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Another week, another episode of The Mandalorian. The ever-popular series has been making good strides this season when it comes to further developing the universe of Star Wars, along with making some good character arcs for us to follow. This episode, though, seems to fall a little flat compared to its counterparts in terms of story, but provided some good references and cameos that will surely keep viewers glued to the screen.
Everyone has a price
This episode picks up right where the last one left off. Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) was chosen by the Armorer to go across the galaxy and round up the remaining Mandalorians in hopes to gather enough forces to retake Mandalore. Although this episode shows Bo-Katan and Mando (Pedro Pascal) trying to recruit what is left of Bo-Katan’s group that we saw in The Mandalorian season two, it seems to tell a story in a way that feels like a cheap way to fill the episode with celebrity cameos.
We open with a scene of the rogue Mandalorians, who are led by Axe Woves (Simon Kassianides) as they are seen completing an assignment that involves them taking a Mon Calamari back to his family. Although this opening confrontation with the Mandalorians and Mon Calamari doesn’t get a resolution in this episode, I have no doubts that it will come back in the future.
Image from Denofgeek
After we watch the Mandalorians start another side mission, we see the real stars of the show, Bo-Katan and Din Djarin, as they pull into a new planet where the rogue Mandalorians are supposedly hiding out at. After they pull into the planet, the two heroes are immediately thrust into a meeting with the rulers of the planet. Here, we get some of the biggest cameos in all of Star Wars. The rulers of the planet are played by the ever-iconic Jack Black and grammy winning artist, Lizzo.
The planet, called Plazir-15, is currently undergoing some issues with its droid population. Since most of the work done on the planet is done with droids, the planet uses reprogrammed clone wars-era battle droids in order to keep costs low. Some of the droids, however, have been malfunctioning and causing harm to some of the citizens. Since Jack Black and Lizzo have no other options, they are forced to ask Bo-Katan and Mando for their help with the matter.
Their hunt to fix the droids lead them to the security commissioner for the city, who is yet another cameo in this fine episode as he is played by Christopher Lloyd. He tells the Mandalorians that even though he has the ability to shut off every single droid in the city, if he did so then the entire economy of the planet would be destroyed. That means that Bo-Katan and Mando have to think of another way to save the planet.
This leads them to the place where all of the droids on the planet go to get repaired. As they walk in, they see that the place is full of Ugnaughts. Bo-Katan tries to get the attention of the Ugnaughts, but they don’t seem to listen to her. Once Mando tries to talk to them though, they all listen to what he has to say. This callback to Mando’s time with Kuiil from the first season is a welcome addition, as we haven’t heard any mention of him since his death so long ago.
After some conversation with the Ugnaughts, they show the Mandalorians where they have to go to find the next malfunctioning droid. Once they get there, we get a funny scene of Mando kicking a line of super battle droids until one inevitably fights back and starts some havoc. The super battle droid starts running away and the duo chase it down easily.
Bo-Katan quickly finds a clue on the droid that leads them to a nearby droid bar. After they cause a ruckus and have a conversation with the bartender, the duo learn of a substance called nepenthe. Nepenthe is what is sold to the droids at the droid bar instead of various space cocktails that are sold at places such as Mos Eisley Cantina. What they find out is that every droid that has malfunctioned was given the same batch of nepenthe, so the duo decides to go to a lab to get the nepenthe scanned.
Image from Space
While they are having the nepenthe scanned, they find a name inscribed on it, that name being Commander Helgait, AKA Chrisopher Lloyd’s character we met earlier. Immediately the duo find Helgait and question him about his crimes. Instead of giving up, he threatens to sabotage the entire planet and turn every single droid off. Before he even has a chance to do that, he is zapped by Bo-Katan and is taken to Lizzo and Jack Black, where Grogu was enjoying the festivities while he waited for his father to return.
Before Mando and Bo-Katan take Grogu with them to see the rogue Mandalorians, Grogu is knighted by Lizzo’s character. I suppose this now means that he should be referred to as Sir Grogu now.
It doesn’t take long for Bo-Katan and Mando to find Axe Woves and his camp of Mandalorians, and it doesn’t take long for Bo-Katan to kick Axe’s butt to reclaim her place as leader of the Mandalorians. After Bo-Katan asserts her dominance, Mando decides that it's a good idea to give her the darksaber and describe how it technically should belong to her now. Why he didn’t want to give it to her earlier is as much of a mystery to you as it is to me, but at least now we get a cool shot of Bo-Katan holding the darksaber as the screen fades to black, ending the episode on a note that felt completely out of place.
Sources:
IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb
Photos:
NewYorkTimes, Space, Denofgeek
Contact Conor Butler with comments at cmbutler@bsu.edu.
