This seems familiar…The Mandalorian Season 2 Finale
By: Valerie Estelle Frankel
Tags: Mandalorian, The Mandalorian, Star Wars, Heros Journey

This seems familiar…The Mandalorian Season 2 Finale

In a distinct parallel to the previous season finale, Mando goes around the galaxy recruiting allies he’s met through the previous episodes (or rather, just Bo Katan as he has the others already). Reminiscent of Cara’s recruitment at the end of season one, Bo-Katan isn’t interested in his quest, but on hearing Moff Gideon is there she agrees. In they all go, outnumbered and squabbling but determined to rescue the Child. A classic hero band, in a classic wrap up that’s incredibly familiar.

There are fun easter eggs for fans as Bo-Katan and Boba Fett face off. She knows too much about Imperial clones, while he calls the Nite Owl warrior Koska Reeves “little one.” She retorts with, “I didn’t think sidekicks were allowed to talk.” With this, they all weigh their places in the pecking order. Mando, who contrasts with them all as more enlightened and leader of the operation, doesn’t make misogynist or anti-clone cracks.

Fennic, Cara, Bo-Katan, and her Nite Owl friend actually make a tough badass all-women’s team, something that breaks up the very masculine energy of the show. They’re efficient and cooperative, combining contrasting fighting styles to work as a team. Cries of “cover me” and “I got you” emphasize how well they work together. Their triumphant smiles also balance Mando’s featureless adventures. Cara’s moment repairing her gun in the elevator even tosses in a little humor. Balancing them is Mando the lone hero going it alone, determined to ride in, pure hero, and save the Child. Last episode ended with his challenging Moff Gideon on a personal, self-aware level, insisting that he’ll take the Child back, whatever the cost. Now, on a traditional hero’s journey, Mando goes, all alone (after splitting from his team) into symbolic death to save his beloved from the great villain tyrant. It’s a pattern used in most Star Wars films, and indeed most epics, once more a familiar and beloved tale. Adding to the scores of easter eggs, the team infiltrate the Imperials in one of their fighters, something memorable from Return of the Jedi and Rogue One.

In contrast with the typically ineffectual Stormtroopers, the Dark Troopers, now fully machine, are genuinely scary. Only one gives Mando in full beskar quite a pounding. He may have considered himself tough but, suitable for the final battle, the Imperials have raised their game. Meanwhile, the other Dark Troopers trying to smash their way out of their holding bay add a horror element. Frankensteinlike, they’re kept in cold storage and awaken with threats present.

When Mando reaches his destination (by now an obvious trap), Moff Gideon waves the darksaber over the Child’s head, gloating and casually threatening. He drops the piece of fanlore watchers of Rebels already know: “Whoever wields this sword has the right to lay claim to the Mandalorian throne.” He even reveals the Child unharmed. “All I wanted is to study his blood.” This scientific experiment has aided in fashioning horrific Darktroopers, but not fulfilled fan theories and made the Moff a Jedi or constructed worse monstrocities (as far as we know). More mysteries have been neatly wrapped up.

In the traditional hero’s path, Mando turns down the villain’s offer of power (in this case, kingship), wanting only the child. And in traditional villain form, the villain betrays him. As many expected was coming, a duel follows, beskar pole given by the magical lady of the forest, Ahsoka, against the sword of evil power (at least visually), the Darksaber. It’s brief but dramatic and Mando wins. Perhaps mindful of his allies’ quests, perhaps not needlessly vicious (especially with the Child unharmed and watching), he pulls back from the final blow. “You’re sparing my life. Well, this should be interesting,” Gideon says, aware what’s at stake.

Mando returns to Bo-Katan with the Child and also Bo-Katan’s and Cara’s desires — the moff and the darksaber. A team player, he has not only won definitively, but works to advance his friends’ goals instead of succumbing to anger or revenge. He’s a pure, selfless hero. There, of course, the moff tells him where his honorable actions have led him: “It’s yours now…the Darksaber. It belongs to you.”

“Now it belongs to her,” Mando tries, but it doesn’t work that way. Like the creed, the laws of Mandalore are tying their hands, perhaps even forcing them in to conflict. Those who watched Rebels know that Sabine presented it to Bo-Katan after all the crowds acclaimed her as leader. However, now she has lost the Darksaber, either in combat or less honorably, and her world was destroyed. To win the disheartened remnants of her people back, she must prove herself — much more definitively than having it handed to her by a loner and fanatic. A feminist reading would add that a man’s winning it on her behalf and handing it over is just as humiliating. As Gideon notes, none of these are stories to rally the people.

Clearly, Mando’s surrendering the weapon isn’t good enough. However, Mando took it from Gideon and spared his life. If Mando holds it now, then Bo-Katan should under the same rules be allowed to take it from Mando and not kill him. While a mock duel wouldn’t cover it, she could try more than once if needed. (And if death is required, then it still belongs to Gideon.) Granted, a non-fatal duel isn’t a story for the ages either…

Of course, the problem remains unsolved thanks to a dramatic interruption. The Death Troopers (of course) return in great numbers. “You had your hands full with one. Let’s see how you do against a platoon,” Gideon smirks in his wrist binders. The battle begins with the moff handcuffed and gloating. Our heroes, half unarmored and vulnerable-looking, seem doomed.

The unidentified X-Wing arrives and Grogu looks alert. The frightening pounding of the Death troopers also stops, and Gideon cringes in fright as a mysterious Jedi, fully cloaked, battles toward the door. A single green lightsaber shows it’s not Ahsoka. (For Rebels fans, Ezra’s lightsaber is blue, though he might’ve upgraded. Green is one of the top two colors, indicating maturity and balance.) Clearly, the Jedi has come to save Grogu after the youngster’s summoning. The cloak remains up for all of the battle, not even revealing the Jedi’s gender or species (a black glove is a small suggestive clue). Meanwhile, the Jedi’s slaughter of the troopers, in contrast with Mando’s hard battle against one, shows how much more powerful the Jedi is, and how much more he can offer Grogu. Crumpling the final one only intensifies the message. Grogu reaches out to the monitor, watching the battle, spellbound. In fact, all the characters’ stunned watching of the screen heightens the Jedi’s cool factor as the heroes are audience stand-ins here — just as amazed and curious. Finally, the Jedi reaches them. The single green lightsaber emerges from the fog, as in Phantom Menace. Luke’s theme plays. And indeed, it’s him. This is Luke from Return, assured and collected, youthful but dressed in black. While Ahsoka and Bo-Katan’s appearances have inspired countless fans to watch the cartoons they missed, Boba Fett and especially Luke are the instant identifiers for casual fans. It’s the greatest cameo yet, one speculated on since the era of the show was revealed.

Luke, youthful-faced but a wise Jedi mentor in context of the series, agrees to take the Child, train him and defend him. Grogu is shy and conflicted but clearly trusts him. Rather than having a long conversation with the Child as Ahsoka did, Luke speaks to Mando with concepts that best reach him: “I will give my life to protect the Child. But he will not be safe until he masters his abilities.” Mando knows this will indeed give the Child the safest future and the one with the best chance to be the best “him.” This too is part of the hero’s journey — developing one’s gifts and pursuing one’s individual path (something Mando has aided most of his teammates in accomplishing).

Indeed, Mando has followed the quest he undertook and succeeded — which means suddenly parting. Once more, Mando must be the noble, honorable hero and send the Child to his proper home. (This too has been foreshadowed — not just through the quest, but through the Child’s happiness at playing with other children and exploring a safe planet.) they say goodbye. The baby touches the helmet in a request. As was foreshadowed with his previous helmet doffing, he does so again, and they say a touching goodbye. It’s a lovely moment of parental love and vulnerability. And as fans know, this, not all the combat, is the tough moment for the hero.

Artoo cameos next. (Grogu responds to him, making fans wonder if Artoo knew him in the Temple or even helped him hide.) Luke takes the Child — an odd passing of the torch from the new generation to the old. Epic music plays over his slow dramatic departure with the child. Keeping up his mystique, he doesn’t offer any practicalities of advice or directions, just departs. More prosaically, he may be taking the toddler off to play with the other Jedi kid, Ben Solo.

The heroes are left with the unconscious Moff Gideon, the Darksaber, a slightly trashed Imperial ship, and their goals. Bo-Katan wants the Darksaber, the Imperial ship, and Mando’s allegiance. Mando, having shown his face before his allies, the moff, and Luke (to say nothing of the previous episode’s Imperials) is likely no longer one of his creed. Taking Bo-Katan’s offer of a different path, in which they rebuild Mandalore, makes the most sense. (Also, at the moment, he’s their king in a sense.) His quest to deliver the Child to the Jedi has very dramatically very definitively concluded. He has no ship, no bounties. Aware now of a wider, nobler galaxy, with friends to fight beside, taking their quest on behalf of a greater Mandalore makes sense. He even may remove his helmet on occasion. Though there’s still the complication of who gets the Darksaber…and the bigger challenge — if the Child is offscreen will the viewers still tune in?

In a post-credits scene that, like a Marvel film, sparks an entire spin-off, Fennic Shand and Boba return to Jabba’s palace where his major domo is ruling and take their revenge. Boba claims the throne there, likely about to take over the crimelord’s empire for himself in a more petty reflection of Bo-Katan’s quest. The galaxy, like the expanding Star Wars franchise, is sorting itself out.

Valerie Estelle Frankel is the author of Hunting for Meaning in The Mandalorian: An Unauthorized Guide to Homages, Symbols and Backstory