Did I have fun? Yes.
Was I frustrated we didn't get further in the Big Arc* development? Also yes.
Was I happy with what we DID get with regards to the Big Arc? Also also yes.
Carl Weathers' directorial debut in the galaxy far, far away was a TON of fun. It was an action-fill adventure with some great moments, great humor and plenty of Baby Yoda cuteness. It didn't have the big lore reveals like last week's episode, but we did get some ideas as to what Moff Gideon might have in mind for the Child, and that's enough to hold me over.
For now.
Review: no spoilers first, then spoilers, nice buffer in between. Get it?
So once again the Razor Crest has to limp through space, and that means repairs before it can get to [REDACTED] to find [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] to [REDACTED]. Hey, I'm being generous with the spoiler avoidance. That means a stop at/return to Nevarro, the lava field planet where we saw a lot of goings on in season 1, and a reunion with Greef Karga (Weathers) and Cara Dune (Gina Carano). It also means an unexpected reunion with the very first bounty we saw Din Djarin bring in last season.
While the ship goes through repairs, Karga and Dune ask Din to help them remove the last vestiges of an Imperial base on the planet so it can finally be free and become a trade hub (whether the trade is all above-board is dubious, knowing Karga). As they do so, they learn some troubling things about their Imperial enemies, and we're left at the end of the episode with an ominous hint as to Gideon's larger motives.
There's also an interesting moment that seems to hint at perhaps an evolving role, maybe larger, for Cara Dune. It's a neat little exchange, and I'd love to see something come of it.
No, the Big Arc didn't move along as much as I wanted, but I have to remember there's half a season left, and in season 1, the Big Arc didn't really move until episodes 7 and 8. We also don't see [REDACTED] yet, but that doesn't surprise me. They have to let that reveal stew in our brains for a bit.
The action sequences are solid, and there's a great amount of humor mixed in to keep things light without feeling like it's hamfisted in there. I'd be more than happy to see Weathers back in the director's chair for future episodes.
Alright, now for the buffer-then-spoilers!
*that's how I'm going to refer to the larger story of Baby Yoda and Moff Gideon's reasons for wanting to get hold of Baby Yoda
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Okay, spoilers.
- The big questions from this episode are what Gideon is doing with Baby Yoda blood and what was he working on that we saw in the last scene. First, based on Dr. Pershing's message, I'm guessing "M-count" has to do with midichlorians. If you didn't watch the prequels, specifically The Phantom Menace, midichlorians are microscopic organisms that are basically what connect living beings to the Force. The higher your midichlorian count, the stronger you are in the Force. With that in mind, since as a child Baby Yoda has already shown a strong ability in the Force, it's likely Gideon wants the Child for its midichlorian-rich blood.
- Why the blood? It looks like some variant of stormtrooper or soldier standing in the alcoves in the closing shot. So first guess is Gideon wants to create some kind of super-soldier with Force-enhanced abilities. That would be very formidable indeed. But maybe it's a deeper cut than that. One thought I had, supported by a video someone on Twitter posted, is that these could be a variant of Dark Troopers. The short version is that in an early Star Wars game called "Dark Forces," the Dark Trooper project involved both battle droid-type constructs that looked like stormtroopers and which could be deployed in a variety of circumstances, as well as an exoskeleton that a humanoid could don and use as armor/weapons. IF that's the direction they're going, what we may see is Force-enhanced soldiers wearing these exoskeletons. That said, I don't know how likely this is, since the bodies we see in the episode look to be roughly normal-humanoid-sized, not big-suit-of-armor-sized. So I'm going to go with my original idea of just Force-enhanced super soldiers.
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| What the Dark Troopers from "Dark Forces" looked like in various phases. |
- The moment between the Rebel pilot and Cara Dune is a fascinating one. He basically all but calls her out for ditching the Rebellion/Alliance (though not really in a harsh way) and invites her to come back and be part of something bigger. That seed is now planted, watered with the memories of Alderaan (that line - "Did you lose anyone? I lost everyone." is a gut-punch) and I'd bet Cara is going to stew on that for a while. I'd love to see some development on that in the future.
- The Baby Yoda moments just kept coming and I AM HERE FOR IT. Frying himself with wires? I love it. Stealing that mean kids' space-macarons? More, please. RAISING HIS ADORABLE LITTLE ARMS IN THE AIR WHILE THE RAZOR CREST WHOOPS AND WHIRLS?!? I melted.
- Thank you, writers, for bringing back Horatio Sanz's Mythrol (the blue guy). I felt bad for him and how mean Greef Karga was, but then he did try to rip Karga off. Sanz was one of my favorite Saturday Night Live cast members in the 90's, and I love the humor he brought to the episode.
- GIVE ME MORE SCOUT TROOPERS ON SPEEDER BIKES. The canyon chase was an awesome sequence, and the off-roading speeder bike troops just made my morning. IT WAS SO COOL.
Okay, I think that's it for this week. I reserve the right to edit and add to this.
Will we see [REDACTED] next week? Very possible, considering the end with what Gideon says. I certainly hope so.
Let me know what you thought of the episode!!
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