When Star Wars released The Mandalorian in 2019, it was their first live action tv show. It was immediately popular due to the western genre of the show and the heartwarming friendship and bond of a Mandalorian and a child of Yoda’s species. The internet fell in love with the child and nicknamed him “Baby Yoda.” The show was renewed for season two, which released in Fall 2020 on Disney+ and once again dominated popular culture. This review will consist of a short synopsis of each episode in the season followed by a score out of 10.

*IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MANDALORIAN SEASON 2 PLEASE STOP READING. MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD.*

Chapter 9: The Marshal

Directed by Jon Favreau

Season 2 started off strong with this episode. Mando is seeking a fellow Mandalorian to help Mando’s mission to return the child to the Jedi. The duo ends up on Tatooine where they visit Peli Moto, a mechanic whom they met last season. Mando then travels to the city of Mos Pelgo. Mando then meets “The Marshal,” who wears the former armor of Boba Fett. The Marshal is not a Mandalorian but reveals his name to be Cobb Vanth. Mando wants the beskar armor as Vanth doesn’t truly deserve it. A duel nearly breaks out when a Krayt Dragon attacks Mos Pelgo. Vanth and Mando make a deal that if Mando helps defeat the Krayt Dragon, Vanth gives Mando his armor. Mando then recruits Tusken Raiders to assist in the attack and it is fascinating to see the pure dislike the humans on Tatooine have for the Tusken Raiders. The Krayt Dragon turns out to be extremely difficult to defeat, but due to Mando’s heroics, the beast is killed. Mando then receives the armor from Vanth and travels back to Peli Moto’s shipyard. A disfigured and scarred Boba Fett is shown in the final scene watching Mando travel with his armor.

Episode Score: 7.1/10

Chapter 10: The Passenger

Directed by Peyton Reed

Chapter 10 picks up right where Chapter 9 left off, as Mando is traveling back to Peli Moto’s shipyard. He is jumped by a group of bandits and they trade Mando his jetpack for the child. Mando still has control of the jetpack however, leading to the retrieval of his jetpack. After a long hike back to Mos Eisley by foot, Mando finds Peli Moto gambling with Dr. Mandible, a giant ant (call back to Ant-Man, a film Reed also directed). Peli Moto says that Dr. Mandible knows someone who can give Mando information about the whereabouts of more Mandalorians. The Frog Lady is introduced as someone who’s mate knows about Mandalorians, but Mando has to provide a transport of her and her eggs to the planet Trask. Mando originally says no because of the condition that he cannot travel in lightspeed due to the fragility of the eggs. As the episode develops, it becomes increasingly clear that this is more of a “filler” episode. It almost feels like a cutscene in a narrative video game. On the Razor Crest, the audience learns about the child’s desire to eat the eggs and they witness one of the first language barriers in Star Wars as Mando cannot understand the Frog Lady. After the New Republic’s X-Wings want to board the Razor Crest, Mando takes evasive maneuvers which lead him to crash land the ship on an ice planet, causing severe damage to the ship. The Frog Lady then uses the severed head of droid Q9-O to explain to Mando that they cannot quit and that he has broken his word, effectively guilting Mando to fix the ship so that it can fly again. Then the episode turns into something straight out of a horror movie with hundreds of ice spiders and two giant ice spiders attack the Razor Crest. They are saved by the same two New Republic X-Wings from earlier as they said Mando helped them put convicts behind bars (S1E6).

Episode Score: 4.7/10

Chapter 11: The Heiress

Director: Bryce Dallas Howard

A damaged Razor Crest crash lands on Trask in a scene very reminiscent to the crash landing on Coruscant in Revenge of the Sith. Once the Razor Crest is pulled out of the water via crane (which is a repurposed AT-AT), the Frog Lady reunites with her mate in a sweet moment. Mando and the child go on a pirate ship after he learns they can lead him to Mandalorians. When the pirates say that it is time to feed the creature underneath the ship, they push the child and floating capsule into the water where it is swallowed by the creature. Mando jumps into to save him and the pirates try to kill Mando for his beskar, but three Mandalorians arrive just in time to save him and the child. As the three Mandalorians unmask themselves, Mando calls them not worthy of their armor. Bo-Katan Kryze, the heiress to the throne of Mandalore, explains to Mando that he is part of a cult named “The Watch.” She also says that his ways are wrong and old fashioned, leaving Mando disgusted as he flies away with the child. Mando is once again attacked by pirates once he lands and is again saved by Bo-Katan and the other Mandalorians. Bo-Katan says that she can lead Mando to a Jedi if he helps them on their mission to hijack an Imperial ship to steal cargo. Once they have boarded the ship, Bo-Katan changes the mission and says that she wants to take the whole ship, which Mando argues was not the plan. Bo-Katan gives him a taste of his own medicine in a sense by silencing him with “This is the Way.” Bo-Katan tries to pressure an Imperial official to tell her the location of Moff Gideon in order for her to get the darksaber back, but the official commits suicide via galactic cyanide. Bo-Katan then tries to recruit Mando to join their crew, which he says no to, but Bo-Katan tells him that he will find Jedi Ahsoka Tano on the planet Corvus.

Episode Score: 6.2/10

Chapter 12: The Siege

Director: Carl Weathers

The Razor Crest, after unsatisfactory Mon Calamari repairs, returns to Navarro where he rendezvous with Greef Karga and Cara Dune. Karga is the Magistrate and Dune is the Marshal of Navarro and have turned the planet around. In return for repairs to his ship, Karga asks Mando to help them destroy an old Imperial base on the planet with a skeleton crew. Mando begrudgingly accepts and as he, Karga, Dune, and the Mythrol travel to the base they learn that the base is far from a skeleton crew, it is operational. The Mythrol deactivates the lava cooling system so that the base will be destroyed by the lava within ten minutes. The crew stumbles upon a lab that has giant vats of gooey bodies. The Imperial scientists try to destroy the evidence, but they find a hologram of Dr. Pershing to Moff Gideon saying that they need more of the child’s blood because of the high “M-Count” (Midiclorian Count… watch The Phantom Menace if unfamiliar). Mando flies back to the city with his jetpack to retrieve the child while Karga, Dune, and the Mythrol steal a stormtrooper transport. They have an awesome chase with stormtroopers in speeder bikes and TIE fighters. They look to be outmatched by the fighters when Mando in the Razor Crest saves the day and then leaves with the child to find Ahsoka on Corvus. Captain Carson Teva from the New Repuplic, one of the X-Wing pilots from Chapter 10, comes to investigate the incident on Navarro. While he is speaking to Cara Dune, he mentions “something is brewing, and we need to put a stop to in… these events are connected.” The audience also learns that Cara’s family died in the destruction of Alderaan by the first Death Star and that Teva left a New Republic Medallion for her.

Episode Score: 8.4/10

Chapter 13: The Jedi

Director: Dave Filoni

This episode gets off to a hot start with Ahsoka Tano going gangbusters on a set of stormtroopers on the planet Corvus. Rosario Dawson does a phenomenal job as Ashoka and her double white lightsabers pop on screen. Ahsoka then confronts the Imperial Magistrate Morgan Elsbeth, giving her one day to surrender. Mando then lands on the planet and enters the city of Calodan, which is similar to a prison camp. There is no speaking, and some people are being held in upright cages that give electrical shocks. Elsbeth invites Mando to her palace and offers him a spear made of pure beskar if he can kill Ahsoka. Mando goes to find Ahsoka and they have an intense battle until Mando explains to her that Bo-Katan sent him. Ahsoka meets the child and they communicate through the force. Perhaps the biggest questions of the series were answered in this episode as Ahsoka reveals that the child’s name is Grogu, he was trained by many masters at the Jedi temple on Coruscant in the time of the Galactic Senate, and he has been suppressing his powers for years to survive. She also says that he was saved from the attack on the Jedi temple conducted by Darth Vader, but who saved him is still unknown. After a short training session, Ahsoka senses much fear and attachment to Mando and she refuses to train Grogu.  It is amazing to see the pain in her expressions and words as the audience can tell that she is still grieving from the fall to the dark side by her master, Anakin Skywalker. Mando strikes a deal with Ahsoka by saying that if he helps her attack the magistrate, then she will train Grogu. Ahsoka pretends that she has defeated Mando by dropping the signet of the mudhorn that he wears. While Ahsoka and Elsbeth battle, Mando liberates the city and defeats Elsbeth’s number two, Lang. After Ahsoka disarms Elsbeth’s spear, she reveals that the master of Elsbeth, the person that Ahsoka has been so wanting to find is, Grand Admiral Thrawn. This sets up possible plotlines in the Ahsoka TV show that will be on Disney+ in the future. The episode ends with Ahsoka still refusing to train Grogu, but she gives Mando the beskar spear and that he can bring Grogu to the planet Tython and that a Jedi may come to retrieve him.

Episode Score: 8.6/10

Chapter 14: The Tragedy

Director: Robert Rodriguez

The fans of the show get what they want from this one… no side mission, right to the point. While they are flying, Mando enjoys calling Grogu by his newly learned name and has a chuckle, adding some human characteristics to the otherwise stoic character. Grogu is placed on the seeing stone that Ahsoka described on Tython, but at first seems distracted when the ship Slave I lands on the planet. Mando springs into action as Grogu finally begins to meditate. Boba Fett confronts Mando and reveals that Fennec Shan is still alive. In return for the safety of the child, he agrees to give Boba his armor back. A group of stormtroopers arrive via troop transport and Boba, Fennec, and Mando join forces. Without his armor and with a gaffe stick, Boba Fett lives up to his reputation as one of the most feared bounty hunters in the galaxy by absolutely obliterating stormtroopers. These fight scenes also contain some of the best cinematography in the entire show thus far. As Fennec and Mando are seeming overwhelmed by another faction of troopers, Boba Fett arrives with his armor that he has taken from the Razor Crest and sends the stormtroopers into retreat. Boba then finishes the job by using his rocket launcher to destroy both troop transports in an awesome moment. The moment is short lived however, as Moff Gideon’s cruiser vaporizes the Razor Crest, leaving behind only the ball on the gearshift and the beskar spear. Grogu is stolen by Dark Troopers moments before Mando can get to him, Boba follows in Slave I to see if he can rescue the child, but it is impossible. Boba and Fennec then say that their part of the bargain wasn’t fulfilled and vow to help Mando get the child back, while Boba proves his Mandalorian heritage through a holographic chain code in the armor. Mando then recruits Cara Dune to join the mission to retrieve the child but says that he needs help breaking Migs Mayfeld out of prison and as a New Republic marshal, she can help. Meanwhile on Moff Gideon’s cruiser, Grogu is force choking stormtroopers before the Moff taunts him with the dark saber and handcuffs him.

Episode Score: 9.7/10

Chapter 15: The Believer

Director: Rick Famuyima

Migs Mayfeld (last seen in S1E6) is working in a New Republic prison scrapyard when Cara Dune springs him from the prison remarkably easily. Once on Slave I, the team of ex-Imperial Mayfeld, Mando, Boba Fett, Cara Dune, and Fennec Shan discuss the plan to track down Moff Gideon. Mayfeld says to get the ship’s coordinates, they need to go to a secret rhydonium refinery on the planet Morak. Mando and Mayfeld msut be the two to infiltrate the base since everyone else’s faces would be recognized by the Imperial scanner. Boba Fett’s line here “let’s just say they’d recognize my face,” is awesome as he is a clone and literally millions of his face are in the Imperial system. They hijack the rhydonuim transport, but they can only travel at a slow pace because of the explosive nature of the rhydonium. Mayfeld offers perhaps one of the largest doses of perspectives in Star Wars throughout his monologue about how galactic politics always have one ruling faction – the Senate, the Empire, the New Republic – and it doesn’t truly matter who is ruling the galaxy, they are all bad from a certain perspective. They hear that multiple transports have been destroyed and the same pirates that attacked the other transports attack theirs. Mando shows some impressive fighting in hand-to-hand combat in this scene and proves that even without beskar armor (now wearing stormtrooper armor), he is still a force to be reckoned with. When the pirates start to overpower Mando, TIE Fighters save the day (as awkward as that is to say) and Mayfeld and Mando can get into the base. When they find where the terminal is, Mando realizes that he must go in to get the coordinates because one of Mayfeld’s former officers, Valin Hess, is eating in the same room. Mando then goes in and removes his helmet for the face scan, receiving the coordinates. This shows a ton of character development for Mando and how much Grogu means to him. Mando is then confronted by Hess and seems lost when Mayfeld steps in and talks his way out of the situation. Hess offers them a drink where he dismisses everyone that died in Operation Cinder, the mission where all of Mayfeld’s crew died. Mayfeld, realizing that the Empire are truly the bigger evil, shoots Hess and Mando and Mayfeld escape with help from Fennec Shan and Cara Dune. When Mayfeld and Mando jump onto Slave I, Mayfeld snipes the rhydonium, blowing up the base and showing that an ex-Imperial can shoot, Boba Fett also drops the awesome sounding seismic charge onto two TIE Fighters. When the group reconvenes on the ground, Dune lets Mayfeld run free. The final scene of the episode is on Moff Gideon’s cruiser where he gets a hologram of Mando giving him the same speech that Moff Gideon gave to Mando in episode seven of season one and saying that he will be taking back Grogu.

Episode Score: 9.0/10

Chapter 16: The Rescue

Director: Peyton Reed

An Imperial shuttle with Dr. Pershing, a cloning scientist, is boarded by Slave I. Cara Dune shoots the Imperial holding Pershing hostage after he insults the victims of Alderaan and gloats about his involvement. Boba and Mando then travel to confront Bo-Katan and Koska Reeves at a cantina. A brawl starts after Boba’s status as a Mandalorian is questioned by Bo-Katan and Koska, but Bo-Katan strikes a deal with Mando. She wants to find Moff Gideon because the darksaber in his posession is the weapon used to unify Mandalore and Mando wants Grogu, so they will work together to defeat Moff Gideon. Boba in Slave I chases the rest of the crew flying in the hijacked Imperial shuttle to make it appear that it is under attack and needs to land. They crash land inside of Moff Gideon’s cruiser, blocking the TIE Fighter hanger. While Cara, Bo-Katan, Koska, and Fennec take out the stormtroopers and make their way to the ship’s bridge, Mando tries to stop the deployment of Dark Troopers, but one escapes from getting sucked into space. Mando seems overwhelmed by just one Dark Trooper, but eventually defeats it with use of the beskar spear. He then finds Grogu in the detention block, where Moff Gideon is holding the darksaber above Grogu’s head. When Mando thinks that the Moff is going to let him and Grogu go, Gideon strikes him with the darksaber. The darksaber-wielding Moff Gideon and beskar-wielding Mando duel until Mando eventually defeats his opponent but spares his life. Once he arrives at the bridge with Moff Gideon, Bo-Katan realizes that since Mando defeated Moff Gideon, he is the ruler of Mandalore. She refuses the darksaber, saying that it has to be won in battle. After this tense moment, the Dark Troopers re-board the ship and have the bridge surrounded when a singe X-Wing lands inside of the cruiser. Moff Gideon attempts suicide but is stopped by Cara Dune. The hooded Jedi is seen on security footage blitzing his way through the Dark Troopers with his signature green lightsaber, revealing that it is Luke Skywalker. Luke’s mowing through the Dark Troopers is reminiscent of his father’s rampage in Rogue One. Once Luke arrives on the bridge, Mando gives Grogu permission to go with Luke and they share a touching moment where Mando takes off his helmet, allowing his “son” to see him maskless for the first time. In the final shot of the season, Luke, Grogu, and R2D2 leave to train in the elevator. The post credits scene also shows Boba Fett take the throne of Jabba’s Palace from Bib Fortuna with Fennec Shan, setting up The Book of Boba Fett, which will release in December 2021.

Episode Rating: 9.5/10

Story by Tristan Fluhr