The Mandalorian Chapter 16

The Rescue

Merry Christmas! Since most of you will probably be unwrapping presents tomorrow morning, I decided to post my review of the season finale of The Mandalorian a day early! Please be aware that there are a few MAJOR SPOILERS for this episode in this post following my general review. Don’t worry, though, as I’ll give you a warning before I hit any spoilers. Also, if you haven’t seen the last couple of episodes, there will be spoilers from those episodes mentioned as well. Those spoilers will be found in my general review.

Din Djarin is intent on finding Grogu and putting an end to Moff Gideon in Chapter 16, The Rescue. The episode finds the Mandalorian and his group of allies, Cara Dune, Boba Fett, Fennec Shand, Koska Reeves, and Bo-Katan, in hot pursuit of Moff Gideon. Capturing an Imperial Shuttle and taking Dr. Pershing as a prisoner, the group comes up with a daring plan to gain entry into Gideon’s cruiser and save Grogu. Do they make it? Watch The Rescue to find out!

The episode is light on plot and heavy on action. To be honest, though, there’s no real need for a lot of plot since it is essentially a desperate rescue mission. The action is well choreographed, especially the battle between Din and a key character and one of the surprise arrivals on the cruiser versus a ton of enemies. Many people claim that this episode reminded them of classic Star Wars and that it was the best episode of the season. In my opinion, Chapter 12, The Siege, was the episode that reminded me most of classic Star Wars and it was also my favorite episode of this season. I think a lot of people got caught up in the emotional ending and the surprises that showed up at the end of the episode. While I loved those surprises, they didn’t blow me away as much as they apparently blew away other folks.

In all, this was a very good episode with a nice surprise ending and mid-credits scene. That’s the end of my general review, get ready for SPOILERS BELOW!!!

Spoilers Below!!! Major Spoilers!!!

This episode was loaded with not one, not two, but three surprise appearances. It also featured a ton of CGI Dark Troopers. The CGI was fairly good, but the Dark Troopers moved choppily and were reminiscent of the lacking CGI Centurion Cylons in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. I was really impressed with the battle between Din and Moff Gideon. I also enjoyed the massive battle featuring a character that I’ll mention in just a little bit.

The Dark Troopers prove to be a formidable opponent for Din and become the final great threat to the Mandalorian and his allies. Luckily help arrives in the form of a lone X-Wing fighter (and, no, it isn’t Carson Teva). Of course, the X-Wing is a dead giveaway to the first surprise appearance but I kept telling myself that it couldn’t be THAT character. Then we see the ignition of a green lightsaber by a character in a very Return of the Jedi looking costume and it’s pretty obvious that Luke Skywalker has arrived on The Mandalorian. Luke tears through the Dark Troopers with ease, appearing to relish the destruction of each of the troopers. It’s a scene that is very reminiscent of Darth Vader’s glorious arrival at the end of Star Wars: Rogue One. After a tearjerking moment between Luke, Din, and Grogu, it doesn’t seem like the little guy will leave the Mando’s side….until the second surprise cameo happens: R2-D2!

The episode ends with Grogu agreeing to go with Luke and R2 to continue his Jedi training. It’s a heartfelt moment that really got to me. The credits roll and halfway through we are given the third, albeit brief, appearance by another classic character. Mirroring Luke’s arrival at Jabba’s palace in ROTJ, Boba Fett and Fennec Shand storm into the palace where we see Bib Fortuna, Jabba’s former aide, sitting atop a throne. He’s quickly dispatched by Boba Fett and Boba takes his place on the throne. We are then teased with The Book of Boba Fett, which will be a new series next year. There were also a few other familiar faces in Jabba’s old palace including some Gamorrean guards, Weequays, Rodians, and other alien races already seen in previous Star Wars films and stories.

The episode was one of the better ones of the second season. It does a fine job of tying the series into the fabric of the Star Wars films and other properties. It was nice to see Bib Fortuna, R2, and Luke in the episode as well. It will be interesting to see where season three goes now that Grogu is gone. We’ve got a year to figure out what’s going to happen!

Thanks for reading my post and I hope that all of you have a merry Christmas! I’ve got a few other reviews up my sleeve and I’ve already received a few books that I plan on covering in later posts. See you again real soon!