‘The Mandalorian’ Finale: Which ‘Star Wars’ Character Makes a Shocking Cameo? And More Questions From the Epic Season 2 Finale

(SPOILER ALERT: Do not read on if you have not watched the finale of season 2 of Disney Plus’ “The Mandalorian.”)  

Season 2 of “The Mandalorian” was full of surprises, but showrunner Jon Favreau saved the biggest one of them all for the epic finale.

Titled “The Rescue” and directed by Peyton Reed, the episode begins with the Mandalorian and Boba Fett kidnapping Dr. Pershing (Omid Abtahi) to get some extra intel on Moff Gideon’s ship. They then head to a remote planet and convince Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) and her companion Koska Reeves (Mercedes Varnado a.k.a. pro wrestler Sasha Banks) to help them rescue Grogu (or Baby Yoda if you’re still that way inclined).

Together, the crack team (which also includes Fennec Shand and Cara Dune) hatches a plan to stage a fake emergency landing on Gideon’s ship, causing a distraction which would give Mando enough time to sneak past the dark troopers and save Grogu. But predictably enough things don’t go quite to plan when one dark trooper manages to escape and starts throwing Mando around like a rag doll.

After he bests the mighty droid (Pershing tells them earlier that dark troopers are in fact robotic, not human), Mando finds that Grogu is being personally guarded by Gideon. Cue the darksaber vs. beskar spear battle that fans have been waiting for all season long.

Perhaps a little surprisingly, it ends up hardly being a fair fight, as Mando disarms Gideon and takes him and the ancient weapon to the rest of the crew. That’s job done right? Surely Mando will just return the darksaber to its rightful owner Bo-Katan, grab Grogu, and sail off into the multiple suns-set once again? Not quite.

No more Moffing around, here are six smoking hot burning questions from the finale:

Will Mando and Bo-Katan really be forced to duel for the darksaber?

When they reach the main deck, Gideon reveals with a maniacal grin that Mando cannot simply hand the weapon over to Bo-Katan. The darksaber has to be won in combat in order for the wielder to be recognized as the rightful ruler of Mandalore. Gideon seems to think this news will trigger Bo-Katan into immediately attacking Mando, but luckily for both of them a more pressing problem announces itself when the rest of the dark trooper platoon shows up. By the end of the episode, the thread of Mando and Bo-Katan having to duel each other is still left dangling. Surely it will one of the first items of business in season 3?

Guess which Jedi shows up to save the day?

It’s the one and only Luke Skywalker! With the dark troopers bearing down on the rescue crew, the most famous Jedi of them all swoops in and dispatches the entire droid platoon with consummate ease. Luke takes off his hood to reveal a CGI’d younger version of Mark Hamill, looking only very slightly like a video game character. Luke, who clearly received Grogu’s force message from the seeing stone and has brought R2-D2 along for a welcome beeping cameo, is here to take the Child into his care. This leads to the truly heartbreaking moment of separation that the show had been setting up all along, as Mando says goodbye to his companion, his son. Mando takes off his helmet, and Pedro Pascal delivers a tear-jerking performance as Grogu reaches out and touches him on the cheek. Season 2 ends on a shot of Luke taking Grogu off as Mando looks on, heartbroken. Someone pass me a tissue.

What will Luke do with Grogu?

Arguably the biggest questions going forward are whether Luke is planning to train Grogu himself, and why the character doesn’t appear in the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy? Given how slowly his species ages, Grogu would still be pretty young by the end of “The Rise of Skywalker,” but what happens to him in the intervening years? Will we ever get to see Grogu as an adult Jedi, maybe in a sequel series set in the distant “Star Wars” future? These mouth-watering questions will surely be answered in time.

What’s next for Mando?

It’s clear that Mando will be a different person without Baby Yoda by his side, so what’s next for him? The entire two-season arc of the series appears to now be complete, so Favreau and Co. will have to set up a whole new story for him in future seasons. Given that he’s taken his helmet off several times in the last two episodes, it’s safe to speculate that we might be seeing more of Pedro Pascal in the flesh going forwards.

What’s next for Bo-Katan?

Disney hasn’t announced a Bo-Katan spinoff (at least not yet), so Bo and Mando could continue to cross paths as “The Mandalorian” ship continues its journey. Maybe they’ll agree to put their darksaber differences aside for a while and fight together to reclaim their home planet of Mandalore? Maybe it’s destiny that Mando will end up sitting on that much-prized throne, not Bo-Katan? We will have to wait a long year until “Mandalorian” season 3 to find out.

What about that post-credits scene?

Stick around past the closing credits, and patient viewers will be rewarded with a scene centering around Boba Fett returning to Tatooine and classic “Star Wars” villain Jabba the Hutt’s palace. “The Book of Boba Fett” title appears on screen, yet another spinoff series that Disney Plus has up their sleeves, coming in December 2021.