Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 6 Review

By Chelsea House “of Kryse,” Senior GGR Contributor

Oh guys… This review is not a fun one, not one bit. The title of this episode, “The Tragedy”, could not be more appropriate. But we shall trudge bravely on.

First let’s recap: last we saw of our shiny friend and his little baby friend… Grogu (I’m still chewing on this name) they were saying goodbye to their new Jedi friend Ahsoka Tano to head to the planet Tython. From there, they are to search out ancient ruins of a temple that has a strong connection to the force, plug Grogu onto a rock, and let him choose whether to summon another Jedi by tapping into the force or I guess to just sit there like a Star Wars Elf on the Shelf. 

Grogu on a …rock-u? I’ll work on it.

In the opening of Chapter 14, Mando and Grogu affectionately playing catch with the force in the cockpit of the Razor Crest. There’s a touching moment here that further pushes the idea that the two of them have become quite the father and son pair. Mando struggles with the idea of Grogu having to leave him when he meets up with another Jedi, but like all good parents, realizes that it is what’s best for our little green guy, because, as Din puts it, he is special. 

The show wastes no time bringing us to the force ruins when they finally land on Tython, and Mando wastes no time setting Grogu on the central rock to see what happens after asking “Does this look Jedi to you?” The answer is a big ol’ mental shrug from all of us. When our sweet baby taps into the force, it creates a literal beacon and shield around him that Mando cannot get through, which he discovers the hard way when a ship lands and he tries to get Grogu so they can escape. When that fails he’s left with no choice but to go investigate who decided to follow them there. Side note – it’s really cool to see more ancient relics. I didn’t watch the animated series Clone Wars, so all I’ve had are the movies and of course this show. There’s a lot the general public of Star Wars fans still don’t know about the ancient Jedi, so these little sneak peaks are a nice touch. 

Anyways, Din goes looking around and we find some interesting things. 1: The strange guy from the ending of Chapter 9 is in fact Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) and Boba says he wants his armor back. 2: Fennec (Ming-Na Wen) from Season 1 did in fact not die, and is pointing her pretty long shot at Grogu in case Din decides he doesn’t want to work with Boba. First off… like how is Boba alive? I’m getting that he says he escaped the sarlacc… but how? Maybe that’s me being too detail oriented. After all, he’s alive. So I should just accept that I suppose. Second off, our beskar police friend goes down his line of questioning again, “HoW dOeS tHiS bElOnG tO yOu?” and Boba explains that it was his fathers, and now is his. The end. Boba tries to diffuse the possible fight by saying he will protect Grogu in exchange for his armor.

Before Din can share his feelings, however, another ship decides to land. Looks like ol’ Moff Gideon has finally caught up with them Duke boys…oops, wrong series. Gideon has put that beacon on the Razor Crest to good use! This ship is loaded with storm troopers, and they’re pourin’ outta that box like your favorite morning cereal. This forces a temporary alliance between cyborg Fennec, not dead Boba, and beskar police Din. Din, following his fatherly instincts, runs up to check on Grogu while Fennec shows off her enhanced and still awesome fighting skills, and Boba fights with a weapon that looks straight up out of your kitchen junk drawer. “Babe, what does this go to?” “Don’t know, hun.” “Kay, I guess I’ll make a weapon out of it.”

“I got this as a way to sip my slurpee from a 7-11 on Tatooine.”

Apparently this thing is called a gaffi stick from the Tuskans… Yes I had to look that up. Meanwhile, our other two heroes are knocking out Stormtroopers, who still can’t aim even with mortars, and cleaning up shop. 

Din tries multiple times to get Grogu, but the force shield painfully and aggressively keeps pushing him back. Finally satisfied that at least Grogu’s safe while the shield is up, Mando joins Fennec in the fight with the stormtroopers. When things look dire, Boba shows up in full armor that looks a little snug. Hey, we get it, it’s been a few years, we’re all getting older. Here he not only gets to show us how amazing he is without the armor, he gets to show us how amazing he now is with the armor.

If you listen closely during this scene, you can hear millions of nerds gasping in excitement simultaneously.

The last of the troops decide that they are not this invested in this fight and try to leave. Boba, however, ain’t got time for that, and decides to end them with one missile from his jet pack. We get a moment of victory as they watch the ships explode in midair. Then we get an immediate “whhhhhaaaa??” moment when a lazor blast from seemingly nowhere turns the Razor Crest into a pile of ash and our stomachs get that same knot we felt when we saw Rhaegal come crashing down into the ocean in Game of Thrones Season 8.

Think there’s time to mentally recover? Nope. Because while the three of them are trying to understand what just happened, Grogu’s shield goes down and now drained, he decides to curl up for a nap. Moff Gideon is done playing around, obviously, and now sends out his Dark Troopers, the newest line of androids, to scoop up our green buddy. And boy, do they. Fast.

Boba Fett, after seeing where the lazor came from, was already ahead of the game and got in his ship. Fennec and Mando tell him to follow the Dark Troopers, but not to shoot because they have “the kid” (oh my mommy heart). When Fett and troopers bust through the clouds, Fett announces “They’re back.” 

Fennec, “Who?” 

Fett, “The Empire.” He comes back down to the trio where they try their best to regroup. Fett ensures Mando that he is going to complete his end of the bargain by helping him get Grogu back, which adds some more amazing allies to Mando’s haphazard squad. Mando does search through the ash and finds his beskar spear, and of course, the round metal ball.

We end the episode from Din’s side with him asking Cara Dune, who I guess now is a joiner, if she can pull up some information on Migs Mayfield (Bill Burr). When she says that her new shiny Republic badge prevents her from doing certain things, he lets her know that the Empire has Grogu, and by her eyes, we see that she’s okay with bending the rules this once. Mando will now be on the mission of breaking out the sharpshooter Migs from prison, where hopefully there are no harbored feelings. 

We end the episode from Grogu’s side with Moff Gideon watching him fling Stormtroopers around the room using the force. Gideon smugly rubs it in Grogu’s face that he can only handle so much before he gets tired. We also get to see Gideon brandish the dark saber, asking Grogu if he remembers anything like it. He then orders a Stormtrooper to stun him and tells them to send a message to Dr.Pershing saying the donor is ready. 

You know Grogu is wishing his hands were big enough to hold that thing and wipe that smug smirk off of Gideon’s face.

My thoughts: 

1. You always knew Gideon was going to get Grogu again. I’m still feeling like he has something to do with Snoke. But man it was still really hard to see it happen. I’m still holding out hope for him making it out alive. But now I’m wondering if he will. Or if he does, will he be able to wield the force? 

2. Will Bo Katan get her Dark Saber back? Is she going to join Mando at the end to get Grogu back and in the meantime kill two birds with one stone? 

3. Did a Jedi get the beacon signal? And if so, who? And will they now be locked onto Grogu, or just that location? It’s really hard to tell what exactly will be going on there. 

Until next time friends. For now, I’m going to go cope through some chocolate.