Recap: The Mandalorian Season Finale

Shortly after Rise of Skywalker wrapped up the latest Star Wars trilogy, another saga may have begun when the first season finale of The Mandalorian aired on Disney Plus.

SPOILERS BELOW

The season ended as it began: a battle over Baby Yoda. It’s revealed the Client, who originally wanted the child, is actually working for Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito). He arrives at Nevarro, where it all began, and says he has plans for Baby Yoda. He also claims he knows more about it than anyone else.

He does reveal other things, like Cara (Gina Carano) was from Alderaan, Greef (Carl Weathers) was a disgraced magistrate and Mando has a name (Din Djarin). The point is, Gideon wants them to give up Baby Yoda or else.

However, Mando and his friends have help from IG-11 (Taiki Waititi), who has been overhauled from hunter to “nurse robot” who can be fatally protective of Baby Yoda. It’s able to mow down a lot of Gideon’s Stormtroopers, but the good guys are still trapped.

One of the Troopers even uses a flame thrower to burn them out, but Baby Yoda turns a large fireball aside just like Elsa from Frozen 2 stopped a tidal wave from flooding Arrendale. It also knocks out Baby Yoda but not for long.

Mando tells his friends to leave him to die a warrior’s death but they won’t.

IG-11 even demands he remove his helmet, and we see he does look like Pedro Pascal. That move also saves Mando’s life, and eventually everyone else.

The season ends with a clever idea. People have been wondering if Mando and Baby Yoda will stay together longer than eight episodes. Thanks to the Armorer, it looks like he will. She says that since Baby Yoda is a foundling (as he was when the other Mandolorians found him after Droids killed his parents, and that maybe Gideon was involved), he should look for the planets where his other Yodas are. Since knowledge about them is scarce, this will be a long search and an exciting one.

Mando also finds a pile of Manalorian armor, suggesting some died at the hands at Stormtroopers while others went into hiding. It suggests he will be mostly alone in his quest.

Gideon makes one last attempt to get the child, with the use of a Tie Fighter, but Mando beats him with the help of a jet pack the Armorer gave him. Mando leaves with Baby Yoda while Greef and Cara stay at Nevarro.

It’s not the end for Gideon though. The show needs a Big Bad…one with a Darksaber…

Season one of The Mandalorian was very entertaining, more than the relationship between him and Baby Yoda. Even though he is a bounty hunter, he can also be a wandering hero helping people in need.

However, there are times when he has to get a bounty. Episode six, “The Prisoner”, involved a prison break that goes sideways. At one point, Mando is behind bars, but he does get the prisoner he’s hired to get along with payment. He also makes sure the prisoner gets re-arrested when he suspects he’d be double-crossed anyway. Comedian Bill Barr played one of the gang involved in the prison break. He does “shifty crook” pretty well.

Some fans of Agents of SHIELD tuned in to see Ming-Na Wen as Fennic Shand, a crafty assassin who gets involved with Mando. She appears in “The Gunslinger”, where Mando is hired by a guy named Toro. He hopes capturing her at Tattooine will get him in the Bounty Hunters’ Guild.
Fennic is a very good assassin, and gets the jump on Toro. She also tries to get him to double-cross Mando to get a bounty on him. He’s still wanted by everyone because he took Baby Yoda, and Toro seems to fall for this. However, he winds up shooting Fennic and is left there for dead. It’s a little disappointing because some many have expected her to have a bigger role. It’s still possible, because someone finds her at the end of the episode. It would make sense she’d join Moff Gideon in the search for Baby Yoda–and maybe betray him, too.

The good news is that the saga will continue. Creator Jon Favreau announced a second season with a hint of what may be coming.