Well, that was an utterly anticlimactic episode of television. In truth, it felt much more like an episode of Law and Order than an episode of The Mandalorian (complete with the guilty party being the most famous actor who appears at a seemingly inconsequential moment in the action). Sure, we got some big named – and silly – guest stars (Jack Black! Lizzo! Christopher Lloyd!). And the stuff with the palace – providing some insight into just how the non-New Republic worlds are coping in the collapse of the Empire – was a bit interesting.* But the climax of the episode – the reveal that Bo-Katan really did gain control of the Darksaber on Mandalore after all – was so poorly handled I found myself actively rolling my eyes. What a disappointing way to solve that problem.
*There’s a bit of a theme emerging in the series when it comes to those with power and prestige ignoring the potential rising tide of Imperial sympathies throughout the galaxy. Now, here, Jack Black’s character was a former Imperial, so perhaps that’s the reason he and the rest of his new friends and family are so insulated from what’s happening elsewhere in the galaxy. But as we saw on Coruscant, those with the ability to ignore the changing tides are perfectly happy to do so, so long as their quality of life remains constant. It’s a small, but pretty damning, bit of social commentary.
So the fun and silly romp to discover that there’s a Separatist trying to reprogram droids to stop the party on Plasir was fine. It was empty calories in a series that, at least at this point, really needs to have some more heft to it (especially in light of Andor’s smart, taut first season and how it reminded folks just how great Star Wars can be when it tries). The meat of the episode presumably was meant to be the fight between Axe Woves and Bo-Katan, but even that was pretty lackluster. She clearly had the upper hand from the word go and it was only a matter of time before she bested him and took back control of the fleet.* And his taunts about her failure to challenge Din for the Darksaber were all true – why hasn’t she challenged him, and why was she waiting? Valid questions that we should have gotten answers to. Was it because she’s really put aside her goal of ruling Mandalore? Was she content that Din would be a better ruler? Or was she just biding her time, waiting for the moment to strike? What a missed opportunity to provide some character shading to a character that could use it.
*Was Bo-Katan’s fleet always this expansive? We only ever saw her with a small group before, but this is a solid group of Mandalorians with some serious ships.
The reveal that Bo-Katan had already won the Darksaber, under what I’m calling “Elder Wand Rules*,” was even more disappointing. For a Star Wars series, The Mandalorian appears to be almost frightened of having conflict between those on the side of good. You know what would have been a more interesting story? How about let Bo-Katan and Din have an actual fight to see who gets to wield the Darksaber? How about allow Bo-Katan to have a clear desire to take it from him, to assume what she believes to be her rightful place among the Mandalorians? Wouldn’t that be much more dramatically interesting? But nope, we don’t get that. We get the saber handed over, we get Bo-Katan receiving what she has wanted since the beginning of the series with no real rhyme or reason. What a waste of dramatic potential. And what a wasted opportunity to let one of your characters have a chance to show some emotional heft.
*Now, to spoil Harry Potter – in case you haven’t gotten around to reading it or seeing the films. As you might recall, in Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy managed to get control over the Elder Wand by disarming Dumbledore prior to his death. However, Voldemort believed he could simply take it off Dumbledore’s corpse and gain control. But when Harry disarmed Draco, he then became the master of the wand without anyone realizing it, helping to set up the end of the story. Similarly, Bo gained control of the Darksaber without anyone realizing it, thus setting up the end of the episode here. That twist felt unearned in Harry Potter and feels just as unearned here.
There’s a strange push and pull happening with The Mandalorian that I believe is hurting the series overall. The story being told here is serialized. We know what our major arcs are: reunite the Mandalorians, stop Moff Gideon. But the series still wants to be episodic in nature, offering an “Adventure of the Week” format. That worked well at the outset of the series, before the show had crafted a more complex web of characters. But that’s not working now. We get a silly cop show this week, but that feels so unimportant after the major Mandalorian set pieces and key season arc moments of last week. The balance in storytelling techniques isn’t working anymore and Dave Filoni needs to figure out how to tweak the recipe before things get so out of whack that people start jumping ship (I’ve already heard from a couple of friends that they find the show close to unwatchable now, so I suspect people are tuning out). This was a disappointing and frustrating episode of television from a show that can do so much better.
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