- Title: The Mandalorian – The Siege (Chapter 12)
- wiki: link
The Mandalorian takes a detour on the search for Jedi as the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) returns to Nevarro for some much needed repairs to the Razor Crest (which take place off-camera in record time which allows for the fully-repaired ship to fly in and help save the day in an unlikely sequence that concludes events). While there, our bounty hunter helps Karga (Carl Weathers, who also directed the episode) and Dune (Gina Carano) with the destruction of the last Imperial base on the planet still in control by the remnants of the Empire. Although they believe it to be little more than an outpost, the facility hold secrets of Imperial medical experiments which tie back, somehow, to Gideon‘s (Giancarlo Esposito) interest in Baby Yoda.
The episode has some good action, both within the base and during the escape. The old-school Imperial design of the base is also impressive. However, it’s not without issues (and not only in delaying the first appearance of Ahsoka Tano for yet another week). Aside from the ridiculous speed of Karga’s mechanics, there’s the questionable call of Djarin leaving Baby Yoda to go off on this mission which allows for the Child to have some fun with other kids (in a sequence that’s almost sickeningly cute) but otherwise is only part of the plot to separate the Mandalorian from his friends at a crucial juncture. The return of the Mythrol, who the Mandalorian collared in the first episode of the series, offers a fan friendly callback but seems more than a little unlikely in the vastness of the galaxy.
As for the Child, writer Jon Favreau continues to waffle on whether Baby Yoda is akin to a dog in the Star Wars Universe (as he appeared to be in the last two episodes completely controlled by base impulses and unable to understand his bad behavior) or a young sentient entity (as he is taken to be both in the school and in the opening Baby Groot style sequence where our protagonist tries to rely on Baby Yoda to help fix the ship). While the larger storyline suggests the later, The Mandalorian hasn’t shied away from playing up the former for easy laughs.
