“Chapter 24: The Return” continues the struggle to take back Mandalore, what happened to Din Djarin, and a mystery of the planet! The finale is here, but first a peek back at “The Spies.” Bo-Katan makes her way to The Armorer who reports the weak members on the skiff should be taken back to the fleet. The captain says he can take them to the location of the Great Forge. In the morning, they set out while The Armorer takes the others on the Gauntlet from the planet. Axe Woves and Paz Viszla are playing a chess board-like game of cones, I’m hoping it is the Cones of Dunshire, Axe notes Paz’s move with an Enforcer. He notes that the “flank jump” can only be made by a Wing Guard. The rest of the crew watches them. Axe makes a joke about “primitives” making up rules. Paz stands up with his vibro blade out. Axe does a jet pack assisted knee to Paz. They start to fight and Din Djarin offers to stop them, but Bo-Katan Kryze notes that no one from each side should take part of the fight. Save it for whatever you might encounter at the Great Forge. They are held back by IG-12 controlled by Grogu who mashes the No button repeatedly. Axe and Paz back down. Bo-Katan says, “You taught your apprentice well.” Din says it wasn’t his training.
The Armorer contacts the fleet, this is an extremely long flight, and brings in the survivors.
At sundown, a lookout spots some disturbance of rocks on the strboard side. Everyone puts on their helmets. The outcrop is shattered by a kaiju sized trinitaur. Ok, this beastie has a rocky ridge on its back, what exactly does it eat and why don’t the Mandalorians know it? They all jet pack off of the skiff as the trinitaur’s tail bashes it. They take cover in a cave led by the captain. They reach an empty cavernous hall. Axe knows that it is the Great Forge. Paz asks Koska Reeves if she lived there, she replies they all did, and the captain says that they had, but migrated on the surface. Mando hears jet packs. A swarm of troopers flies in, Imperial armored commandoes, the early Boba Fett designs are used here. They fire on the Mandalorians and the return fire is deflected by their beskar armor. Axe wants to try to alert the fleet. Paz Vizsla notes a crack in the ceiling and lays suppressing fire with his heavy blaster cannon. Axe flies away. I find it hard to believe that these commandos are better trained than Mandalorians that have fought for all of their lives.
Fibercord whips are used on the commandoes, but Bo-Katan doesn’t take out the Darksaber which could be useful especially in a desperate situation. The commandoes start to retreat and Bo-Katan calls for them to advance. This is strange, why not access the situation, fortify position and then take action? They enter an Imperial corridor and take down a few commandoes. The commandoes fly off as we see the rest of the base. TIE Interceptors hang from the ceiling like bats. Blast doors fall on either side, Din says it’s an ambush, as more armored commandoes land. He is trapped on the other side using his flame thrower on the commandoes. Fibercord whips hold his arms and then the commandoes give him the big beat down. A dark, armored figure lands, it is the armor of Gideon! He has used the beskar to make a new Dark Trooper suit! Gideon says he has combined the best of cloners, Jedi, and Mandalorians to form an army! He sends his Interceptors and bombers to take out the fleet. Din is ordered by Gideon to be taken to the debriefing room.
Bo-Katan gets his attention, Gideon arrogantly wants her to give him the Darksaber, and surrender. Paz Viszla says, “This is the Way” and begins shooting at the door. Bo-Katan uses the Darksaber to cut into the other door. Gideon has the blast door opened so the commandoes can finish off the Mandalorians and flies away. Bo-Katan has cut an opening and calls for a retreat. Paz says he will cover the retreat. More commandoes descend and he cuts them down. Bo-Katan sees that they have escaped and orders Paz to fall back. He closes the blast door saying that there are too many commandoes. He gives another, “This is the Way” as Bo-Katan leaves and his barrel starts to overheat. Then, the whole cannon burns so he throws it! Paz Viszla goes full WWE plowing into commandoes and knocking them down. He staggers as the glowing purple weapons of the Imperial Praetorian Guards appear! This is the red armor of the Emperor’s Royal Guard mixed with the laughably ineffective Elite Praetorian Guard in The Last Jedi (2017). Paz Viszla activates his personal combat shield and vibro knife. They shove their weapons into Paz’s armor and he falls.
Then, the Imperial Praetorian Guards walk away. “The Return” picks up with Bo-Katan on the run with the Mandalorians. Rick Famuyiwa also directs this episode. She updates Axe on the situation while he is trying to reach the fleet with his jetpack!? Bo-Katan wants an evacuation with the capital ship, the Class 546 Cruiser to distract the incoming Interceptors and bombers. His signal is broken up entering the stormy part of Mandalore’s atmosphere. Bo-Katan holds back to fire on the Imperial armored commandoes and a charge is set to explode when they start to move! Two commandoes are taking Din, we hear his breathing, and then he bashes the guards! One activates his flamethrower and Mando points it to the other to cook him! He snaps his neck and the remaining commando has a fibercord whip around Din’s neck. The commando points his blaster, but is crushed by IG-12 operated by Grogu! The rescue makes sense since we didn’t see Grogu run with the Mandalorians. Pinned by the droid, Din kicks him down. Grogu sprays him with batch and Din says he is already revived, funny, and then cuts his bonds. He tells Grogu to be brave and he has to take out Gideon!
Bo-Katan makes her way with the others to a rumbling cave. She is contacted by Din who says he escaped. He says he has to take on Gideon, removes a jetpack from a commando, Bo-Katan’s concern is the safety of her troops. Yes, in a way, but they are all fighting for their world. Leaving Din to take on all of the base is a little much. The captain leads them out with jetpacks to a safe area. The TIE Interceptors drop down! The fighters head towards the Mandalorian fleet. Gideon is in a room looking at hologram map projected on a wall. A commando reports about the launch of the ships. Gideon notes the escape of the Mandalorian, seen as dots on the map, he’s tracking both of them? He puts on his helmet on his Dark Trooper armor and goes to a final confrontation. Sneaking around the base, Din contacts R5, redemption for R5 from his malfunctioning cameo? Din has the astrodroid scomp (I think that’s the first time the term was used, it came from the role-playing game, with the link that accesses computers) into the base and find Gideon’s command center. R5 makes a comment, but Din says he doesn’t understand Binary, the droid language is interesting who can and cannot understand it.
The droid booster rockets down to the base. He hides from a mouse droid and then scomp links into the base. Din and Grogu are sneaking around trying to avoid commandos and he gets the map projected from his gauntlet. Axe breaks orbit, in a jetpack?, and contacts the Fleet Captain (Travis Parker) to give Bo-Katan’s orders; launch the Gauntlets, land reinforcements, and use the ship as a decoy. Axe runs in the ship cockpit and orders the evacuation. He tells the captain to load the others on dropships. A number of Mandalorians use their jetpacks to reach the Gauntlets. I’m getting a touch of the Hawkmen in Flash Gordon (1980). “Who wants to live forever? (laughs) Dive!” The Gauntlets descend and the TIE fighters ascend. The passing of the two forces is strange. Axe activates the cannons and TIEs strafe the cruiser. Din makes his way until reaching the red forcefield corridor. He contacts R5 to lower the barrier shields. Mando makes brutal work of two commandos with the first shield and arms himself with their weapons. The next barrier, Din has a electrobaton, used in Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order (2019), and riot shield, the same used in Force Awakens (2015). It feels like a video game defeating the henchmen and picking up weapons before reaching the boss.
The third shield, Din just has the savageness to take on the increasing number of commandos. A mouse droid finds R5 and activates its alarm. Mando calls for the next shield as R5 zaps the pesty mouse droid. The barrier shield opens and Din slides in knocking down commandos. He has defeated the henchmen and is ready for the big boss! R5 is faced with three of the annoying droids that try to harmlessly ram him. Instead, the astrodroid jets away. Grogu walks into the corridor and then follows Din in IG-12. They enter the room with persons in tubes. Mando goes to a console while Grogu examines the tubes. Din explains that they are the clones of Gideon! He sets explosions to destroy the tanks and they run away. The Mandalorians fly down to a surface cave that they took shelter. It has greenery like the Genesis Cave in Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan (1982). The captain, still unnamed, says they have food caches across the planet. The captain says they planted farms from “old species.” Now, I’m thinking this is like the Fremen in Dune. “…we shall change the face of Arrakis (Mandalore).” The underground plant life is also like the Studio Ghibli anime, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984). Bo-Katan is contacted by The Armorer who has brought the reinforcements. She puts on her helmet and says to the others, “Let’s take back our planet.” From Dune (1984), same year!, “Long live the fighters!” Many of the concepts of this part of The Mandalorian finale feel very familiar, but there is some great action! Part II is coming up! Not only for length, but to save the spoilers!
Four Bars of Beskar Steel out of Five!
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