Tag: The Mandalorian

This week’s episode of The Mandalorian was the final build-up to the season finale. It featured the return of Bill Burr‘s Mayfeld, the galaxy’s most prominent man from Space Boston. The episode set-up is surprisingly simple as they try to get their hands on some intel to save Grogu. Now, the main part of the episode takes place on a stolen Empire vehicle that is transporting a precious material that blows up when rattled too much. Of course, that kind of set-up is begging for someone to meddle in their affairs. I won’t go into too much detail about what happens in the story. The aspect I want to focus on is the simple approach to taking an existing concept and twisting it on its head as the series grows beyond its initial inspirations.

There are some minor spoilers in this article on specific scenes. So, if you want to watch the episode without any spoilers, only continue at your own risk.

Let’s go back in time to 1994. Keanu Reeves just starred in a film titled Speed. Jan de Bont directed a film that had a simple premise. A group of people got trapped in a bus that cannot slow down. If it does, it would blow up and kill everyone in it. Well, what happens if you twist that concept and can only drive so fast while a group of pirates tries to board your ship? That is pretty much how director Rick Famuyiwa approached this episode. Their vehicle has highly explosive material that can blow up at any point. It adds a great level of tension that makes every move by Mando important, as one false shot or mistake, and he might end up blown to smithereens.

Well, the episode didn’t end there, as we got one more very obvious reference. The episode also includes a variation on a very iconic sequence from Quentin Tarantino‘s Inglorious Basterds. I think at this point, anytime a character has to sit across from someone who is part of an evil regime and get a cross-examination while trying to blend in will always make me think of that film. Christoph Waltz‘s opening sequence showcased how well one can build tension through dialogue and subtle facial expressions. I was quite surprised to see such a scene make it into The Mandalorian. The episode that introduced Ahsoka Tano was also very heavily based on Yojimbo, especially from a visionary standpoint. There is a limit too often they can fall back on the Western routes of this series, so we might be heading into a future with many more inspirations taking place throughout the eight-season run.

With the number of characters introduced in its second season, it’s fair to say that everything is fair game when you’re theorizing about The Mandalorian‘s upcoming episodes. But what this season has also shown us is that by the end of it there won’t be a single episode from season one that you could skip without missing something crucial to the overarching storyline. This means that not only do the most obvious story elements tend to come back in some way but that even the smaller details gain importance throughout the show.

We’ve already written how the focus given in Chapter 13 to how beskar can deal with lightsabers obviously wasn’t innocent. We got two fights where that became clear, and so audiences are now feeling that Mando’s armor is almost impervious to almost whatever Moff Gideon throws at it. But we’ve also mentioned why Gideon’s Darksaber might be able to slice through beskar and now Chapter 14 might have given us another hint on how the final confrontation between Din Djarin’s posse and Moff Gideon’s troopers might unfold. We were deprived of something that, had it not been left out, might have diminished the impact of that final fight and that was seeing the Dark Troopers in battle.

We know that beskar became highly sought after by Mandalorians after the Empire took most of it, as spoils of war, after the Great Purge. We also know that Empire operatives are still holding on to great amounts of the Mandalorian alloy. With the metal at hand, it would make sense that someone like Moff Gideon, who is highly knowledgeable of Mandalorian culture and weaponry, would make use of a material with such unique properties when building himself his own Dark Trooper unit.

In the previous episode, Din Djarin managed to defeat the Magistrate’s assassin droids with a single shot, showing us how droids can still be fairly easily killed. But had Mando and Fennec Shand reached the top of the mountain in time to engage beskar-armored Dark Troopers, we might have seen how their blasters wouldn’t harm them. And that is something that wasn’t really needed for Chapter 14, as Grogu being kidnapped was enough anguish for the moment. Leaving such a revelation to the last two episodes will make Mando’s situation even worse than expected, which will only make his expected retrieval of Grogu even more cathartic.

The latest episode of The Mandalorian has raised the stakes, as Din was given instructions by Ahsoka Tano on where he can find someone to teach the Child. Oh wait, I guess we are calling him Grogu now. Din was having fun seeing the little guy’s reaction when he called him by his name. Now that they finally found their way to Tython, they face some rather harsh changes. There is a good reason why this episode is titled “The Tragedy” after all. The episode’s chain of events may be continuing a path that was briefly teased last season for our young Grogu. It may be up to Din to save the abandoned Padawan from a dark fate.

Here is your spoiler warning. I will be spoiling the major twist of this episode, so only continue at your own risk. If you don’t want to get spoiled, then be sure to watch the episode before you continue reading.

So, the episode ends with Grogu getting captured by the now-confirmed Dark Troopers. Din is too late to save him and can only watch as they leave. Our favorite Mandalorian is heartbroken but quickly tries to find a way to get him out of there with the help of some unlikely allies. The episode did not end there as we also saw little Grogu on the ship. He had his first confrontation with Mof Gideon, who seemed oddly giddy about Grogu throwing the Storm Troopers around the room. We learned from Ahsoka that he purposely hid his abilities, but now it was as if he didn’t care. He was going to take them all down to get back to his father, and he didn’t care how often he has to fling a Storm Trooper across the room. Sadly, he is still tiny and falls asleep after exceeding his limits. The episode ends us with the question of how Din will try to save the kid and whatever Moff has planned for him.

It is Grogu’s actions that confirm something Ahsoka Tano said in the last episode. She hinted at the consequences of a force-wielder with a strong personal connection. Their emotions can get the better of them. Something she saw someone close to her went through in the past. It looks like Grogu might be facing a similar path. Just last season, he used the Force to chock Cara, as he believed she was going to hurt him. So far, we’ve only ever seen people on the dark side use that kind of ability. Yes, Grogu seems like an innocent child, but it was shocking to see him slam the Storm Troopers around. He was letting loose, and who knows what else he would’ve done if he didn’t get tired. It certainly will be an interesting conflict once Din can save the little guy, and what implications it may have for his future. Now, we can only wonder if the message will be heard by a Jedi that can bring him back to the light, or perhaps a Sith is ready to answer the call.