By: Marc Millette
The episode opens with a bell tolling in a town not introduced before. Troops are running to the wall, townspeople are scrambling to their homes. At the gate, a leader, Lang, is standing up-top with the troops staring into the gloomy trees and darkness. The camera cuts to the forest where troops are running back to the wall away from something. Ahsoka Tano comes into the picture with her white lightsabers blurring, taking out one soldier at a time. A woman, Magistrate Morgan Elsbeth, joins Lang at the top of the wall. When Ahsoka is done with the troops, Morgan calls out to her letting her know she will kill all the townspeople one by one if Ahsoka doesn’t give herself up. Ahsoka tells her the people are dead anyway under Morgan’s rule and tells her she had one day to give Ahsoka the information she wants.
Mando and The Child get to the planet Corvus, The Child is obsessed with a lever top that looks like a ball and uses the force to take it off while they are landing. Once they land Mando decides to walk to town, first he takes the ball from the child. At the gate, Lang questions Mando as to why they are there. He convinces her that he’s a guild bounty hunter looking to rest a bit, Lang lets him in. Walking around, none of the townspeople talk to Mando, they run when he walks up to them. Troopers meet up with Mando telling him the Magistrate would like to meet with him. Morgan offers Mando a spear made of pure beskar to kill Ahsoka.
Mando and the child go looking for Ahsoka who sneaks up on them and the two tangle for a minute until Mando mentions Bo-Katan sent him. Ahsoka and The Child sit together for a time. Ahsoka learned much about the child, his name is Grogu, he trained with many Jedi Masters but was kidnapped during the Jedi purge and took to suppressing his Jedi talents. Ahsoka tries to test Grogu by floating a rock to him and asking him to float it back, he doesn’t. She asks Mando to do the same thing, at first Grogu won’t, then Mando takes out the ball and Grogu takes it with the force. Ahsoka says she cannot train him because Grogu is too attached to Mando. Mando argues he needs training, Ahsoka’s response is “No, I’ve seen what such feeling can do to a fully trained Jedi Knight, to the best of us.” Mando tells her that the Magistrate hired him to kill Ahsoka, but he will help Ahsoka if she makes sure Grogu gets trained. They discuss the troops in the city and plan. A Mandalorian and a Jedi, they’ll never see it coming.
Later that night Ahsoka attacks the town, confronts Morgan, and throws down a piece of armor saying the bounty hunter failed. She draws most of the guards away from the main gate and prisoners, then Mando hops in to take out the last guards and save the prisoners. Ahsoka quickly deals with the troops and jumps into the yard to face off with Morgan and her beskar staff. The fight is fairly short. Lang runs into Mando and tries to talk his way out of fighting, when the magistrate loses he pretends to give up and tries a cheap shot on Mando who kills him and then the last droid. Ahsoka has Morgan with a lightsaber at her throat demanding answers: “Where is your master? Where is Grand Admiral Thrawn?”
Ahsoka gives Mando the beskar spear and Mando heads back to the ship to get Grogu. He is genuinely sad to say goodbye to Grogu. Ahsoka says Mando is like a father to him and again says she can’t train Grogu. She sends him to the planet Tython, to place Grogu on the “seeing stone” to reach out to other Jedi who may train him. Mando and Grogu take off as Ahsoka smiles at them.
Pros
Ahsoka Tano brought to live-action
Great opening scene
Expanding star wars live action universe
Many moments that hit you right in the feels
Beskar spear.
Learned The Child’s name, Grogu!
Almost a promise we will find another Jedi
Cons
Another false lead on Mando and The Child’s adventure
A villain that wasn’t developed
Outside of Ahsoka there wasn’t much to the episode
A fun exciting episode. Action-packed, only slows down when needed. A joy to see Ahsoka live-action, her first couple of fight scenes were closer to her style than the last one. Expanding the universe with Grand Admiral Thrawn will be fun but probably in another series. Though, that leads to more disappointment. Ahsoka isn’t staying around. Mando is on a quest to get Grogu training and find other Mandalorians. So far this season we’ve had several false starts with a fake Mandalorian, Mandalorians that aren’t quite the same as him, and a Jedi that can’t train Grogu.
All in all this episode earns an 8/10 Kyber Crystals because while Ahsoka and The Child’s name were huge reveals, this season of The Mandalorian continues to tease fans by promising to deliver more after giving us less. This is probably one of the better episodes if not the best episode of the season but where does that leave the series. Grogu and Mando have their work cut out for them after delivering such an amazing 1st season.
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