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The Mandalorian Chapter 24 (S3E8) Reaction | The Return
Time for a stream of consciousness rant. Let’s get after it. It is over! It is finally over! I never thought I would be typing out relief when it came […]
Time for a stream of consciousness rant. Let’s get after it.
It is over! It is finally over! I never thought I would be typing out relief when it came to watching The Mandalorian. The once outstanding, can’t be missed, original Star Wars story has devolved into nothing more than piss-poor fodder with awful writing, horrendous plot pacing and misplaced story emphasis.
But we are here. Season three, episode eight, chapter 24. Let’s get after it.
This episode is called The Return. Is it referencing my return to The Mandalorian after a long break? I think that would be a fair assumption, on a selfish level. I am relieved to have finished this show.
But in reality, The Return is about the Mandalorians returning to Mandalore. They want to take back the planet that Moff Gideon has hijacked from them with his dastardly plot. Perhaps this could have been the title of last episode, because that is when they actually returned?
Regardless, I digress.
In the previously on portion of the episode, we see the empire counsel talking to Moff Gideon about Doctor Pershing and his cloning project. This will be important. Among this reminder prelude, I was reminded that Axe left the cave to attempt to get reinforcements from the Mandalorians still stationed above the planet. So there you have it. We are on an evil empire base made by Moff Gideon on the planet of the Mandalorians and when they came to get the planet back under the leadership of Bo-Katan they were ambushed and Din Djiarin was captured and so now all things rely on Bo-Katan escaping and Axe getting to the reinforcements in time.
So here is one major prediction I have before the rest of this episode starts; we are going to get a Grogu using the force and being a crazy power jedi moment. It is going to happen.
Now let’s get to the meat of the episode, and I will say that at the jump it had me feeling happy. We get to see Din Djarin doing some cool hand-to-hand combat in an attempt to break from the clone troopers grasp. He feels free, then gets tangled again…and then fucking Grogu comes to the god damn rescue in his IG-11 droid body. I forgot about this. I forgot this whole robot body screaming “Yes” or “No” nonstop. FUCK. Makes me unhappy.
Then we have some pretty cheesy Saturday morning cartoon dialogue between Grogu and Din Djarin. The Mandalorian tells his child that he needs him to be brave because they need to end Moff Gideon. This has to be the final stand because otherwise Moff Gideon will always return.
While Djarin is going chasing after Moff, we have the Imperial bombers and fighter ships leaving the cave going to attack the Mandalorian ships in the atmosphere. The score when the ships are elevating over the sky going to eviscerate the Mandalorian fleet is exquisite.
Moff Gideon tells an official of his that he will take care of Mando and Grogu by himself. Then there is the worm-angle shot of Moff turning away with the cape furling. This reminds me a lot of this classic moment from the original trilogy.
So it is time for Din Djarin to get close to Moff Gideon, but he has some barrier shields in his way. Remember those from The Phantom Menace? Yea, those ones. Oh, so it would appear we need to add another hero to our midst. R5, the robot that Din Djarin came with, is needed in order to manipulate the barriers and the security.
This is exactly like R2-D2 in the Death Star. We have our hero traversing through the depths and an enemy base and he needs a droid to open doorways.
So while Din Djarin is making his way through the underground base, we transition to the cosmos where Axe has arrived at the Mandalorian fleet in ample time to give them all a warning. Per the orders of Bo-Katan, Axe tells the remainder of their force to leave their ships and go down to help take over the planet. The only one who will stay is Axe, who will stay on the main ship and navigate it as a distraction.
The best part of this evacuation process is when the Mandalorians were on their jetpacks and then slid into the entry doorways while descending down to the earth. It is a very cool touch. Big fan, maybe the best little bit of the episode.
Back down on Mandalore, Din Djarin has zero weapons as he enters the red barrier bridge. That means get some more hand-to-hand combat! We get to see Mando wrecking shit with riot shields and being ultimately resourceful. This is the type of violence that I enjoy. Give me more of this! This is what I missed!
While all the punches are being thrown on the bridge over a never-ending pit, we have a bit of droid humor. R5 runs into a MSE-6-series repair droid, and then a series of MSE-6-series repair droid. There is some droid banter and classic electrifying tactics. It is hijinx, and after it is all done R5 leaves.
A short lived reign for the unit.
You want another short lived aspect of The Return that was a fucking waste of space? Sorry, I am going to get hated for this one.
Bo-Katan and the fellow Mandalorians who escaped the ambush attempt last episode end up in underground caverns that the survivors have been camping out in. In their underground terrains, these surviving Mandalore residing Mandalorians have been growing native plants. This is an ALL-TIME look, we still can live here on Mandalore as long as we have room to grow.
WE ARE DOWN IN THIS GORGE AREA FOR LIKE 30 SECONDS! THAT IS IT! ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?
We arrive. Bo-Katan asks a question. There is a speech about how life is still viable on Mandalore and beauty can grow even in the darkest areas as long as there are people to cultivate it. Then, we leave. We are literally in this cave just to have a school lesson and then leave. It is like attending a high school class on a half day Friday.
This was so fucking lazy and stupid. A prime example of a cop out to try and teach a point directly by punching you directly on the nose. This is more Saturday morning cartoon annoyance.
So we leave the cheesy ass garden of hope and transition to Bo-Katan leading the Mandalorians into battle with the Dark Saber. By now the reinforcements have arrived, and it is a very cool visual to see the Dark Saber at the helm of a legion of jetpacking Mandalorians hellbend on retaking their home.
All of it is a bit rushed, but still this visual is satisfying.
Have a random question. Why is it that the Beskar armor that Moff Gideon has devised for his clone warriors seems of lesser quality than that of the Mandalorians? Just wondering.
So now we have the scene set. The battle among the majority of the combatants is in the air, but there has to be a big macho battle that takes place between our hero and our enemy.
Moff Gideon makes a giant evil speech. He is saying that he was mere moments away from succeeding in creating his perfect army of force-weidling powerful clones. They were all clones of himself, naturally, the egomaniac he is. But no more. Evil has come.
So here are my takes on this final battle.
Moff Gideon looks really slow in his heavy armor. But he is supremely strong. Also his armor is stronger than his soldiers. That doesn’t seem very fair.
So Moff Gideon is handling business against Djarin, because naturally the hero needs to look vulnerable. But don’t worry, the kid is coming to the rescue! Moff Gideon has gotten his red armored cronies to start beating up on our Mandalorian (Even though he said that he would handle it alone? That lying son of a bitch) so time to get Grogu in his IG-11 suit to save the day. He creates a distraction, and the mindless purple spear wielding menaces chase after him. Djarin is of no use because he is being choked by the multiple extensions of Gideon’s Mandalorian suit.
This just becomes a someone saving someone else extravaganza. Bo-Katan then comes in and frees Djarin to chase after Grogu. Djarin then gets to Grogu just in time because the IG-11 droid is destroyed (THANK GOD) and the two of them vanquish their foes in time to save Bo-Katan from Moff Gideon who is beating up on Bo-Katan.
The most important thing is that the Dark Saber is destroyed. Outstanding. Genuinely love this decision to kill the Dark Saber off. Get the gimmick out of here. Leadership is not from someone wielding a weapon. A new Mandalore is going to be created so let’s have some new traditions created. It was a genuinely “oh shit” moment, and I pray to the fucking gods that they do not go back on this and rebuild the Dark Saber. That would make me so fucking mad.
So now is the time to be reminded that Axe is up there with the big mother ship. It has been getting destroyed, bombarded, and eviscerated this entire time, meaning that it is now a flaming, flying death trap. Axe is going to pull a bit of aThe Last Jedi and have a crash landing…one that will make a very big bang. This ship is going to be the destruction of Moff Gideon’s base on Mandalore.
Should also note that Axe escapes the ship just in time. He is still alive.
Remember how I said that Grogu was going to have a massive moment with the force? Well here it is. With certain fiery death staring them in the face, Grogu is able to put a protective force field that shields Djarin and Bo-Katan from the flames of despair. Is it a cool visual? Sure. Was it wholly predictable? AB-SO-FUCKING-LUTELY.
We do see Moff Gideon get swallowed up by the flames, but we do not see his body. We do not see him killed, we also see it swallow him. And he is wearing Beskar armor too. Very powerful armor that is meant to shield against flamethrowers. AKA, Moff Gideon is not dead.
Alright, so now we have a big post brawl gathering. I don’t think any Mandalorians died. They still seem very large in numbers.
We see a child being sworn into the Mandalorian creed. Is this the son of the recently killed Paz Vizsla? It might very well be. But to be honest, I am past the point of carrying with this particular season of The Mandalorian.
But you want me to get really fucking angry? This shit with Grogu being sworn in as a Mandalorian has me still teething with anger. Din Djarin wants to swear Grogu into the guild, but the Armor is saying that is not allowed because Grogu can’t talk. That seems fair. Someone who can’t speak for themselves should be sworn into something they don’t want to do.
You want to know the loophole? A parent. If a parent wants the kid sworn in, then the kid gets sworn in. But wait, Djarin is not the father of Grogu. BUT ADOPTION. SURE. WHY NOT.
Now Din Djarin, after being a father figure for two seasons, Djarin sees the need to make it official and become the lawful father of Grogu.
This is on the fucking nose. We had accepted Djarin as Grogu’s father. You are going to need to prove this necessity ten-fold in order to have me buy into next season.
So now we have Din Grogu.
What a really fucking bad ending. The episode itself was fine. Predictable but very entertaining with the action. The last five minutes of this episode are disgusting. What a terrible taste in my mouth.
I throw raspberries at you.
The Mandalorian is available to watch on Disney+.
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