By Grayson Boyd

Warning: Spoilers ahead. 

The second season of The Mandalorian on Disney Plus does not disappoint. The show continues where the original season left off and satisfies both veteran Star Wars fans and people who have never seen a Star Wars film before. The show follows the trek of a Mandalorian, who journeys to the outer rim of a galaxy far, far away in search of answers to the mysterious child he has been tasked with protecting. Although Star Wars fans would easily recognize this child as Master Yoda’s species, the Mandalorian is not blessed with this knowledge. It is not until Chapter 13, when Mando comes across the former trainee of Anakin Skywalker and beloved Star Wars: The Clone Wars character, Ashoka Tano, does he learn more important information about the child. 

The first episode of season two kicks off the season with a nostalgic return to both Luke and Anakin Skywalker’s home planet, Tatooine. The nightmare of every child who watched Star Wars in their youth, the Sandpeople, make a return, but for the first time the barbaric group of people are friendly and aid the Mandalorian in a very tough task that leads off the season to a fantastic start. The next episode is the least satisfying episode of this season, as it had little to no effect on the plot, and excluding the episode from your watch time would not hurt your understanding of the season.

The Mandalorian. Photo credit: Lucasfilm Ltd.

Fan Warner Cabaniss (‘21) had these same criticisms when discussing his opinion on the show. He said, “I think it’s been very good so far, but I wish the episodes were not as short and filler episodes.” For the first two episodes, it feels as if the directors needed to meet Disney’s benchmark of eight episodes per season, so they compiled random quests to fill up the forty-minute episodes of the show. 

Episode three of the season satisfies dedicated Star Wars fans as we get a quick glimpse of Star Wars: The Clone Wars main character Bo Katan. Bo and her crew of former Mandalorians provide some insight to the Mandalorian about their home planet, Mandalore, and go on an exciting mission onto an Empire-controlled ship in pursuit of the famed Darksaber, which, as we learned from the last moments of season one, is possessed by Grand Moff Gideon. 

The midway point of the season, episode four, proved to be one of my favorites. The Mandalorian returns to the planet of Navarro to help a former friend, Cara Dune, to provide some help at a base infested by enemy troops, while his heavily damaged ship is repaired. Henry Mountcastle (‘21) states that his “favorite scene was in Chapter Four, when the imperial scout troopers launched themselves down a steep cliff on their speeder bikes. This scene proves the scout troopers are drastically better than the stormtroopers. Also, the cinematography of this scene was absolutely incredible.” Mountcastle is right that this episode has one of the most entertaining classic Star Wars chase scenes, and it made me want to go on a Star Wars marathon in the following days to see more scenes just like that. 

After raiding the base and realizing that some members of the fallen Empire still exist, Mando embarks to the planet of Corvus to search for the former Jedi Ashoka Tano. Mando had never met a Jedi, so he was shocked to know how powerful she and people like her were. He learns important details about “Baby Yoda,” and Ashoka guides him on how he must train the youngling if he plans on letting the child reach his potential with the force. The episode is filled with some epic scenes and was very nostalgic for Mountcastle, Cabaniss, and me, as it brought back memories of watching the Clone Wars show as a kid. 

The sixth episode of the season is also one of the most eventful and climatic episodes of the season, as Mando takes “Baby Yoda” to a new planet to find out more about the mysteries surrounding the child. When season one was released, the child was an instant pop culture icon, as the world simply could not handle the cuteness overload the character provided. In episode six, something dangerous happens to him, and the team of characters has to fix the issue before it is too late. 

Episodes seven and eight were an amazing end to an excellent season. I cannot go into detail without too many spoilers, for those who haven’t watched yet, but they were a great bookend to the season, and fans were not disappointed. Episode eight was so satisfying and emotional for longtime Star Wars fans that a Star Wars YouTuber with over 2.7 million subscribers, Star Wars Theory, was in tears for ten minutes and pleading “THANKS YOU LUCASFILMS.” He said this because Star Wars fans have not been happy with how Disney has handled the saga to date, and his tears expressed the joy some Star Wars fans have not felt in a long time. Star Wars Theory said in a video, “This is the happiest I have been with Star Wars since Episode III.”

Overall, season two of The Mandalorian was fantastic, and I would recommend it to anyone, even if they have not watched a single Star Wars movie or TV show. Fan Noah Kiczales (‘21), along with  Cabaniss, and Mountcastle, all rated the show an 8 of 10 or better. I give the season 9/10. We all thought that Lucasfilm and director Jon Favreau did a great job, and it made us all feel like we were kids watching Star Wars with our dads for the first time. Kiczales said he enjoyed watching the series because “it just seemed like I was watching a real Star Wars film as a kid, with the similarities in background, the characters and the music made it so good.” He and all of us love the show and look forward to more seasons and all of the new shows based around Star Wars, which Disney recently announced are in the works. 

Featured image credit: DreedX.