The end of an era.
What They Say:
The Mandalorian and the Child continue their journey through a dangerous galaxy.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
It’s definitely impressive when you go back and look at all the rumors coming out prior to this season and the late trailer we got before the premiere and realize just how much never materialized that was speculated, the things that were firm, and just how solid that trailer was for giving away absolutely nothing about the back half of this season. While you could map out things and you had to listen to people complaining about side quests and the RPG aspect of the show, it played to pretty much the kind of solid classic Star Wars so many of us craved and imagined for years while also expanding it with new characters, touching lightly on older ones, and delivering something that both felt new and very lived-in.
This episode overperformed for me with what it wanted to do. With the title of “The Rescue,” it achieves its goal in that Mando is able to bring together a diverse team in order to pull it off, allowing some to focus on their own desires for it while others like Boba involves paying off a debt of honor. It’s a solid incursion piece with a highly-skilled group of people who know how to fight and how to fall into a group and operate right. These are big personalities but not stupid personalities so they’re able to do exactly what they need to without butting heads. And that made for a lot of fun as the main group heads to the bridge of Gideon’s ship while Mando goes behind a couple of minutes in order to deal with the Dark Troopers. Which were obviously dealt with too easily considering the threat they were presented as but ended up being called back to the forefront wonderfully.
And I hate the Dark Troopers. I never liked them in the EU, not a fan of them here, especially since the Empire was never keen on droids in general. But this is post-Palpatine, so it’s no surprise someone like Gideon would try to go the distance to secure his own position. His storyline here is decent and I like the fight he gets into with Mando, almost seemingly being a man of honor for a minute before falling into predictable Imperial patterns. But it also leads to some great moments as he gets to lord over Mando the turn events on the bridge since Mando has taken the Darksaber from him, and that means Bo-Katan has to kill Mando now to get it. Blissfully, this is all pushed to the side and left undone until next season so as to not undercut the emotional element that comes here with Mando and Grogu. Their bond is at the core of the two-season storyline and bringing it to a close is pitch-perfect for me.
Yes, story elements are being pushed off to the next season rather than wrapped up here based on the events of the bridge and I’m curious to see where it goes and just how they’ll figure it out. But let’s just deal with the big problem for many here with the arrival of Luke. With Grogu having made the call out to the wider Force and Luke being one that can likely really understand it in the years post-ROTJ in trying to figure out how to start up the Jedi again, his sensing where Grogu is and coming on board the same time as the rescue is obviously way too coincidental, but such is how the Force works. And as much as the echoes of Rogue One that Luke has here in dealing with the Dark Troopers is going to generate hate, it’s going to generate a lot of love out of me. Yes, we can quibble about the dark outfit still being worn from ROTJ and that he should be shifting elsewhere, or that he’s too violent in dealing with the droids, but it was the Luke that fits not just with what I wanted, but with the way he views this period himself as seen in TLJ.
As I’ve said before, I’m a huge fan of TLJ and what it did with Luke so this feels like where he would be in trying to forge his own path, one with emotion, empathy, and more in doing what he needs to compared to what he’s learned of the Jedi Order that tried to separate out emotion and connections. Which is why his understanding of Grogu being bonded with Mando makes sense whereas Ahsoka was wary of getting involved because she just sees the darker side of it from her own experience. While I would have loved a more verbose Luke, it doesn’t make sense for him to be talkative. I do like that the others are a bit more cautious – and Gideon is like “oh shit!” about it – and that Luke is trying to present something more stoic here as the Jedi are re-introduced to the galaxy.
And I’m convinced that Grogu remembered R2 from when they were both on Coruscant a lot and R2 spent time with the younglings.
I’m also sorry that people have to deal with the “uncanny valley” thing even though I think some folks lean into it too hard in order to look all better than others in a sense. I had no problems at all with how it was presented but will agree that if they’re going to focus on this in live-action more in the next few years, a recast is going to have to happen. Otherwise, place it in the comics and books and keep it to light touches like this.
This season has a nice little post-credits stinger that announces a new series set to debut in December 2021 with The Book of Boba Fett. Having him show up on Tatooine and taking over Jabba’s palace is nicely done and it gave me a big King Conan vibe that I loved. I’m also going to be absolutely thrilled with Ming-Na Wen gets a regular role on it as Fennec as she’s been an absolute delight in this series and really deserves so much more after her strong turn in Agents of SHIELD over the years that wasn’t allowed to translate into film. She looks like she’s having a blast here and is the perfect complement to Fett that helps to soften something about him that I’m still not entirely keen on.
In Summary:
I’m definitely excited to see what The Mandalorian can turn into with its third season because it knows it cannot just exist on being the same as the first two seasons. So many people complained about the formula for it within the first season that it was only going to get worse and become unsustainable. Now, there’s a lot more room to move and if it becomes more about Mandalore overall and what it means to be a Mandalorian, with him definitely changing from where we first met him, it’s got so many places it can go and so many ties that can bind in neat ways all while still opening it up to more of what’s out there. Even if there was no more after these two seasons, I’d be thrilled with what we got and what was accomplished by it. I’m excited for the next few years of storytelling between this, the couple of films in the pipeline, the other TV projects, and the High Republic era being explored in different mediums.
Grade: A
Seen anything good on TV lately?
— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) December 18, 2020
