The Mandalorian's Season 2 finale indulged in Star Wars' worst tendency, even if it was thrilling

Observer

The big reveal in the Season 2 finale is "at once both thrilling beyond measure for any Star Wars fans and a disappointing crutch for The Mandalorian itself," says Brandon Katz. The problem, he says, is the stunning reveal casts such as an immense shadow that it "sucks all of the oxygen out of the room" and minimizes every other plot point, even if the finale had been ho-hum up until that point. "I want The Mandalorian to stand on its own, especially after a season of fantastically fun cameos that nonetheless amounted to backdoor pilots for other series (including The Book of Boba Fett teased after the credits)," says Katz. "The show is so busy setting up an empire of Disney+ series and harkening back to the Golden Age that it can lose sight of its own narrative from time to time. (The big reveal) is amazing and also shrinks the galaxy far, far away into something smaller and less exciting; two things can be true at once. It’s better to brush up against the Jedi mythology and greater universe connections, but remain inherently unique amid the backdrop of more than four decades of familiar Star Wars. 'The Rescue' makes it clear instead that The Mandalorian is all about that initial jolt of nostalgic electricity. That’s not necessarily a bad thing....though it may prevent the series from reaching its ultimate potential. Star Wars is never just one thing, and that extends to the multitudes within The Mandalorian, but the franchise seems intent on looking back even though its best hope is to look forward. Perhaps they’re not mutually exclusive, or perhaps the backlash to films like The Last Jedi has put Lucasfilm on a more conservative path."

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• "The Rescue" is a perfect example of what Star Wars, as a franchise, often tries to do and only occasionally succeeds at: The finale marries "a sense of nostalgia with the telling of compelling new stories," says Jen Chaney. "In its films, it has had mixed success with this. (I contend that it did this exactly right in The Force Awakens, and if you’d like to fight me on this, you can find me on Twitter.) But in The Mandalorian, particularly this season, it has done this very well, leaning into preexisting characters and mythology at appropriate, well-chosen moments."
• "The Rescue” is essentially the big-budget CGI equivalent of watching a small child smash their collection of action figures into one another: "It’s messy, incoherent, and utterly mindless. But hey, at least the kid is having fun," says Tyler Hersko. "The Mandalorian Season 2 finale marks the long-awaited showdown between Mando (Pedro Pascal) and Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) following the latter’s abduction of Grogu earlier in the season. Though the episode delivers on that front, features a team-up between many of the show’s standout characters, and resolves the quest Mando set off on at the beginning of the season, it does so with so many noisy and plodding action scenes — and aggravating unanswered questions — that the end result isn’t particularly cathartic."
• The Mandalorian gives a fresh take on Star Wars' daddy issues: "Just about every character in the Star Wars universe has serious daddy issues," says Eliana Dockterman. "Luke, who believed himself an orphan, discovers his father is the galaxy’s foremost villain, but is eventually able to turn him to the Light Side; Jyn Erso saves the galaxy by connecting with her father and realizing he was a good guy all along; Rey finds out her grandfather was an even more evil figure than Darth Vader, one who can’t be turned, but takes on Leia and Luke as surrogate parents instead. Parents, meanwhile, stew in their parenting mistakes: Leia mourns the loss of her son, Kylo Ren, to the Dark Side after Ren kills his father, Han Solo. Obi-Wan, a father figure to Anakin, struggles with the choices that led Anakin to turn evil. The list goes on. The Mandalorian (thankfully) puts a new spin on the well-trod saga of an orphan in search of a father figure."
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