This is the Way

“The Mandalorian” is a sci-fi show from the Star Wars franchise that follows the adventures of The Mandalorian (Mando) on his quest to return the Child to an ancient order called the Jedi. The show was a complete success after the first season aired on Disney Plus at the end of 2019. Season two saw the same success, including the reappearance of fan-favorite characters and a thrilling conclusion. The story is broken into chapters, starting where season one left off at chapter 9, but I will only be highlighting the best parts of the season.

In chapter 13, Mando arrives on the planet Corvus and searches out Ahsoka Tano. He finds her and attempts to hand off Grogu, the Child, to Ahsoka. She says Grogu is too attached to Mando to be trained as a Jedi and that he needs to decide his own path.

Bringing back a fan-favorite character like Ahsoka was a great move that was integrated perfectly. During the episode, Mando actually forms a deeper bond with Grogu when he previously treated him as a quest objective. In the end, Ahsoka tells Mando to go to the planet Tython which is the birthplace of the Jedi, leaving a bit of suspense as to what they will find.

Chapter 14 begins with Mando bringing Grogu to the mountain on Tython and placing him on a rock called the seeing stone where he starts reaching out through the force. Mando then realizes he’s being tracked by a mysterious ship, which turns out to be Boba Fett’s, who tracked down Mando with the help of another bounty hunter. He requests his armor back, which Mando acquired in the first chapter of the season, but is interrupted by Moff Gideon, the leader of the imperial remains. Grogu ends up being kidnapped and Mando’s ship is destroyed. He has to work with Boba and find out where Moff Gideon will take Grogu.

It leaves a cliffhanger for the rest of the season and forces Mando to team up, which he usually doesn’t do. His skepticism towards Boba is only resolved by him explaining his Mandalorian heritage, making him more respectful.

Chapter 16 is the season finale, and it is as grand as it could possibly be. Mando, Boba Fett and his accomplice, and Bo-Katan’s group work together to invade Moff Gideon’s ship and take back Grogu. While everyone else captures the bridge, Mando finds Grogu’s cell but is attacked by Moff Gideon. He has the darksaber, a sacred Mandalorian weapon that has a black lightsaber blade. Moff Gideon is defeated, but once regrouped in the bridge, he activates his battle droids. The droids attempt to break in, but when all seems lost, Luke Skywalker shows up, answering Grogu’s call, and destroys them all. Luke asks Grogu if he wants to come train as a Jedi, and Mando takes off his helmet to say a heartfelt goodbye to his friend.

This was a perfect ending in my opinion, bringing together all the people who helped Mando during the season and rescuing Grogu. Taking off his helmet for a tearful goodbye seems so emotional when you consider he was taken in by his clan and trained as a child who had a child of his own to take care of. Even the face rig they did for Luke made it seem like a young Mark Hamill was standing before us.

Even though this seems like a good conclusion to a great TV show, there are still many plotlines available for a third season. The darksaber can only be won through combat, so technically Bo-Katan needs to fight Mando for it since it’s the only reason she agreed to help. He could also return to his clan from the first season and help them. Even with these good plotlines, it seems like The Mandalorian will be put aside for now. Disney announced a wave of 15 new Star Wars related shows coming out on Disney Plus in the next few years. I’m very excited for the new possibilities these shows can open up, and I’ll be looking forward to their unique stories