Blogging Return: Thoughts on Mandalorian Season 2 Premiere

FULL SPOILERS AHEAD. Do not read until you have watched the Season 2 premiere.

(If ever there was a good reason to return to blogging after a year-long absence, it would be for this episode)

I loved the first season of Mandalorian despite a few hiccups in plot pacing and a little too much in-your-face, wink-and-nod, fan-service moments (okay, most of them were just understated enough that it wasn't too big a deal for me personally). I actually enjoyed the story and individual episodes a lot more after rewatching Season 1 recently as a refresher for tonight's premiere.

Season 2's first episode ended with pretty much the same stick of dynamite that the series premiere had with the reveal of "baby Yoda," but more on the ending later.

The rest of the episode actually reminded me the most of the "Sanctuary" episode from Season 1, which featured Mando teaming with fellow bounty hunter Cara Dune to save a village from the oppression of an AT-ST (my absolute favorite episode of that season).

In tonight's episode, Mando tries to be the middle man of a feud between a group of Tusken Raiders and a town of villagers in a small, repurposed sliver of land unmapped on Tatooine. These villagers have a leader: Cobb, who is wearing very familiar bounty hunter gear (more on that in a bit). To make matters worse, there's a giant Krayt Dragon on the loose! Mando unites the Tusken Raiders and villagers to fight the dragon together. Mando even lays out a plan that involves hidden traps in the ground (like in Sanctuary), though his plan goes awry when they fail to lure the dragon out of his cave. A visually spectacular battles ensues until they defeat the dragon as Mando saves the day with a cool jetpack moment.

In the final shot of the episode, Mando is driving off on his speeder when the camera pans to an unsuspected observer from afar. We see him from behind and notice two weapons hanging on his back. Then he turns around as we get a look at his scarred face.

Boba Fett is alive. Boba Fett is alive!

What?!?!?

When we first see Cobb earlier in the episode, we quickly learn why he is the leader of the small town. He's wearing Mandalorian armor. What no one apparently knows is the armor was that of Boba Fett's. Cobb bought the armor from Jawas, who apparently found the armor in the sarlacc pit where we long thought Fett was dead and buried for good. Much like Luke's lightsaber in Episode VII or the medallion in Episode IX, we don't necessarily get, nor need, a full explanation of how the gear ends up where it did. What's important is that no one seems to realize whose gear it is, while the one person it belongs to is still lurking around Tatooine.

So has Fett been on Tatooine this whole time? What has he been up to? Well, for starters, it's possible he was already seen in Season 1. We saw only part of a figure walking towards Ming-Na's character Fennec at the end of the "Gunslinger" episode. Maybe Fett was already watching Mando from afar, huh? It would make sense that he's been on Tatooine this whole time. Who knows what happens to his Slave I ships in Return of the Jedi. He must've been in survival mode this whole time, which is why he's had to lay low and out of sight, at least until the moment is right.

The mere thought of bringing Fett back to life is something that has been talked about by Star Wars fans for years and years. While pretty much all fans agree that his death was a crock unfitting for the great character (he originally was going to be Luke's rival in Episodes VII-IX of George Lucas' original Star Wars movie treatment), I've talked with some fans who don't think it's a good idea to undo the movies while others absolutely have wanted him to come back. Now that he appears to be back, though, the writers need to be cautious. They can't wreck the portions of the original trilogy that involved Boba, and they need to have a worthwhile reason to bring him back into the fold; if they only use him for a few scenes here and there and simply tug on nostalgia strings, his continued usefulness will live on in infamy. But I have a guess as to how the writers will use him, and I sure hope I'm right (I never am).

Mando is now on the hunt to find "The child's" family. To do so, he must, as he learned in the Season 1 finale, track down these mysterious Jedi people. Since baby Yoda has force powers, that makes sense. As for Fett, he obviously hasn't left Tatooine in years. Maybe he was waiting for a chance to reclaim his armor. Maybe he's been healing; after all, he was in a sarlacc pit for who knows how long (maybe we'll find out!). I think we need to have a moment where Fett digs into his past and reveals how he escaped, and when we get that, we're going to find that Fett is a grizzled, angry man who wants only one thing: revenge. He will want to find Han Solo, the one who knocked him into the pit in RotJ, and Fett will want to kill him. Well, Han is best friends with Luke Skywalker, now a heroic Jedi legend who led the Rebellion to destroy the second Death Star, right? And Mando is also looking for a connection to the Jedi, right? Yeah, I think Mando and Fett will join forces to search for Luke and Han, even if they would be looking for them for very different reasons.

That would be cool.

What's probably going to happen, though, is we'll see Fett for one more episode, and he'll just fly away in search of Han on his own, and maybe we'll see him again in the finale.

Either way, another concern of Fett's return is the distraction he would be from the main story. If they don't keep him around, the audience will get restless, which would be a shame for Mando and the actual main storyline of The Mandalorian. I don't foresee Fett being wasted a second time around. He and Mando would make a great duo, and simply watching Fett don his old gear and fight like the fearsome bounty hunter we once knew him to be would make for one heck of a season.

Notes:

-Timothy Olyphant was GREAT as Cobb, though he looked a little weird wearing Fett's armor.

-The opening scene with the Gamorreans fighting each other was fun. It was a classic way of reminding us how awesome Mando is.

-In the scene when Mando and Cobb are on speeders, it sure looked like Cobb was driving a speeder we've seen before. Maybe Anakin's or Sebulba's from Episode I?

-I love that the Tusken Raiders always traveled in single files to hide their numbers.

-The Krayt Dragon was awesome! Watching it crawl through the sand like a sea creature swims through water was extremely satisfying. So glad we got to see a Krayt Dragon on Tatooine alive this time instead of just leftover bones.

-We got to see a different side of the Tusken Raiders. They aren't simply a barbaric race of sand killers. They have at least enough morals to honor their word, and they are willing to put aside their differences for a greater cause.