‘The Mandalorian’ Season 2 Finale Recap: A Quest Complete, a Jedi Returned
Chapter 16 brings an end to a story—with the help of a ‘Star Wars’ legend—while hinting at what’s to come next
I’m not sure I can recall a “previously on” segment that flexed as hard as the one before the finale of The Mandalorian Season 2. In a few quick clips, Jon Favreau reminded us how many times this second season dropped the mic, picked it up, and slammed it down again. Bo-Katan. Ahsoka. Boba Fett. Fennec. Dark troopers and Darksabers. The Razor Crest exploding, a Jedi beacon being lit, and Grogu getting captured.
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That sizzle reel established where the story stood, but it also raised the bar for the finale. So how to up the ante? Here’s how: Luke Skywalker coming to the rescue. Oh, and R2-D2, too. Not to mention the first time Din and Grogu get to stare into each other’s eyes, and a major post-credits announcement. Chapter 16 of The Mandalorian, “The Rescue,” packed so much plot and narrative resolution into its 47 minutes that it could have functioned as a series finale if The Mandalorian’s ongoing success weren’t so central to the future of the franchise.
“The Rescue’’ wastes little time jumping into the action, so neither will we. Chapter 16, which—like the far less eventful Chapter 10—was directed by Peyton Reed (no stranger to CGI de-aging), starts with Slave I hot on the tail of a Lamda-class shuttle carrying clone engineer Dr. Pershing. The data dump Mando and Mayfeld obtained on their sightseeing excursion to Morak last week evidently contained not only Gideon’s whereabouts, but Pershing’s too. Look, if I were Moff Gideon and I knew that my nemeses had just raided and destroyed a base to find out where I’m chilling and then sent me a message to tell me I’m next, I might move elsewhere and tell my top scientist to do the same. But I’m sure Gideon knows what he’s doing.
After Fett disables the shuttle with a well-placed ion bolt and Mando and Cara Dune board, a standoff ensues between Cara and the Imperial pilot, who’s holding Pershing at gunpoint. “I saw your planet destroyed,” he says. “I was on the Death Star.” If, as the pilot professes, he doesn’t have a death wish, it seems like a strange strategy to tell the soldier who’s holding a gun on him that he helped blow up her planet. But pilots who work for Gideon haven’t had a high survival rate this season. “Which one?” Cara responds. Sick burn.
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A discussion ensues that harkens back to Mayfeld’s monologue last week about how many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view. “Do you know how many millions were killed on those bases?” the pilot asks. “As the galaxy cheered?” OK, buddy. We’ve all seen the Clerks “contractors’’ scene, but you’re not going to get us to feel equally bad about the destruction of Alderaan and a planet-exploding superweapon called the “Death Star.” Before we have time to wonder why this former Death Star resident is still alive, he isn’t: Cara head-shots him on behalf of her whole planet. https://zenodo.org/communities/demonslayerthemovielivestreaming/?page=1&size=20
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(Side note: While we’re on the subject—again—of who the good and bad guys actually are, how sure are we that those “pirates” Mando and Mayfeld fought off last week were actually pirates? Are we just taking the Empire’s word for that? Imperials refer to the Rebels as terrorists and scum, and they assumed that Slave I was full of pirates too. Maybe the “pirates” weren’t trying to steal those rhydonium transports because they were really freedom fighters who only wanted to stop the Empire from getting its hands on a dangerous explosive? Maybe they and Mando were actually on the same side, and he killed them because he fell for Imperial propaganda and stereotypes about pirates and colorful clothes. Food for thought.)
With Pershing in custody, Mando’s next task is adding Bo-Katan to his party. This time, he tracks her down easily—no frog family sidequests required—and finds her sitting in a cantina with sidekick Koska Reeves. (Some Mandalorian cast members seem to be straight-up lying about whether they’ll be back on the show: First Bill Burr fibs about reprising his appearance, and then Mercedes Varno does the same. You can’t trust actors anymore.) For someone who hardly knows Grogu, Bo-Katan seems super upset that he’s gone. (Granted, it doesn’t take long to get attached.) “You’ll never find [Gideon],” she says, not knowing that his coordinates are easily accessible via an unsecured computer.
Mando offers Bo-Katan Gideon’s cruiser as the spoils if she’ll help him get his baby back. I’m pretty sure he had her at “Gideon” and “Darksaber,” but a cruiser that could help her retake Mandalore is a nice incentive too. “[Grogu] is my only priority,” Mando declares, though he may change his tune next season. Boba makes a gauche remark about how the Empire turned Mandalore to glass; between Captain Teva asking Cara if she lost anyone on Alderaan and the Alderaan and Mandalore discourse this week, I’m starting to suspect that some of these characters lack tact when talking to traumatized people from ruined planets. Boba, Bo-Katan, and Koska start squabbling about whether Boba is a Mandalorian, whether he deserves to wear his armor, and whether Jango was his father or his donor. Then Boba and Koska wrestle and call it a draw when the flames from their flamethrowers meet in midair like Dutch and Dillon’s arms in Predator. That bit of business behind them, the new crew of six congregates in the shuttle to pump Pershing for info and form a plan of attack.
Speaking of Carl Weathers, Greef Karga is still a no-show despite owing his life to Grogu, which means that the Grogu rescue crew remains one ally short of a magnificent seven. (Cue the Chris Ryan Greef voice: MANDO! I’M BUSY REVITALIZING NEVARRO RIGHT NOW, BUT LET ME KNOW IF YOU NEED ME TO PUSH SOME OF MY MEETINGS.) Perhaps some other ally will eventually appear? One who might have something to do with that Force signal we saw in the “previously on?” We’re getting ahead of ourselves. First the strike team has to get to Gideon’s cruiser, where a dark trooper garrison awaits.
Pershing confirms that these are Phase III dark troopers—the kind without weak human soldiers inside the suits. The droids consume so much power that they’re kept in cold storage, which means they take time to boot up. The Rescuers settle on a time-honored tactic for infiltrating Imperial facilities: posing as Imperials in a stolen Lamda-class shuttle. The plan is for Fett to pretend to attack the shuttle, which will broadcast a distress call. When the cruiser scrambles its fighters, the shuttle—which won’t be flying casual—will slip through the launch tube, preventing additional fighters from exiting and gaining access to the innards of the ship. Then Cara, Koska, Bo-Katan, and Fennec will fight their way to the bridge, distracting the defenders while Din heads to Grogu’s cell. In theory, he’ll grab the baby and be out of there before the dark troopers get their core temperatures up.
Although Cara’s gun jams—which one wouldn’t think would happen so often with weapons that don’t fire physical objects—the plan goes off with only one potentially disastrous hitch: a single dark trooper escapes the storage room before Mando seals the others inside. As they try to punch their way out, the one who got out tries to punch its way into Mando’s brainpan. Personally, I’d suggest just lifting his whole head off his body—aren’t these troopers supposed to be strong—but the trooper prefers the brute force approach.
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