This Is the Way: A Mandalorian Season 2 Review
By: Joshua Beck
Tags: Star Wars, Disney, Television, Science Fiction, Streaming

This Is the Way: A Mandalorian Season 2 Review

When Disney announced way back in 2012 that they were buying Lucasfilm, all I cared about was that we were getting new Star Wars. After all, the original trilogy was classic, and the prequels… well… they left something to be desired.

Don’t get me wrong; I still enjoy the prequels (at least two of them, anyway). And the prequels brought some of my favorite aspects of the galaxy far, far away, like seeing how the galaxy fell to Emperor Palpatine and what exactly the Clone Wars were (and also, The Clone Wars animated series). But it was difficult to see one of my favorite franchises go out with more of a whimper and not a bang (it wasn’t uncommon, though; Star Trek similarly ended with a lackluster film in 2002 until it was finally brought back in 2009 by the same director who would help usher in the sequel-era of Star Wars…man, the early 2000’s were not good for major science fiction franchises).

Say what you will about the sequel trilogy, though, because I loved them. No, they weren’t as good as the originals (nothing ever will be, ok?), but they were definitely better than the prequels. Force Awakens was a little too much like A New Hope, and Rise of Skywalker feels a bit rushed (and that Duel of the Fates script only serves to let us know that there was a better movie out there). And though I know it is the unpopular opinion, I felt Last Jedi was the absolute best of the trilogy. I’ll die on that hill.

With the sequels, Disney brought Star Wars back, and it was good, but it wasn’t quite the Star Wars long-time fans truly felt like they were waiting for. Rogue One, perhaps, got the closest to replicating the sense of adventure that I feel when watching A New Hope or Empire, but we turned around and got Solo, which was fun, but definitely not required. As successful as the new movies were, Disney just didn’t seem to be able to get us back to the same level as George Lucas’ original trilogy of groundbreaking films.

The tides seemed to shift, however, when we got The Mandalorian. Season one of the hit Disney+ show hearkened back to the Star Wars we all loved, and easily became the best thing that Disney has added to the galaxy. But I argue that it wasn’t until season 2 that we finally got Star Wars again on the level we’ve been wanting to see since the credits closed on Return of the Jedi.

SPOILERS for The Mandalorian season 2 are coming.

While season one served as a sort of palate-cleanser- throwing us back into a familiar galaxy at a familiar-enough time (roughly 5 years after Return of the Jedi) but without a single familiar face allowed us to explore the new characters more fully, season two has matured on that theme, allowing our new characters to begin to interact with elements of the franchise that we know and love- and are damn excited to see return. But it never loses the heart of what The Mandalorian is when dishing out this fan service.

Of course, I loved when Han and Chewie showed up on the Millennium Falcon (or just when the Falcon herself showed up) in Force Awakens, but that was barely half an hour into the movie; we hadn’t yet had enough time to really latch on to Rey or Finn or Poe in any meaningful way before characters that we actually cared about came into play.

That’s not how Mando did it. Mando forced us to get accustomed to a then-unnamed Mandalorian who never, ever took off his mask and a child who looked like Yoda but never spoke. Like Rogue One, the show forced us to discover people who weren’t named “Skywalker” or “Palpatine” and learn their histories and witness the parts they had to play in this galaxy.

Only once we were rooting for Din Djarin (the Mando) and the child (now named Grogu) did we ever get a taste of something more familiar. I mean, yeah, this show is steeped in familiarity; we saw storm troopers and Tie Fighters and IG droids and even the Dark Saber in season 1. But those were all just visuals we knew from the Star Wars galaxy. And that, I think, is what made season 1 such a success; everything we were seeing was familiar but the characters dealing with it were not.

But in season 2, things started to change. Mando’s story started pushing him further towards the edges of the Star Wars story. We got Bo-Katan from Clone Wars. We got Boba Fett’s return, with Temuera Morrison sort-of reprising the role (previously, he had only ever voiced Boba when he dubbed the lines for Lucas’ Special Edition re-releases of the original trilogy, but we were familiar with his face having played Boba’s father Jango Fett). We got freaking Ahsoka Tano making her live-action debut!

Any one of these could have been too much. Any one of these could have broken The Mandalorian and taken it away from what drew us in the first place. After all, we came to love how it was set in the galaxy but wasn’t a part of the major story; suddenly thrusting Mando into the bigger picture could have ruined that. But it didn’t. Instead of suddenly making Mando integral to the plot of one of the movies that were already established, they just let him exist alongside those plot lines. The Star Wars universe is moving forward with its story whether Mando participates in the big picture or not, and it was sweet perfect to get a glimpse of those stories through Mando’s helmet without breaking his own narrative.

Season 2 was very much the story of Mando and the child. Unlike season 1, however, he now has a purpose: find the Jedi and deliver the child to them. This proves easier said than done; as Ahsoka points out when Mando finally does find her, there aren’t many Jedi left. There are a lot of obstacles and subplots that Mando has to deal with along the way; in any other show, a filler episode like the one where he was trapped on a ice planet would feel like an unnecessary waste of time getting to the meat of the season’s arc, but Mando has turned filler episodes into an art form; with this show, more than anything, it is about the journey and not the destination. And those ice spiders were damn scary.

Every episode of season 2 felt unique and exciting; the show never once showed any signs of getting boring or formulaic. In a season of eight episodes where they were all stand-out stories, it is hard to pick a favorite, especially with fan favorite characters like Boba Fett and Ahsoka Tano showing up (I do wish they had met this season… I don’t remember where they left off on Clone Wars, but I’m sure it would have made for an interesting reunion). But if I had to choose, my favorite episode would probably be last weeks, The Believer.

I wasn’t a huge fan of Bill Burr’s character or episode in season 1, but I am a fan of Burr’s, and his episode this season was quite possibly the most thrilling and most endearing. This season has had a few stories where characters aren’t what they initially appear, but with Burr’s Mayfield, it was a case of diving deeper into a character we had already judged. It was, dare I say, the most Rogue One-ish episode of the season (I’m beginning to realize Rogue One might be the standard that I am grading all new Star Wars by), and it was excellent. Also, getting any face time with Mando and his questionable mustache is always welcome. And I loved that despite all the shit Mayfield gave Mando about taking his helmet off throughout this episode, when it came down to it and Mando had to take off his helmet, he gave it back to him and said “I didn’t see your face.” I’m sorry… can we get more Bill Burr in Mando?

That was just one episode. Really, all eight were just as good. I loved the thrilling monster battle in The Marshal. I loved the team-up with Ahsoka in The Jedi, and the team up with Bo-Katan in The Heiress. I loved watching Mando break into the Imperial facility with Cara Dune and Greef Karga in The Seige. I loved the tension of watching them nearly overcome by ice spiders in The Passenger. I loved the shootout in The Tragedy.

And oh boy… Let’s talk about The Rescue. I already gave a spoiler warning, but dammit, let me give you one again. If you haven’t watched the final episode of season 2, stop right here and go watch it.

Ok. Are you back? You’ve watched it? Right, let’s continue.

Disney promised a lot going into the season 2 finale. Producers promised a roller coaster ride to the ending of the episode. The previous episodes set up a big showdown between Bo-Katan and Moff Gideon and the possibility that another Jedi (not Ahsoka) would be called to Grogu to take him and train him. And this episode did not disappoint on any level.

As with last season’s finale, Mando brought together a group of allies from the people he worked with throughout the course of the season. I was, admittedly, a little surprised he didn’t recruit the Marshal or Ahsoka (more on her in a moment), but with Cara Dune, Bo-Katan, Koska, Boba Fett, and Melinda May… sorry, Fennec Shand… by his side, Mando seemed to have enough fire power behind him. And indeed, he did; they were able to take Moff Gideon’s ship without too much struggle (although that Dark Trooper really did give Mando a fight).

Gideon himself was even defeated quite easily- see what happens when he doesn’t have a whole army of storm troopers surrounding him- but I think he gave up the fight a little too easily; by letting Mando beat him and take the Dark Saber, he set up a conflict between Mando and Bo-Katan, as like with the Elder Wand in Harry Potter, the Dark Saber must be won in battle to rightfully belong to someone. Bo-Katan wanted to win the Dark Saber back for herself so that she would become the rightful heir to Mandalore (she did say a couple times that Moff Gideon needs to surrender to her specifically), but even though Mando offered the Dark Saber to her and told her he yielded it to her, there’s definitely a brewing conflict there, and one that wasn’t resolved as the credits closed on this episode.

Even though Gideon was defeated easily enough, Mando’s team still had the Dark Troopers to deal with; having seen Mando struggle to fight off just one, it seemed like it was the end of the line when a whole platoon was marching towards them and breaking down the door. That’s when we saw the X-Wing landing in Gideon’s shuttle bay.

I particularly like how they shot the next few moments. Seeing the X-Wing immediately made me think Luke Skywalker, but when we saw the hooded figure with the lightsaber on the monitors on the bridge- which just so happen to be in black and white- it looked like Ahsoka, complete with a white lightsaber. But once we cut from the computer screens to the action, we saw that this lightsaber was a very familiar green. I literally shouted “f*** yes!”

Of course, it only makes sense that Luke Skywalker was the Jedi who came for Grogu. After all, we don’t know how many other Jedi besides Luke and Ahsoka are out there, and we do know that around this time- again, 5 years after Luke himself returned as a Jedi- Luke was beginning to search for force-sensitive students he could train to be the next generation of Jedi (you know, before Ben Solo went and Kylo Renned those plans… don’t worry about Grogu’s safety, Ben Solo’s epic misunderstanding with Luke won’t happen for another 10 years or so). Maybe Grogu is his first student. And it is fitting, as like Ahsoka, Luke is familiar with Grogu’s species having been trained by Yoda (and given that Grogu was at the Jedi Temple when Anakin went dark side, I can’t help but wonder if Grogu is a direct relation of Yoda’s…).

Oh yeah, and R2-D2 is there, too. Woo-hoo!

I’m hoping this isn’t the last we will see of the child; Mando says he will see Grogu again and Mando is one to keep his word. I wouldn’t mind getting to see a limited series about Luke Skywalker starting his Jedi academy with Grogu, though maybe let’s recast Luke at that point… Disney still hasn’t cracked the digital de-aging to where it looks flawless, and though Luke looked better than his sister did in Rogue One, I daresay we’d be better off with a new actor if he is going to be on-screen for longer than a few minutes (Sebastian Stan comes to mind, who looks exactly like a young Mark Hamill and who is no stranger to being on a Disney+ series). At least, I know this show won’t suffer tremendously without the child- after all, my favorite episode this season was Grogu-free.

And on the other hand, though I loved seeing Luke Skywalker- in his prime- on The Mandalorian, I do kinda hope that this is the only interaction that Mando has with the Skywalker clan, at least for a while. Mando’s got his own story to tell, and I am loving seeing how his adventures weave into the greater galaxy, but I really like how they’ve done it so far, with him just weaving in at the edges of those bigger stories and then leaving again.

Season 2 of The Mandalorian has been a real treat. Seriously, I can find no fault with this show. Star Wars has finally hit its peak again.

And I can’t wait for whatever season 3 brings us. Will that be more conflict between Mando and Bo-Katan? Will she regain the Dark Saber, or will Din Djarin rise up to be the Mandalorian who will reunite Mandalore? Will Grogu return? What will happen to Moff Gideon? There are so many questions. And those questions are all good… that means I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next season, as well as the plethora of spin-off shows that season 2 has generated (we know already that Ahsoka and Boba Fett will both be getting their own series, and there are quite a few more shows set in the galaxy far, far away coming soon).

Whatever Disney has planned for Star Wars next, I’m excited to see it. Perhaps the most excited I’ve been since 2012 when Disney first announced they were bringing Star Wars back to us.