RECAP:  Mandalorian Season 2 Chapter 12 - The Siege

Spoiler Free Review:

This is my favorite episode of Season 2, narrowly edging out "The Marshal." It's not because this episode gives us an "Ice Cream Maker Guy" moment with the introduction of Admiral Jeff Blue-Jeans. This episode isn't as genred as the first three from this season, and is more of a straight up Star Wars action romp. Whereas the "The Marshal" suffered from some third act staleness, "The Siege" kept me engaged throughout. In fact, it peaks with the third act.

We did have the continued trend of Stormtroopers making questionable tactical decisions and being little more than hero blaster fodder at times. In one instance, some Stromtroopers made the nonsensical decision to leave cover only to be mowed down. Mando's armor is becoming a bit too "God mode" as well. But in other instances, the Imperials presented a legitimate threat, and that's all we need.

We also had some light shown into one of the corners of The Mandalorian's mystery box in this episode, and it revisits one of the less liked elements from the Prequel Trilogy. Overall, I would give this episode a solid A.

Spoiler Filled Recap:



Once again, seemingly no time has passed since the last episode, and Mando is making his way to Corvus. He decides to leverage The Child's small stature to make some in-flight repairs. After Baby Yoda nearly electrocutes himself, Mando decides it would be better to detour for some professional repairs on their familiar haunt, Nevarro. We immediately cut to the abandoned Mandalorian covert on Nevarro which is being looted by a gang of Aqualish. (That's "Walrusmen" to you Boomers.) One of the Walrusmen was about to behead a ferret when their raiding party is busted by the one woman wrecking crew, Cara Dune. For the record, my sister used to own ferrets. I was rooting for the Aqualish. [Editor's Note: Did you want to pet it, Chris? He bites.]



Mando sets his flotsam-in-waiting Razor Crest down in the nameless Nevarro settlement from season one, and is greeted by old friends Cara Dune and Greef Karga. We learn that Cara is now the marshal, which is suddenly a big deal title in Star Wars. Karga tells Mando that he will put his best men on repairing the Crest. One of these top-flight mechanics is a Mimbanese who seems to dwell a little too long on Mando and The Child. I don't like the way this looks. He's up to somethin'!



We see that the settlement is now bustling with commerce thanks to Marshal Dune's cleanup efforts. The trio return to the common house that was the location of the shootout in the season one finale. Mando is surprised that it's still standing. He aint seen nothing yet. Once inside we see that it has been converted into a schoolhouse with class being led by a protocol droid with female programming. The intent is to have The Child audit the class so he can be left in safety. The perpetually hungry foundling notices the kid sitting next to him is noshing on some tasty macaroons, and tries to get him to share. The little jerk refuses so The Child uses The Force to snatch them away. HA! Take THAT, jerk. You just got Force Spicoli'd!



We cut to Magistrate Karga's office where we see that the Mythrol from Chapter 1 has been thawed. It was actually Karga who placed the bounty due to some "creative accounting" on the Mythrol's part. He's now an indentured servant for the next 350 years. Cara and Greef implore Mando to take on a little side hustle while he's waiting for the Crest to be repaired. There's a remaining Imperial Base on Nevarro that hasn't been abandoned for some reason, but it only has a skeleton crew. The Marshal and Magistrate want it cleared out for two reasons. One, the heavy equipment at the base would fetch a pretty penny on the black market, but, more importantly, they want Nevarro completely cleared of any Imperial presence.



En route to the base, Karga explains that the plan is to overload the base's reactor. Mythrol pulls them up to the front door in his fancy speeder. He even agrees to help on the mission, but he's not happy about leaving his speeder unattended. Gosh, I hope nothing happens to it. Mando breaks into the base, which he quickly notes isn't as empty as Greef promised. Meanwhile, Mythrol notices the mint Trexler Marauder which will fetch a fortune on the black market. The Trexler Marauder looks like a beefed up Imperial Troop Transport. It's a land based vehicle, so naturally it's sitting on what looks like a landing platform some one hundred feet in the air...right above Mythrol's fancy speeder.



The group makes their way to the reactor. In a scene that is a parallel to Obi-Wan shutting down the Death Star's tractor beam, Mythrol drains the reactor's cooling lines. The heroes must now beat a hasty retreat before the base blows. During their escape they come upon some Imperial scientists sporting uniforms with the same Kamino cloner emblem as Dr. Pershing from season one. The scientists try to scuttle their data console, but Mando and crew fill them with blaster holes before they can completely destroy it. Greef looks in bewilderment at a humanoid form in a cloning tank. The realization has dawned on him that this isn't a forward operating base. It's a lab.



Despite the impending reactor explosion, the group needs to learn what's going on at this base. Mythrol jumps on the partially destroyed console and manages to activate a gram from Dr. Pershing to Moff Gideon. The following is verbatim from the message:

...replicated the results of the subsequent trials, which also resulted in catastrophic failure. There were promising effects for an entire fortnight, but then, sadly, the body rejected the blood. I highly doubt we'll find a donor with a higher M-count though. I recommend that we suspend all experimentation. I fear that the volunteer will meet the same regrettable fate if we proceed with the transfusion. Unfortunately, we have exhausted our initial supply of blood. The Child is small, and I was only able to harvest a limited amount without killing him. If these experiments are to continue as requested, we would again require access to the donor. I will not disappoint you again, Moff Gideon.

Mando assumes that Moff Gideon died when his TIE Fighter crashed at the end of season one, and so therefore the message is old. Mythrol informs him that the transmission is from three days ago. Suddenly, Mando realizes that The Child is in immediate danger. Cara tells him to jetpack back to town to protect the kid, while the rest of them will shoot their way out of the base. After some token resistance, the remaining trio finds themselves pinned down on the landing platform from earlier. Cara decides to hotwire the Trexler Marauder that Mythrol had so admired. She drives it off the cliff...and crushes Mythrol's beloved speeder which was parked directly below.



It's now a chase back to town. Cara, Greef and Mythrol are in their stolen Marauder, and they are initially pursued by a squad of speeder bikes. This was the second best part of the episode for me. The speeders are eventually dispatched, and the group breathes a premature sigh of relief. A squadron of Outlander TIE Fighters joins the pursuit just before the Imperial base explodes. Karga is able to take out one of the TIEs with the Marauder's rear cannons, but the TIE's wreckage crashes into their ride and damages those very same cannons. They are now sitting ducks. Get ready for my favorite part of the episode. The newly repaired Razor Crest engages the remaining TIE fighters in a dog fight and takes them all out. Karga's group makes it back to town safely, and Mando continues his journey to Corvus. Back at town, we learn that Captain Teva is still researching Mando's activity.



The episode concludes on Moff Gideon's Imperial Cruiser. That shadowy Mimbanese mechanic from the episode's open is actually a double agent. He informs an Imperial Officer that he has planted a tracking device on the Razor Crest. The officer rushes to tell Moff Gideon the good news, and also confirms that Mando is still in possession of the "asset." In the show's closing shot, the camera pulls back to reveal that Gideon is standing in a room with what appears to be a squad Dark Troopers.

Notes:

• Mythrol is a species, but it's being used like a character name.
• In a call back to Solo, the protocol droid teacher mentions the Akkadese Maelstrom.
• The Imperial Base at the center of this episode is the same one from which Moff Gideon launched his attack at the end of season one.
• Midichlorians are back ("higher M-Count")
• The "can't shoot" Stormtroopers hit Mando several times as he was rocketing at top speed.

The Mandalorian is currently streaming on the Disney+ Streaming Service

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