This week on The Mandalorian, we get a highly enjoyable episode that may be the most Star Wars-esque outing yet.
The Siege is filled with action and jam-packed with references to the Original Series. Somehow these callbacks manage to be fun this time, rather than cringe inducing as they have in past weeks.
There are also several allusions to the dreadful Sequel Trilogy, which I'm not happy about and will get to in a moment.
The Siege rigidly follows the same formula we've seen all season long. You know the drill by now— Manny needs help, he lands on a planet, he runs into someone willing to assist in exchange for a favor, and hijinx ensue.
The problem with these formulaic plots though is that they're generally time fillers, postponing the plot revelations and payoffs until the season finale.
The Siege was written by series creator Jon Favreau (natch), but was directed by... Carl Weathers— aka Greef Karga! This is Weathers' first time in the director's chair, and he does an amazing job, handling the episode's extensive action sequences like an old pro. Well done!
As I said above, this episode contains several unwelcome references to the Sequel Trilogy. In one scene, Manny & Co. discover an Imperial lab that may contain clones of Supreme Leader Snoke from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi (or not— it's pretty vague, and hard to tell with any degree of certainty).
At the end of the episode we see Moff Gideon on his own personal Star Destroyer, secretly hatching a scheme to return the Empire to power.
It almost feels like Favreau is using The Mandalorian to plug the massive plot holes in the Sequels. The Force Awakens famously replaced the Rebels and the Empire with the Resistance and the First Order. Trouble is, JJ Abrams' woefully derivative but inadequate script couldn't be bothered to explain how either of these groups came to be.
Is Favreau trying to "fix" The Force Awakens by showing us the origin of the First Order? Is Moff Gideon the one who set the organization in motion? I can't believe I'm saying this, but it looks like that's exactly what's happening.
I am NOT OK with this! I hated the Sequels with the white hot passion of a thousand exploding suns! They're so inept and nonsensical that I've chosen to ignore everything that happened in them. Disney needs to keep anything Sequel-related far, far away from The Mandalorian, lest it take on the stench of those terrible movies.
SPOILERS!
The Plot:
The heavily-damaged Razor Crest is limping along toward the planet Corvus, when it suddenly drops out of hyperspace. Manny tries to repair the ship, but it's no use. He sees they're near Nevarro, and decides to head there for proper repairs.
Meanwhile on Nevarro, the Armorer's workshop has been taken over by Aqualish thieves, who are dividing their plunder. Just then Cara Dune— now the Marshal of Nevarro City— bursts in and quickly dispatches the thugs. She gathers up their stolen goods and says it'll be returned to its rightful owners.
Manny then lands the Razor Crest on Nevarro. He's met by his friends Greef Karga— now the Magistrate of the city— and Dune. Karga welcomes Manny, and is happy to see Baby Yoda again. Manny asks about repairing the ship, and Karga says he'll get his best people on it. He orders a couple of mechanics to get started. One of them gives Manny & the Child a suspicious glance as they pass (hmm...).
Manny, Karga & Dune walk through the now-bustling town, filled with traders and merchants. Manny's impressed with the way the two have turned it around. Karga drops Baby Yoda off at a newly-built school. Manny protests, once again stating that wherever he goes, the Child goes. Dune assures him it'll be fine, and guarantees the kid's safety.
The trio goes to Karga's office, where Manny's surprised to see the Mythrol (the amphibian alien Manny captured back in The Mandalorian) is working for him. Karga explains that Mythrol's (which is what I'm calling him) owes him big time and is working off his debt, which should take about 350 years to pay off. Manny advises Mythrol not to run off, or he'll capture him again. Mythrol notes he's turned over a new leaf, as he doesn't want to spend any more time encased in carbonite.
Karga invites Manny to sit as they talk business. Manny says he's just there for repairs, not a job. Karga points out that it'll take a while to fix the ship, meaning Manny has plenty of time on his hands. He shows him a map of Nevarro, indicating the City occupies a large safe szone. Unfortunately there's a leftover Imperial base at the edge of the zone, still manned by officers and Stormtroopers. Karga says he just wants the Imperials off his planet, so it'll finally be completely free. Manny agrees to help.
The Plot:
The heavily-damaged Razor Crest is limping along toward the planet Corvus, when it suddenly drops out of hyperspace. Manny tries to repair the ship, but it's no use. He sees they're near Nevarro, and decides to head there for proper repairs.
Meanwhile on Nevarro, the Armorer's workshop has been taken over by Aqualish thieves, who are dividing their plunder. Just then Cara Dune— now the Marshal of Nevarro City— bursts in and quickly dispatches the thugs. She gathers up their stolen goods and says it'll be returned to its rightful owners.
Manny then lands the Razor Crest on Nevarro. He's met by his friends Greef Karga— now the Magistrate of the city— and Dune. Karga welcomes Manny, and is happy to see Baby Yoda again. Manny asks about repairing the ship, and Karga says he'll get his best people on it. He orders a couple of mechanics to get started. One of them gives Manny & the Child a suspicious glance as they pass (hmm...).
Manny, Karga & Dune walk through the now-bustling town, filled with traders and merchants. Manny's impressed with the way the two have turned it around. Karga drops Baby Yoda off at a newly-built school. Manny protests, once again stating that wherever he goes, the Child goes. Dune assures him it'll be fine, and guarantees the kid's safety.
The trio goes to Karga's office, where Manny's surprised to see the Mythrol (the amphibian alien Manny captured back in The Mandalorian) is working for him. Karga explains that Mythrol's (which is what I'm calling him) owes him big time and is working off his debt, which should take about 350 years to pay off. Manny advises Mythrol not to run off, or he'll capture him again. Mythrol notes he's turned over a new leaf, as he doesn't want to spend any more time encased in carbonite.
Karga invites Manny to sit as they talk business. Manny says he's just there for repairs, not a job. Karga points out that it'll take a while to fix the ship, meaning Manny has plenty of time on his hands. He shows him a map of Nevarro, indicating the City occupies a large safe szone. Unfortunately there's a leftover Imperial base at the edge of the zone, still manned by officers and Stormtroopers. Karga says he just wants the Imperials off his planet, so it'll finally be completely free. Manny agrees to help.
Cut to Manny, Karga, Dune and Mythrol speeding across the lava flats to the Imperial base. They plan to sneak in, overload the reactor powering the place and get out before it blows. Mythrol's nervous about getting so close to the base, until Karga offers to knock a hundred years off his debt.
They arrive at the "front door" of the base, but find the controls are melted. Mythrol attempts to pick the electronic lock, but Manny gets impatient. He jets to the top of the base, and after a few seconds throws a dead Stormtrooper down to the ground. Mythrol finally opens the door, but wants to wait outside. Dune warns him that the lava tides will soon begin, so he reluctantly follows them inside.
The group makes their way to the top of the base, where they find Manny's already cleared it of troopers. Dune spots a Trexler Marauder (PLOT POINT!), claiming it's valuable on the black market. The group then heads for the reactor control room, avoiding various officers and troopers.
Eventually they reach the reactor, which is powered by a lava seam far below. Mythrol's forced to carefully step onto the narrow control platform and disable the cooling system. Instantly the heat level begins rising and alarms sound. Karga announces they have ten minutes to get the hell out before the place blows.
As they race back through the base, they run across a pair of Imperial scientists who are destroying their hard drives before evacuating. The scientists see the intruders and attack, but Manny & Co. make short work of them. They look around and see the room's filled with bio tanks, and are able to vaguely glimpse deformed specimens inside.
Manny says he doesn't like the look of this, and Dune order Mythrol to hack into the console. He does so, and uncovers a transmission from Doctor Pershing (who we also met back in The Mandalorian), who infodumps a ton of exposition.
Pershing says he took blood from the Child and injected it into various test subjects, who all ended up dying. He believes they need to find a subject with a high "m-count" (uh-oh), and says they'll need more blood from the Child in order to proceed. He then vows not to fail the recipient of the message— Moff Gideon.
Manny says the message must be an old one, as he killed Gideon back in Redemption. Mythrol checks and says the message is only three days old. Manny realizes Baby Yoda's in danger if Gideon's still alive.
Just then the group's attacked by Stormtroopers. Manny says he needs to protect the Child, and Karga tells him to go. Manny blasts off and gets the hell out of there. Karga and the others then fight their way through the troopers as they head for the exit.
The group makes it to the shuttle bay, where they're pinned down by more troopers. Dune glances over at the Maurader and gets an idea. She dashes over to the vehicle, starts it up and backs it up next to Karga and Mythrol. Once everyone's inside, she drives it out of the bay like a maniac. The repulsor vehicle— which is made to hover, not fly— plunges a thousand feet and crash lands on their speeder. The trio then enter a narrow canyon as they speed back to Nevarro City in the Maurader.
They're not out of the woods yet though, as several Scout Troopers pursue them on speeder bikes. Karga mans the Marauder's gun turret and blasts a couple of them, while Dune mashes the others against the canyon wall.
Jus then the base explodes in a fountain of lava. Unfortunately a quartet of TIE Fighters managed to take off just in time and pursue the Marauder. They dive into the canyon, firing at the vehicle. Karga manages to take out a couple, but unfortunately one crashes into the Marauder, destroying its gun turret.
The Marauder exits the canyon and hightails it across the lava plains, desperately trying to make it back to the safety of Nevarro City. The TIE Fighters close in, and just as it looks like all is lost, the Razor Crest miraculously appears. Manny blasts one of the fighters out of the sky, as Baby Yoda cheers him on. He pursues the last one into the upper atmosphere before finally destroying it.
The others make it back to Nevarro City. For some reason Manny doesn't even land, instead radioing Karga and asking how much he owes for the repairs to his ship. Karga thanks him for eliminating the Imperial base and calls it even. He then invites Manny for a drink, but he begs off, saying he has important business to take care of and exits the episode like he owes it money.
Later on, New Republic Captain Teva (who we met in The Passenger) questions Karga about the destruction of the base. Karga plays dumb about the explosion and says he never saw the Razor Crest. Teva then speaks with Dune, complimenting her on the way she cleaned up the town. He offers her a job in the New Republic, but she turns him down.
Captain Teva says there's something odd going out here in the outskirts, but the Core Worlds don't believe it's true. He leaves Dune a badge emblazoned with the New Republic and leaves. She watches as he walks back to his ship.
Cut to an Imperial command cruiser, where an Officer receives a message from the Mimbanese mechanic. He (or she?) tells the officer that a tracking device was placed on the Razor Crest as instructed, and that Manny still has the Child. The Officer thanks him, promising he'll be rewarded in the new era.
The Officer heads to a secure lab, where she reports to Moff Gideon and tells him the news. Gideon vows he'll be ready for Manny. He then turns and gazes at row after row of stasis tubes, each filled with a black-clad Dark Trooper.
Thoughts:
• As the episode begins, the heavily-damaged Razor Crest drops out of hyperspace and coasts along at sublight.
Note that the ship makes the exact same "winding-down" sound the Millennium Falcon did when its hyperdrive failed in The Empire Strikes Back.
• Baby Yoda's always adorable, but they cranked up the cuteness level to eleven in this episode. That's because Disney knows they've got a goldmine in their delightful little Muppet, and they're gonna milk his tiny green teats till they're chapped and dry.
Anyway, we see Manny's convinced Baby Yoda to crawl into a tiny equipment alcove, as he tries to teach him basic hyperdrive repair. As you might expect, it doesn't go well and hijinx ensue.
By the way, why are the Razor Crest's hyperdrive electronics housed inside a tiny, inaccessible compartment? How the hell is an adult supposed to get to any of them? Is it standard procedure for the crews of all such ships to keep a "Repair Baby" on board?
• Once again the Star Wars Universe is a small and cozy place. After the hyperdrive goes out, Manny states they'll never make it to Corvus. He then says they'll have to stop for repairs at Nevarro, which is presumably nearby.
• Once again the Star Wars Universe is a small and cozy place. After the hyperdrive goes out, Manny states they'll never make it to Corvus. He then says they'll have to stop for repairs at Nevarro, which is presumably nearby.
It'd better be REALLY close! As I've pointed out before, here in our galaxy the distances between solar systems are huge. The closest one to us is four lightyears away. Others are thousands or even millions! If the Razor Crest can only putt along at sublight speed, then Manny better hope Nevarro's just around the corner, else they've got a lonnnnnnng trip ahead of them.
• On the way to Nevarro, Manny & Baby Yoda take time out for a snack. As they do so, we finally get to see how Manny eats without removing his helmet— he lifts it up slightly in order to take a few slurps of soup.
So I guess that whole "Never Revealing His Face To Another Living Being" thing doesn't include the bottom of his chin?
Last week I noted that when Bo-Katan removed her helmet, there was an audible hissing sound of air escaping. We hear the same sound effect here as Manny lifts his helmet a bit, which implies that Mandalorian helmets aren't just buckets placed on their heads, but are somehow pressurized.
We've seen the Aqualish species before— most notably in A New Hope, when one challenged Luke in the Cantina ("My friend doesn't like you— I don't like you either!").
• So what happened to the Armorer? We last saw her in Redemption, where she took on an entire squad of Stormtroopers with just her smithing tools. Then in this episode we see her forge has been deserted. I guess she left Nevarro to join her fellow Mandalorians somewhere?
• It was great seeing Cara Dune again. She was a badass as always.
In particular I loved the scene in which she used one of the dead Aqualish as a shield while the others blasted away at her.
Enjoy seeing her while you can though, as I have a feeling she's about to get "cancel cultured." See, recently actress Gina Carano (who plays Dune) made some comments on social media that offended the SJWs and gave them icky bad feelings (what else is new?) so now they're trying to get her fired. It's probably only a matter of time before Disney demands she be written out of the show.
I loved how the ship's in such bad shape that the rear ramp only goes down halfway, forcing Manny to have to jump off it onto the ground!
One of the repairmen is a red-skinned Mimbanese. We first saw this race back in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Note that this particular Mimbanese gives a suspicious glance over his shoulder as Manny and the others walk away, because every background character in the Star Wars Universe is always a spy or working for the enemy.
This scene crams in as many Star Wars references as possible, and then some. First of all, the school's taught by a female protocol droid with a British accent. By the way, the Aurebesh text on the board behind the droid reads, "Gravitational Vector." And because this is a sci-fi show, the board is transparent instead of opaque, making it virtually impossible to read.
We then hear a snippet of the droid's lesson, which is all about galactic "geography:"
Teacher Droid: "…be transported from the Outer Rim to as far away as the Core Worlds. However, there are several other regions within our galaxy. They are the Mid Rim, the Expansion Region, the Inner Rim, the Colonies, Core, and Deep Core... The capital of the Old Republic was within the Core on a planet called Coruscant. The capital of the New Republic is currently on the planet Chandrila, which is also within the Core region. So, back to the start. The system also contains the Akkadese Maelstrom. The Maelstrom surrounds Kessel and its three moons. As you learned yesterday, there are many systems in this galaxy. How many orbits are in the Kessel system? Do we at least remember that?"
Student: "Ooh, I know! Uh… Two?"
Teacher Droid: "Yes, very good. As the third moon of Kessel rotates the outer planet, you see the moon here travels in its same orbit. Now who can track the path of the orbit here? Do I have any volunteers? Anyone?"
Teacher Droid: "Yes, very good. As the third moon of Kessel rotates the outer planet, you see the moon here travels in its same orbit. Now who can track the path of the orbit here? Do I have any volunteers? Anyone?"
As you can probably tell, the droid's lesson is chock full of Star Wars trivia. She mentions Coruscant, capital of the Old Republic and seen numerous times in the Prequels. But she also namedrops Chandrilla, which is the capital of the New Republic, as well as the birthplace of both Mon Mothma and Ben Solo (aka Kylo Ren)— a fact of which I wasn't aware.
She also mentions the Akkadesse Maelstrom, which was featured in Solo: A Star Wars Story. The Maelstrom is where the Kessel Run is located.
• Baby Yoda doesn't give two sh*ts about the droid's lesson, as he's far more interested in a kid from the Native American planet who's weirdly eating cookies at his desk.
The writers then finally remember that Baby Yoda can use the Force, and he reaches out a tiny hand toward the sleeve of cookies, causing it to tremble a bit before flying over to his desk. Amazingly the Native American kid doesn't notice any of this till he reaches down for another bite.
And before anyone actuallys me, I know the Child seemingly used the Force in The Passenger, when he was gazing hungrily at Frog Lady's eggs. But that instance was so vague it was easy to miss and hard to tell if it really happened, so I'm not counting it.
Believe it or not, you can actually buy the blue cookies featured so prominently in this scene! They're available from Williams-Sonoma, purveyors of fine useless and overpriced foods and kitchen gadgets since 1956.
The cookies, which are called Nevarro Nummies (no, really!), are available for the low, low price of just $49.95 per dozen. Holy Price Gouging, Batman! I guess they gotta pay for that Star Wars licensing somehow!
• As Manny enters Karga's office, he's spotted by Mythrol— who's so startled by the sight of the Mandalorian he spurts a cloud of vapor from his neck. I guess this is the alien equivalent of "sh*tting a brick."
This scene may be a reference to one back in The Mandalorian. In that episode, Manny captured Mythrol (who had a bounty on his head) and froze him in carbonite for safe keeping. At one point Mythrol said, "I think I have to use the vacc tube. I mean I can do it here, but if you've never seen a fledgling Mythrol evacuate their thorax, you're a lucky guy, trust me."
So the cloud of mist seen here may have been Mythrol "evacuating his thorax." Although the cloud seemed to come from his neck, not his chest. Maybe his anatomy's different.
In this scene Mythrol also promises to behave, saying he doesn't want to go back into carbonite as he "still can't see out of his left eye." That's a reference to Return Of The Jedi, in which Han Solo's released from carbonite and suffers from hibernation sickness, causing him to lose his sight for a few hours.
• Dune shows Manny a map of Nevarro, displaying the "safe zone" they currently occupy and the Imperial Base that's causing them problems.
I was very confused by Nevarro's geography the first time I watched this episode. I could have sworn the map showed the base on the other side of the planet. So I couldn't understand how Karga & Co. managed to drive a speeder there so quickly, and how Manny was able to fly back in time to pick up his ship.
On second watch though, I saw that Nevarro City is at the bottom of the green safe zone, and the base is just outside it. That makes much more sense!
Well, not really. If the base was only five or ten miles away, why didn't the Imperials attack Nevarro City? Were they quietly conducting their secret experiments, hoping Karga and Dune wouldn't notice them?
• Manny and the others arrive at the Imperial Base, which is built into the side of a high cliff.
Last week I praised the series' production designers, saying they managed to perfectly replicate the old school Star Wars aesthetic. They knocked it out of the park again this week, as this has to be the Star Warsiest episode yet. The corridors of the Imperial Base looked amazingly like those in the Death Star, complete with those distinctive oblong vertical light panels covering every surface.
It reminded me of Echo Base in The Empire Strikes Back, which also featured corridors cut from the ice.
This all makes perfect sense, as it's exactly how one would go about excavating a subterranean base in the Star Wars Universe. Well done!
• Inside the base's shuttle bay, Mythrol spots a distinctive vehicle and says, "Look, it’s a mint Trexler Marauder! We can get a lot for this on the black market!" A couple things here:
First off, we've seen a vehicle very much like this one before. In The Reckoning, a squad of Moff Gideon's Stormtroopers pulled up in transport and attacked Manny & Co. The Marauder isn't quite the same as the earlier model, but it's pretty darned close.
Both vehicles are obviously based on the Imperial Troop Transport toy released by Kenner back in 1979. I'm convinced that series creator Jon Favreau had this toy as a kid, and it was his favorite for some reason. Why else would such an innocuous looking vehicle pop up twice on the show?
Secondly, I'm betting Mythrol's line about the Marauder being valuable on the black market is an in-joke about collectibles. No doubt an original Kenner Troop Transport toy in a mint condition box would sell for a pretty penny on ebay (aka the Black Market!).
• Sigh... When it comes to references and fan service, Favreau just can't help himself. When our heroes are sneaking through the base, they hear a couple of Stormtroopers approaching. As they pass, one of the troopers says, "Section 4. TK-147."
If that designation sounds vaguely familiar to you, there's a good reason. In A New Hope, the Millennium Falcon was captured and brought aboard the Death Star. Once inside, Luke & Han disguised themselves as Stormtroopers. An Imperial Officer paged trooper TK-147, demanding to know why he wasn't at his post. Luke or Han then walked down the ramp, pointed at their helmet to indicate it was "malfunctioning."
• The group sneaks through the base and eventually reach the coolant control tower. For absolutely no good reason, the controls are mounted on the side of a pedestal that's precariously perched over a pit filled with bubbling lava.
Mythrol actually has to carefully step off the platform and onto a comically narrow ramp surrounding the pedestal. One wrong move and he'll fall into the lava far below!
This is patently ridiculous. Why the hell would any sane civilization place their controls in such preposterously inaccessible places? Why not just stick the panel on the wall next to the door? Hell, why's it have to be in the lava room in the first place? The controls could literally be placed anywhere in the base!
Of course this is nothing new, as the Star Wars Universe has been filled with such hazardous interfaces all the way back to A New Hope! Apparently OSHA doesn't exist in this world.
Then as Mythrol's clinging to the side of the pedestal, he quips that there's no guardrail around the pedestal, referencing an of-told joke about the lack of safety on Imperial ships and bases.
Eventually Mythrol figures out the controls and shuts off the cooling system. Note the temperature gauge graphic here...
Jesus F*ck.
OK, first off let me say that I could be wayyyy off here, and the clones in these tanks are something else completely. I hope so! Because I. Do. Not. Like. This. At all. I do not want anything from the thrice-cursed Sequel Trilogy seeping into this show. Those movies were ill-conceived and incoherent, and I loathe them with every fiber of my being. At this point I consider them to be nothing more than elaborate fan fiction and am ignoring everything that happened in them.
If this series is gonna start throwing in callbacks (or I guess callforwards) to those films, then I'm out!
• In the lab, Mythrol punches up a holographic message from Dr. Pershing to Moff Gideon.
We've seen Pershing before— he first appeared in The Mandalorian as an associate of The Client. Later in The Sin, he was seemingly protective of Baby Yoda, and Manny decided to let him live. It's now looking like Pershing's paternal instincts may have all been an act to save his life.
This recorded message finally confirms why The Client, Pershing and Moff Gideon all want Baby Yoda so badly— they're harvesting his blood and injecting it into test subjects in order to give them Force powers. At least I think that's what's going on.
Pershing also comments that one subject survived for a fortnight before his body rejected the blood, and recommends finding a donor with a "higher M-count." That's obviously a reference to midichlorians, the ill-conceived, microscopic life forms that inhabit the blood of Force users. They were first introduced by George Lucas back in The Phantom Menace.
I'm not crazy about having Prequel references in The Mandalorian either, but I'll take them over anything mentions of the Sequels. The Prequels were bland and boring, but the Sequels made 'em look like freakin' Shakespeare!
• As everyone and their dog has posted online by now, this episode features a surprisingly sloppy blooper, similar to Game Of Thrones' infamous Starbucks cup.
As Manny & Co. tear through the corridors of the Imperial base, they round a corner and are confronted by a squad of Stormtroopers. For a split second, you can glimpse a jeans-clad crewmember standing in the background, partially hidden by a doorway!
He only appears for a couple of frames, so he's hard to spot unless you know where to look. He's at the extreme left side of the screen, and I've slowed down the scene here to make it easier to see him.
Here's a lightened version of the scene to make it easier to spot him.
What's odd about this flub is that it features several laser blasts, which are animated and added in after the fact. The CGI artist probably worked on the scene for an hour or two— more than enough time to realize there's an errant guy hanging around in the background!
Get a good look at him now, because I'd bet my house that it won't be long before Disney orders him to be erased from the background.
• Does Stormtrooper armor serve any functional or practical purpose? Throughout the course of this episode, Manny & Friends are attacked by at least a hundred Stormtroopers. Possibly even more. Incredibly, our heroes kill each and every one of them with a single laser blast!
Either Manny and the others have incredibly powerful blasters, or Stormtrooper armor is less than worthless. At this point the troopers might as well just wear street clothes.
The trooper lets out a yell as he falls, but amazingly the producers were able to restrain themselves and didn't use the Wilhelm Scream! I'm shocked and stunned!
The Wilhelm Scream was a fun little detail the first two or three thousand times I heard it in a movie or TV show. After that it started to get a bit stale, and it would yank me out of the story every time I heard it. Kudos to The Mandalorian for using a newer, more generic scream here.
• OK, Mythrol popping up and down as he waited for a clear shot made me laugh.
• After rigging the base to blow, Karga, Dune and Mythrol are pinned down by Stormtroopers. Dune sees the Marauder sitting nearby, and the three use it to escape.
Heh. Earlier in the episode, Mythrol took an odd and incongruous interest in the vehicle, in what may be the most obvious "Chekov's Gun" moment ever. It was painfully clear the Marauder would become important later in the episode.
• Karga, Dune and Mythrol hightail it out of the base minutes before it explodes. Unfortunately the Imperials, bent on revenge, pursue them.
We're then treated to a Star Wars Greatest Hits Chase Scene. First up, a quartet of Scout Troopers race after our heroes on speeder bikes, as Karga uses the Marauder's gun turret to fire back.
Then the Marauder flees down a narrow canyon, as several TIE Fighters chase after it. I feel like I've seen something like this before, but I can't quite remember where...
• The TIE Fighters manage to knock out the Marauder's gun turret, leaving it a sitting duck. Just when all seems lost, Manny suddenly appears overhead in his ship and blows the TIEs out of the sky.
Note that the Razor Crest has now been completely repaired, and looks better than brand new. But... how? It appears that no more than ten or twelve hours pass after Manny lands on Nevarro. Apparently that was more than enough time for two of Karga's "top people" to completely overhaul the ship!
This is the second episode in a row now in which the Razor Crest has been restored in a single day! Maybe these spaceships are like Teslas, and you just drop a new motor in one instead of trying to fix it.
• This episode features a very puzzling third act, filled with odd storytelling and improbable time compression.
Once Manny finds out Moff Gideon's still alive, he fears for Baby Yoda's safety. He then jets back to Nevarro City to protect the kid— effectively disappearing from the screen and leaving his costars to wrap up the episode without him! That was... unusual, to say the least. Did Pedro Pascal have a previous engagement he had to get to?
Manny then somehow uses his jetpack to fly all the way back to Nevarro City, scoop up the Child, pick up his now implausibly repaired ship, blast off and save his friends by shooting down the TIE Fighters— all in fifteen minutes or less!
Then if that wasn't enough, once Manny wipes out the last of the Imperials, Karga thanks him and offers to buy him a drink. Manny says thanks but no, as he has important business on Corvus. He then zooms offscreen like he can't wait to exit this episode!
As I said, it's all very off-kilter and rushed. Which doesn't make any sense, since these episodes have no official time limit— they last as long as they need to. It really does feel like Pascal wasn't available for part of the filming and the producers were forced to shoot around his absence.
• During the wrapup, Captain Teva— who we met in The Passenger— arrives on Nevarro to investigate the destruction of the Imperial Base. While there, he offers Cara Dune a job with the New Republic.
• In the final scene, we see an Arquitens-Class Command Cruiser roar overhead, filling the screen with its impressive and immense size.
Once again I feel like I've seen something like this before, but I can't quite figure out where...
• To absolutely no one's surprise, the Mimbanese repairman was indeed a spy, and reports to the Imperial ship.
• An Imperial Officer then reports to Discount Darth Vader, er, I mean Moff Gideon, telling him that a tracking device has been placed in the Razor Crest (just like the Empire did to the Millennium Falcon in A New Hope) and that Manny still has "The Asset" (aka Baby Yoda).
Gideon then cuts loose with an evil chortle, saying Manny will rue the day he ever crossed him or some such. He turns and gazes at a lab full of recessed alcoves, each housing what appears to be a Dark Trooper.
So what's a Dark Trooper, you ask? Eh... as usual, it's complicated and would take 50,000 words to adequately explain it all.
There were three types of Dark Troopers that appeared in the Star Wars: Battlefront videogame. Unlike regular Stormtroopers, the Dark Troopers were all mechanical droids. The Phase I Dark Trooper was a skeletal-looking and armed with a vibro-blade. The Phase II model was bulkier, while the massive Phase III version never got past the prototype stage.
Interestingly enough, even though the Phase III model was a droid, its could also be worn by a human as a battle suit.
But then in the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight videogame and the Dark Empire comic books, Dark Troopers were were elite cloned soldiers who were trained in the dark side of the Force. They were used extensively in Operation Dark Hand, a military campaign headed by former Emperor Palpatine in an effort to regain control of the galaxy.
Given the events of this episode, it appears these Dark Troopers are the organic variety seen in Dark Empire. Gideon's obviously injecting Baby Yoda's blood into Stormtroopers, hoping to turn them into an army of Force-sensitive Dark Troopers.
