Warning: Major Spoilers Ahead For The Season Two Finale of The Mandalorian
It’s official: The Mandalorian does for Star Wars TV now what The Empire Strikes Back did back in the day. So it’s fitting that the show is fully merging with its older brother. It spent 15 episodes skirting the issue; referencing the past, giving us an Alderaan survivor, a young version of Yoda who’s not Yoda. All this essentially carved out its time and place in this unexplored corner of the galaxy and didn’t fully engage until now. And for the first time since the Reagan administration, Star Wars is exciting and I’m totally excited for more.
Save The Best For Last
After spending a few days relaxing being held captive on an old Imperial ship, Grogu, aka The Child, aka Baby Yoda, is finally rescued. The fight scenes are so fun and well choreographed. Even the ones that are CGI driven are engaging. Between a platoon of Stormtroopers, a phalanx of droid dark troopers, and a mystic darksabre wielded by a Moff, there is a lot to overcome, including fan expectations. We knew mega fight scenes were coming, and the show doesn’t disappoint.
And just when it looked like there was no way out, a single fighter appears, with its pilot emerging to take out a whole bunch of nearly invincible dark troopers (it’s reminiscent of Darth Vader’s slaughter in Rogue One). The mysterious figure? Luke Skywalker!
Force His Way Back
Luke has returned to rescue The Child. When The Mandalorian was quested to return Baby Yoda to ‘his own kind,’ I was really hoping we were gonna get a world of Yoda-like creatures, and was disappointed when it turned out to be just more Jedi. But now we have the Jedi. And how Grogu connects generations can send ripples through the Star Wars universe.
Given that he’s about 50 years old, there’s a good chance Grogu remembers Luke’s dad, Anakin/Darth Vader. Ben Solo/Kylo Ren is about 5 right now, so he may get a BFF. Well, maybe not forever, since we know Kylo’s gonna channel his grandfather and kill his own generation of Jedi. So Grogu, may see two Jedi slaughters at the hands of Skywalker progeny.
Side note: the CGI used to de-age Mark Hamill’s Luke is not nearly as impressive as the CGI used in the battle scenes.
So with Luke taking The Child, we still don’t know how Mando will deal with empty nest syndrome, or if he will fight over the darksabre, or why they didn’t just kill Moff Gideon. So it seems like there will be a season three. But there’s more…
Book Report
If you didn’t watch the credits, stop reading, go watch them and then come back.
Okay, good.
This is more than a tease for a new show, The Book of Boba. It’s an entire shift in strategy. After the success of Rogue One, Disney tried giving us side stories every other year. But it was too much volume and not enough quality (I’m looking at you, Solo). An idea for a Boba Fett origin story was announced then quietly scrapped. But didn’t we have enough of his origin in Attack of the Clones?
Now the House of Mouse is building out the galaxy universe through TV with The Mandalorian. With Boba returning to Tatooine, the sight of his presumed death, we are going to get a more adult, fan oriented look at how he turns out.
“What a desolate place this is.” -C-3PO
And despite C-3PO’s 1-star review on Tripadvisor, we spend so much on Tatooine that I feel like there’s an actual Chamber of Commerce and PR firm pushing tax credits to promote video production on the planet. I’m even putting a down payment on a time share in Mos Eisley.
The Critic’s Cocktail Recommendation
I’m having an Alderaan Twist to toast the end of season two. It’s light, fruity and won’t be around long once I show up.
Cheers, and may the force be with you.
Critic's Cocktail 