict between the Tusken Raiders and the village folk was incredibly rushed. Cobb treated it like it would be a big deal for the village people to accept working with the Tusken Raiders. Yet somehow there was never any issue aside from one minor altercation when an explosive was dropped. That's very disappointing and I wish that this conflict was explored in more meaningful fashion. Since it wasn't, and since it was obvious that the village folk would work with the Tusken Raiders, all of the scenes with Mando and Cobb trying to convince the village folk to ally with the Tusken Raiders were a complete bore. The Unknown: How did Mando learn how to speak with the Tusken Raiders? Last time he only used the sign language and didn't actually speak. What has he been up to in the time that we haven't seen him? How does the Tusken Raider language work? They seem to be able to communicate either verbally or through gestures. Both seem to work. Do they have multiple languages or is there some other system at work? I would love to learn even more about them. So Boba Fett is alive. What has he been doing all this time? Was he the mysterious person at the end of "The Gunslinger"? What are his current motives? Does he want his armour back? What does he make of Mando? When will we be seeing him again? I'm very curious. Best Moment: I really liked Cobb's backstory. It was an enjoyable 5 minute short story. Character of the Episode: Mando. Conclusion: This was a solid return for "The Mandalorian". This episode won't blow everyone away but it was a very well executed self-contained story with a lot to enjoy. I might be a little kinder to this episode than most, but I had a blast watching this. A good way to start season 2. Score: 65 Summary: Gideon gives Mando, Cara and Greef until nightfall to lay down their weapons. IG-11 saves Baby Yoda and attacks the town. Mando's group emerges and tries to fight out but everyone ends up trapped in the building again. They escape into the sewers with IG-11's help as flame troopers burn down the building. Mando finds that the group of Mandalorians have all been killed, save the armourer. The armourer tells Mando that he is in charge of fathering Baby Yoda now, and gives him a jet pack and the mud horn insignia. The group goes to escape, only to find storm troopers blocking the exit. IG-11 self-destructs to ensure that everyone else can escape. Gideon arrives in his TIE fighter and Mando uses his newly acquired jet pack to take it out. Mando leaves the planet with Baby Yoda, while Cara and Greef stay on Nevarro. Gideon emerges from the wreckage wielding the Darksaber.
The Good: This was an action-packed and wildly entertaining finale to a strong first season. There's a lot to like about this episode as it brings the season to a memorable and emotionally satisfying close while also laying down the foundation for season 2. Surprisingly, there was a lot of humour in this episode and it worked very well. Unlike the new trilogy, the humour here is organic and clever, and I found myself laughing out loud a number of times. Greef was given loads of excellent lines in this episode, and I especially liked the joke when he tried to get the baby to do the "magic hand thing". The opening moments were also incredibly well done. The conversation between the two scout troopers was funny and filled with personality. It added some depth to the world by developing the foot soldiers while also giving us an idea of the kind of relationship the soldiers have with the higher-ups. Plus I got a big laugh when the scout troopers proved to be inept at aiming their shots, poking fun at a common trope of "Star Wars" movies and TV shows. The main plot was pretty exciting. The heroes were left in quite a pickle at the end of the last episode, so we got to follow them attempt to escape. The action sequences early in the episode were a lot of fun and managed to include plenty of brilliant moments. I liked IG-11 blasting its way through town, Mando turning the tables by grabbing the E-Web Cannon, and Gideon making the smart move to take out Mando. The sequence was well done and allowed the heroes to do a lot of damage without ever making the villains look like chumps, which is actually quite impressive. It felt like the heroes were lucky to escape alive, without it feeling cheap. I really appreciate the extra thought that was put into this sequence, and I thought that it opened the episode on a great note. Mando's story is what carried this episode, and there were so many brilliant moments with him. I'm very impressed by how much the show has invested me into this character across just 8 episodes. Mando had several strong moments here. His near-death experience was very well done, and for a couple of moments I was left wondering if the main character would actually be killed of at the end of the first season. These scenes had a defined impact however. For the first time we got to see the face underneath the mask, and that really helped humanize the character and let us fully realize that Mando is just an ordinary man in fancy armour. I can't fully explain why this moment is what did it for me, but after that I fully accepted Mando as a human character with emotions regardless of how he had been portrayed earlier in the season. There were more strong moments with Mando. I really loved the moment when he decided to play the father to Baby Yoda and raise him. It was a long time coming, but it felt like a suitable next step for the relationship the two had been developing. I also really liked Mando's interactions with IG-11. It was nice to see Mando gradually begin to trust the droid as the episode went on, and Mando's obvious unwillingness to part with the droid at the end of the episode felt like an earned moment. I really like how Mando has evolved as a person as this series has went on, showing more and more of his softer side in every passing episode. IG-11's sacrifice was an excellent moment. The scene was executed really well, and I did feel for the droid after seeing it do everything it could to save Baby Yoda. The kicker of course was Mando finally coming around to the droid as it died. The story was simple, yet effective, and is exactly the kind of thing I want to see in a "Star Wars" TV show. I was pleased to get a little more background on Cara. In just a single line from Gideon, we know exactly why she rebelled against the empire. We learn she is from Alderaan, and I imagine that she lost her family when the empire destroyed the planet. Furthermore, Cara got a little more characterization in this episode which is welcome. We see her attempt to solve almost every problem she faces by shooting something, which tells us all that we need to know about her. The climax sequence was very good. The TIE fighter attack was scary and I thought that Mando got to defeat it in a way that managed to both provide an effective climax and take out Gideon in a way that feels earned but doesn't diminish how much of a threat he is. The Bad: What I didn't like was mostly just little inconsistencies that bothered me throughout the episode. What would Gideon have done if he accidentally killed Baby Yoda when burning down the building? That seemed careless on his part. Why did he keep Baby Yoda so far away from him with so few guards? That didn't make much sense either. The Unknown: The reveal that Gideon has the Darksaber was a big surprise. For those who don't know, the Darksaber is a Mandalorian relic that was a major part of "The Clone Wars". How did Gideon obtain the Darksaber? Did he kill the previous owner? Best Moment: IG-11's sacrifice was the moment that resonated most with me. Character of the Episode: IG-11. Conclusion: This was an excellent finale. It was extremely fun with great action and some strong character moments. It didn't quite engage me in the way that a lot of the best TV shows do, but then again, I never expected this show to do that. This was everything I wanted it to be, and I'm very glad I watched it. This ended up being a really good first season. It had some rough parts in the middle when there were some episodes that weren't entirely necessary, but overall I enjoyed myself. The characters were well done, there was strong world-building, good casting choices, superb direction and fun pacing. This show doesn't threaten to be anything particularly special, but it's a lot of fun to watch and I appreciate that. Something fresh like this is exactly what "Star Wars" needed to continue to be successful as a franchise. This show will be considered a gift for many "Star Wars" fans, and I think that casual fans can even get a lot of enjoyment out of this show as well. Is it flawless? No, of course not. But is it a harmless, easy-to-watch show? Absolutely. I will be eagerly awaiting season 2. Score: 68 Summary: Mando receives a transmission from Greef who organizes a meeting with him, regarding working together to murder The Client. Mando picks up Cara and Kuiil as backup and meets with Greef. Greef reveals his plan but the group is suddenly attacked by Mynocks which almost kill Greef, but Baby Yoda heals him. Greef murders his men and reveals that the plan was to kill Mando but he has had a change of heart. Greef, Cara and Mando enter the town and meet with The Client while Kuiil takes Baby Yoda back to the ship. Mando is pretended to be captured and is secretly given a blaster to kill The Client. But The Client suddenly gets a transmission from Moff Gideon who has his men kill The Client and surround the building. Gideon arrives in person. Some scout troopers on speeders hunt down Kuiil and appear to kill him to take Baby Yoda.
The Good: This episode felt very important. After watching three stand-alone stories, it feels refreshing to return to the central plot. Many of the characters we were introduced to earlier this season made a welcome return that made all of the patient procedural-based storytelling feel like it had a purpose. Now that Mando has gone all over the galaxy on the run, he now calls in all of the friends he has made along the way to come to his aid. It's quite satisfying to see everyone return, engaging me more into the events of this episode. Baby Yoda's role in this episode was wonderful as we got to see more of his abilities than ever before. He proves to be very helpful as he saves Greef's life by healing his arm, but also proves to be dangerous as he mistakes a friendly round of arm wrestling for a threat and force chokes Cara. It's quite shocking to see cute little Baby Yoda almost attempting murder because he isn't old enough to comprehend what he's seeing. This episode does a lovely job of teasing deeper and more meaningful storylines for Baby Yoda, and it makes me want to see more. The main story ended up being exciting and dramatic. There were a lot of twists and turns that made things consistently unpredictable. But unlike many lesser stories which sacrifice logic for plot twists, the writers were able to make every twist feel organic with a lot of impressive moments. The early half of the episode rode on the suspense created by the question of if Greef will betray Mando or not. The episode manages to squeeze in a twist in a very unexpected way by having Greef actually side with Mando after realizing Baby Yoda's true worth. Moments like this work very well because the writing delivers. The climax of the episode was fantastic. The Client returned in all of his intimidating glory. His dialogue was as creepy as ever and the scene was packed in palpable tension. Then everything exploded in a very unexpected way as a huge Imperial force arrives and guns down The Client, setting the stage for Moff Gideon to make his big entrance. Gideon immediately carries authority and comes off as even more intimidating than The Client. The standoff in the building will be an exhilarating start to the next episode. Then of course there is Kuiil's dramatic death which ended the episode on a shockingly dark and dramatic note (see: Best Moment). The Bad: I'm not sure that we needed a whole 2 minutes dedicated to how Kuiil repaired IG-11 and nursed it back to health. The sequence wasn't that interesting and we didn't learn anything we couldn't have otherwise guessed. Greef's change of heart happened a bit too quickly for my liking. I can understand him making the decision, but I feel like it could have been given more time to properly develop. The Unknown: Is Kuiil dead or just hurt? I assume that he's dead. What does Gideon want with Baby Yoda? What are his plans? What does he know about the force? There was some interesting discussion about how some people prefer the rule of the Empire. Are the people of Nevarro happier under the rule of Gideon? Best Moment: Kuiil makes a mad dash for the ship as he is being chased down by speeders. The scene builds tension wonderfully and is shot brilliantly to convey how close Kuiil is despite the speeders catching up to him. Then we cut away briefly and the camera slowly pans to reveal to us that Baby Yoda has been captured and Kuiil has been taken out along with his Blurg. It's quite a shocking death that has a big impact as Kuiil was a pretty beloved character. Character of the Episode: Greef. Conclusion: This was an exciting episode that set up the finale in a big way. I'm sad that this first season is already close to over since it has been very fun, even with a couple of weaker episodes in the middle. Score: 66 Summary: Mando meets with an old friend Ran for work. Mando uses his ship and joins Mayfeld, Burg, Zero and Xi'an to go rescue Qin, Xi'an's brother who has been arrested. The team get into the spaceship, and after fighting security droids, they make it to the control panel where a soldier calls for the New Republic before he is killed. Now on a time limit, the group go free Qin, but the group betrays Mando and leaves him to die. Mando escapes and defeats each member of the crew before leaving with Qin and returning to Ran. Mando collects his pay. Ran prepares to kill Mando as he flies away but it's revealed that Mando put the tracking beacon on Qin, allowing the New Republic to arrive and blow up Ran's shuttle.
The Good: This was a very fun concept for an episode. Having Mando interact with a crew working for a man he was formerly partnered with was pretty interesting. There was a lot of tension throughout the episode and I was always on edge, expecting the crew to turn on Mando at any given moment. It was never a matter of if, only when they would betray him, and that gave the episode more tension than it otherwise would have had. Furthermore, the dynamic between Mando and the crew allowed for some neat moral exploration, most notably when the group encounters the soldier who threatens to call for backup. What really made this work was how different it felt from everything that came before. I'm really enjoying how "The Mandalorian" is paying homage to tons of different genres, taking tropes from various different genres in each episode. Before this, there were references to westerns, monster movies and war movies, and now we get an episode dedicated to heist movies and thriller/horror movies. It was a wonderful change of tone, and it adds a degree more excitement for each episode when we don't know what kind of story to expect. This episode really nailed the heist and horror aspects. The first half of the episode was an exciting heist as the crew breaks into the ship and there is a wonderfully choreographed fight scene between Mando and the security droids. But when the crew turns on Mando, the tone turns ominous and we get a wonderful parody of a horror movie as Mando hunts down each crew member one after the other. The sequence is brilliantly executed, and manages to include just about every trope possible, making it both tense and funny, which was very impressive. I also liked the parallel with Baby Yoda hiding from Zero in Mando's ship, showing us a much goofier type of thriller. The Bad: Nothing outwardly bad. I'm still a little disappointed that the show has gone for a more procedural style of storytelling, but I'm alright with it as long as the episodes are as well done as this one. The Unknown: Where is Mando going next? What kind of episode are we getting next? Best Moment: The end of the episode was really well done. Mando escapes with Ran's money, and after what happened with Toro in the last episode, and the crew in this one, he is anticipating a betrayal. So in a master stroke, he sneakily leads the New Republic to Ran's shuttle and get shim killed without any trouble. It's a wonderfully satisfying moment as Qin and Ran get outsmarted, made better by the return of X-Wings, which will please any "Star Wars" fan. Character of the Episode: Mando. Conclusion: This was really strong stuff. While there isn't much of importance for the plot or characters, this was just fun. What this episode lacked in meaning, it made up for with pure entertainment value. I would be fine with more episodes like this. Score: 65 Summary: Mando's ship is damaged in a space fight with another bounty hunter so he lands on Tatooine to get it fixed. Short on money, Mando helps out Toro, a fellow bounty hunter trying to get accepted into the guild. Mando and Toro hunt down Fennec, a mercenary hiding out in the desert. They capture her and Mando leaves to organize transport. Toro realizes that Mando is wanted by the guild and kills Fennec, with the intent of turning Mando in instead. Toro threatens Baby Yoda but Mando is able to kill him. Mando and Yoda leave Tatooine. A mysterious person approached Fennec's dead body.
The Good: The opening scene was a fun way to start the episode. It's not "Star Wars" without an exciting spaceship battle at some point. The scene was well shot, and it was an impressive scene to include in a TV show. It was nice to see Tatooine again, and there were some nice callbacks with Mos Eisley, the Tusken Raiders and the two suns. The desert setting worked well for the main story as well. I was interested by Toro's mission to get Fennec, and I thought the story built up well and had a logical, yet entertaining climax. Fennec and Toro were solid one-off characters and I ended up enjoying this storyline much more than the village story. Although it is worth mentioning that this story was much more original and that likely played a part in me enjoying it a lot more. I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but I really love this show's music. It's so unorthodox, yet the style somehow blends perfectly with the "Star Wars" universe. I also appreciate that we are getting a minimum of one new track for each episode. I find myself constantly looking forward to whatever new music I'll hear while watching this show. The Bad: While it was fun to see Tatooine again, I'm also quite disappointed by the planet's return. Part of the allure of this show is that it could present "Star Wars" in a way that's wholly unconnected to the main series, giving us potential to explore new corners of the galaxies. Yet in just 5 episodes we're already looking backwards and returning to the same old planet that we have been accustomed to for years and years. It wasn't outwardly bad seeing Tatooine again, but it didn't capture my imagination like a brand new planet would have, and because of that I find the decision to go back to Tatooine quite perplexing. Hopefully we can head somewhere new in the next episode. The fanservice didn't really work for me either. I'm fine with subtle moments of fanservice as well as some well-placed Easter Eggs, but this was too much. Tatooine was pretty much thrown into our face, and disappointingly, I don't even think the show was able to accurately present the planet to us. Mos Eisley felt dead, and the cantina was a far cry from the lively, intimidating and fascinating location we were introduced to back in "A New Hope". I understand that this is all likely due to budget constraints, but if you can't recreate Mos Eisley in all of its glory, then why bother? This episode still felt a lot like a filler episode. I'm not opposed to these one-off plots, and I think they do work decently well in shows like "Person of Interest". But in a season with only 8 episodes, it's downright criminal to waste 2 entire episodes on slow-moving filler plots that don't necessarily need to be included. The Unknown: Who was that person at the end that fond Fennec's body? Was there a reason other than budget for the cantina being so empty? Is there some significance to this? Best Moment: Fennec negotiating with Toro was a great scene. It built tension in an organic way, while also being one of the few moments in the episode where I wasn't entirely sure what was going to happen next. Character of the Episode: Toro. His short arc was a pretty fun one. Also I can't keep putting Mando here every week. Conclusion: This was a fine episode that was a breeze to watch. But I do feel that there should be more plot movement, and that "Star Wars" should really be focusing on treading new ground instead of drudging up the past. Score: 56 Summary: Mando lands on a quiet planet to lay low for a while. He swiftly comes to blows with Cara Dune, an ex-imperial shocktrooper who is also hiding on the planet. Mando decides to leave the planet upon Cara's request so that they both won't draw attention to themselves. Some villagers come to Mando asking him to help their village which is being attacked. Mando and Cara go to the village to help and they work together with the villagers to fight off a horde of bandits, destroying an AT-ST in the process. Mando is offered to stay at the village, but he decides to leave when a bounty hunter tries to kill Baby Yoda.
The Good: The production of the show remains wonderful. The visuals in this episode were stunning, ranging from the outstanding village set to the frightening red eyes of the AT-ST. The entire episode was put together very well. The show also continues to pay homage to Westerns in a unique way, and there was even a nod to Jurassic Park in this episode with the AT-ST which I appreciated. The examination of Mando remains interesting to me. Here we learn why the Mandolorians don't take off their helmets in front of others, and it was a good question to answer as there was a certain disbelief to the idea that Mando never removes his helmet. I also thought it was a good idea to explore why Mando refuses to stay in one place for a long time, and the story of him grappling with the idea of staying at the village is a good one. The Bad: This episode didn't work. This show as a whole works so well because of how it blends live action drama with animated TV shows. This episode simply felt like a 40 minute animated TV show episode in a lot of ways, and that completely destroyed the balance between live action and animated. In the end, this felt less like "The Mandalorian" and more like a live action version of "The Clone Wars". Now I do enjoy some episodes of "The Clone Wars", but my least favourite episodes were often the ones which had generic, predictable plots which I was never given much reason to invest in. I understand that Jon Favreau is a fan of "The Clone Wars" and wanted to reference that show's style of storytelling in this episode, but I feel like there is a better way to reference "Clone Wars" without having an episode that falls into the same trappings. I found it difficult to get invested in the villagers. They were very simplistic and 1-dimensional, like they were designed specifically so kids could like them. That's an issue because these characters seem designed specifically for kids. The best characters in family friendly shows can appeal to both kids and adults. Just look at the success of a character like Han Solo and the failure of a character like Jar Jar Binks as an example of this. In this case, the show missed the mark and ended up creating characters that felt silly. The biggest misfire was the mother who immediately took a liking for Mando. We don't know why she likes Mando, we are given no reason for her to like him, and we are given no reason to care for their relationship. That's an issue, especially considering how important this relationship was for this episode. The action sequence at the end of the episode was okay, but there was never any tension. It's a shame that the fantastic visual of the AT-ST was wasted in a subplot where the main characters were never in any danger. Now if the AT-ST appears again in a scene that tries to be suspenseful, it won't feel as special. The action sequence never got me to the edge of my seat, and it was crystal clear that nobody would die and that the bandits would be easily defeated. I had dozens of nitpicks for the plot of this episode, but I won't bother to list them here. I'm pretty sure that most readers will know what I'm talking about even without me listing some examples. The problem with making an episode that is designed to appeal to kids is that there are almost always going to be plot holes and questionable character decisions that break your immersion, and most people who watch the show will notice them. That is another factor that worked against this episode. This episode also had the underlying feeling of being filler. Nothing significant happened here outside of Cara's introduction, and this feels like a waste of an episode in an 8-episode season. It's also quite disappointing that this uninteresting plot was somehow the longest episode of the series so far. The Unknown: Cara Dune is an interesting new character and I really hope that there is more depth to her than what we have seen so far. Her imperial background could be a good set-up for some backstory for her, which would be very good. As it stands right now, her character seems like the generic "strong female type" that Disney likes to include nowadays in order to avoid controversy. I've put her introduction in The Unknown because I'm not sure if I'll look back and like her inclusion in the story or dislike it, as my feelings for her are quite mixed. Where will Mando go next? Will the bounty hunters keep following him? What happens with Cara? Will she go with him? Or will she stay on this planet? Best Moment: I'll go with the reveal of the AT-ST. Such a brilliant visual. Character of the Episode: Mando. Conclusion: This was disappointing. With Mando free to go anywhere in the galaxy following the last episode, I was expecting to get something new. To retread old ground that "The Clone Wars" had already visited was a poor choice, even if it was made with the intent of honouring a TV show that the showrunner enjoys very much. Hopefully this episode was just a bump in the road and we can get to better content in episode 5. Score: 49 Summary: Mando gives Baby Yoda to The Client and gets a lot of Beskar as a reward. He takes it to the armorer and gets a full suit of armor made, attracting the attention of many local Mandalorians in the process. He takes a new job from Greef, but finds himself unable to abandon Baby Yoda. Mando infiltrates the compound and breaks out by force with Baby Yoda. The bounty hunters are notified of Mando's betrayal so they all corner him and attack him, intent on getting Baby Yoda back. The other Mandalorians arrive and help Mando escape.
The Good: This was really strong stuff. The pacing was fantastic throughout the episode, and I was almost always at the edge of my seat. The opening scenes of the episode were really well done. This show has been remarkable with the little things so far. The meeting with The Client is built up in an extremely sinister way as the show gives us Baby Yoda's POV when travelling through the town. It's made explicitly clear how alien this all is for him, and it increases our fear that something bad is going to happen. The ensuing scene with The Client is filled with tension because it's so hard to predict what happens next. The story could conceivably go in a number of directions, and the mysterious, threatening nature of The Client only amps up the mystery. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, and by the time the scene ended I was exhausted. But surprisingly Mando had made the decision to abandon Baby Yoda. I really appreciate that Mando didn't immediately refuse to give Baby Yoda to The Client. Instead we get a lovely mini-arc as Mando tries to resume his normal life and pretend that nothing is wrong. But he is unable to resolve his inner conflict. He tries his hardest to leave Baby Yoda, but after being reminded of his time as a foundling and his hate for the Empire, Mando doesn't take it anymore and decides to head back. This story ended up being a joy to watch, and that's surprising when you consider how generic it seems on paper. There's something about the execution and the attention to detail that makes this work so well, and I have to give full credit to the director and the writers for that. The action sequences in the back half of the episode were also done tremendously well. Extended action scenes can be really difficult to do. It's hard to make the audience believe that the protagonists are in danger the entire time, and it's just as hard to create several of these intense scenarios that still offer a logical escape for the heroes. This episode did an exceptional job of avoiding the trappings of extended action scenes. Every sequence was realistically choreographed and filled with dread. Plus the sequences were filled with satisfying moments which followed up on some previously established plot threads. Mando murdering the annoying gatekeeper droid was hilariously satisfying, Greef being saved by his piece of Beskar actually made sense, and the bounty hunters all being sent to hunt down Mando was a brilliant way to justify the many expositional lines explaining tracker fobs. Each of these moments were tremendously satisfying and added to the drama. This series feels really unique. The faster pace and shorter length makes this feel more like an anime/cartoon series than a TV drama sometimes. This gives the show an identity and unique style to it, and so far it has been working really well. Somehow this series has combined the strengths of both animated and live-action TV series while avoiding almost all the weaknesses of both. It's made for a show that feels different and fun, and I can't wait to see more. The Bad: The only part that bothered me a little bit was the Mandalorians all arriving to save Mando. The moment made sense and it was pretty enjoyable, but it felt a little too easy. It's a minor quibble though, and it certainly won't detract from the episode's score. The Unknown: What was The Client planning to do with Baby Yoda? Who is he anyways? What is his connection to the Empire? Why do the Mandalorians stay in hiding all the time? What happened when the Empire purged their race? Why were they purged? How many are left? Do they have any remaining communities? What is Greef's future role in the story? I doubt that he is done with Mando after what happened. Will he be an enemy? An ally? A wild card? I'm very intrigued. Best Moment: There were many suspenseful moments, but my favourite is probably Mando bringing Baby Yoda to The Client. The Client is an unpredictable mystery at the moment, and when Mando overstepped his bounds by askign The Client what his plans were, I became really nervous that something big might go down. Even though nothing happened, that moment was the most engaged I was in the entire episode. Character of the Episode: Mando. Conclusion: This was an action-packed episode with a lot to enjoy. This show has found its identity and ha proved itself to be more than competent enough at telling a compelling story. It seems my fears from the first episode were misplaced as this show has been very well done so far. Let's hope that the rest of the season can continue this. Score: 67 Summary: Mando and Baby Yoda go back to the ship only to find that it has been stripped by Jawas. Mando attacks them and kills a few of them but they escape in the Sandcrawler. Mando goes back to Kuiil who negotiates a deal with the Jawas. Mando has to collect an egg for them and they will trade him the parts. Mando has to fight a mud horn to get the eggs and he nearly dies. However, baby Yoda saves him by using the force. Mando trades the egg, repairs his ship and says goodbye to Kuiil.
The Good: This was a bold episode to make. There wasn't a whole lot of plot development here, and on paper the plot of the episode seems quite thin. But this actually served an important purpose: to get us acquainted to Mando. Mando wasn't an interesting character in the first episode. He doesn't talk much and we don't get to see his face. That means that we must learn about him directly through his actions. This episode allows us to do that perfectly by giving Mando a number of problems to overcome that allow his character to shine through so we can understand him better. In this episode we see that he is hot-tempered, heroic, reasonable and even a little bit caring through his actions alone. That's very smart writing, and it turns Mando into somebody who I'm starting to grow fond of, which is a big improvement on the first episode. We also get to see more from Baby Yoda in this episode which is also welcome. Presumably he will be the focal point of the season so it is very important that we understand who he is and also understand the relationship he has with Mando. While note much happens in this episode, it is able to effectively convey the bond that Baby Yoda has developed with Mando in such a short amount of time. Even without any stand-out scenes, simply seeing these two traveling together allows us to grow more attached to them as a unit. If the show wants there to be any good drama between Baby Yoda and Mando, it's essential to do these little things first, and so far the show is succeeding. The return of the Jawas is very welcome. Jawas are a staple of "Star Wars", and I'm beyond pleased to see them return in a way that isn't simply dumb fanservice. They had a reason to be in this episode, and they presented Mando with a good dilemma. Plus, the action sequence of the Sandcrawler was a ton of fun. There wasn't any tension or suspense, but the scene was directed superbly to overcome this flaw through creativity and levity. The Bad: The episode felt too short. When Disney promised an hour long live-action series, I wasn't expecting 30 minute episodes. When you realize how little happens in this episode, it's a bit underwhelming and the slower pace becomes more frustrating when we get less time to enjoy the episode. Was that tiny knife really enough to kill the mud horn? It looks like it barely even got through the skin layer. The Unknown: Does the universe still not know much about the force? Mando and Kuiil both seemed shocked by Baby Yoda's abilities. I guess news of Luke Skywalker wouldn't have spread everywhere across 5 years which would make sense. How do Baby Yoda's force powers work? Why does he need to sleep after using them? How many abilities does he have? We saw him attempt to heal Mando earlier in the episode. Why does he have the force anyways? Is he somehow related to Yoda in a direct way? Best Moment: Baby Yoda using the force was a great moment that is very important for the series. Character of the Episode: Mando. Conclusion: This was short, but it featured some really good stuff. This show feels like it's taking after "Stranger Things" a little bit. The show is a ton of fun, but it doesn't offer too much emotionally. That's completely fine as long as the quality of the show doesn't dip like "Stranger Things". I'm hoping that the large scope of the "Star Wars" universe will be enough to keep this series fresh for the seasons to come. Score: 63 Summary: The Mandalorian collects a target and leaves with him, freezing him in carbonite. He returns to Greef Carga who pays him and gives him a new, much more secretive target. The Mandalorian meets with The Client who reveals that the target is a 50 year old and gives him the target's last known location. The Mandalorian receives some Beskar which he turns into armour. The Mandalorian flies to the planet and meets Kuiil who teaches him to ride Blurrgs. Kuiil leads The Mandalorian to where the target is located before he leaves. A bounty hunter droid also arrives and the two fight together and defeat the opponents. They discover the target is a baby of the same species as Yoda. The bounty hunter droid wants to kill it so The Mandalorian kills the bounty hunter droid.
The Good: There was plenty to like about this. It's extremely refreshing to see "Star Wars" as a live action TV shows. The animated shows like "The Clone Wars" never successfully sucked me in because the world felt too alien from the realistic and lively world that was developed in the original trilogy. There was a notable disconnect and that hurt my ability to get immersed into that show. Thankfully, immersion isn't a problem here. The sets are magnificent, the effects look good, and the world feels lived in, which is important for a franchise like "Star Wars" that relies so heavily on the fantastical elements of its world. It really is a joy to see this series depicted successfully as a TV show, and there is quite a bit of potential for us to get something great out of this show. This entire show feels like a gift to the "Star Wars" fanbase. The world-building is top-notch, there are countless references, and the fast-paced action feels like it's straight out of a "Star Wars" movie. If you're not a fan of "Star Wars", this likely won't mean much to you, but it means everything to the faithful fans of the franchise. The people behind the scenes showed a terrific understanding of their target audience and they crafted something for them to truly enjoy. I liked the western elements of the show. Several moments felt like they were taken straight out of a spaghetti western and I think that added a lot of style to the show. It's a unique take on "Star Wars" and I think it did a pretty good job of making the show stand out. I just hope that the western theme will remain in the series now that it's introduced. The ending of the episode was really well done. The action scene was a lot of fun, and the twist of there being a baby Yoda (I'm just calling Yoda's species "Yodas" until we get an official name) was quite clever, and it serves as an interesting hook. The Yoda will likely have a big impact on the plot of the show, while simultaneously serving as a way for us to get to know The Mandalorian a little better, which I'm all for. The Bad: This show's greatest strengths are also its greatest weaknesses. "Star Wars" is a fun license, but I don't think it's capable of making truly special television. The franchise has already been explored quite thoroughly and I'm not sure that there are very many interesting places for the series to go. Outside of the cliffhanger, this episode does not inspire confidence in that regard, as a lot of the content feels quite familiar. Furthermore, I do worry about the appeal of this show. I highly doubt that non-Star Wars fans will enjoy this, and that is a problem. TV shows should be enjoyed by everyone, not just a set audience. I hope this show works on having a more widespread appeal in the long run. Characterization seems like it's going to be an issue. We spent the entire episode with the main character, yet I feel like I hardly know him. That's not good because characters are what keep us returning to a TV show. Without a strong lead, it becomes much harder to be invested in a TV show. There is nothing interesting about The Mandalorian, and so far he comes across as a generic silent hero without very much depth at all. The design of the character also doesn't help. He's always wearing a mask which alienates him from the audience. Pedro Pascal is a good actor, but he isn't able to act in the role because we never get to see his face. The disconnect between the audience and the main character is a worrying sign for the show. The side characters don't seem very interesting either. Hopefully I'm wrong about this, but the characters seem pretty unremarkable so far. Being a Disney TV show, there are plenty of silly jokes that attempt to lighten the mood. And just like in the Marvel movies, the jokes are very hit or miss. The Unknown: What is The Mandalorian's backstory? The brief flashbacks suggest there is more to him than what meets the eye. Why is he a bounty hunter? What are his goals? Why does he hate droids? Could it be that the battle droids killed his family or something like that back in the Clone Wars? What's the deal with the side characters introduced in this episode? What are their stories? What will they contribute to the series? Why was there a target on the baby Yoda? Is it dangerous? Why? Best Moment: I'll go with the cliffhanger. That was a brilliant hook. Character of the Episode: The Mandalorian. Conclusion: This was a solid pilot episode. There were certainly a lot of flaws, but I still got a lot of joy out of seeing "Star Wars" adapted into a live-action TV show. Score: 62 |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
February 2024
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