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So last week there was a message scrambled on Mando’s ship from Carl Weather’s Greef Karga. I thought it was just about their continued pursuit of Mando but this week we found out it was really a message imploring him to come back and help kill the client as Greef has had second thoughts about the Imperial presence in town.
So we all knew this was a double cross right? I mean is there any universe that this doesn’t stink to high heaven? Luckily Mando was just as suspicious as any one of us and much like an old Western or any old fantasy story, all the memorable characters we met on the trip out are brought back in on the trip back to square one.
First retrieving Cara Dune, who we find embroiled in an electric tether fight for cash with what appears to be a member of Darth Maul’s race. She is quick to join up and it’s off for our next team member but not without some bumps in the road as Mando once again leaves baby Yoda unattended in the cockpit and the little guy nearly crashes their ship. Mando! Stop leaving the child unattended … in space … in the driver’s seat! Yeesh man!
Next stop is back for Kuiil and surprise surprise, IG11 is repaired and working as his servant. This came as no shock to me as his voice actor Taika Waititi is directing the finale so I just assumed we hadn’t seen the last of his character. What I didn’t expect however was instead of a quick ‘I reprogrammed him’ line to explain him away, we got a short sequence showing the droid relearning everything, from how to walk to serving tea and, according to Kuiil, developing a new and separate personality from his old assassin self. Though with the number of fake-outs, which were very amusing, I’m feeling like we will definitely see the droid back in action but for which side I can’t guess.
The most off-putting moment came when, during an arm wrestling match between Mando and Cara, lil Yoda came to Mando’s defense and started Force choking Cara. Was this just simple defense instinct or a foreshadowing of something darker? I certainly hope we don’t see the little guy start murdering people in the finale but it would be unexpected.
The biggest surprise came soon after they met up with Greef and his guild members. They camped out for the night and got attacked by a pack of what looked like Mynocks, giant winged vicious beasts. The sequence came from nowhere and the smoke and darkness kept you guessing where they were coming from. Some very tense moments here and at first I assumed Greef had set them up … until he got what appeared to be just a flesh wound until we were told he was also poisoned and heading for certain death. That’s when Yoda Jr showed us he’s much more powerful than we first thought as he is able to close and heal the wound just by touching him! Baby Yoda has Wolverine powers guys!
But as we found out later, this moment saved all their lives as Greef was of course going to double cross them but after being saved decides to double cross his own men instead, shooting them and telling us what we all pretty much knew that his plan was to turn them in to the client.
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So with a new plan to present Mando as a prize to get them close enough to kill the Client, Mando is at least smart enough to send Greef back to the ship with the child while bringing the pod as a decoy, a smart reasonable move. Once face-to-face again with the Client, the current state of the Republic is brought up again, bringing up how The Empire at least kept order while The New Republic has become total chaos. Tension builds as we wait for the inevitable confrontation, until an unexpected call pulls the rug out.
A hail of blaster fire annihilated The Client and pinned our heroes down by a squad of black troopers and just an ever loving ton of Stormtroopers backing them up. As Mando calls out to Greef to rush back to the ship, his call is intercepted and two speeder bikes run off to catch him. That’s when we realize that the real power behind everything that’s happened has arrived in Giancarlo Esposito. While no explanation is given yet, we do see Greef supposedly shot dead as baby Yoda is scooped up, a giant cliffhanger leading into the finale and so many questions to answer still.
This was a great lead up to what I hope is an epic finale. Tying together everything that’s happened so far, save for a few things, and you can bet Ming-na Wen will show up too! It just kept a great pace and fit in so much in such a small package. The finale sure has a lot to wrap up but based on these last couple weeks I have full confidence.
What did you think of this episode? Sound off in the comments below!
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