by Lindsey
Last week on The Mandalorian, Din finally managed to come across a group of Mandalorians, but they weren’t exactly the ones he was looking for. He found himself roped into assisting them on a mission, which just so happened to be commandeering one of Moff Gideon’s ships … unbeknownst to him. Before his departure, Bo-Katan Kryze pointed him in the direction of Ahsoka Tano, who is to be found in the city of Calodan on the forest planet of Corvus. Keep reading to find out what happened in episode 4, “The Siege.”
The episode opens with a delightfully fun scene — Din has recruited the Child to help him with some repairs to the Razor Crest. The Child is nestled inside of a narrow shaft, juggling wires as Din carefully attempts to explain to him what to put where, repeating himself multiple times to ensure that he understands. Try as he might, the Child ends up shocking himself instead. The Force, he may wield, but an electrician, he is not. After the failed attempt at repairs, the two sit down for some soup and Din decides that because the ship won’t make it to Corvus in its current state, they need to visit some friends for repairs.
Courtesy of Lucasfilm/Disney.
Meanwhile, on Nevarro, Cara Dune — now the city’s Marshal — is down in the old Mandalorian hideout taking care of a group of thieves. Afterward, she and Greef Karga convene at the city’s entrance as the Razor Crest sputters into town and lands (boy has this ship seen better days). Greef, who is thrilled to see the Child, assigns two of his mechanics to work on the ship … though one of them looks particularly suspicious.
As they walk through the town, Din points out that it looks like they’ve been busy — the streets are far more lively and friendly these days. He’s also surprised to find that they’ve established a school, which is where they leave the Child so that they can go and “talk business.” As expected, Din is extremely hesitant to leave his little green sidekick, glancing back apprehensively like a father dropping his child off for the first day of school. As the droid teacher lectures the students, the Child looks over at the student beside him hungrily, eyeing the pack of macaron-like treats that he’s snacking on. He sticks a hand out to ask for one, but the boy says no. The joke’s on him though, as the Child is quick to use the Force to nab the entire sleeve. As a side note, this may possibly be the least-gross thing he’s eaten all season thus far.
Din is surprised to find the Mythrol that he previously captured as a bounty for Greef (in the very first episode) currently sitting at a desk working for him, having earned himself a few hundred years of servitude for his misdeeds. Cara and Greef tell Din that they need his help while he’s waiting for the Razor Crest to be repaired. Pulling up a map of the planet, they explain that Nevarro is almost entirely safe besides one red zone, which is occupied by an old Imperial base — the same one that Gideon’s troops deployed from last time Din was there. Cara explains that the base currently has a skeleton crew, but for some reason it hasn’t been abandoned. If they take the base out, they can finally make the entire planet safe and move forward with establishing it as a trade anchor for the entire sector.
Courtesy of Lucasfilm/Disney.
The Mythrol brings Din, Greef, and Cara to the base in his speeder, and they discuss their plans to sneak in and overload the reactor. Din blasts off with his jetpack to the upper dock while the Mythrol tinkers with the outer door controls. The three of them meet Din up top once they get inside, and they realize that the base wasn’t quite as empty as they were expecting. They eventually locate the heat shaft and drain the reactor’s coolant lines, leaving themselves approximately 10 minutes to hightail their way out before the whole place explodes.
They narrowly dodge stormtroopers that are scurrying through the corridors, and end up in a room where two Imperial scientists are working quickly to purge the drives of the computer systems. Seeing strange, malformed bodies floating in chambers along the walls, they realize that the so-called operating base is actually a lab. Intending to find answers as to what exactly is going on there, they activate a hologram message from Dr. Pershing, who appears to be discussing experimental trials that they’re carrying out. He refers to a donor, the Child, who he took a blood sample from in the first season. We learn that they’re harvesting the Child’s blood for the trials due to the M-count in it. Taking things back to The Phantom Menace, this is more than likely referring to midi-chlorians (which are essentially the scientific explanation for the Force). Din is disturbed to realize that Moff Gideon is still alive, and he quickly leaves the base on his jet pack in order to retrieve the Child.
Courtesy of Lucasfilm/Disney.
Cara, Greef, and the Mythrol find themselves cornered by stormtroopers on the upper dock, but they make a narrow escape in the Trexler Marauder that the Mythrol had been forlornly eyeing when they arrived. Out of options, Cara drives it straight off the dock, and they nosedive to the ground below, crushing the Mythrol’s speeder in the process. A troop of biker scouts follows them in pursuit, but they manage to pick off the ones that didn’t already crash and burn of their own accord while dodging boulders in the canyon. It appears that they’re in the clear, until the telltale roar of TIE fighters announces the beginning of a fight that they may not be able to win. Greef manages to shoot one down, but the remains of the starfighter fall directly on top of the vehicle’s gun, rendering them defenseless.
Once they clear the canyon, they’ve lost the coverage that the narrow path provided and find themselves directly within clear targeting range of the three TIE fighters that are still pursuing them. At the last moment, Din swoops to the rescue in the newly repaired Razor Crest, raining down a shower of blaster fire and taking out another one of the starfighters. He takes the fight high in the skies, and for all the grief Din gets for his ancient ship, the Razor Craft manages to hold its own against the sleek, wailing Imperial fighters. As Din dives and swerves through the air, the Child munches on his pilfered snacks and throws his hands in the air in delight. When the last TIE fighter explodes into pieces, Din levels the Razor Crest and the Child promptly throws up. Ultimate dad mode is engaged as Din leans back in his seat and wipes the mess from the Child’s clothing. Din says his goodbyes over the comm, opting to make a quick exit from the planet to evade Moff Gideon’s watchful eye.
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Captain Carson Teva makes his return, arriving on the scene to question Greef about what happened during the Imperial base explosion. He swiftly evades answering any specifics though, shutting down the pilot’s inquiries about whether or not the Razor Crest was present. As he’s leaving, Teva briefly stops to talk to Cara in an attempt to recruit her, “There’s something going on out here. They don’t believe it on the Core Worlds, but it’s true. These aren’t isolated incidents. They need to be stopped before it’s too late.”
Closing on Gideon’s ship, we learn that the suspicious mechanic on Nevarro planted a tracking beacon on the Razor Crest. Dank farrik! An Imperial officer informs him that the Child is still alive, and Gideon is pleased.
One of the absolute standout aspects of this episode was undoubtedly the execution of the starfighter combat. Though the production of The Mandalorian as a whole may be on a smaller scale than that of the Star Wars films, the show’s talented team consistently manages to make every set and every scene feel grand, expansive, and on-par with what we’ve come to expect from the live-action version of this universe from a galaxy far, far away. In a narrative sense, it was enjoyable to see Din put the Razor Crest in an offensive position for once, holding his own in a ship that plenty of characters have taken pleasure in poking fun at over the course of the show (did they learn nothing from underestimating the Millennium Falcon?!).
Courtesy of Lucasfilm/Disney.
Though watching Din blast his way through harrowing missions while pulling dad duty has been a more than fulfilling adventure thus far, the reveal of Moff Gideon’s plans is a very intriguing development with what could only be ominous ramifications on the horizon. It also bears mentioning that this episode was directed by Greef Karga himself, Carl Weathers! Weathers pulled some impressive double duty, as he was in charge of an episode that he also played a large role in, and the final product was certainly a success.
Episodes 1-4 of season 2 of The Mandalorian are now streaming exclusively on Disney+. Check out the rest of our recaps here. Episode 5 will premiere Friday, November 27.
