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
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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