The second season of The Mandalorian is winding down and with Baby Yoda in the hands of the Empire, we’re left with a big empty hole in our hearts. Our Mandalorian hero isn’t going to sit by and just take this lying down though, he plans on getting the kid back even if that means having to break some rules to succeed.
This all brings us to the penultimate chapter of season two, The Believer. Let’s get into it.
*We knew that Din was going to be putting a crew together to track down and rescue the kid and we knew that it would bring Bill Burr’s character from season one, Migs Mayfield, back into the fold. Exactly why Mayfield was being pulled in though was up in the air. That is answered pretty quickly at the start of this episode, Mayfield being ex-Imperial is needed to help locate where Moff Gideon may be hiding out. And to do this, they’ll need to break into an Imperial facility.
*While Boba Fett, Cara Dune, and Fennec Shand all are part of the team helping to run this operation, the episode is really a one on one with Din and Mayfield. Mayfield’s purpose, and the purpose of the episode, is to show that Din isn’t that different from everyone else and that there are rules that need to be bent and broken to do the right thing. And I think it accomplishes those things very well.
*Boba Fett has repainted his armor and I think it looks really good and better than it did in Empire Strikes and Return of the Jedi.
*I like seeing more of Boba Fett’s ship, Slave 1. It’s one of the most iconic ships in Star Wars but I’ve never seen this level of exploration of it. Granted, I’ve never played the PS2 era Bounty Hunter game starring Jango, so I don’t know if we see more of it there, but this was cool for me.
*Din and Mayfield work well together and the little back and forth they have while protecting the transport they’ve hijacked is great. It’s mostly on Burr’s portrayal of Mayfield as he plays the perfect scruffy Star Wars rogue. They deliver a solid story with Mayfield here and while you don’t want to like him, Burr delivers a likeable performance even if early on you don’t want to like the character. Fortunately it plays out really well and I didn’t feel icky for liking him. Please bring him around more.
*Less Dune. More Mayfield.
*Once inside the Imperial facility a lot of things happen. One, we finally see Din’s face. He’s taken his helmet off once before, while eating in the small village, but we didn’t see his face there. Here he has to do it in front of people and ultimately needs to leave it for a bit as Din and Mayfield get drawn in by an Imperial leader, who happens to have been Mayfield’s old superior officer, congratulating them on their daring delivery to the base. Two, we learn that Mayfield has lived with having been part of Operation Cinder (an Imperial effort to basically burn it all down if the Emperor ever died.
*During this drinking chat with the Mayfield’s old superior officer, Mayfield steers the discussion from Din to Mayfield’s involvement in Operation Cinder where he questions the decision made that day. The officer explains that it was all for the greater good and the shipment that Din and Mayfield delivered will help to go towards an even bigger, more brutal operation. This causes Mayfield to shoot him in the chest. It’s a great turning point for a guy that we’ve seen as only being self serving.
*With the coordinate to Gideon’s cruiser in hand, and a now very alert base due to Mayfield’s actions, Din and Mayfield escape in a fairly exciting breakout. It’s not nearly as well choreographed as the last episode’s shoot outs but good solid action nonetheless.
*Mayfield makes one more move, using a sniper rifle to blow up the shipments in the Imperial center and this action causes Dune to take a different approach to him. I like that she “killed” him in the operation but I would have preferred that she found a way to commute his sentence and bring him in officially. As I said earlier, less Dune, more Mayfield.
*With everything now wrapped, the only thing left to do is give us our weekly Baby Yoda fix. And… they didn’t do it. We get no Baby Yoda here and it’s a bit disappointing but we do get a really angry Din making a video call to Gideon setting up one hell of a finale.
Are we going to see everyone come together next week? It’s likely but honestly, I’ll be happy if it was just Din, Boba Fett, and Fennec Shand taking on Gideon with some sort of tie back to the Mandalorians searching for the Dark Saber. Anyway, I’m excited.
