The Mandalorian ‘Chapter 14: The Tragedy’ Review

‘The Tragedy’, as soon as I saw those words I knew we were in for a rough episode, but I’ll be honest – I didn’t think 2020 would be the year I fought back tears watching Star Wars, yet here we are. 

Following the advice Ashoka Tano gave them last week, Mando and Grogu – still seems weird using that name – head to Tython in the hopes that The Child can use the ruins of a Jedi temple to reach out through the Force and find someone to train him.

Not long after they land, however, Mando is confronted by the heavily-scarred Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison), who demands our hero return his armour to him or he’ll kill Grogu. Just as the bickering badasses reach a truce though, the Empire attacks!

Can the pair hold off a legion of Stormtroopers and protect Grogu? Well, you’ll have to watch the episode to know for sure but as I said, it is called ‘The Tragedy’…

I was once again blown away by this episode; after the revelations we got last week, I expected Chapter 14 to be a breather episode before we went into the finale, but I was very wrong. This was another great episode that tied directly into the show’s main plot, with a fantastic shootout and some of the best fan service we’ve had so far.

What do I mean by fan service? Well, when I heard that they were bringing back Boba Fett earlier this year, I thought it was a pretty transparent move to please fans of the prequels and original trilogy by bringing back an inexplicably popular character.

I should have given Feloni and Favreau more credit; the pair have made Boba the most interesting he’s ever been – it helps has actual lines of dialogue – by finally delivering on what we were promised all the way back in The Empire Strikes Back: a badass bounty hunter.

And when I say badass, I don’t just mean he’s handy with a blaster – although he is pretty good. I mean they’ve actually given Boba more than just a cool costume; they’ve given him a personality and a code of honour that actually gives us some insight into who he is.

I’m not quite ready to join the throngs of people who think Boba is the coolest character in the galaxy – nor can I shake the feeling that he could be any other bounty hunter and this could still have worked – but I’ll concede after years of bewilderment that there is something likeable about him.

Another great thing about this episode was Mando’s ‘big dad energy’. He and Grogu have always had a strange father-son dynamic going on, but this feels like the first episode where Din’s acknowledged it. I really enjoyed Pedro Pascal’s wry chuckle as he played with Grogu at the start of the episode; there was something proudly paternal in it.

Honestly, I’m still amazed how much emotion the show can get us to feel for what’s essentially a rubber puppet, which leads me on to my final point. While I don’t want to say too much and risk spoiling things for you, dear reader, there’s a gut-punch in this episode that has left me reeling.

I knew it would happen eventually, but even then I wasn’t ready for it. It’s going to be a long wait until next Friday’s episode…

The Mandalorian season 2 is streaming now exclusively on Disney+ with new episodes every Friday.