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The fallout from baby Grogu continues both in the fan community as well as in the series itself as this week started with an absolutely adorable scene of Mando being smitten with how cute The Child is when responding to his name. Also yes, I will still use The Child from time to time as well as Baby Yoda and Grogu, deal with it!
Upon arriving to the Jedi temple, a few plot points happen in fairly quick succession that were frankly quite clumsy and pretty much broadcast what would be happening. First of which was the temple’s design and peak being too small to land a ship on., Mando had to land far off and use his jet pack to bring Grogu to the Seeing Stone. Grogu during a jet ride might be his cutest look yet by the way.
Upon arriving at the peak and setting Grogu on the Seeing Stone, at first it seemed the whole thing had been overblown, that the stone did nothing and was another red herring … until that is Grogu bursts with a energy field reminiscent of many a Dragonball Z episode. Of course it is at this moment that the collective Star Wars fandom had their minds blown as the Slave 1 flies over head. For those in the know this was huge as the ship is that of Bounty Hunter Boba Fett.
Here is where the next part of our setup kicks in as Mando attempts to retrieve Grogu from his trance and finds the field impenetrable, forcing him to leave The Child behind and go deal with the bounty hunter himself. I did feel vindicated after my theory from last season was confirmed here. As once Mando confronts Fett, he is told that a sharpshooter has Grogu in their sights. I had guessed that Ming-na Wen’s Fennec was not truly dead last year and even had surmised Fett was the owner of the pair of boots seen by her body. Nailed it!
It seems that Fett was able to save Fennec and put her in his debt by installing robotic parts in her stomach. During this sort of Mexican Standoff, Fett declares all he wants is the armor Mando retrieved from the Marshal weeks ago. Which did raise a few questions. Had Fett not been able to find his armor? Tatooine isn’t exactly the biggest planet and a Marshal walking around in it would certainly get around. If he did know where it was why not just take it? Of course we also don’t get any real answers on how he survived the Sarlacc pit either, just some vague musings about how he was once left for dead too.
Here is where a big alarm bell went off in most of our heads as Fett demands Mando lower his weapon AND remove his jet pack. No no no, by now we’ve seen The Child separated on a distant peak with no ship and no jet pack … we all know where this is heading. Now if you saw the thirty minute runtime and thought this would be light on action, boy were you wrong, cause this is where the Empire shows up and a full on firefight ensues between Mando, Fennec, and Fett against an armada of stormtroopers and then Dark Troopers.
The Dark Trooper inclusion is another big world building move as they had only ever been in video games in the past. Whether these versions follow the same clone/ cybernetic hybrid remains to be seen as we don’t actually get to see them in action.
The battle with the Stormtroopers was a wild time though and veteran Director Robert Rodriguez got to answer a question many fans have had over the years: ‘Why is Boba Fett so popular?’ Seeing as the character had only two lines of dialogue and maybe five minutes of screen time previously, it’s become a bit of a joke that he rose to such popularity while barely ever showing he is even a competent hunter.
Here Boba spent most of the episode using a strange vicious Bo staff-like weapon and just demolishing Stormtroopers like they were made of tissue paper. Smashing helmets and just being a badass, Boba Fett’s reputation has finally been earned here. Though when he finally suited up it still looked a bit silly compared to Mando. I think Fett has been pounding a few beers in his downtime. But we also got another look at the power of his rockets, as after the killer firefight the Troopers try to retreat and Fett is able to blow two shuttle ships with one rocket. Talk about overpowered!
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Poor Mando though, after repeatedly fixing his ship and watching it get damaged we finally saw the end as Moff Gideon’s cruiser demolishes the little craft with one blast, leaving nothing behind save for his Beskar spear and Grogu’s ball. Enter the Dark Troopers who absconded with Grogu, exhausted from his Force meditation and unable to fight back.
So the stage seems set for the last two episodes of the season which I’m guessing will basically act as one long finale. Grogu, a prisoner of Gideon, being rushed off to have his blood drained. Meanwhile Mando has Fett and Fennec in his debt to save Grogu (though the reasoning is a bit thin) and returns to Cara Dune to track down some other help in the form of Bill Burr’s jailed mercenary from last season. Probably one of my favorite parts of the first season so I was thrilled to see this, and the thought of a still furious Burr being brought into the fold should be hilarious.
This episode was short and action-packed. While there were no real wow moments from a production angle, the amount of fan service and action made up for that and then some. I do hope Boba Fett gets a little more fleshed out in these last two weeks, but overall a very satisfying outing.
What did you think of this episode? Sound off in the comments below!
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