MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!
Do NOT read any further if you haven’t seen season two of The Mandalorian yet because I will be touching on some major plot points from this past season. Before we get going here I also wanted to mention that I’m going to try to keep this shorter than some of my other lengthy posts, so I may not touch on everything that happened in the season. With that all being said, let’s get started!
This season kicked off with the Mandalorian, Din Djarin, setting out to Tatooine in search of the Jedi. The episode was a great way to get back into the swing of things while also setting up story threads for the rest of this tremendous season. I was excited to go back to Tatooine all of these years later because I knew it would be filled with nostalgia, and it certainly was! I loved seeing a flashback with Tatooine celebrating the destruction of the second Death Star, and seeing it through Cobb Vanth’s perspective was a terrific way to have the audience connect with the marshal (played by Timothy Olyphant).
The casting choice was perfect for this role as well.
I’ve always been a fan of Olyphant, and he brought a real western feel to the character. When he first appears in the episode in Boba Fett’s armor I was a little confused because it does open up some questions about how he obtained this armor, and what has happened to Boba? Thankfully though, we get the answers to both of these questions in this tight packed episode. That would be my only complaint with the season is that I do wish the episodes were longer, but you can’t argue that they didn’t make EVERY minute count!
The fight with the krayt dragon was exciting as well, but my favorite moment from the episode came at the very end. We finally see the return of Boba Fett as he watches the Mandalorian leave Tatooine with his armor. This episode had me so hyped to see how the rest of the season would pan out.
Then in episode two (Chapter 10), we see Mando on his journey to seek out the Jedi still. However, in order to do that he must first help Frog Lady reach Trask in order to fertilize her eggs with her husband. I was a little disappointed with this episode because we had just been shown Boba was still alive in the last episode, and I really wanted to see this lead right into him being a major character in the series. For storytelling purposes though, I guess it makes sense that we can’t just jump into that though.
The battling with the giant spider creatures were fine. However, I wasn’t blown away or on the edge of my seat, but I did gain appreciation for the inclusion of these creatures after I had learned that they were inspired from old storyboards for The Empire Strikes Back. Luke was originally supposed to fight these creatures on Dagobah, but I’m happy that they didn’t because the technology just wasn’t what it is now and I think these work better as CGI creatures today.
I liked the inclusion of the X-wing pilots and how they were operating as cop-like figures in this episode. My favorite part of this episode was the child. He’s been consistently pulling at the heart strings of viewers, and the internet, since his debut. I just really enjoyed seeing Mando trying to keep the child away from the eggs as he just kept eating them every time he got out of eye’s view. The comedy added an element to this episode that was much needed just to make it flow a little better. The child is always good for that.
The next episode was a nod to the Rebels animated series as we were introduced to Bo-Katan in live-action. I loved that the character was played by the same actress that voiced her in the animated series, Katee Sackhoff. The addition of this character to the series was full fan service for sure, but honestly we needed some of this after the conflicted Disney Star Wars movies that have been released. This may sound odd, but where I really geeked out was with Sasha Banks’s Mandalorian character! For those of you that don’t know, Sasha Banks is one of the best women wrestlers in professional wrestling today, so to get to see her suit up as a badass Mandalorian was happily surprising to me.
Anyways, this episode was packed with a ton of action throughout as we saw the Mandalorians in action whenever they saved the child from pirates. Later in the episode, we learn that Bo-Katan is on a mission to retrieve the Darksaber, so she can rule Mandalore again. Her missions coincides with Mando’s as they work together to take down an Imperial ship, but just before the captain can reveal any information he is killed. I was a little confused by how exactly he was, but I can only guess that this was by Moff Gideon somehow. I’ve seen others speculate that he committed suicide however, so who really knows for sure. This was another great episode, but I was still waiting for Boba!
Unfortunately, I would have to wait a little longer though because the next episode didn’t introduce Fett either. Chapter 12 was directed by Carl Weathers, whom plays Greef Karga, and I thought it was another strong episode all-in-all. Mando is tasked with helping Greef and Cara Dune in taking down the last Imperial base on Nevarro. This was also the episode with the notorious “Jeans Guy.” For those of you who didn’t notice, during one of the fight sequences a crew member could be spotted standing in the background. Disney has digitally removed him from the episode though, so if you missed it the first time I’ll attach a link to the scene here.
Anyways, the real intrigue came with the reveal of the cloning tubes located within the base. We don’t get a clear view of whether these are clones of the Emperor, or for Snoke though. However, we do learn that this is why Moff Gideon has been hunting down the child all of this time. It’s a really interested plot thread that I hope they touch on in season three because I would love to learn more about those clones, in particular. However, we don’t get any answers in this episode outside of Gideon’s motivations to conduct experiments with the child’s blood. Still a great episode, but the real excitement came in Chapter 13…
AHSOKA TANO!!!!! I have been so hyped for this episode ever since they first teased Ahsoka would be in this season, and it did NOT disappoint. I feared there would be tons of teasing before finally showing her in the show, but thankfully I was wrong. Dave Filoni directed a perfect episode in Chapter 13. The whole episode is shot so beautifully, and the fact that we got to see Ahsoka fighting so much just made it that much more worth the wait. The episode starts off just outside the city of Calodan on the planet Corvus in almost complete darkness. Ahsoka’s dual white sabers (so badass by the way) began cutting through the city’s guards as they were no match for her powers at all.
After making waste of the city’s guards, we see a stand-off between the Magistrate and Ahsoka. In which, Ahsoka is in search of information, but the Magistrate warns she will kill the entire city to prevent Ahsoka from attacking her. Ahsoka retreats in order to not risk innocent lives. This is where the episode took a wild twist though! Mando is walking through the foggy swamp-like forest before he is jumped by Ahsoka. She begins wildly attacking Mando, and all he can do is try to block every blow with his Beskar armor. Thankfully, the armor holds up just long enough for Mando to address by her name which brings the fight to a halt.
Ahsoka was interested in the Mandalorian, though, as much as she was with the child. There is a beautiful moment between the child and Ahsoka when they connect their minds, and we learn so much about the child. First, he FINALLY has a name…Grogu. The internet was upset that they could no longer call him “Baby Yoda”, but I’ve always hated that name for him because he isn’t Yoda. Yoda was a specific Jedi of the same species, but this child was always his own entity. PUT SOME RESPECT ON HIS NAME! Anyways, this episode is one of my favorite of the first two seasons because we learned so much about Grogu while also being introduced to a live-action, ass-kicking Ahsoka Tano.
We learned Grogu was in the Jedi Temple during Order 66 as well. This could lead to a TON of potential for future episodes. I would love to see flashback sequences of who saved him at the temple, and who all Grogu had interacted with during his training. The episode kept moving with some great action as Ahsoka battled with the Magistrate, and Mando had a stand-off with her head guard outside. Their stand-off was shot like an old western movie while the rest of the episode felt like a great samurai movie at times. In no surprise at all, Ahsoka won her battle and even retrieved the Beskar spear that the Magistrate wielded.
I loved seeing Ahsoka fight so much in this episode. They also did a great job at teasing the future Ahsoka series whenever we learned that she is searching for Admiral Thrawn. It was all complete fanfare, but the way it was executed was perfection to me. I can’t even imagine how hard it would be to create a Star Wars series just because of how much scrutiny that the movies have fallen under, but this whole team has done an amazing job thus far. Anyways, moving on to Chapter 14…
FINALLY, we got BOBA FETT back! Mando took Grogu to the ancient temple on Tython, so that he could connect with whatever Jedi remain in the universe. However, while he was in a force protected mediation Mando is thrown into defending Grogu. Slave I comes flying into the shot, and as soon as they showed his ship I was hyped. I knew we would finally see Boba, but to what extent would this be?
Well, we learn that Boba has been tracking Mando (with Fennec Shand), so he could finally get his armor back. While the two are standing off against Mando they are ambushed by platoons of stormtroopers. This leads to some terrific combat sequences, and just as they are attacked by more incoming platoons, Boba comes back into the fight with his full gear equipped for the first time in years. Getting to see Boba fight in his armor was so fulfilling as a lifelong Star Wars fan because we didn’t get to really see him fight in the original trilogy, but here he is just destroying stormtroopers left-and-right.
The ending of the episode had me all over the place. We see the Dark Troopers escape with Grogu, Mando’s Razor Crest is destroyed by Moff Gideon, and Boba Fett takes down TWO convoy ships with ONE rocket. I was in awe of the combat throughout this episode, and they really did a great job at showing how dangerous Boba truly is. Another accomplishment of this chapter was that they set the stakes high for the remaining two episodes of the season. Teaming Mando with Boba too? Damn, this show has pulled out all of the stops this season. I couldn’t wait to see the next two episodes.
Chapter 15 didn’t miss a beat either. Coming off of two strong episodes, I was nervous that they would take a dip before the finale, but I loved this chapter a ton. Bill Burr is back in this season as his Mayfield character, and I thought he had some of the best acting I’ve seen in the entire series. Mayfield was saved from prison by Dune and Mando, so they could use him to track down Moff Gideon and find Grogu. They use their plan to infiltrate an Imperial base disguised as Imperial soldiers.
Here we get to see how much Grogu really means to Mando because he is willing to drop his whole belief system in order to save the child. This is a true progression in the relationship of Mando and Grogu as now we are seeing Djarin view him as his son. I love how their bond has grew since the beginning of season one, and now you can see that Mando would do anything to protect Grogu. Anyways, back to Mayfield.
I really fell for Bill Burr’s acting in the scene with him, Mando, and the Imperial commanding officer. Mayfield is listening to the officer boast about the murders of innocents at the hands of the Empire whenever he is overwhelmed and decides to execute the officer himself which brings on a full-fledged assault from the Imperial base. Seeing Bill Burr’s character reach this slow progression of anger and resentment really made me feel for the character as a whole. When we first saw him in season one, he was a wise-ass that knew how to insult Mando and others in ways that fit his comedic background while also accommodating the Star Wars universe.
Anyways, I loved this episode through-and-through. I thought that it was well written overall, and I liked that we got to see a different side to Mayfield in this one. We also got some serious growth from Mando as we saw that he was willing to risk his whole belief system of hiding behind the Mandalorian helmet in order to save his “son.” This episode really stands out to me as one of the best in the entire series because it didn’t rely on any Jedi or former strongly established characters, and it still managed to progress the main story in compelling ways. And come on, that end scene where Mando is threatening Moff Gideon using his same verbage from season one?! True perfection. I loved this episode.
Finally, we have the season finale. There were a lot of ways that the show could have gone in the season finale, but I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised with how they ended this season overall. We knew that there was going to be a full onslaught mission in order to save Grogu (which we saw), but there was much more to this episode that I wasn’t expecting. The episode kicked off with Cara Dune and Mando chasing down an Imperial ship to capture Dr. Pershing. This lead to some great dialogue of shit-talking before they were finally able to capture Dr. Pershing from the Imperials for their own personal gain.
The writing in this episode was fantastic because you could sense how high the stakes were from the very beginning.
Where it really got exciting though was the mission itself. Bo-Katan, Koska, Fennec, and Dune all fought their way through stormtroopers to overtake the cruiser’s bridge while Mando snuck in to save Grogu from Moff Gideon. I was intrigued by the attack from the all-women’s onslaught, but the real excitement came from whenever Mando finally caught up to Grogu to save him. Before that happened though, we got to witness the pure strength from the Dark Troopers as just one was able to escape the holding cell to attack Mando.
However, he dealt serious damage to Mando and without his armor he EASILY would have been killed during the battle. Djarin threw everything he had at the Dark Trooper, but the Trooper just shrugged off every attempt with ease before attempting to punch Mando’s face in. Thankfully, the Beskar held up though and Mando was able to escape before using the Beskar steel to strike down the Dark Trooper for good.
Mando finally reaches Moff Gideon whenever we see a stand-off that has been built over the past season and a half. Gideon, realizing his defeat, tells Mando that he can take the child now because he has got all that he has wanted from him, but then attacks Mando just before he can pick up Grogu which leads to their epic duel. Gideon begins violently swinging his Darksaber at Mando doing everything he can to try and take his head off during their encounter. I absolutely loved their fight because you could really sense the frustration that had been building in Gideon since his first attempt to take Grogu in season one.
Mando gets the better of Gideon in combat though as he is able to use the Beskar spear to overpower Gideon and knock the Darksaber from his grasp. It is then that Gideon surrenders, and we see him and Grogu march into the control room with Gideon now in handcuffs. I loved the moment of Mando trying to hand over the Darksaber to Bo-Katan as well because they honor the Mandalore lore (I know, play on words) by not letting Bo-Katan take the Darksaber from Mando without fighting him for it. This is setting up the next season of The Mandalorian nicely as well because this will certainly be a plot thread that needs to be picked up in season three.
This is where it gets real interesting though. The Darktroopers make a return to Gideon’s cruiser though with their flight mechanics and are able to re-board the ship to save their Captain. Just as they are closing in on the group in the bridge, we witness all of the Darktroopers turn their attention to an individual in a dark robe wielding a single lightsaber. Now once they showed just a single X-Wing approaching the ship, I had a feeling of who their Jedi savior would be, but there was still a large part of me that felt like this was going to be Ezra Bridges (from Rebels).
I was pleasantly wrong though because we got a HUGE shock to The Mandalorian series as Luke Skywalker made a prolific entrance into the series in order to save Grogu. We were hinted at that there was going to be a Jedi that would receive Grogu’s message whenever he was meditating on Tython, but I had NO idea it would be Luke that would come and save him. The most touching moment came whenever Djarin removed his helmet to Grogu, for the first time, and it really just sold to me that Mando views Grogu as a son-like figure to him. Their relationship has bonded so much over the first two seasons, and Mando even promises that he will see him again in the future.
I could spend a whole blog writing about the finale itself, but in order to try and wrap this up I have to move on. Overall, this season was PERFECT. There aren’t too many shows out there that have really left me in awe, but this is one of them. I can remember watching Breaking Bad, and the early seasons of Game of Thrones where some of the episodes just had me speechless. Well, this was another one of those examples. I loved season one of The Mandalorian, but they really managed to take the series to a whole new level in this season. They managed to revive Boba while making him into more of a badass than he ever was, introduce Ahsoka Tano to the live-action audience with true respect to her character, progress Grogu as an overall character and Jedi within the series, while also making Djarin more lovable and enhancing the side characters throughout the season. There are more points I could make about this wonderful season, but honestly this could go on for a long time just geeking out about everything I loved about season two.
My final verdict for season two of The Mandalorian is a 10/10. I know there aren’t any other reviews to compare this against on this blog, but let me assure you…I don’t hand out perfect scores for nothing. I have rarely found any TV show/movie to be perfect over the years. For example, I used to be a huge The Walking Dead fan, but I really turned away from the show after the first few seasons due to poor writing. I also used to really love the TV adaptation of Game of Thrones, but they really dropped the ball for me in the final season. Anyways, what I’m trying to get at here is that it is near impossible to create a perfect TV series or movie, but I feel that The Mandalorian has done that with season two while also setting up future installments for both its own show and other spin-offs in the Star Wars universe as well.
I hope you all enjoyed season two of The Mandalorian as much as I did. If you have any ideas for future blog post topics, or any comments regarding this post or others then please feel free to email me at: kimmelnbits@gmail.com. I would be more than happy to address each and every one of you. Thank you all for the endless support. Without you, I would not be able to keep this thing going during my busy schedule with work and all. As far as future content is concerned, I am currently playing my way through Cyberpunk 2077, so I hope to have a review up on the blog in the near future for all of you. In the meantime, thank you for watching and may the force be with you! Happy Life Day and Happy Holidays!
KimmelNBits 