Welcome back to the blog, readers. The Mandalorian has been killing it so far this season (with the exception of the third episode), and I am so bummed we are at the back half of the season already. Was this episode, titled "Chapter 21: The Pirate," written by Jon Favreau, and directed by Peter Ramsey, another home run for this show? Or are we getting into the back-season slide? Stick around to find out.
NOTE: I will be using spoilers for my review, so DO NOT read ahead if you have not seen the episode.
Before I get into the actual review, I want to say that the Coruscant stuff in the third episode was jarring, especially knowing that we spent so much time there with a mostly uninteresting story. So there's your disclaimer right there. Now on to my review of the episode. I think this was a very well done episode. There was tension, it was resolved, and now we have some burning questions for the final three episodes of the season.
Unfortunately, there was not a lot of Grogu cuteness this episode, so immediately it is the worst episode of the season. All jokes aside, we got a fun little political episode, and the Coruscant stuff was a lot more intriguing than it was two weeks ago. I want to start by talking about that bit. We get into a character that is actually beloved, and that is Captain Carson Teva, played again by Paul Sun-Hyung Lee. I am surprised that we got to follow this character, but at the same time I'm not surprised. He is the voice of reason on this show, and I'm glad he had something to do. He was the one tasked with doing something about the pirate attack on Nevarro. It's a shame the New Republic basically told Teva to go screw himself, he clearly is right about there being a new rise of the Empire. It would not surprise me in the least if Moff Gideon is revealed to be one of the chief founders of the First Order. It was really nice to see Tim Meadows though as his commanding officer, and Steve Blum as the voice of his Star Wars Rebels character Zeb!
Elia Kane is definitely up to something here, as her demeanor towards Carson Teva is one of hostility. What she did to Dr. Pershing and what she did this week is leading me to believe that she is secretly behind whatever is yet to happen in the final three episodes, and it is very hard now to trust her, especially after what happened at the end of the episode. Katy M. O'Brien plays this character very well, you can feel the emotions on her.
Now on to the meat of this episode. After Teva was basically told to screw himself by the New Republic, he seeks out Mando and his enclave and begs them to help, being that Greef and Mando are friends and allies. Also it was a nice surprise that R5 was the droid that served with Teva in the rebellion, and the one that ratted out the Mandalorian enclave to him. It was also kind of ironic that the Mandalorians told him they would be relocating, which is exactly what they did in the end. I did really enjoy the battle through the streets (and the skies) of Nevarro, and those monkey things helping out the Mandalorians was honestly funny as hell. But it was your typical run of the mill fight sequence, and in the end it gets the job done.
The real meat of the episode is in the ending (and I will go into detail on both endings separately). I wanted to talk about the Mandalorian ending first, because my theory is alive again! Greef Karga allowed the Mandalorians to return to Nevarro in their own area, as a callback to season 1 of the show. The Armorer allows Bo-Katan to remover her helmet and admits she believes her story about the Mythosaur. She tells her that she will be the one to restore Mandalore because she "walks in both worlds." They confront the other Mandalorians and now shit is about to get real. The problem is that they may not even listen to Bo-Katan because hint hint, she doesn't have the Darksaber. Now I believe she absolutely will challenge Mando for the Darksaber, because it is the only way any Mandalorian not in the enclave will give her the light of day. This shit is about to get interesting.
And the end of the episode, Teva finds Moff Gideon's prison transport attacked and obviously he is not there. He sends a probe into the ship and finds corpses amongst the wreckage. In addition, he also finds a piece of Beskar armor, which may imply that Mandalorians may have broken him out. But as he pointed out to his superior, Mandalorians do not leave behind Beskar, so they are obviously being framed for this breakout. I absolutely believe that whatever Elia Kane is doing is leading to the return of Moff Gideon. And like I said before, we may be seeing the rise of the First Order before our eyes. I love THIS political intrigue!
We are getting into the good stuff, and I have a theory for the final three episodes. I think what happens this season will not be concluded by the end of this season, and it will take a fourth season for this story to resolve. I hope it's good, and I will see you all for the next episode.
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