The Mandalorian - Chapter 18 - Review

After the premiere episode of season 3 acted more like a recap of the story beats that took place between seasons, I knew coming into this episode that things had to change. Having Peli Motto appear at the start of the show on Tattooine, had me thinking that the show was regressing even more, but thankfully that was not the case.

The previous episode had Din Djarin undertaking a fetch quest, to find a rare memory back for an IG droid, in order to have IG-11 restored, in order so he could explore the planet Mandalore. Given that is very close to both the mains quests of the first two seasons, I was not thrilled that it was shaping up to be another season of that. Thankfully, pretty much as soon as Din lands on Tattooine, Peli advises that R5, the very same droid that had a bad motivator in Episode 4, would service the needs that he had. I know I was against the entire concept of a fetch quest, but having Din go from demanding IG-11 to accepting R5, within a few minutes was such an about face, I am surprised that he didn’t get whiplash. Of course, with that change, it meant we could finally get to Mandalore a first for the live-action world of Star Wars.

The history of Mandalore is extensive and won’t be covered here, however the last time we saw it was when the Empire took to destroying it. This was done by dropping thousands and thousands of bombs, irradiating the surface and thanks to the intense heat, turning most of the surface to glass. Seeing this glass effect literally everywhere, was a powerful visual, not only did it showcase something new for the series, i.e. not another desert planet, but it also showed just how powerful the Empire truly was. For all that we have seen in the movies, Andor and Obi-Wan Kenobi, those were always either small fights or space battles, there was never a real sense of might, so I was glad to see it here. Battlefields in Europe, which were home to two major wars and dozens of smaller ones, are still scarred today, that is how devastating war can be, so finally seeing it in Star Wars, has given some extra credit to the name.

With Din on the planet, there were a number of encounters, from critters that used to live out in the wastelands and to some sort of mechanical bug, which if we hadn’t seen Obi-Wan blast General Grievous in the heart with a blaster, could have been mistaken for him. That second creature proved to much for Din and while Grogu’s attempt at a rescue was interesting, the little guy had to skedaddle and seek additional help. Bo Katan is an interesting character, part of me wants to hate her as she is all about herself, but even when she was prepared to whoop Din’s butt for returning, the moment she saw it was just Grogu, she was willing to help. It is an odd juxtaposition, one I am not fully on board with yet, because with each action she offers, there is always some comment about how things used to be or how Din is wrong. The final moments, with Din stepping into the water was a nice touch, but like the other two times, the beat was so paced out, you could tell something would happen and happen it did.

A location like Mandalore, couldn’t really be built in the real world, not just because of the sheer amount of green-ish glass that was around the place, but the size of things would be the real concern. However there were some moments where the CGI really stood out and not in a fun way, now for the most part there were some incredible shots. Din flying the N-1 through the atmosphere, with the water beading off the hull and canopy or the establishing shot of Tattooine, with the race going on, were both incredible. Also call out to that race, that is how you do speed in a Star Wars show, looking at you space moped crew. The shot that broke the immersion, was the close up during Din’s excavation of the helmet. Now it could be the way the lighting worked, or it could be they needed to replace a real helmet with a CGI one, regardless of why, the end result is something that looks like it was taken from a PlayStation 3 videogame.

After a less than interesting start to the season, the second episode seems to have not only gotten Din’s quest back on track but hit fast forward quite a bit. Din’s quest to bath in the living waters, could have taken the entire season to accomplish, but the show had it sorted by the end of the second chapter, which was quite surprising. There were not a lot of characters to interact with, but it also meant each of the ones we did get, had a little more time to flesh themselves out even more. That meant we finally got to see Grogu be more than a cute accessory for Din to have at his side. Of course, the ending was a bit ambiguous, leaving the next events as a mystery, which is a welcome change, I just hope that the rest of the season can keep things moving in interesting directions.

The Score

9.0

The Pros

+Getting to Mandalore and seeing the impact of the Empire was impressive

+Not dragging out Din’s quest for a droid part, made me very happy

The Cons

-Bo Katan’s actions are the opposite of her actions and it is hard to keep track of where she stands

-The CGI had a few great moments, but had some really bad ones as well