After the confusing previous episode that was mostly about the malfunctioning droids, there was hope that with the penultimate episode, things would finally get back on track. After a potentially dangerous opening, it seemed to be the case, but by the end things didn’t quite feel right.

With Bo-Katan now back in control of her fleet and the Dark Sabre, there was always the potential for this episode to focus on the bringing of the two tribes back together, so having the show start out on Coroscant was a bit of a surprise. Of course, the moment it opened up to a dark and gloomy part of the city, drenched in neon and soaked in rain, you knew something was up. Then into shot was Elia Kane, looking all mysterious in a trench coat and not at all suspicious, joking of course, she was totally that. It was all but confirmed moments later when an Imperial Probe Droid descended, scanned her and then projected Moff Gideon. It was fun to see confirmation that she was working for him, but even a blind man could see that was coming, her revealing that the pirates on Navarro was part of Gideons plans was also expected. Him learning that they were defeated by the Mandalorians was not part of this visionary plan he seems to have, so of course steps were to be taken.

From there we got to see a bunch of Imperial officers all doing their things, basically trying to proclaim they are great and of course, someone had to drop the name Thrawn. Which given Star Wars Celebration all but shoved the character into everyone’s faces, makes sense and of course, also highlights where the show is going in the final. But I digress, seeing the groups argue about their needs was funny, if only for the callout that Captain Hux was involved in something called Project Nercomancy. Side note the actor who played the character is Brian Gleeson, younger brother of Domhnall Gleeson who played General Armitage Hux in the sequel trilogy, so maybe a family legacy inside the Empire. While they were all busy trying to say they were more important, Moff Gideon explained about the threat of the Mandalorians and then the opening title card appeared. It was a very strong opening, as it shows the Empire is not as dead as many might have thought, nor are they as broken as many might have hoped.

From here it was back on track to what I thought, the two factions of Mandalorians attempting to get along, except the getting along was not done on Navarro, but rather as they attempted to retake Mandalore. Now them reclaiming their planet makes sense, but I honestly didn’t expect it to happen this season, it made very little tactical sense and even worse, no story sense. That of course leads me to the massive plot hole that the show has opened up, the super-secret Imperial base that was built within the ruins, that no-one knew about. With the episode titled ‘The Spies’ I was half expecting to see more subterfuge going on, but that was clearly not the case, someone might argue that things will have happened of screen, but if you don’t see things in tv or film, it doesn't happen. The way that the Armour was behaving, had me thinking that she might be a spy, but with her who knows what is going on. The reason why the base is a plot hole, at least for me, is that Gideon had no idea that they were heading in that direction, or that the group from Navarro would encounter surviving Mandalorians on the surface.

The entire sequence, including them running through the caves/corridors (that were clearly Imperial and no-one stopped to say what’s going on) felt so scripted that it left me thinking that the show just wanted to get people into place and didn’t care how. Normally I am not concerned with minor issues, but there were no minor ones here, including the fact that from a massive distance out, the folks on the skiff clearly saw some massive beast emerging from within the crystallised surface of the planet and yet they drove straight towards it and only decided to turn away seconds before the skiff was destroyed. Considering that the group in charge of the skiff had been eking out a living on the planet, they would have known about the dangers and the rest are trained in tactics and how to make smart decisions in the face of adversity. All this showed was that the entire sequence was again written in order to get the folks into the caves so they could be targeted.

I understand getting people into place, I understand ensuring that there is an element of danger for the main cast and I can even understand why Grogu had to have a suit all of a sudden. What I can’t comprehend is the sloppy way that the show went about doing it, they have had entire episodes dedicated to building up threats and others devoid of progression of a main story and yet at no point, was there any confirmation or hint that more was happening on Mandalore. It feels cheap, because it was cheap and the whole thing ran while Moff Gideon was in New Republic custody for, however long that was.

In one small section of things I liked, I do want to call out the score by Joseph Shirley, how has had the challenge of keeping the musical tones that we know, but adding in new. I am almost certain that the end credits music, as well as some parts played during the show are different from the normal, indicating change or something else. That was some amazing work and I felt needed to be mentioned.

Chapter 23 of The Mandalorian was not the setup that I was after heading into the final episode of the season. The threat of Moff Gideon was as easy to spot as a glass of blue milk in a white kitchen, but there wasn’t any sense of real build up to his arrival. Yes, he was clearly at play in the background all season long, well at least when they opted to show things he might be connected to, but a secret base on Mandalore and Navarro, whilst apparently not having enough resources and all the other issues, I just don’t buy it. Given the lengths the creators and writers have gone to, to get people into these places, I am expecting a big season finale, however given how lacklustre effort that was used to get them into their position, I don’t have high hopes for it to make any real sense. Plus its going to end with Thrawn and lead into Ahsoka, which will undercut any other impact it might have. This episode was not the worst of the season, but it was damn sure close to being it.