This is the episode we’ve been waiting for. Finally, after a trio of fun episodes that didn’t really move the storyline needle a ton, we’re going to take a big jump forward in the overarching story. Or…. not. At least not this week.
Some stuff was revealed but if you are like me, you likely were left with more questions than answers.
*The Razor Crest is a mess and is barely holding together. Din can’t get to the part of the ship that needs the work so he sends in The Child, which works out about as well as one would expect if sending a toddler to do… anything.
*And we’re back on Nevarro, somewhere we are very familiar with as the show spent half the first season there. Cara and Greef meet the Din and the child as they land.
*The cantina has been turned into a school, which I guess is to show that Greef has turned a new leaf as the head of the town. Whatever.
*Greef and Cara need some help (because of course they do) and they leave the child in the school to go plan an assault on an old imperial base, to finally clear the Empire off Nevarro.
*I’m seeing a lot of shit being thrown at the child, or specifically how he is being used this season. This week, he asks a kid in the classroom for a cookie and the kid refuses so our cute little gremlin uses the force to take the cookies off the desk. Look, I get it, all they’ve really had the kid do this year is eat, steal food, and eat some more. The reality is that the kid is just being a kid. He’s not being mean spirited when he steals the food, he’s doing it because kids at that age only know how to act instinctively. The kid is hungry so he does instinctive things to get the food. Din isn’t his parent and while he has been thrown into that role, he’s still learning and I’m sure disciplining the kid is the lowest thing on his mind.
*Second thought on this is that the show isn’t called The Child, it is The Mandalorian. The child is the job, like delivering a cargo hold of spice. It just so happens that The child is also a sentient creature. They show him doing cute kid things because they are cute kid things, I doubt there is some higher purpose to the kid’s actions. Remember, by the time Rise of Skywalker happens, the kid is going to be just 80 years old and still just a kid in the grand scheme of his species (from what we know of Yoda and Yaddle). We’ve been harmed a bit by the rise of serialized narrative storytelling in television and want to see everything as being part of a greater narrative but we’re 12 episodes into this series and it clearly isn’t that type of show. It’s an adventure of the week that has an overarching story that is important for an episode or two a season, enjoy it for what it is. I mean, I get it, I want more of the story they laid groundwork for but it’s clear now that isn’t their focus and well… we should have known from how the first season went.
*Anyway back to the here and now. Din, Cara, Greef, and the blue dude that Din captured in the opening scene of the first episode are out to the Imperial base and… everything kind of looks cheap. My wife mentioned it all looked very fake, which is counter to how most of the show has looked. Obviously it is all fake but it just looked more decidedly so this episode for some reason.
*Why does Imperial design always include control panels on cylindrical centers positioned over deep chasms? I’ve been wondering about this since A New Hope. It just seems like bad design.
*The blue guy is so annoying. I hate him.
*Cara sucks. I mean, the character doesn’t and I think there is something interesting there but Gina Carano is not a particularly good actor. She’s also a garbage human and her presence certainly impacted my enjoyment of the episode.
*And let’s make no mistake, this episode needs all the help it can get to be enjoyable because it’s kind of dull. I like Carl Weathers but he seems to be phoning it in here, and I’ve mentioned my thoughts on Cara and the blue guy. So that leaves Din and he’s just being led around to shoot stormtroopers in hallways. It’s a bit dull.
*The reveal that the base wasn’t a forward operating base but rather a secret lab was interesting. It’s the one little thread to push the narrative forward but I don’t feel we needed it because aside from the cloning tubes, we know everything else. We knew Gideon was alive (he has the Darksaber). We know his contingent of the Empire wanted Baby Yoda for some sort of experiments. The only thing we got here is that Gideon’s scientists were using volunteers/clones and attempting to make them force sensitive (maybe home grown Inquisitors of a sort or Gideon’s own Dark Troopers) using the kid’s blood. And we know it wasn’t working just yet.
*The canyon chase was decent fun. I loved the scout troopers diving off the cliff on the speeders, although I could have done without the cliche sequence of the Empire is boneheaded and crash into themselves. We don’t always need to make the Empire incompetent and aside from a cool explosion, it doesn’t add anything to the chase.
*The TIE’s joining the chase was a good time. I’m not going to lie though, I’d have been alright with a TIE destroying Greef, Cara, and the blue dude.
*Gideon has a mole and The Razor’s Crest has a tracking device on it
Anyway, that is it for this week. Looks like next week we might get Ahsoka. But don’t hold your breath. What were your thoughts on Chapter 12?
