TV REVIEW: 'The Mandalorian' makes a perplexing U-turn in Season 2 finale

Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) says goodbye.

The big corporation wins again. We’ve all been duped. Just when you thought Disney was making good on an original Star Wars story that didn’t have silly conflicts between religious sects and the Skywalker melodrama… they pull the rug out from under you using the oldest trick in the marketing book: nostalgia.

SPOILERS AHEAD

After 15 chapters, we were at the point where The Mandalorian was really going to take off. Mando and Grogu are separated, a subplot about the throne on Mandalore and the Darksaber had emerged, and the seeds were planted for both Mando and Grogu to grow and mature without being able to rely on one another. Moff Gideon was a tough villain; he’s smart and capable, with a voice so silky he could sell flying cars. Nobody had the ultimate trump card, and that was part of the reason why the show worked; every character seemed be a threat but nobody would ever have the upper hand for very long.

After setting up this long-awaited confrontation between Mando and Gideon, and just when it seemed like Gideon would triumph to end the season on a cliff hanger, they made a tragic decision and used the oldest, cheapest trick in the book: Luke Skywalker. It is routine in Star Wars to resolve any sort of conflict or dead end in the story with the inclusion of an all-powerful Skywalker or Force user, but The Mandalorian had veered far from this direction, even so far as to basically call the Jedis as a bunch of ghost-worshipping weirdos. There was none of the Force space floating or Force ghost nonsense. The Sith weren’t going to be pulling the strings in the dark. Mando would have to literally get his hands dirty and his boots muddy to get the job done. There were no shortcuts. Remember: THIS IS THE WAY.

Luke’s entrance grinds the story to a halt: the Dark Troopers are dispatched like Episode I droids, Gideon is captured, Mando’s mission is complete, Grogu has a new guardian, and everybody is bewildered by the decision to use awkward de-aging CGI again. (If you watch closely, Luke’s lips don’t seem to match his speech, and I don’t think he blinks). The show had done such a good job of keeping an arms’ length from the films and the Skywalker family drama, and it was heading towards all sorts of different and interesting directions in the vast Star Wars galaxy. To be fair, Luke’s inclusion was implied once Grogu showed up (hard to think Luke would be oblivious to the presence of a baby Yoda), but he was supposed to be the end point, not a plot device to get our heroes out of trouble.

Let’s not forget Grogu was very much the emotional heart of the show, and taking him away means Mando has to find another emotional counterweight and a new storyline (Boba Fett would be nice). Grogu was the one who guided Mando’s decision making and gave the franchise a second life online as a popular meme. Where does the show go without Grogu cooing to the camera, drawing awww’s and making the audience laugh when he pukes half-digested turquoise macaroons? The Mandalorian cannot follow Grogu and Luke because that’s not who the show is about, and an elevator door is literally slammed in our faces when they exit the scene. If we do follow Grogu, that means more weird-looking Luke, and I’m not sure I can stomach any more of that weirdness.  

The Uncanny Valley Luke Skywalker of our worst nightmares.

The Mandalorian took great pains to establish new characters on new systems with new storylines, only to draw the line back to where it started with Luke Skywalker, and it’s not entirely clear where the show goes from here. That’s the inherent struggle within Disney and Star Wars; innovation can lead to good – sometimes great – ideas but the cost is potentially alienating those who prefer things to stay constant or those too afraid to try new things. They want their cake, but they’d like a slice of the new cake, too. That’s what makes the inclusion of Luke so particularly odd. It’s as if Disney didn’t realize that the new cake they were serving – The Mandalorian – tasted significantly better than the old one, even though it had few ingredients in common, and that no one really wanted to eat the old one any more.

By the end of the episode, we’re left with a laser sword and some Elder Wand-type mythology about how ownership of special weapons can only be obtained through combat. It’s never entirely clear why Mando can’t just yield the weapon to Bo-Katan – he does try – or at least “accidentally” stub his toe in combat and drop the weapon “by accident” for her to pick up, so rather than ending the finale on a big twist, we’re left more confused than shocked or awed.

Which brings me to my final point: every franchise wants you hooked on their supply line, which is why we get so many unnecessary sequels and spin-offs. Once they’ve got you hooked, they want you to stay hooked. I hated how painfully commercialized and uninteresting Star Wars had become until The Mandalorian came along, yet my renewed fascination with Star Wars lasted 15 chapters before I had become (slightly) bitter once again. I’m frustrated that I spent all this time investing in a show only to see the season end the way it did, and then get force-fed a commercial for The Book of Boba Fett, which, of course, came with a dose of nostalgia thanks to fat Bib Fortuna.

I liked just about everything this season up until the last half of the finale, when it sunk itself like the Titanic. It’s still very much worth saving, but I am genuinely curious where the show goes from here, because after Luke’s departure the major conflict that propelled the last two seasons had been resolved. Does our focus shift to a much less interesting conflict for the throne of Mandalore? Does Gideon escape and escalate the conflict? Is this really the last we see of Grogu? I am already thinking of another highly popular show that faced a dead-end story and bungled the finale so badly that it destroyed all the goodwill it had previously built…

Episodes ranked:

1.      Chapter 14: The Tragedy (4/4)

Grogu is captured and Mando faces his biggest challenge. The real Boba Fett stood up.

2.      Chapter 11: The Heiress (3.5/4)

Bo-Katan is introduced, and we learn for the first time there are competing Mandalorian factions.

3.      Chapter 9: The Marshal (3.5/4)

Sandy planet Tatooine is the starting place again in a very good creature feature to set the tone.

4.      Chapter 13: The Jedi (3/4)

Ahsoka Tano is introduced, and the Beskar spear will play an important role later.

5.      Chapter 15: The Believer (3/4)

Negative points for no Grogu, but Mayfeld became a more well-rounded character and Mando breaks one of his rules.

6.      Chapter 16: The Rescue (2.5/4)

There’s 1,000 words up there about it.

7.      Chapter 12: The Siege (2.5/4)

More backstory about the Imperials and Dr. Pershing is revealed in a nice action piece.

8.      Chapter 10: The Passenger (2.5/4)

The highlight is keeping track of how many eggs Grogu actually eats and wondering if Frog Lady ever notices.