You just can’t quit Order 66.
What They Say:
Din Djarin returns to the hidden Mandalorian covert.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the last episode being fairly divisive, we’re also in a place where there’s a growing divide in what people want from our leading characters themselves. I’ve seen a number going on about wanting to get away from all this Mandalorian mythology because they just want Din and Grogu doing bounty hunter stuff. Never mind a diversion like we had the last episode with a huge chunk devoted to Coruscant. You also have a group that wants to dig into all the Mandalorian stuff but are divided over whether Bo-Katan should even be included, especially the contingent that dislikes stuff from the animated side making its way into the live-action. It’s just growing more problematic for many depending on what they want the show to be as opposed to what the show is. I’m mostly just frustrated with some of the dialogue choices made or the way episodes are structured, such as the previous one needing to not be done with bookend material but broken up differently.
This episode manages to handle its structure a bit better but the flashback is something that I wish was expanded just a bit more and spread out into two pieces instead of one segment. The core of the episode focuses on how Grogu is getting acclimated to being around all these Mandalorians and in how Din wants him to follow The Way. I still don’t see Grogu becoming a Mandalorian and some of it just feels awkward, but it’s not a surprise that Din would want him to follow in his path. I think there’s a better path but it’s also something where Grogu needs to make a decision himself. Right now, he’s still a MacGuffin more than anything else, especially with no real communication coming from him outside of a few babbles and lots of expressions, but he’s mostly going wit the flow more than anything else. So seeing him do a little training here – which I think is better than Yoda’s fight sequences in the prequels – is the start of him moving down this path and I’m just not sure they can pull it off. Especially with his size and the puppet elements.
The other main focus, which has its own issues that could be fixed with just a little more dialogue or better framing, involves all the training going on by this covert. It’s like a field day of activities going on, some of which is dumb such as shooting at water, but things go off the rails when one of the raptors comes flying in and swipes one of the kids for a meal for its younglings. That it’s Paz Vizsla’s kid makes it all the worse and explains the heightened desire to get him back. This has a group going off to do a rescue once they find the nest because it’s typically been out of range of the jetpacks and they’ve lost others to the beast. Bo-Katan is able to find it since she has her ship and essentially gets to lead the mission. It’s a bit drawn out and you can see some of it leaning into old Luke territory – Bo scaling rock faces like this when she was younger just like Luke shooting womp rats. But just a bit better dialogue and flow of why they camped for the night would have smoothed it out. It’s a decent sequence and there’s fun in watching Mandalorians essentially taking down a kind of dragon mid-air.
The Mandalorian stuff does have Bo-Katan becoming more in tune with them, which I can understand but am also frustrated by because it feels like something she should bristle from based on past experiences and alignments. I can see the Mythosaur experience shaking her to some degree and the loss of her followers as well, but she’s going into all of this quickly. The seductive voice of the Armorer goes a long way. I’m glad to see here in the show and learning more about this group, but her past experiences should be something that she would still view as worth keeping at arm’s length. Maybe if Fenn Rau does show up this season he’ll be able to nudge her away from this in some way.
The big thing for a lot of people with this episode will be the flashback we get from Grogu as we watch the Armorer fashion a piece for him. The sound and heat remind him of the Order 66 event we’ve seen before but we get more of his being saved by various Jedi in the temple, who end up dying at the hands of an overwhelming number of Clones, before he ends up outside where Kelleran Beq protects him and helps him escape after a harrowing journey through the city. The character has appeared before in the Jedi Temple Challenge game and is once again, thankfully, played by Ahmed Best. He gets a great outfit here and a chance to be a key reason why Grogu survives and another shot at Star Wars legacy after Jar Jar Binks. It’s a really well-shot sequence overall, considering it’s a speeder chase in the big city, and it sets up more appearances possible in the future as we get more of Grogu’s escape and where he ended up in the 39 years since the fall of the Republic. Plus, they were saved by the Royal Naboo Security, which is just great to see that place getting a little more attention even in this form.
In Summary:
I enjoyed this episode overall for what it’s doing but it again reminds me that it feels like it’s just taking various shortcuts and not fleshing things out as it should in order to smooth the storytelling. It’s leaning a little too much on the “tradition” of bad Star Wars writing. Just a few more lines here and there would help – though not as much as the way the Mandalorians seem to talk in very “economical” ways where it feels like fanfic dialogue. After the first two seasons of having the Children of the Watch here, I was excited to see more of Bo-Katan and other Mandalorian approaches in live-action but seeing her fall into it is frustrating. The flashback is the best part of it but it also makes it clearer that Grogu needs to start stepping up and changing – which is going to be even more divisive.
Grade: B
