The Mandalorian: Season Two (part two)

Hey everybody,
After the first three chapters in the second series of The Mandalorian, we’ve got a pair of really wonderful episodes that I need to talk about today. I’m constantly a bit late to the party on this one, of course, but we’re catching up of course!

Chapter Twelve again feels a little bit like a filler episode, although there’s a gang’s all here feel to the show as we return to Nevarro for the Razor Crest to get further repairs before the trip to Corvus. Greef Karga has taken over political responsibility for the settlement, with Cara Dune acting as enforcer for him. However, there remains an Imperial base on-world that incorporates the lab of Dr Pershing, the associate of the Client from season one. The Mandalorian agrees to help them destroy the base while his ship is being repaired, and we get the standard sort of infiltration mission that feels a bit similar to the prison break episode from last season. However, it’s still very enjoyable, and we get to learn a bit about what Pershing was up to, conducting experiments on transfusing the Child’s blood into test subjects, presumably to produce Force-sensitives?

The episode ends with the revelation that one of the mechanics working on the Razor Crest has planted a tracking beacon for Moff Gideon…

Now then. Chapter Thirteen is probably one of the most anticipated of the series, as we were promised live-action Ahsoka Tano for a long time. On Corvus, Ahsoka is prosecuting a war against the Imperial Magistrate Morgan Elsbeth, whose master she is keen to track down. When Mando arrives, he meets with the magistrate, who offers him a beskar spear in return for killing the Jedi. Mando finds Ahsoka and explains why he has come to Corvus, whereupon she and the Child communicate directly through the Force. Interestingly, we discover that his name is Grogu, and following Order 66 he has been suppressing his Force powers in order to survive. In exchange for training Grogu, Mando agrees to help Ahsoka with her battle against Elsbeth.

The planet is liberated, and Ahsoka forces Elsbeth to tell her where her master Grand Admiral Thrawn is. However, she refuses to train Grogu, explaining that he and Mando have formed too strong a bond. She suggests they travel to the temple of Tython, where Grogu may be able to access the Force and call out to another Jedi.

First of all, live-action Ahsoka is not as annoying as cartoon Ahsoka, which is something of a relief! The cartoon version would quite easily have defeated every Imperial on the planet, I’m sure. It’s interesting that she’s looking for Thrawn – I’m not entirely sure, but I believe it has something to do with her trying to locate Ezra, from her time during the Rebels cartoon series – that’s something that I’ll have to try and cover here on the blog at some point, as well…

The Jedi Temple on Tython is something that goes back to The Old Republic, and that MMO from 2011 – so that’s a deep call back to the old expanded universe! The episode is directed by Dave Filoni, however, and as much as I disliked the Clone Wars cartoon series, you have to hand it to the man that he just gets Star Wars and is able to take these references and build them into his own material, usually with very good results. When Filoni does Star Wars, he usually does it well – as the protege of George Lucas, it’s to be expected. There are just one or two things that irk me about his efforts, and it’s unfortunate that those one or two things override all of the good stuff, really!

These two episodes feel quite important to me, as we have a nice pit-stop back into the first season, and catch up with what Moff Gideon is up to with some more teasing of what his role could become in chapter twelve, then The Jedi blows almost everything out of the water by including such a high profile character – and a fairly huge name-drop, as well! – but manages to do it in such a low-key episode. I mean, the feel of Corvus is quite simple-oriental, and while I would have liked to have known more about the conflict there, it does feel like the show is sticking to its quiet and understated mood that the first series had, despite taking on such big storytelling.

I’ve read a sentence that has got me really hungry for chapter fourteen, which premiered yesterday, so I need to move on to that one fairly soon!