The Mandalorian is the well-received, critically acclaimed Star Wars Disney+ streaming TV series that has taken the world by storm! Even as last year’s first season whetted the appetite of Star Wars fans – young and old – for a return to the world that George Lucas created over forty years ago, nobody expected The Mandalorian Season 2 to well and truly up the ante like it did!
At the end of Season 1, Mando (Pedro Pascal) – with the aid of Greef Karga (Carl Weathers), Cara Dune (Gina Carano) and IG-11 (Taika Waititi) fought off the Imperial remnants led by Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) and saved the Child.
At the beginning of The Mandalorian Season 2, Mando had a new quest – to return the Child to the Jedi so that he might finish his Jedi training. Which seemed like a very difficult task when you consider that The Mandalorian was set about five years after Return of the Jedi and there were not too many Jedis around in the galaxy far, far away.
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That intriguing quest opened The Mandalorian Season 2 to a host of new possibilities, especially in the potential of the series to expand the Star Wars universe, such as it is. And within a reasonable scope, The Mandalorian Season 2 fulfilled this promise and often exceeded the possibilities, beyond even the wildest dreams of diehard Star Wars fans.
Read the full reviews at the links provided.
Episode 1 : “The Marshall” – Mando and the Child return to Tatooine and meet Cobb Vanth (Timothy Oliphant) who is in possession of Mandalorian armour formerly belonging to Boba Fett. Initially, there is conflict between Mando and Vanth characters which eventually leads to collaboration as they seek to kill a Krayt Dragon. At the end of this episode, Mando retrieves the Mandalorian armour from Vanth.
Episode 2 : “The Passenger” – Probably the most inconsequential instalment in the series thus far. Basically, Mando agrees to transport the Frog Lady and her eggs in exchange for information about other Mandalorians. The main plot point derived from this episode is that the Child loves eating Frog Lady’s eggs! This inadvertently generated negative reactions on social media. “Cancel Baby Yoda!” silly but true. And oh yes, giant spiders! Lest I forget, an introduction to two New Republic X-Wing pilots. Ho hum.
Episode 3 : “The Heiress” – A monumental episode as the Mandalorian clan leader Bo-Katan Kryze – a key character from the animated Clone Wars series is given her live-action debut – played by Katee Sackhoff. Cue exciting action sequences as four Mandalorians take on the Imperial Remnant to commandeer an Imperial space craft. Bo-Katan reveals to Mando the location of the only Jedi she is aware of – Ahsoka Tano!
Episode 4 : “The Siege” – Mando and the Child returns to Nevarro as the Razor Quest needs repairs. In his downtime, Mando is persuaded by Greef Karga and Cara Dune to attack an Imperial Remnant base. The raid is successful and Mando finds out more about an Imperial cloning programme, which involves the Child. A tenuous link to the sequel trilogy is established, as perhaps the origin of Snoke is hinted at.
Episode 5 : “The Jedi” – This was the big one when it first aired. The debut of the live action Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and she looked as bad ass as diehard Star Wars fans could dare to imagine. Ahsoka’s link with the Child offered us a intimate glimpse that even Mando had previously been denied. The Child’s name is Grogu and he was trained at the Jedi Temple at Coruscant at the same time, the Emperor and Darth Vader destroyed the Jedi Order. After helping Ahsoka to defeat the Magistrate and name-dropping Admiral Thrawn (!) Mando is advised to bring Grogu to Thython to send out a call to other surviving Jedis.
Episode 6 : “The Tragedy” – Another fan-favourite episode as Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) regains his iconic armour and together with Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen), decimate several stormtroopers while Grogu broadcasts his presence to Jedis at large. However, Moff Gideon ultimately sends in the Dark Troopers and Grogu is taken. Fett and Shand vow to aid Mondo to recover Grogu from the clutches of Moff Gideon.
Episode 7 : “The Believer” – A parallel instalment to “The Siege” as once more, Cara Dune assists Mando and company to raid an Imperial Remnant outpost, this time with Migs Mayfeld (Bill Burr) in tow, to obtain vital information regarding Moff Gideon’s location. A solid episode which fleshed out the character of an ex-Imperial trooper like Mayfeld, which gave the series a certain depth. All the pieces were falling nicely into place for the anticipated season 2 finale.
Episode 8 : “The Rescue” – The season finale seemed straight-forward enough. Mando and company enlist the aid of Bo-Katan Kryze and Koska Reeves (Sasha Banks) to mount a daring rescue of Grogu from Moff Gideon. But it is in the final moments of the season that The Mandalorian Season 2 delivers its coup de grace! Remember how Grogu had broadcast a distress call in episode 6? Well, who else but Luke Skywalker could heed that call?! Yes, the collective Star Wars fanbase wept ugly tears of joy as the last Jedi hero returned to Star Wars in all his glory.
And with those five minutes or so, Jon Favreau and Davie Filoni effectively re-launched Star Wars and redeemed the franchise after the sequel trilogy threatened to end it, once and for all. To be fair, The Mandalorian Season 2 continued the exceptional work witnessed in the first season and demonstrated to Star Wars fans that the Star Wars franchise was alive and kicking! All that was required were stories that were faithful to the original vision of George Lucas and to those legendary iconic characters. Favreau and Filoni have kept things simple and true and the fans have reaped the benefits!
As far as this particular timeline as established in The Mandalorian is concerned, in the next two years we will have streaming TV series Ahsoka Tano, Rangers of the New Republic, The Book of Boba Fett and of course, The Mandalorian Season 3. Can hardly wait. MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!
… still there’s more …