Episode II: Attack of the Clones is criticized quite a bit by most Star Wars fans. While there is more than enough bad stuff for one Star Wars movie, Episode II gave me one of my all-time favorite moments in all of Star Wars: Jango Fett's deployment of seismic charges to shake off a trailing Obi-Wan Kenobi. The first time I saw that in theatres, I thought my hearing was off, then I was floored by the most awesome-sounding explosion.
During Friday night's episode of Mandalorian, titled "The Believer," Boba Fett brought the seismic charge back with a bang (pun very much intended) in the climax of the escape scene near the end of the show. And let me tell you, it felt just as joyful to see and hear once again.
"The Believer" gave us plenty of other exciting moments as Din Djarin, Boba Fett (donning a new, more modern version of his armor), Cara Dune (now Marshal Dune), and Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen, a.k.a. the Calvary) embarked on a stealth mission to a low-key Imperial facility. The episode had a breadth of variety and depth to it for as straight-lined a mission-centric storyline as it was.
Din and his crew are tracking down Moff Gideon. To do so, they need to recruit Mayfeld, a former Imperial who was a prisoner when we saw him in Season 1. He has knowledge about Imperial protocols that should help in the pursuit of Gideon. Mayfeld was the star of the episode. For the throw-away character that he appeared to be in Season 1, he certainly posed some mind-provoking thoughts about one's personal belief system. Does everyone compromise their standard mode of operation when stuff hits the fan? He turned a simple ride in an Imperial Juggernaut (more on that later) with Din into a challenging moment that maybe spurred some of the actions Din took later in the episode. Mayfeld even calls out some of the history of Mandalorians as he references their civil war, as well as Din's/Mandalorians' rules about not taking off their helmet.
Mayfeld also had an intriguing conversation with a former supervising Imperial Officer (who doesn't recognize him, which became a possibility when he foolishly took off his Imperial helmet for no real reason). The Imperial Officer doesn't take long to get his drinks in his system. He and Mayfeld have a far-too-open conversation about a battle they survived years ago. Mayfeld, who remembers this officer's role during the battle, gets to live out a conversation he probably had with himself for years. The Imperial Officer won the battle for the Empire that day, but at the expense (perhaps unnecessarily) of thousands of Imperials. Clearly this never sat well with Mayfeld, who, despite his presumably bad choices he made through the ensuing years, appears to have a moral compass.
The officer then says a great line: "Everybody thinks they want freedom. But what they really want is order. And when they realize that, they're going to welcome us back with open arms." He's almost certainly referring to the First Order here, right? It's a great line that follows suit with the moment in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith when Palpatine is reorganizing the Republic into the first galactic Empire "for a safer and securer society," to which there is "thunderous applause."
Something else the officer said that caught my attention was the statement about the New Republic; he claimed the New Republic is in complete disarray. That both fascinates and confuses me at the same time. Why does he think it's in disarray? Does he know of strife that's happening on the Republic's side? Also, why would it be in disarray? Didn't we just see two X-wing pilots earlier this season talking about how the New Republic was, in essence, running a police force through various sectors for safe travels? The Rebellion more or less won the war at the end of Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, and the Empire obviously is still licking its wounds from that loss (even by this officer's own admission). If the New Republic is in disarray, who is causing that if not the Empire? This is sort of the Catch 22 with Star Wars fans. On one hand, we don't want everything explained to us, but on the other hand, this murkiness on the state of the galaxy isn't doing anyone any favors. I suppose this could all be chalked up to "It's a big galaxy. No one has a complete beat on everything that is going on." I admit we are getting very organically narrated perspectives on how "things are going," so that's cool, at least. At some point, though, I feel like a veil needs to pulled away for a clearer understanding of the big picture.
Hopefully we get some of that and more in next week's finale. Din's bully transmission to Moff Gideon was very much a "I'll meet you in the parking lot after school" taunt, but it was great, cheese and all. Fun episode that set up the finale nicely.
Notes:
-The action was quite good throughout the episode. Cara and Fennec show off their sharp-shooting sniper skills while providing Din and Mayfeld cover during their infiltration of the Imperial refinery. The pirate scene was decently shot, though its choreography wasn't too memorable. The scene reminded me a little bit of the heist scene in Solo when the marauders show up during the job Beckett was pulling.
-The scrapyard at the beginning of the episode was a mini-treasure trove of Star Wars goodies, including the busted TIE Fighter that one machine was lifting.
-Ming Na-Wen seemed comfortable in a spaceship once again, probably because of all the time she spent in the Quinjet on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (I just can't help myself here).
-The Juggernaut is not a new vehicle to the Star Wars universe. To my knowledge, it appeared most recently in the Star Wars Commander mobile game (that I recently learned has been shut down completely, unfortunately; I played that game every day for more than two years). More significant than that, though, is the Juggernaut was an Imperial vehicle used during the attack on Kashyyyk in Episode III, which featured some of the best camerawork of that movie as we watched the Juggernaut emerge from under the water onto the beach.
-So of course the stormtroopers have perfect aim when they're mowing down a line of pirates rushing their base across a bridge. Guess they only struggle when firing at the good guys, huh?
-Mayfeld was an idiot for taking off his helmet, because of course an Imperial Officer whom Mayfeld worked would be there and could recognize him. This, in turn, leads to us seeing Mando's face, so we can squash the rumors of Pedro Pascal getting replaced or him not being happy for never getting to show his face (maybe the writers acquiesced to his demand, who knows, but we can move on from all that now).
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