Warning: This review contains spoilers for “The Mandalorian,“ “The Last of Us” and “Andor.”
After two full seasons and 19 episodes, “The Mandalorian” finally has a good episode. Yet, it also has some caveats, which is why episode two will also be included in this review.
Episode two, titled “The Mines of Mandalore” is a terrible episode, and the only reason why it didn’t get its own review was because there was hope that many of the questions and possible plotholes would be answered in the next episode. The episode begins with Tatooine, which has now become the worst place to go for any "Star Wars" show because it means the characters have to either deal with Boba Fett, who has become a shell of his former self thanks to his show, but also Peli Motto, the annoying lady who helps to fix Mando’s ship whenever we need a filler episode.
Thankfully, she is in it for three minutes and only serves to give Mando a new droid so he can safely travel Mandalore. After this, we get the scene from the trailers with the fireworks and our main characters go to Mandalore so Mando can bathe in the living waters and no longer be an apostate. The problems with this episode come when Mando gets captured by a random robot, causing Grogu, a child, to go back to the ship and somehow tells the Droid where to go to reach Bo Katan.
There is a scene where Mando shows the planets around Mandalore and points out where Bo Katan is, but as the show has shown many times before this baby is stupid. It doesn’t understand Mando or do what he wants every single time that Mando or another character needs Grogu to do something. Yet when the plot demands it, it can successfully go to Bo Katan and even though she hates Mando for the events of season two, she comes to save the day.
After that, Mando goes into the waters and the entire arc for Mando ends, leading to episode three which blew away any preconceived expectations and produced a genuine story that didn’t rely on fan service. Episode two was a typical Mandalorian episode full of fluff and contrivance, which is in episode three briefly, but they don’t tie into the episode’s main plot as heavily as other episodes.
Episode three titled “The Convert” is the best episode of "The Mandalorian." It begins with Mando collecting a water sample as proof of his journey and the group leaving Mandalore on Bo Katan’s ship. As they are heading back to her home, they suddenly get attacked by an Empire Warlord’s Tie Interceptor squadron. This happens out of nowhere, and the explanation makes no sense as to why they would be here now, but considering how the Empire acted, it seemed like it didn’t matter if Bo Katan was flying back or not. After a dogfight, a group of Bombers destroys Bo’s Castle, which is why there aren’t many problems with the Empire coming now. After this we don’t see our main characters until the very end, much like the third episode in "The Last of Us" with Bill and Frank.
For this episode our main character is Dr. Pershing, the Empire scientist from the last two seasons. Pershing is now on Coruscant working with the New Republic. After his re-education, he and many of his co-works now work doing menial labor for the New Republic. At first the dialogue is extremely out of place, as everyone who talks to Pershing sounds extremely fake and sounded like what a crazy person would have others say about him in his dreams. Without spoiling much of the episode, it deals with Pershing falling from his high position and trying to find his new place in life. This was similar to Syril Karn from Andor, who after his failures which resulted in unneeded deaths, was reduced to an office job in Coruscant as well.
Pershing also gets reunited with Elia Kane, one of Moff Gideon’s Comms Officers from season two. At first it was strange how a high level communications officer wouldn’t be imprisoned indefinitely or killed, but it gets explained later. Throughout the entire episode, Kane tests Pershing’s trust in the New Republic, seeing how he reacts to breaking rules and having differing opinions than the Government. This eventually leads to Pershing asking Kane to take him to a mobile lab so he can continue his scientific research on cloning, something that the new government prohibits.
This only comes after Kane continuously reminds Pershing about the lab and his work. This happens over and over again and while at first it gets annoying, it all begins to make sense. Pershing and Kane then sneak out, go train hopping and eventually get to an imperial junkyard, a place many different characters have told Pershing to never go to and keep telling Pershing to forget his whole life before the New Republic, to just shut up and obey. At the junkyard is a mobile lab, which the two break into to steal equipment in order to continue Pershing’s research, something he thinks could benefit the New Republic greatly.
At the end when Elia Kane and Pershing are caught, it’s revealed to be a set-up, as she has been working with the New Republic the entire time and has been testing Pershing using a Mind Flayer, a device used to remove memories or replace them entirely. It’s hinted that this isn’t the first time the device has been used on Pershing either, which explains the awkward dialogue and weird looks people give him. It’s creepy and unsettling, showing that the New Republic isn’t completely morally good, and leaves intrigue for future episodes. Hopefully this will become the main plot for the season, exposing the inhumane experiments that the New Republic has been doing. After this Mando and Bo Katan are officially Mandalorians again after the Armorer confirms the water was really from Mandalore, which solves a possible plot hole of how they would know Mando has really been to the mines of Mandalore.
"The Mandalorian" for once is intriguing, and it only took 19 episodes and two seasons to do so. Hopefully this plot line remains consistent, scary and interesting, and won’t fall into the fan service abyss of previous installments.
Rating: 3/5
