The Mandalorian Season 2 Finale Review

by Chelsea House, GGR Senior Contributor

Chapter 16 of The Mandalorian is 44 minutes of pure packed in action, emotion, and surprise. Due to this, we’re just going to jump right in with two feet. 

Our series finale starts off with the hot pursuit of Slave 1 and an imperial ship. The target? Dr. Pershing. Boba hits the ship with an ionic blast that renders it useless allowing Din and Cara to jump on board. One imperial soldier goes down quick, the other decides to be a little more resistant and holds a gun to Dr.Pershing’s head. Cara Dune takes care of him, however, after he brings up the memories of Alderaan. “I see your tear.” He says as he brags about first hand seeing the destruction of her home planet. This lands him a nice lazer shot to the face. Again, we’re seeing an “all in” imperial soldier bragging about the mass destruction and the annihilation of a large human populace. Again we’re reminded why we really don’t like these guys. 

Once back on board, Boba and Din waste no time finding some familiar faces to recruit on their mission. Bo-Katan and Koska are sitting at a tavern having conversation. Din tells Bo-Katan he needs her help because Moff Gideon has his kid. She states he’ll never find him with a look that shows she knows this from experience. But wait! Our hero has the coordinates! With this information, our two head Mandalorians begin discussing terms to the agreement. Bo wants the ship, and she also wants Moff all to herself, he has what’s rightfully hers; the Darksaber, which we also learn can cut through anything but pure beskar. Can we say foreshadowing?? (Sidenote-we also see this in chapter 13 when Ahsoka attacks Mando and is fighting Morgan Elsbeth). Din just wants the kid back safe and sound. A take away from this scene is the way Bo seemed highly offended by Fett. He begins talking to Din about recovering Mandalore and she looks at him with pure disgust “You are a disgrace to your armor.” She says. (Which honestly, Bo might just be really sick of people popping her bubble all the time.)

“This armor belonged to my father” Fett rebuttals.  

“You mean your donor” Bo snidely replies. Oh, snap! This brings a point up that I honestly hadn’t thought of. Fett is a clone, his father Jango being the donor. I never considered that being an issue considering there aren’t many Mandalorians left, so you’d think they’d be welcoming. But boy was I wrong. 

Katan: Your new paint job looks stupid
Koska: DAAAAAAAAAAAAANG! Come back from that, bounty hunter!
Fett: Everyone getting their own series on Disney+ raise their hand….oh, just me. Huh. How ‘bout them meilooruns?

The argument is settled after “Princess” Mandalorian tells Koska and Fett to stop scuffling. They decide to put aside their differences for the time being. Back on the ship – they constitute a plan with the help of Dr. Pershing, who suddenly feels very helpful. The plan? To pretend that Slave I is attacking the Imperial ship (which houses Bo Katan, Koska, Fennec, and Dune) which is to be used as a sort of Trojan Horse on the Light Cruiser that Moff, the Baby, the Darksaber, and the Darktroopers are all on. 

The plan goes kind of accordingly and once Bo-Katan lands with her Angels they immediately set to work taking out storm troopers. I LOVED the fighting maneuvers these ladies pulled off. It wasn’t just hack and slash, or even strictly gun shots. The mix of hand to hand, sneak attacks, strategy, and some pretty great camera shots made it a very pleasing sequence. 

While our Star Wars navy seals snake their way through the ship, Mando is working his way to the Darktroopers room to ensure that they don’t deploy. There’s a little hiccup here, though, because Moff seeing that the Trojan Horse had landed and released its goods decided to command that the Darth-Vader-lookin’ battle droids be booted up. We did know from Dr. Pershing that it would take a few minutes for them to fully turn on (don’t all good electronics?) what Mando doesn’t know, is that they’ve had that full few minutes to activate (and some sweet trap beats to get them pumped up). He does manage to secure all of them with the exception of one. The scene that follows show us a couple of things A) just how strong Mando’s beskar armor really is, B) just how awful these troopers are. He manages to finally win the fight with his beskar spear, which immediately gives hope that you’ll see more action from the spear, and then jettisons the rest of the troopers into space. 

Time to retrieve our baby! Mando busts into the room where Grogu’s being held captive with Moff Gideon standing protectively beside him. After Moff tells Mando that he can have Grogu back because he’s already taken what he needed (the blood), our hero goes in to finally hold his baby again. Just as he bends down to pick him up, Moff whips out his darksaber and begins the epic showdown we’ve all been waiting for. This fight is beautiful. Darksaber and beskar spear swinginging and swirling around in amazingly choreographed harmony. Everything, down to the glow of the spear as the darksaber heats it up, it’s just beautiful.

I didn’t feel disappointed in any way. Mando bests our Gideon but decides not to kill him, which makes Gideon utter a seemingly harmless “this will be interesting.” Seemingly harmless until it starts to tickle your mind a little with the question of “why?”. 

We find out when Din brings a defeated, yet cocky, Gideon to Bo-Katan as promised. She sees Din with the Darksaber and her face goes slightly pale. “What happened” she asks. Din, a little confused, is like “Bro, I beat up the guy. What else do you want from me?” and our dear sweet evil Gideon drops bomb number one on our lap (because yes, there are multiple). She can’t take the darksaber. It has to be won in combat, and whoever wields it is the rightful heir to the throne of Mandalore. Din, who is rather unimpressed, tries to just give it to Bo-Katan, but as Gideon reminds us. “It doesn’t work that way.” Whoa! Our shiny hero is now the ruler of Mandalore? A planet he doesn’t really seem to care a whole lot about? The glass planet (according to Fett)? What does this mean between what was a pretty cool blossoming alliance between Bo and Mando? You can’t really tell by the look on her face, which is a mixture of shock, disappointment, anger, vengefulness, and a feeling of submission to the rules, the rules she was hoping others would follow for her. 

Mando: Take it
Bo: I can’t. I have to win it.
Mando: What planet are you from?
Bo: Mandalore, of course.
Mando: Congratulations, that was the secret trivia question answer on “Win, Lose or Mando!” Your prize is the Darksaber!

There’s not much further to dig here, though, because Koska helpfully announces that there are objects on the ships radar. A lot of them, and they’re coming their way – fast. Darktroopers. The whole swarm of them. Because I guess Mando didn’t think that flying invincible androids could well, fly, in space. Gideon is like TOTALLY enjoying this. Bo-Katan’s pouting, Din not killing him, and now the panic everyone is feeling at the thought of fighting these things off? “You had your hands full with one…” he reminds Din, who doesn’t seem like he needs much reminding. The onslaught of glistening red eyed, heartless darktroopers land on the ship. They march sinisterly to the cockpit, where they have fortified the doors, and begin punching the door. We are again reminded of their strength when the heavily armored door begins to dent. There’s a feeling of hopelessness that deepens with each heavy pound. 

Suddenly an X-Wing is on the radar, which Dune sarcastically states “one X-Wing, we’re saved” (or something along those lines.) But here is where my heart starts to race. An X-Wing. Remember that beacon? That beautiful big beacon that Grogu shot into space? I do! The pilot of said X Wing comes out… In. A. Cloak. Here is where I will say myself and friends allowed ourselves to hope, and we allowed ourselves to hope enough that we were literally looking for a robot prosthetic hand here. “One good hand, one prosthetic!” we whisper excitedly. And then… Then. The GREEN lightsaber bsshooms into life! And when I say that here is where my husband, myself, and my friends, screamed like a bunch of 12 year old girls at a Justin Bieber concert – I am probably not doing it justice. 

Editor’s Note: looks at all the screen shots he took during this scene I might have been excited too. Maybe.

This green light sabered Jedi zwooms through these darktroops like only a Skywalker in their prime can do. You’re brought back to the delight of watching Star Wars episodes 4-6. You’re brought back to the way you were in awe of our hero at the end of 6. You feel like a kid again as our Mandalorian crew sits and watches in awe at the literal carnage this Jedi has caused. Grogu watches him affectionately on the screen and whines for them to open the door for him, which Mando does.

Grogu: Mando, are you seeing this? This dude is kicking ass!
Mando: Language!
Grogu: Sorry. Butt. He’s kicking butt. whispers he’s badass.

And finally the cloak hood comes off, and if you needed anymore proof that what you were seeing was actually what you were seeing, a digitally de-aged Mark Hamill pops out in all of his Luke Skywalker glory and we can all die happily now. He’s here for Grogu, and of course he is! Because remember, he has to build that Jedi school! 

Grogu goes over to Mando and hugs his leg. “He doesn’t want to go with you.” He says. 

“He wants your permission.” Luke answers.

Here we see what may possibly be the last exchange between Grogu and his adopted shiny father. Din picks up his baby and holds him up to his face. Grogu’s little hand reaches for a beskar cheek, and Din, understanding what he wants, slowly removes his helmet so the little one can see him at least one time before he goes.

The little hand embraces his stubbled face and Din gives him a warm smile. You see a beautiful display of the growth of our Mando and his baby here. The genuine love between the two, the change that Grogu has made happen for Mando. It’s all in that little green hand on that stubbled face. And I’m not crying, you are. To make matters worse, R2-D2 shows up, attracting our curious babe and making him giggle. Luke picks him up and we get one last eye lock between the babe and the Mando. And. The. Mando. Has. A. Tear. It’s truly a heart wrenching scene. He stands awkwardly watching Grogu walk away, knowing that it is what is best for him, but also knowing he doesn’t want him to go. Pedro does an amazing job here, all the way down to his twitching hands and the prolonged stare after his most precious possession. But it’s also reassuring because you know that Luke will take great care of him. After all, Grogu looks just like someone who was very precious to him- Master Yoda. I’d say he will love him just as much. 

Our episode ends with this folks. It ends with Mando being king of Mandalore, Luke Skywalker taking our baby Grogu, R2-D2 possibly being Grogu’s new best friend, Moff being dead, Bo-Katan possibly plotting to kill our Mando, it ends with us watching a cloaked Jedi walk away. 

Oh wait! Just kidding. There’s an after credits extra. Boba Fett busts into Jabba the Hutt’s old crib. He and Fennec do a good ol’ western shootout and the episode ends with Boba perching himself on Jabba’s throne and Fennec perching herself right beside him. “The Book of Boba Fett” spinoff is officially announced and will be coming in December 2021. 

“FENNEC, FETCH ME A NEW RANCOR!”

Okay, now all the bombs are dropped and we can begin to process the amazingness of what just happened. 

My thoughts? 

1. Moff Gideon got what he wanted, the blood, but it’s still very unclear what he wanted to do with it, or if it was even really him demanding it. I’m still very team Snoke on this due to what we know of him and the laboratory scene we witnessed. But will this ever really be confirmed? 

2. Because Luke showed up, is there a possibility of more original characters showing on screen? I would genuinely be shocked if Luke comes into play more, but I do feel like we may be able to fill in some holes of what he was up to all of those years before Ben Solo decided to ruin his life.

3. Is Mando still going to be a leading character for the next series? Or is this setting us up for Bo-Katan to be the next leading character?  After all, she is technically a Mandalorian, and she definitely wants the throne of Mandalore more than Din. Or will we see a weird alliance between the two? I say weird because I don’t see anything romantic happening between them. 

4. Mando has obviously laxed on his religious views a bit. What else will we see of this in the coming years? Especially if he does decide to pursue Mandalore with his new “friends”? 

5. I know some Star Wars fans felt weirded out by the de-aging of Luke. I read a few things about it feeling robotic and just alarming. I personally didn’t care. I really enjoyed the introduction of him AND our original beep boop buddy R2! 

I could go on and on with this. But because this review is already SO long, I’m going to just leave with these. Let’s raise a glass to spin offs, bittersweet endings, and the fact that Luke Skywalker still makes everyone squeal.