The latest episode of The Mandalorian wasn’t exactly as high-octane as Chapter 14 was but it was really, really good in a deeper way. We got some stirring character development that’ll probably have some consequence later on down the line and some hilarious moments that made this easily one of the best episodes to date. So, with no further delay, let’s dive down deep into this episode’s greatest moments.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
The fact that we got to see Mando in a stormtrooper outfit was undoubtedly the highlight of the episode for me. I never knew I needed this but it was so hilarious. And yeah, his fight on top of the vehicle was also my favorite scene in the episode. I love Mando and his butt-kicking skills.
Of course, we have to talk about this scene which was fraught with tension. Oh my gosh, I have never been more uncomfortable with an unmasking scene in my life!
First off, we have to acknowledge that Din Djarin’s face is now forever in the archives of the Empire. Oops.
Secondly, we have to also realize how powerful this moment was for Mando. He cares about Grogu so much he was willing to do anything, even go against his personal code as a member of The Watch, to remove his helmet and get the information he needed to save the baby.
And then, the acting from Pedro Pascal during this scene was top-notch. His vulnerability left him literally speechless. It was like he was a child again, frozen in a situation that scared him so badly he was practically incapacitated. It wasn’t until his helmet was back on that he once again found his confidence to be able to talk. I actually kind of feel sorry for Mando. He’s got some real issues that he’s got to deal with in the future of the series, I’m sure.
And then of course there was this moment that left me giggling with glee. Those seismic charges native to the Fetts are my favorite bombs in movie history and to see and hear it again was just so rewarding.
I’d also like to speak a little on the character development surrounding Mayfeld who absolutely stole the show in this episode. He wasn’t just a side character who brought nothing to the episode but comic relief like Mythrol in Chapter 12: The Siege but he actually added to the depth of the episode. Now, am I happy that he got to see Din’s face before Grogu?! No…that’s kind of upsetting. But it doesn’t matter.
All in all, this episode was another fantastic addition to the story and next week…things are going to go down!
I thank you for reading and I hope you have an amazing day.
Annlyel Online 
The sense of him being willing to do anything to get Grogu hadn’t occurred to me. I was too busy wondering why an Imperial terminal would be more willing to accept a random person’s face than they would accept a blank helmet. Sure, it gives you a record of who looked… but shouldn’t it maybe be using facial recognition of some sort to make sure this is information you actually ought to have? Seemed weird to me.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yeah, at first I thought the terminal had to scan a specific face but it makes sense that it couldn’t read a helmet. It’s like if you have gloves and you need to press a button on a screen. You’re going to have to take those gloves off in order to use the screen. I feel like it’s the same thing.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Exactly. I can’t fathom a point in why a face scan would be a blocker on using the terminal unless the thing actually wanted specific faces to make sure you’re actually authorized to use it. While it makes a decent motif to give us another reason to have Mando take his helmet off a second time, it doesn’t make sense. The only excuse for it I can think of is if Mando _is_ already in the Empire’s system as someone who’d be authorized, for reasons we don’t yet know.
So it could be fridge brilliant. Or it could be a cheap reason to get his helmet off and, as you say, demonstrate he’s now willing to do anything to get his kid back.
LikeLiked by 2 people
And honestly, that is this show’s only flaw: convenience. As my sister, it’s kind of becoming “The Convenience Show.” Boba “conveniently” doesn’t try to get his armor until Episode 6 when Mando needs help to fight all those troopers. Mando “conveniently” doesn’t put his jetpack on so that Grogu can get captured. Mayfeld “conveniently” takes off his helmet and for some reason never puts it back on. And that’s not even it.
Bo-Katan and co. were “conveniently” on that planet at the same time as Mando, hence being able to save him when he was in serious trouble. And the Magistrate on Corvus “conveniently” has a Beskar spear that Mando will end up having to allow him to be able to take on Moff Gideon.
There’s a lot of convenience this season which is undoubtedly keeping it from being one of the ABSOLUTE BEST shows ever made like ‘Sherlock’ or ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ but it’s still mindnumbingly awesome and the best thing that has happened to Star Wars in a very long while so I don’t have a problem with the convenient plot points.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yeah… if you’ll recall, I’ve been very critical of the plot convenience of this season on my own blog ever since the second episode, and said bluntly in that entry that I really hoped that it didn’t become a habit. I don’t even stop at the jet pack in the Grogu kidnapping episode, I’d even say it’s super convenient that Grogu is basically stuck behind a force field long enough to force Mando to defend him and put some distance between them, and then the field drops just in time for the bad guys to air drop in with their own jet packs and swipe him. The level of contrivance has honestly had me much more down on this season than you’ve been. I’m still watching every episode the day it drops (sometimes after midnight). I still enjoy it greatly. But it’s been a rather large turd in the punch bowl.
The other one is just the sheer level of recycled material. The Frog Lady episode is literally the only one this whole season where we didn’t have some degree of old characters from either this show or, more often, other Star Wars material coming into play. (And even the Frog Lady episode made a key reference to the prison break last season, if I’m being as brutal as possible.) It was fun to examine all the Easter eggs with the Krayt dragon in the first episode, and have a Boba Fett cameo at the end. However, none of those were key plot points in that episode. Then we had Bo, Cara (twice), Greef, Ahsoka, the woman from the Mos Eisley dock, and now Boba Fett. The season just hasn’t been allowed to breathe on its own, and while I wouldn’t have minded if a couple or three references had slipped in there, this is *every episode* now.
I mean… granted. It’s Star Wars. There’s 43 years of material here. It probably was going to get hard for Mando to exist entirely in his own corner of the universe forever, and even at that, “his own corner” is likely to wind up being a player in the period that builds the first bridges between the Empire and the First Order. But it was still his own story, and although it could totally be accused of being inspired by Boba Fett and Yoda even in the beginning, it was still carving out an original place in the overall universe. Now it’s getting harder to argue that it’s not starting to fall into the same derivative traps the Mouse House has been caught in the whole time. It’s still better executed than most of the rest of Disney’s stuff. But I’m hoping it can continue to speak for itself a bit better.
That said… it was pointed out on a meme I saw today that there’s a bittersweetness to Ahsoka getting her own live action series: for the same reasons I observed when she first was hinted in Mando, there’s a solid chance her series ends with her dying. 😞
That said, I want an Ahsoka-Vader live action duel now that we know Hayden is back too. 🙃
LikeLiked by 2 people
I have a feeling we won’t be getting that Ahsoka-Vader live-action duel because it most likely will take place after Return of the Jedi like The Mandalorian and of course, Darth Vader is dead at that point. But we could get an awesome flashback to her fight with Vader in Rebels and that would be great.
I understand what you’re saying, the show has very much been overtaken by characters that we all know and love but honestly, as long as I still feel that this is The Mandalorian’s story I don’t care. Bring on the beloved characters!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yeah, whether we get a live action Ahsoka-Vader re-enactment or a new duel that isn’t intended to be a reproduction of the one in Rebels, I’m good with getting anything. I think it’ll come down to how the series is formatted. I think there’s a non-trivial chance it could take place over a long period of time and more fully trace her path from meeting the main cast of Rebels to… whenever they sign off, which IMO is not terribly in likely going to be whenever she dies before Rise of Skywalker. If, indeed, the series winds up being about her search for Thrawn and, with him, Ezra, then I could visualize it starting with a flashback to her battle with Vader as a way of introducing us to who Ezra is, except telling the story from her perspective instead of his.
As to Mando and the guest stars… well, let me be honest. I didn’t follow either Clone Wars or Rebels when they were on the air. I’ve gone back and watched key episodes, and I do still think the last four episodes of Clone Wars are the best action animation I’ve ever seen. (I’ve rewatched the series’ last five minutes a LOT.) For Rebels, I’ve only watched the parts where Ahsoka and/or Vader are in it, and then the anticlimactic death of Maul at Obi-Wan’s hands. I’ve rewatched Ahsoka’s duel with Vader a bunch. (I deleted a long thought on Ahsoka’s reaction to Vader here, I’ll save it for a post later.)
But that’s it. I… don’t even have a big interest in the actual main characters of Rebels right now. Maybe I’m being unfair, and maybe I should go through and watch both of those series from start to finish and give the rest of them a chance. Maybe once I’ve finished with Raised By Wolves and Mando’s season ends, that can be my next show watching project. I’ll probably mix Space Battleship Yamato in there too.
But the general point is, at least at first blush, Ahsoka and Vader are basically the only parts of Rebels I’m much interested in. In fairness, when Ahsoka appeared, I didn’t mind that she was only there for one episode and then vanished again. In some respects, the relative emptiness of Rebels was exposed for the fact that they took over the series, and then left those of us who aren’t invested in the main characters to not care any more once they left the stage. It’s probably fair to say from a paleo Star Wars fan’s perspective that I don’t even much care about the last two seasons aside from having found the episode where Maul dies with a whimper. I don’t know what happens in the rest of that series other than on a very vague level, and I don’t care. The characters themselves don’t matter much more than the random family that gets kidnapped by a giant in the Ewoks movie.
Mandalorian is, hopefully, not going to suffer that fate. I do suspect they’re going to write this story as a bridge between the Empire and the First Order, and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Snoke is a major part of this series’ last moments. (Maybe Mando is the one who disfigures him?) And I did appreciate that Ahsoka didn’t overshadow Mando as she and Vader did with the main characters of Rebels — although, as you know, I absolutely could’ve done without Mando just tanking her lightsabers on his armor. That tells me they’re sensitive to Ahsoka overshadowing him too, and they overreacted and swung too far back the other way.
But now that we’re down to probably one episode left this season, and I realize that they haven’t had a single episode that didn’t significantly touch on old material? Yeah. It bothers me. It’s possible this series has decided they’ve established themselves and can stand even with the giants coming in? But they need to be careful. I don’t want casual fans to come back in a few years and treat this series like I do Rebels now. In fairness, we’re not there yet. But we can kinda see there from here.
LikeLiked by 2 people