Mandalorian Season 2: Chapter 16 - The Good, The Bad, and the U.G.L.Y ...PLUS rankings

 2020, Disney+

Chapter 16: The Rescue
directed by: Peyton Reed

Mando, Boba Fett, Fennec Shand, and Cara Dune hijack an Imperial shuttle and kidnap cloning expert Dr. Pershing. Then they track down Mandalorians Bo-Katan and Koska Reeves to help with their rescue of Grogu.  Bo-Katan agrees so long as she's allowed to take out Moff Gideon.

They use the shuttle to get onto Gideon's cruiser (pretending that Slave 1 is attacking them) and clog the launch hanger for TIE Fighters by crashing into it.  Then they proceed with their very competent assault. Mando goes for the child, while the rest head for Gideon on the bridge.

Mando faces a Darktrooper face to face (flushing the rest into space) and it's a pretty rough fight.  The Darktroopers are resilient, tough and powerful...resistant to most of Mando's usual tricks. But he perseveres  and finds Grogu's cell, with Gideon waiting.  They battle, Darksaber vs beskar staff, and Mando is just the superior fighter.  Hauling Gideon along with him to the bridge, Bo-Katan is rather pissed to see that Din is the new inheritor of the Darksaber.  He tries to acquiesce it to her but that happened once before and it didn't work out well for her (see Rebels).  They lock down the bridge as the flushed-into-space Darktroopers return in force and threaten to overwhelm them, but the sudden appearance of a single X-Wing, from which arises a cloaked figure brings a new hope (see what I did there).  Deus Ex Machina at its finest.

OF COURSE it's LUKE SKYWALKER, being as badass as he's ever been, slicing and dicing through Darktroopers like they were model one "Roger Roger" Battle Droids.  He's there to collect Grogu.  Din tells the child it's for the best and shows him (and thus everyone around him) his face.  R2-D2 comes for a look-see as well.  They depart, and credit's roll.

Until we see Jabba's Palace, and Bib Fortuna sits on the throne, having obviously taken Jabba as example how to rule and gotten very fat.  Fennec Shand enters, killing virtually everyone (save for rescuing a Twilek dancer from her chains).  Boba enters, listens to Bib prattle on for mere seconds before killing him and taking the throne for himself.  The Book of Boba Fett, December 2021!

The Good
So good. This wraps ups the story of Season 1 and 2 very nicely and also tees up what we're likely to see for Din Djarin in a third (and possibly fourth) season.

Cara Dune shooting that mewling pilot in the face as he goes off on his diatribe was very satisfying.

I liked three different types of Mandalorians (the purebreds from Mandalor, the foundlings, and the clone) squaring off about lineage, and Boba vs Koska was a good barroom brawl.

Their approach to getting the shuttle on board the cruiser was amazing...one of my new favourite Star Wars moments.

I like the completely unpatronizing "girl power" of the squad of Bo-Katan, Koska Reeves, Cara Dune and Fennec Shand taking that cruiser with force.  I didn't even think of that until it was pointed out to me.

I still don't like the Darktroopers but they do appropriately raise the stakes and the threat is very apparent.  I'm curious if there's a story about if there's a mass perception of robots in the Galaxy following the Clone Wars, if the Emperor has vilified them in any way, and shied away from them in any major capacity.

Luke Skywalker.  How can you not be excited seeing that black glove holding a green-bladed lightsaber?

The Bad
With this one, pretty much just Luke's CGI face.  It's not the worst, but it is obvious in that uncanny valley.

Unreal Problems
Some people (like my daughter) are very upset about Grogu's departure from the show, but I have to remind them who the title character of the show is.  It's not the Baby Yoda show.

There's not a lot they can do, and do well, to bring Luke, Leia, Han or anyone else prominent from the original triology back into the story of the Mandalorian, since 30+ years have passed and everyone is so much older or passed on at this point.  So either way, doing digital replacements or replacing the actor altogether is going to displease practically everyone.  We have a new young Han Solo out there, so I don't see why they couldn't have approached someone like Sebastian Stan (who was memed about his resemblance to young Mark Hamill not too long ago) to fill the role, even as a cameo, just to test the waters.  That way if the ever needed to do anything with Luke in this time period they would have a warm body.  Plus, Stan has a caliber to him, and a nerd cred, that would appease most fans.  I don't hate what they did here, but that facial replacement/de-aging isn't great and it doesn't move properly.  They should at least never have the character talking while on screen because digital mouths still don't know how to move realistically.  Ultimately the delight of the moment is dulled somewhat when you start thinking about the technology behind it.

Galaxy Building
It looks like, somehow, Bib Fortuna was allowed to take over Jabba's operation on Tattooine.  Was he an independent operation or working for the Hutts still?  There are questions.

At this stage Luke is likely just starting the idea of training Jedi.  Ben Solo is a toddler at best at this age, so the question of whether he killed Grogu is one of whether Grogu was still in training at the school roughly 15 years from now (when he's 65+ years old).  Are people of Yoda's species like dogs in that they're very child-like for the first 1/8th of their life and then rapidly mature?  Either way, I'm not sure I want to see Grogu in his "teen" phase anyway.  I think it's best if he just goes on the shelf for a while.  I don't think he was butchered by Ben Solo though.

Looking Forward

Now that Gideon is captured, will we find out more about what the cloning operation is all about (and is it what we suspect)?  Other, more zealous Captains and whatnot have killed themselves rather than be captured, but clearly Gideon is rather fearful of death and would rather manipulate.  What's up his sleeve...was there anything beyond the Darktroopers?

Din and Bo-Katan now have an issue.  Since Din is the wielder of the Darksaber, he is the rightful heir to the Mandalorian throne, which doesn't please Bo-Katan at all.  Din doesn't want it, but heavy *should* be the head that holds the crown.  Someone like Bo-Katan who not only craves the title but thinks it is hers by birthright probably shouldn't be leader.  Din could possibly be the bridge between the remaining purbred Mandalorians and the foundlings that are fostered by the Armorer, Paz Vizla and clan.   In retaking Mandalor, they could have a new leader that gives their people the mission of caring for the children of the galaxy...which would be noble.  And the title The Mandalorian would certainly be apt if this be his destiny.  Just a thought (or two).

Yes, Toys of that Please
I think I've asked for everything we've seen here already.  

RANKINGS
This was a great, great, great batch of Star Wars... unequivocally some of my favourite Star Wars ever.  It may be reaching my actual favourite Star Wars ever as it triggers my nostalgia buttons like A New Hope and Empire do, but improve greatly on the action and world/galaxy/universe building.

But I'm not ranking Star Wars today as there's SO much Star Wars out there already, and so much planned that it's going to be very difficult to define how we rank Star Wars anyway.  So I'm just ranking the first 16 episodes of the Mandalorian.  Again, they all in some way fit as part of the whole, but they also almost all have their own self-contained elements to them.  I take both into account in how I rank them. 

Counting up from last to first:
16. Chapter 4: Sanctuary - just the odd duck out of all of these. Too mundane.
15. Chapter 10: The Passenger - a little higher stakes than Chapter 4, but a similar kind of treading-water feel.
14. Chapter 14: The Tragedy - love Boba Fett being back in action, but this is a bit thin all around.
13. Chapter 3: The Sin  - Mando rescues the child, but needs a gang of Mandalorians to rescue him.  This is the way.
12. Chapter 5: The Gunslinger - brings us back to Tattooine and I like the sidekick vibe but it's kind of a placeholder.
11. Chapter 11: The Heiress - a good episode for exposing Din to the larger reality of Mandalorian existence...but I think too dependent on Clone Wars backstory in order to invest fully into it.
10. Chapter 1: The Mandalorian - certainly showing its wear and probably technically surpassed by every episode in Season 2, but already nostalgia is seeping in for the thrill it gave upon arrival.
9. Chapter 12: The Siege - Straight-up fun.
8. Chapter 9: The Marshal - I love the old western tropes of this episode so much, and I want to put it higher on the list, but the next batch of episodes are all such great Star Wars that this winds up in the middle.
7. Chapter 8: Redemption - So much commotion, and a badass Armorer fight scene...really tied the season together.  Love the opening with Pally and Sudekis as scout troopers.
6. Chapter 7: Reckoning - Really 7&8 are a 2-parter, but I liked 7 because it gets to a real point of hopelessness...and we get to see a troop transport in live action for the first time (that's a big deal to me!)
5. Chapter 6: The Prisoner - A self-contained episode with hints to Mando's past (which still need some exploration) and just some very well orchestrated scenes in a confined space.  Employed horror movie tropes delightfully.
4. Chapter 16: The Rescue - this is just start to finish amazing Star Wars business right here, then they throw Luke Skywalker on top of the fire and it goes off.
3. Chapter 13: The Jedi - maybe not the best episode, so I have to resist my Ahsoka love from putting this at number 1.  So 3 seems a more restrained choice.
2. Chapter 15: The Believer - Great action, great character moments, great world building.
1. Chapter 2: The Child - even though the show has served my Star Wars wish fulfillment multiple time over at this point, Chapter 2 was the first to really sing to my nostalgia while giving me something new.

At this point the top four could really shuffle around in any configuration and still feel *right* to me.  Same with the middle 4.  The bottom 8 really feel like they're in the right order though.