TV Review: “The Mandalorian: The Rescue”
By: Dr. Thomas J. West Iii
Tags: Culture, Star Wars, The Mandalorian, Television, TV Series

And so at last we come to it: the final episode of the second season of The Mandalorian. I went into this episode with high hopes and with an intense faith in the show’s creators that they would bring this tremendously entertaining season to a triumphant conclusion.

Boy, did they ever.

In the episode, Mando, joined by his steadfast companions, manages to gain access to Moff Gideon’s cruiser, where they hope to both rescue Grogu and regain the darksaber. Multiple conflicts and battles ensue and the companions, having finally captured Gideon, face almost certain death at the hands of the Dark Troopers. However, they are saved by none other than Luke Skywalker. Mando and Grogu share a reluctant farewell, and Skywalker takes custody while Mando and his companions look on.

For the first time this season, we finally get an extended scene featuring Moff Gideon, and it was perfectly executed. As he has since the first moment he appeared, Giancarlo Esposito made the absolute most of his moments on the screen, and his searing intensity is on full display, so much so that there were even a few moments where I legit thought he was going to use the darksaber to do away with our beloved Grogu (thankfully this isn’t Game of Thrones, so that didn’t happen). Like so many of the other Imperials that we’ve met this season, he really does seem to be a true believer in the purported purpose of the Empire; he believes that order is a good in and of itself. He sees his enemies as nothing more than terrorists and savages (much like the Imperials at the start of the episode) and, like fascists in our own time, he genuinely seems to think that the ends always justify the means. It’ll be interesting to see what role he has to play, if any, in future episodes of the series.

The episode was also notable for featuring the appearance of none other than Luke Skywalker, and I, along with I’m sure millions of others, cheered aloud when I saw that X-wing enter the ship, knowing full well who it was. To be sure, there was something slightly unsettling about the de-aging of Mark Hamill, but even so I felt a huge rush of relief, knowing that Grogu was going to be in the hands of someone who would actually care for him and train him in the way that he so clearly needs. Some might deride Skywalker’s appearance as little more than fan service but I, frankly, don’t care what the haters think (after all, who else is the show for, if not the fans?)

Without a doubt, however, the most important moment of the entire episode was the final exchange between Mando and Grogu. It’s a moment that most of us knew was coming. Like it or not, Grogu is strong in the Force, and he needs to learn to control it so that he can defend himself against those who would use him for their own nefarious ends, particularly since it’s now pretty clear that his blood is going to be key to the creation of clone bodies for Palpatine (or possibly Snoke). However, the necessity of their parting doesn’t make it any less heart-rending to watch, and if I’d thought I was moved by Mando’s taking his helmet off in order to gain the coordinates to Moff Gideon’s ship, I was absolutely wrecked by his decision to do so on the bridge.

For one thing, the stakes of his doing so at this moment are now substantially higher, since he is now in front of both non-Mandalorians and his avowed enemy. For another, it also shows the profound depths of his feeling for his little green companion, and Pedro Pascal makes the absolute most out of this moment. Seeing the tears in his eyes as he bids Grogo farewell, and watching the little fellow’s green hand reach up to caress the face that he’s never seen, were some of the best moments this series has yet produced (and they might be some of the best ever seen in Star Wars). It never ceases to amaze me how effectively this series has led us as viewers to become so deeply and profoundly involved with and invested in these two characters: one whose face remains mostly unseen during the entire course of the series and the other which is a puppet. There’s no denying that this scene is executed with such precision and such sensitivity that it will surely become one of the standards against which similar future scenes in this universe will be measured.

Much as it hurt to see these two characters part, it also felt right. While I would have loved to see another season in which the two of them went on various adventures, that’s not really what their storyline was about. It was about each of them finding strength in the other, each finding a connection and a peace that had been denied them. Now, they must each find their own path, though it seems pretty likely that they will, as Mando says, see one another again.

Of course, this episode also raised all sorts of questions about the future of the show as a whole. While there were hints that Mando and Grogu might yet meet one another again, the fact remains that, for the foreseeable future the Mando is something of a free agent, and and it’s not as if there aren’t numerous directions in which The Mandalorian could go as it moves into its third season. Mando could join the other Mandalorians in their attempt to retake Mandalor (since the drama about the darksaber remains unresolved at the episode’s end, there’s a lot of potential there). Or he could link up with Ahsoka and others who, it seems increasingly likely, will engage in some sort of titanic struggle with Thrawn.

Whatever direction the show takes, however, the beauty and pleasure of The Mandalorian is that we know we won’t be disappointed. In the world of Star Wars, that’s quite a feat, indeed.