Mando and Grogu travel the last stretch with the windows down.
Lucasfilm
The Mandalorian season 2 continued on Disney Plus Friday with episode 6 of the live action Star Wars show. On the heels of last week’s revelation of Baby Yoda’s real name and origins, former Jedi Ahsoka Tano sent Mando (Pedro Pascal) to the planet Tython. There, little Grogu can reach out through the Force, potentially connecting with a master who can train him.
Episode 6 is rather chillingly titled The Tragedy — we all went “uh-oh,” right? — and directed by Robert Rodriguez (Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn and Alita: Battle Angel) and written by series creator Jon Favreau.
Let’s climb the mountain of SPOILERS.
Boba Fett reborn
After the Razor Crest lands on Tython and Grogu starts reaching out with the Force, a second ship arrives — Slave I. You might recognize this as the awesome ship of Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison). We already knew that he was alive and that he was aware Mando had acquired his armor on Tatooine, but it wasn’t clear when he’d show up again. Turns out he decided to do so at the most dramatic moment possible.
Boba just wants that armor back, and recruited assassin Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) to help him. Last time we saw her, she’d been shot in the gut and left to die in the sands of Tatooine, but we learn that Boba was the mysterious figure who walked up to her after that incident. He fixed her tummy with some cybernetic parts — Star Wars tech can work miracles — and now they’re super mercenary buddies.
Boba Fett says hello to the Empire.
Lucasfilm/Screenshot by Sean Keane/Bioreports
Boba and Fennec’s negotiations for the armor are interrupted by the arrival of Imperial troop carriers, forcing them to kick all kinds of ass. Boba initially wrecks the Stormtroopers in a Tusken Raider outfit (turns out the gaffi stick is pretty effective), but decides to preempt any further negotiations and grabs his armor off the Razor Crest.
Read more: The Mandalorian season 2 episode 6 is what we’ve been waiting for
Good thing too, since an Imperial cruiser destroys Mando’s ship with an orbital strike shortly afterward. Bye-bye Razor Crest, you were basically this show’s Millennium Falcon and we will miss you.
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Reunited with his armor, Boba finds his killing power is turned up to 11 and becomes the Boba Fett we’ve always dreamed of (hopefully he’s overcome his one weakness — blind guys swinging sticks). He easily wipes out the Stormtroopers and uses one rocket to shoot down both of the escaping troop carriers.
Boba looks so damn cool throughout this episode — his black Tusken-style robes make him look like a warrior monk, then he puts his iconic armor on over that. It hangs a little awkwardly at times, but Hasbro better get that action figure out soon!
Jango’s past
“I’m a simple man making his way through the galaxy, like my father before me,” Boba says of his motivations, mirroring his dad Jango Fett’s line in the Attack of the Clones (and Luke Skywalker’s line to Emperor Palpatine in Return of the Jedi).
He’s more like his father than most sons, since he’s a clone of Jango. Decades before the events of The Mandalorian (shortly after The Phantom Menace), the late bounty hunter was recruited by Count Dooku to serve as the genetic template for the clone army used by the Galactic Republic, as part of Darth Sidious’ wildly complicated plot to wipe out the Jedi.
Part of Jango’s payment was an unaltered clone that he could raise as his son, but the elder Fett was killed by Jedi Master Mace Windu during the Battle of Geonosis. After that, Boba tried to get revenge on Windu and gained infamy as a bounty hunter in the years that followed during season 2 of The Clone Wars.
A Stormtrooper unleashes an E-Web heavy repeating blaster on Fennec Shand.
Lucasfilm
During that show, sleazy Mandalorian Prime Minister Almec dismissed Jango and Boba as pretenders, not true Mandalorians. This episode confirms that sleazy traitors who ally themselves with Darth Maul aren’t the best sources of information, since Boba reveals that Jango was a foundling who received his armor from the Mandalorians — just like Mando — and fought in the Mandalorian civil wars.
This is similar to the events of the comic series Jango Fett: Open Seasons, but that’s no longer canon. Still, it’s an excellent read and offers a possible version of the events Boba is referring to — I suspect Lucasfilm is subtly picking and choosing elements of the old Legends continuity to bring into canon.
Boba repainted Jango’s blue-and-silver armor to a camouflage-friendly green, but that’s probably not the original helmet. The younger Fett blew up that helmet after using it to lure Mace Windu into a trap during the Clone Wars (unless the one that blew up was a fake).
Mando brings Grogu to the seeing stone on Tython.
Lucasfilm
Calling all Jedi
On the seeing stone, Grogu enters a trance as he stretches out with the Force and a (Force) force field stops Mando from whisking him away when the action starts. It’s unclear if he managed to contact any Jedi or other Force users.
Currently, we know Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa are out there. Ezra Bridger from Rebels is likely alive, and we don’t know what happened to Cere Junda or Cal Kestis after the events of Jedi: Fallen Order (which took place prior to A New Hope).
Unfortunately, Imperial Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) sends his Dark Troopers to snatch the vulnerable Grogu before Mando and his new buddies can reach the little guy. We previously only got a glimpse of the Dark Troopers — which were first seen in the non-canon 1995 video game Dark Forces — but this is our first proper look at them in live action. They’re scary looking, and I can’t wait to see the good guys fight them.
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Gathering allies
Unfortunately, the Razor Crest was completely destroyed by the Imperial cruiser’s blast. Mando only recovers the beskar staff he’ll probably use to take on Gideon and the stick shift Grogu loves so much, and seems pretty despondent over the loss of the little guy,
However, Boba decides to interpret the deal he made for his armor charitably, reasoning that he and Fennec need to stick with Mando until Grogu is safely returned. This is the coolest possible outcome; it seems like his time in the sarlacc made him a nicer guy than he was in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi (though you could argue he was honoring his deals with Darth Vader and Jabba the Hutt in those instances).
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The trio return to Nevarro in Slave I, and we learn that the medal Cara Dune (Gina Carano) got from the New Republic pilot was actually a badge, making her that fledgling government’s marshal on the planet.
Mando asks for her assistance in springing Mayfield (Bill Burr) out of prison — he’s serving a 50-year sentence after he betrayed Mando and ended up trapped on a New Republic prison ship. The ex-Imperial sharpshooter will be able to help locate Gideon’s cruiser.
This is a pretty awesome team Mando is assembling. Maybe give Ahsoka Tano and Bo-Katan Kryze a shout too?
Moff Gideon gives us a classy supervillain smirk.
Lucasfilm
Darth Vader, Mark 2
On board the cruiser, Gideon stands on the bridge and stares out into hyperspace — the kind of pose Vader used to strike in his glory days. Between that and his black armor, he seems like Gideon patterning himself to be the next Vader (presumably he doesn’t aspire to be a crispy boy like Vader).
Grogu is flinging the Stormtroopers around his cell, until Gideon comes in and taunts him with the Darksaber (it looks like Grogu tries to grab it using the Force). The Imperial jerkface has the small lad stunned, and the troops put teeny tiny shackles on wee Grogu — apparently they’re returning to Dr. Pershing so he can harvest more Force-strong cells.
Grogu loves that stick shift.
Lucasfilm
Easter eggs and observations
- “I give my allegiance to no one.” Boba’s line reminds us that he’s a mercenary, so we shouldn’t trust him fully. That’s kinda the case for everyone in this show, though — Mando will no doubt keep watching his back.
- Fennec has Grogu in her sights when Boba is negotiating with Mando, but it’s likely her shot would’ve bounced off the force field.
- Boba flew extremely close to the Imperial cruiser while he was tracking the Dark Troopers — why didn’t it blast Slave I out of the sky? It was likely cloaked from scanners, and he avoided any viewports.
- “They’re back. The Empire, they’re back.” Boba’s surprise at seeing the cruiser highlights what a low profile the Imperial Remnant has been keeping.
Check out my recaps for all The Mandalorian’s Easter eggs and important Star Wars continuity references:
- Chapter 9: The Marshal recap
- Chapter 10: The Passenger recap
- Chapter 11: The Heiress recap
- Chapter 12: The Siege recap
- Chapter 13: The Jedi recap
- Chapter 14: The Tragedy recap
- Chapter 15: Friday, Dec. 11
- Chapter 16: Friday, Dec. 18
Join us for more Easter eggs and observations next Friday, after episode 7 of The Mandalorian season 2 hits Disney Plus.
