Star Wars fans who stayed up to watch The Mandalorian season 2 finale were treated to the best forty-four minutes of Star Wars possible, and being among the first to see it went a long way because the spoilers involved are going to break the internet more than the delay some fans endured trying to watch.
Is it too soon to think Jeremy Bulloch haunted Disney+ for not getting him on The Mandalorian in a cameo? It’s been a day since his passing, and Mandalorian fans who stayed up to watch the season 2 finale were met with a site that wouldn’t play the episode. Everything else seemed to load fine, but The Mandalorian would not load. It was an excruciating ten minutes as many were attesting on Twitter. We tried loading over and over, but there is no try. Persistence paid off. “Try again later” was not an option. There is only do.
The Mandalorian Chapter 16: The Rescue begins with a hijacking. A Lambda Class Imperial Shuttle is no match against Slave One. Dr. Pershing’s escorts are put down quickly. One has enough time to get under Cara Dune’s skin by taunting her about having been on the Death Star when Alderaan was destroyed. It was the first of many cold-blooded kills in this episode.
After capturing Dr. Pershing Din Djarin’s new crew find Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) and Koska Reeves (Mercedes Varnado aka Sasha Banks) on a remote world in a local cantina. Mando and Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) are badass walking in, but Koska challenges the old clone. It’s enough of a scuffle to remind us that Mandalorians can hold their own, even against the best bounty hunter in the galaxy. Bo-Katan breaks up the scrap, and they agree to help rescue Grogu for the fee on one Imperial Light Cruiser— the one Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) is helming.
The group devises a plan to sneak onto the ship overtly. It reminds us of the same shuttle being used to land on the forest moon of Endor using the same ruse. Like the prisoner transfer from cell block 1138 Star Wars heroes are good at pretending to be Imperials when they need to. Slave One chases the hijacked shuttle straight into the launch tube of Gideon’s Light Cruiser. The few TIES that make it out before the crash landing are easy prey for Boba Fett.
The team, sans Boba Fett board the cruiser and take the landing bay pretty easily; but it’s not the troopers in the bay they need to worry about. Gideon has already ordered the activation of the Dark Troopers onboard. These Dark Troopers are third-generation designs, meaning they have no clone parts. They are entirely droid, and they are scary. While Cara Dune (Gina Carano), Bo-Katan, Koska, and Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) are on their way to storm the bridge Mando heads to the brig to find Grogu.
Unfortunately, the garrison of Dark Troopers are housed on the way to the brig. Mando manages to seal the door after only one gets out, but he has his hands full. Rather, his face gets a handful of powerful punches from the deadly droid. The beskar helmet is the only thing between his face and the face crushing fate Oberyn Martell had when he fought the Mountain in Game of Thrones. After a harrowing melee Din manages to end the trooper with his beskar spear to the neck of the droid. The rest are blown out of the airlock in what seems a development that’s all too easy.
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Only twenty minutes into the episode Mando makes it into the cell Grogu is being held in, but Gideon is there with the Darksaber and a little green hostage. A bit of exposition tells us more about the Darksaber and its lore. The Clone Wars fans already know, but a surprise twist is coming. After a short duel, Din Djarin defeats Gideon in combat, but spares his life. He brings Grogu and Gideon to the bridge where Bo-Katan and company are waiting, bewildered.
It turns out Din has earned the right to lead Mandalore by acquiring the Darksaber. He can’t just hand it over to Bo-Katan. To honor the code of the ancient weapon she must defeat Din Djarin in combat. A story for another time. Season three should be intense. For now, there’s this to worry about: The Dark Troopers are back. They have rocket boots, and they’re droids. Being ejected from an airlock is only a temporary setback.
As the tension builds, our heroes await their fate behind the blast doors on the bridge. Then, just at the right moment an X-wing approaches on the scanner. Do we need to guess who that is? The fighter lands on the cruiser, and a cloaked Jedi disembarks, wielding the force and a green laser sword. The “mysterious” visitor makes combat with the Dark Troopers look like child’s play. It can only be who we think it is. When he enters the bridge we see his gloved right hand. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) has returned to Star Wars, everybody! They did a fine job. He’s rendered a tad better than Tarkin was done in Rogue One, which is fitting since his hallway scene is a reminder of his father’s epic hallway scene from the same movie.
Now that we know who answered the call Grogu put out from the Seeing Stone we get a touching scene where Mando removes his helmet one more time. He has tears in his eyes as he gives Grogu permission to go with the Jedi. “For once, let me look upon you with my own eyes,” the line by Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi echos in our heads through Pedro Pascal’s expression. R2-D2 is there too. What a wonderful surprise! “Artoo? R2-D2, it is you!” I heard Anthony Daniels’ voice in my head.
Next season can’t come soon enough. And when will we get to see the Child again? We cannot accept that he falls victim to Ben Solo in his turning to Kylo Ren. Luke’s academy was destroyed, but Grogu better live on. He will. He survived Order 66, after all. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.
Don’t go away once you’ve been blown away. There’s a post-credits scene. As far as I know, it’s the first post-credits scene in any Star Wars, and it’s a doozy. An establishing shot brings us to Jabba’s Palace on Tatooine where apparently Bib Fortuna, Jabba’s right hand Twi’lek has taken over the business. He’s gotten fat and probably gone soft since so many leaders of competing crime syndicates have been put down one way or another. There is no Xizor or Maul to take the job. Enter Fortuna’s usurper. Boba Fett offs him and now controls Jabba’s former business. His sits on his throne like Conan the King, and who is by his side? The one who owes her life to him: Fennec Shand. We can hope this is a tease for what’s to come with the highly anticipated Boba Fett series. Star Wars is back, baby.
Related: Check out ALL of our coverage on The Mandalorian!
