The Mandalorian, “Chapter 14: The Tragedy“, Review!

The Razor Crest is headed to Tython in the Deep Core, Mando has Baby Yoda use the Force to grab the ball socket, and he tries to make The Child understand that he has to train with the Jedi.  Tython first appeared in the novel, Darth Bane: Rule of Two (2007).  There is no consequence of traveling far into New Republic territory.  They do not encounter or escape any X-Wings or other craft.  This episode is directed by Robert Rodriguez which I suspected it is all action with very little of the character development from the previous episodes.  The ship descends to some green scrub hills and Mando finds the temple on the top of hills.  There is no landing so Mando uses his jetpack to fly Baby Yoda down!  There are six slabs of stone pointed sideways, very Stonehenge, “`Tis a magic place.”  A half-buried rock is in the center.  He sets the Child on the rock and then begins analyzing the writings around it with his helmet’s scanner.  They are soon joined by what looks like a Firespray-31-class patrol craft, which could be Slave 1!  

  

The ship descends and Mando turns to see Baby Yoda in a blue energy field trance.  This looks like a Jedi version of the signal sent at the end of Revenge of the Sith (2005), this time a message of hope.  The Mandalorian is repelled by the field trying to get them to leave.  He magnifies his helmet to see a heat source of a cloaked person leaving the Firespray.  Mando makes his way to the bottom of the hill and is nearly struck by blasterfire!  He is told he was being tracked, the cloaked person pulls off his hood, this is the mysterious, bald man played by Temuera Morrison that we saw at the end of Chapter Nine last season!  We have also seen that he has two gaderffii sticks from Tusken Raiders.  He has been hunting for his armor, Boba Fett if you haven’t caught on yet, describes himself as “a simple man making my way through the galaxy.”  It is strange that it took so long for Boba Fett to catch up with Mando.  Fett says the armor belonged to his father and he brought along someone who has a rifle sight on The Child.  Fennec Shand!  She was an assassin, shot in Chapter 5, but we saw a person’s boots appear that implied she would return.  The team of Fennec and Boba reminds me of Jango and Zam Wesell in Attack of the Clones.    

Mando threatens to shoot both of them and Boba has the weapons lowered with The Mandalorian taking off his jet pack.  Fennec reveals the cybernetics in her belly after getting shot by the bounty hunter Calican on Tatooine.  Another ship interrupts their negotiations.  Mando tries again to reach through Baby Yoda’s field and fails again.  Fennec and Boba take out their rifles as stormtroopers spill from the lander.  They split up and Boba shows the lethality of the gaffi stick!  He seems like the warrior monk.  The strange part is Boba going hand to hand instead of racing to his ship, destroying the lander, and getting some firepower like what was in Attack of the Clones (2002).  Fennec cuts down stormtroopers, but they manage to use an explosive mortar and assemble a Mark II medium repeating blaster cannon!  It was seen in Empire Strikes Back (1980)  The cannon dislodges a large boulder and Fennec sends it crashing down at the blaster cannon.  Fennec can handle herself, this is really Ming-Na Wen's year with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. wrapping and appearing in the live action Mulan!  Still, they have to face another lander!  

Mando revives, tries to breach the field again, and then leaves for the defense!  The field fades and Baby Yoda falls asleep.  Mando adds his Whistling Bird homing projectiles to the fight.  He says he owes Fennec from the last time.  They are joined by Boba Fett in his armor.  The stormtroopers retreat back to their ships.  The Razor Crest is destroyed by a cannon blast!  Boba Fett rockets to Slave-1!  Then, Moff Gideon unleashes his weapon, the Dark Troopers!  These are droids in deadly heavy stormtrooper armor, black not like the silver in the game, they were introduced in Star Wars: Dark Forces (1995) by LucasArts.  If you have faced them in the video game, you will know their power!  They were teased at the end of "Chapter 12: The Siege."  There was Death troopers from Rogue One (2016) in the season one finale, now Dark Troopers, it looks like Gideon has access to a storehouse of old Imperial technology!  They capture Baby Yoda and the trio is not able to save him!  So the episode is essentially mis-titled, first time, "Tragedy" is strongly a death like in Shakespeare, the only deaths are Stormtroopers.  This episode would be better titled, "The Peril" and it would have more of a serial adventure feel to it.  It is a good episode bringing in characters, but while we get a little development, it is not independent of the core action.  

Three Bars of Beskar Steel out of Five!  

#FennecShand, #BobaFett, #SlaveI, #DarkTroopers