‘The Mandalorian’ Season 2 Finale Review: The Return Of The Jedi

The Mandalorian

Credit: Disney

The Mandalorian just aired what may be its best episode yet in the Season 2 finale, “The Rescue.”

Mando completes his quest. Bo-Katan snatches defeat from the jaws of victory. And a surprise cameo leaves us all floored by the end of the episode. Then, to top things off, we get a post-credits scene that’s not only badass, but introduces a brand new Star Wars show coming to Disney Plus next year.

Spoilers ahead, obviously.

This was, if I’m being honest, something of a bitter-sweet end to Season 2. I’m left with all sorts of mixed emotions. Indeed, I didn’t want to write this review too soon after watching, and made sure I watched it twice and then slept on it before actually putting proverbial pen to paper. Thus, a later review than I’d hoped, and for that I apologize.

“The Rescue” is basically an Avengers Assemble moment for this show. Not everyone who made an appearance joins the gang, but we do get to see Mando join forces with Boba Fett, Fennec Shand, Bo-Katan, Koska Reeves and Cara Dune. I was hoping we’d see more of Timothy Olyphant’s Cobb Vanth, but that was not to be. Perhaps next season.

Mando and Fett find Bo-Katan and Koska Reeves in a cantina and, after a terse exchange and a small scuffle, the Mandalorians agree to help rescue the Child in exchange for Moff Gideon’s star cruiser—though we know that what Bo-Katan truly wants is the Darksaber. Later in the episode, Moff Gideon reveals that if Bo-Katan is to ever take the Mandalorian throne, she needs the Darksaber. Not only that, she needs to have taken it for herself in battle. This leads to some complications that are never actually resolved, paving ground for Season 3, which I suspect will revolve around the quest to retake Mandalore.

Bo-Katan tells everyone that Moff Gideon is hers as they approach the Imperial cruiser, but she never says why. This is an unfortunate lapse in communication, we discover, since Mando has no reason to think that taking down Moff Gideon would lead to any problems between him and the exiled Mandalorian princess. I’m not sure it would have mattered, though. Mando had no choice but to fight Moff Gideon. More on that in a moment.

In the opening moments of the episode, Mando, Fett, Fennec and Dune track down Dr. Pershing’s ship. After boarding, one of the pilots puts a gun to Pershing’s head. He’s a “high value” New Republic target, and the pilot is banking on Mando and co. backing down. But he can’t help goading Cara Dune about the destruction of Alderaan and she blasts him in the face.

The Mandalorian

Credit: Disney

Pershing may be a Clone engineer and an Imperial scientist who’s likely done all sorts of unspeakable things, but he’s not unsympathetic to Mando’s cause. We knew even in Season 1 that he didn’t want to harm Baby Yoda and shed no tears when Mando rescued the little guy the first time. So he’s only too happy to help guide Mando and his allies through the Star Cruiser’s blueprints, showing them where to find the Darktroopers as well as the brig, where Grogu is being held.

They come up with a clever plan to get into the Imperial ship. Boba Fett will fly solo in Slave-1 and pretend to pursue Pershing’s ship, where the rest of the team will issue a distress call as they approach the Star Cruiser. This goes off without a hitch. As they approach, Moff Gideon sends out the Tie-Fighters. Bo-Katan pilots the Lambda-class T-4a shuttle straight toward the launch tunnel, ignoring flight control’s commands to the contrary.

As the shuttle dives into the launch tunnel, Fett peels away, taking out the Tie-Fighters before leaping into light speed. The shuttle crashes into the launch bay and four badass women exit, guns blazing. The Stormtroopers don’t stand a chance. Dune, Fennec, Bo-Katan and Kaska Reeves head toward the bridge, where Bo-Katan hopes to take down Moff Gideon. It’s also a distraction. While these “savages” (as Moff Gideon calls them) wreak havoc, Mando sneaks toward the brig. But first, he needs to lock down the cargo bay where the Darktroopers are stored. He only has a few minutes before they boot up.

He’s almost on time. He manages to shut the door but one Darktrooper makes it through, and one is enough to show just how much tougher these guys are than Stormtroopers. I’ve been lamenting the lameness of Stormtroopers lately, just because it seems like there’s really no tension at all when our heroes cut through them like grass. Well, Darktroopers are the opposite. It takes every one of Mando’s toys to bring one Darktrooper down. Fire doesn’t phase it. His whistling birds don’t bring it down. In the end, it’s the Beskar spear that saves the day.

The rest of the Darktroopers are trying to break through the door’s windows (doors play a huge part in this episode, by the way, and really throughout this show, where Mando routinely uses them to foil enemies). Mando rushes over and opens the airlock. The Darktroopers are whisked off into outer space.

This seems like a victory at first, and a too-easy one at that, until we remember that Darktroopers are droids that can survive in a vacuum and that they have propulsion-feet and can blast their way back to the ship. They’ll be back and in greater numbers…er, well, not in greater numbers but once I typed “They’ll be back” I felt sort of obligated to drop an Obi-wan quotation.

In any case, Mando heads to the brig and opens the door, only to find Moff Gideon holding the Darksaber over Grogu’s fuzzy little head. “Drop the blaster,” the Imperial bigwig says. “Slowly.”

Moff Gideon, we discover, has a plan. He knows when he’s lost the battle, but he also knows how to lose a battle and still win the war.

The Mandalorian

Credit: Disney

He knows how the whole Mandalorian code stuff works. He has no intention of killing Grogu—he’s still useful to them, despite what he tells Mando. He also has no intention of actually defeating Mando in battle. When he tricks him into taking Grogu and then backstabbing him, he likely doesn’t even want to succeed. He puts up a fight knowing he’ll lose, and knowing that Mando will spare him and take the Darksaber. “Assume I know everything,” he tells Mando. We should assume that also.

Mando is victorious, takes the Darksaber, and brings Moff Gideon back to the bridge, where Bo-Katan is aghast. “What happens?” she says, incredulously. That’s when Moff Gideon reveals his ploy. Bo-Katan would have killed him, taken the Darksaber, and then taken the Mandalorian throne. Instead, Mando spared him and Bo-Katan’s plans were thwarted, all in one fell swoop. Moff Gideon is a clever sonofabitch.

But not all goes according to plan. When the Darktroopers return, Moff Gideon is as smug as we’ve ever seen him. “After a valiant stand,” he says, smirking, “We all know that everyone in this room will be dead . . . except me and the child.”

And it certainly seems that way. Until an X-Wing suddenly appears and lands on the cruiser.

“One X-Wing,” Dune says sarcastically. “We’re saved.”

But it’s not just any X-Wing. Recall the Jedi seeing stone at the ancient temple, where Baby Yoda was snatched up by the Darktroopers. He sent his presence out into the Force. Someone felt it.

Someone who flies an X-Wing with is trusty droid sidekick.

That someone, cloaked and hooded all in black, also happens to have a green lightsaber. And one gloved hand. We know, long before we see his face, who this Jedi is. Who else wields a green lightsaber in one gloved, mechanical hand and also happens to be an ace X-Wing pilot.

He cuts his way through every last Darktrooper, in a display of power that is truly breathtaking. We see the power of a fully-trained Jedi and it’s something to behold. He makes his way to the bridge and Mando opens the doors (not everyone seems happy to see the Jedi) and we’re not even surprised when he lowers his head to reveal his true identity.

The only surprise is how well Industrial Light & Magic worked its sorcery this time around. It’s not perfect, but Luke Skywalker’s visage is nearly there, a huge leap from Moff Tarkin’s in Rogue One.

The Mandalorian

Credit: Disney

This is where things get bittersweet.

I’m suddenly filled with a sense almost of regret. The Return Of The Jedi came out in 1983, when I was just 2 years old. It wasn’t until I was graduating from high school in 1999 that we got another Star Wars movie. I went to the theaters to watch The Phantom Menace filled to the brim with excitement and left with all my hopes dashed. In the intervening years between 1983 and 1999, Star Wars existed only in Extended Universe novels and video games. The promise of more Luke Skywalker and Han Solo and Leia and Chewbacca and R2-D2 and C-3PO was never fulfilled, at least not in the way we’d hoped, with our heroes off on new adventures, rebuilding the Republic and battling new threats, like Admiral Thrawn.

Instead, we got the prequel films. Jar Jar Binks. Bad dialogue and bad casting and bad CGI. It makes me sad. It makes me sad to think that for nearly 20 years, Star Wars just languished and then, when it did return, it was so spectacularly bad. It makes me sad that after all this time we only now get to see a new story with a young Luke Skywalker, and even then—for all the wizardry involved—he’s only able to stand quite still and speak a few lines of dialogue and then walk off. It’s awesome, but it makes me sad.

I also have mixed feelings about Grogu going off with Luke, only because I’m just not sure what this means for The Mandalorian. This is a brilliant show for so many reasons, but the biggest reason is the relationship between Baby Yoda and Daddy Mando. It’s an emotional gut-punch when Grogu touches Mando’s helmet, and he finally takes it off. The tears in his eyes as Luke walks off with the little guy (who wouldn’t even approach until R2-D2 rolled in, which is adorable).

It’s great that Mando completed his quest and brought Grogu back to his kind—an ancient enemy that is no longer an enemy. It’s great. It also sucks and I hate it. What happens now? What happens with Grogu? What role does he play in the future? He isn’t in—or even mentioned in—the sequel trilogy. And oddly enough, that trilogy has started to feel less real, or less like canon, now that The Mandalorian is here.

I want Luke to go on to train Baby Yoda and become a wise old Jedi teacher. I want Han and Leia to live happily ever after and for their son to be a Jedi, not a Sith. I want so many things about the sequel trilogy to not be Star Wars anymore and I’m not sure I felt that way so strongly before The Mandalorian and the many ways it makes the story of Star Wars post-ROTJ so much more interesting and fully realized than anything J.J. Abrams or Ryan Johnson created. Or at least more Star Wars.

What next for Mando? What next for Grogu? But also…what next for Luke Skywalker? What next for Star Wars (beyond like…a dozen new shows plus some movies)?

Whatever’s next, this was an amazing episode with a surprising, powerful ending that gave me goosebumps and had my kids both erupting with emotion and excitement as we watched it unfold. Please, Disney, just give Star Wars to Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni (and let them continue to pick great directors like Peyton Reed and continue casting such wonderful actors). This is the Star Wars we’ve been looking for.

Finally, we come to the post-credits scene. If you missed this, go watch it before reading further.

After the credits we see twin suns and know immediately we’re back on Tatooine. The camera pans to the left to reveal a familiar sight: Jaba the Hutt’s old palace.

Things here are much the same as they were a few years ago (in Star Wars time, or a few decades ago in real time). Only now, Jabba’s right-hand man, Bib Fortuna, is sitting on the throne. He’s fattened up rather spectacularly, immitating his former master in more ways than one. He even has a chained up Twi’lek sex slave.

Fennec and Boba Fett come in guns blazing. Fennec frees the Twi’lek after taking out the guards. Bib Fortuna acts happy to see Fett, hoping to save his own skin once again through flattery. Fett shoots him without a word, hoists his body from the throne, and takes his place. Fennec grabs a bottle of blue stuff and sits on the armrest. There’s a new crime lord in town. And a new Star Wars show, The Book Of Boba Fett, headed to Disney Plus next December.

All told, one of the strongest episodes of the series so far, full of incredible action, one of the most gobsmacking cameos I’ve ever seen, and a bittersweet parting of ways between Mando and Grogu that left us with all the feels.

What did you think of the Season 2 finale? Let me know on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for reading! May the Force of others be with you this holiday season, and in the dark days ahead.