Original Air Date: November 20, 2020
Writer: Jon Favreau
Director: Carl Weathers
After the events on Trask, the Razor Crest has been haphazardly stitched together with Mon Calamari netting, so Mando heads for Nevarro to repair his ship –his drop-bridge no longer works properly — where he reunites with some friends, Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) and Cara Dune (Gina Carano). Since rescuing the town on Nevarro from Imperial rule in Season 1, Greef has become the local magistrate and Cara has become the marshal. Greef is now also receiving administrative support from the amusing Mythrol who Mando kidnapped in “Chapter 1” (reprised by Horatio Sanz). In exchange for ship repairs, Mando is persuaded to help Greef and Cara lead an assault on a distant covert Imperial base on the other side of the planet, while Baby Yoda stays behind in a local school (located inside the reconverted pub from Season 1).
The group leads an impressive invasion of the remote mountain base (with plenty of nods to A New Hope) when suddenly they come upon a pair of scientists desperately trying to erase their files. Mando, Cara, and Greef enter a disturbing room filled with tanks of deformed humanoid creatures. Are these intended to be clones of some sort? Perhaps clones of Snoke from the sequel trilogy? Are the writers trying to salvage the sequel trilogy narrative? Part of me hopes Favreau and Filoni will simply refuse to even address the Disney sequel trilogy in The Mandalorian and instead pretend it simply never existed.
At any rate, we learn that this facility is actually a laboratory wherein the Empire has been testing for “M-Count” (or Midi-chlorian count). We are led to believe the Empire is planning to clone force-sensitive creatures and harness their powers using blood samples from “the child” (Baby Yoda). Stormtroopers suddenly flood the hall and the base is set to explode with lava temperatures rising (they previously had to control this temperature in a scene reminiscent of Obi-Wan Kenobi on the Death Star). They escape in a stormtrooper vessel, killing speeder bike troopers, until a pod of TIE fighters suddenly appears and the base explodes. Mando saves the day in the Razor Crest by killing off the TIE fighters.
When they return to town, Mando and Baby Yoda re-board his repaired ship and depart for the planet Corvus (as identified in the previous episode) to meet with the Jedi, Ahsoka Tano.
In a brief epilogue, a New Republic soldier, Captain Carson Teva (reprised by Star Wars super-fan Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) pays a visit to Nevarro in order to question Greef and Cara about recent activities on these planets along the outer rim. Both are vague in their responses, but he beckons them to report any unusual activity which has been apparently growing from the ashes of the old Empire, and the Core Worlds are not paying nearly enough attention. Meanwhile, Moff Gideon (reprised by Giancarlo Esposito) has secretly implanted a tracking device aboard the Razor Crest through one of Greef Karga’s mechanics. The episode ends as Moff Gideon stands in front of an extended line of elite Dark Troopers.
The Mandalorian Trivia:
- In this episode we see a brief battle with an Aqualish gang, the same species that fought with Luke in the Cantina on Tatooine in A New Hope.
- There was an amusing crew member who can be seen in jeans in this episode. He became known colloquially as “jeans guy.” Carl Weathers called the mistake a “bogey” and Disney quickly digitally removed it from the episode on Disney Plus.
- In the background you can see a statue to IG-11 in this episode –the droid who sacrificed himself on Nevarro in Season 1.
- Also in the background in this episode, the protocol droid teacher informs us that the capitol of the New Republic is no longer on Coruscant, but rather on a planet called Chandrilla.
- In this episode, we learn that Cara Dune once lost everything when Alderaan was destroyed by the Death Star.
- Inspired by the blue milk seen in Star Wars, Jon Favreau asked the prop creator to bake blue macarons for Baby Yoda to eat.
- This was the first episode directed by Carl Weathers. Rumors abound that he will direct another episode in the forthcoming Season 3.
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