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The Mandalorian took no time at all in getting to its obligatory comedy actor cameos this week as the two speeder bike troopers who took off with baby Yoda were played by Jason Sudeikis and Adam Pally. The two started the episode off with a very funny though oddly long scene of them just basically hanging out and chatting. They mention how cold Moff Gideon is and how easily he will kill his own men and have a target practice that had me literally laughing out loud. It is very fun and refreshing how often the tropes and clichés of the universe have been used in this series for comedy.
When IG11 showed up, the comedy quickly gave way to action though as IG11 kind of became the Deus Ex Machina of the episode, breaking one troopers hand and basically kicking their asses across the desert. I did like Taika’s performance of the droid but as he then charged into town and laid waste to everything I felt no tension, no drama, from this or frankly most of the episode.
The sequence of Stormtroopers assembling an E-web blaster and turning the building our heroes were hiding in into swiss cheese was cool. I’d say most of this episode was fairly high on the cool scale. But for some reason the emotion and drama just never felt there for me. Part of this has to be the odd pacing as there are several moments during the siege where everything stops and our main characters are given time to have a back and forth exchange and plan what to do, but why aren’t the troopers storming in? When Moff Gideon, who I had high hopes for in Mister Esposito, offers them time to think over surrender until nightfall … umm why? He holds all the cards and at that point has no clue IG11 has the child. For all he knows his men are bringing it back so why does he need them?
Then we get the full and uncut origin of Mando which first retreads the same footage we’ve already seen and then basically adds nothing to what we already all figured out. Mando was rescued by Mandalorians and made one of them. Though we do get a clarification that being a Mandalorian is not a race but a creed. Personally I kind of already saw it that way but sure let’s make it clear.
I did enjoy the action in the episode, the siege and IG11 tearing through with the child strapped to his body was very cool. Moff Gideon though just came off as very awkward to me. I see what they were going for with his slow and steady approach supposed to show power and confidence, but it just seemed odd having him creep up and blast Mando in the head. The moment where he blows up Mando worked in showing Gideon fights smarter not harder, but with such a great actor we should have gotten more from him than we did here.
The Flamethrower trooper was pretty impressive and I’d love to see more of the variation in enemies moving forward to next season. Of course baby Yoda saves the day and arguably might kill the trooper in a way not very Jedi like.
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Of course when Mando seems to be dying, the news that Season Two has already been greenlit undercut any possibility he’d die, plus it feels like just an excuse to give us our one unmasked moment. We all knew they would do it at least once so okay, fine. The way he says again that ‘no living creature’ may see his face in front of IG11, I think every living person with two brain cells could see the direction this was going. Just as clunky as Lord of the Rings‘ ‘No man can kill me’ line but without any of the emotion or tension to mask how poorly written that exchange was. Then from near death to pretty okay minutes later after getting a bacta spray makes you wonder why everyone doesn’t carry the stuff with them all the time.
Sadly, after they make their way into the sewers we see what became of the rest of Mando’s people as a pile of armor is found, no bodies cause this is Disney! However the Blacksmith is still alive and ready to exposit all over us and set up next year’s main plot: Declaring the child as a foundling and charging Mando that by their creed he is the child’s father and must either raise him or return him to his people wherever they may be in the galaxy.
This whole section felt like a video game cut-scene to me. Setting up the next game, giving a last level upgrade in a jet-pack for Mando, and literally telling him to restock his munitions. Any gamer will recognize the pattern from just before a boss fight. I actually kind of enjoyed it because of that. Also the scene of the blacksmith fighting off troopers was pretty damn awesome and with those hammer attacks one of the more violent moments.
The lava boat scene dragged a bit and felt again like bending over backwards to set up a reason why IG11 would be gone. I know I was supposed to be impressed by the call back to his self destruct from Episode 1 (Chekhov’s gun strikes again!) and touched by his growth and sacrifice, but all I could think is why can’t they throw his bomb ahead to take care of them that way? I also know they wanted to show Mando that not all droids are bad but again I felt zero emotion here. I had nothing to tie me to this character’s fate. Oh and the R2 unit ferry boat driver with the legs was some nightmare fuel.
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The final battle, yes the boss battle, was with Gideon’s TIE fighter. Oh no! If only someone had just gotten a jet-pack! Yeah, so parts of this fight were kind of cool but it was probably one of my least favorite action scenes of the series. Basically they shot at him a bunch doing absolutely nothing and Mando blows up his ship. When you boil it down, that was it. Greef’s line about having the child do the magic hand thing was funny but really this scene was not how I imagined the season ending. I was bored. The rest of the episode had the cheesy and cliché parting of ways with Greef and Cara I guess making home on that planet now? None of them thinking to check the wreckage of the TIE fighter.
This does bring us to the cliffhanger that makes us ask a ton of questions. Gideon cutting his way free and brandishing a Darksaber, which I had to jump down a bit of a Wiki rabbit hole to understand. Basically belonging to a Mandalorian Jedi and then being taken, stolen, lost over the years. So it doesn’t say anything about Gideon having or not having Force powers, but it does tell me this will be Mando’s motivation and goal for next season, in addition to returning the child home.
I have to say this finale was not even in my top three episodes of the season. It lacked the emotion and tension I was expecting and while production values were decent, I’d really say it was just forgettable. Overall I do really enjoy this series and can’t wait for Season Two but there were several hiccups and low points that could easily be addressed and fixed. With some small changes and the shift in focus, Season Two has a ton of material to work with and I look forward to seeing the results next year.
What did you think of this episode? Sound off in the comments below!
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