The Mandalorian takes a dark turn in another whopper of an episode. Chapter Fourteen, “The Tragedy”, has Mando (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu, damn I already miss Baby Yoda, reaching the Jedi Temple on Tython. Grogu is placed on the Seeing Stone. While he reaches out through the force, Mando encounters an old adversary thought dead (Ming-Na Wen), the most infamous bounty hunter (Temuera Morrison), and finally, the Empire crashes their solitude. Mando suffers a monumental loss as Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) strikes back.
“The Tragedy” opens with the Razor Crest approaching Tython. Grogu plays with his favorite ball, the knob for the throttle. Mando calls Grogu by his name. He chuckles as the child responds. Mando asks for the ball. Grogu reluctantly gives it up. Mando asks him to return it using the force. Mando rejoices when the child takes it back. Grogu drops the ball because he thinks Mando is angry. Mando consoles him, “You did good.” He promises Grogu that he will find the place he belongs. Mando “cannot train” Grogu, the child is “too powerful.”
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The Razor Crest circles the remnants of the temple on top of a steep hill. There’s no place to land. He sets the ship down, then uses his jetpack to carry them to the “magic rock.” He places Grogu on the round Seeing Stone in the center of rock pillars. Nothing happens. “Maybe there’s some kind of control,” Mando wonders as he turns on his visor. While he walks around the stone, a butterfly lands on Grogu.
Mando looks up as Boba Fett’s ship, the iconic Slave 1, lands nearby. “Time’s up kid, we gotta get out of here,” Mando turns around to see Grogu in a trance and the stone surrounded by a shimmering blue field of energy. He tries to take the child, but is thrown back by the barrier. He watches a figure leave the ship, “I’ll see if I can buy you some time.”
Mando takes fire as he goes down the slope. “I’ve been tracking you Mandalorian,” states the hooded Boba Fett. Mando asks if he’s a “Jedi or after the child.” Fett takes off his hood to reveal a scarred face with a bald head, “I’m here for the armor.” He wants the armor Mando took from Tatooine. He’s not a Mandalorian, “but a simple man making his way through the galaxy.” Mando refuses to return it. Beskar belongs to Mandalorians. Boba Fett responds angrily, “The armor belonged to my father. Now it’s mine.”
Boba Fett has a sharpshooter targeting the child on the ridge above. “And as you remember, I don’t miss,” gloats Fennec Shand. Mando is stunned to see her alive. Monday activates the Whistling Birds on his wrist, but Boba pleads for calm. They’ll put down their guns when Mando takes off his jetpack. All sides comply.
Fennec removes her red helmet and joins them. “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost,” she smirks. “She was left for dead on the sands of Tatooine, as was I. But fate sometimes rescues the wretched, Boba Fett answers. Fennec removes a panel from her stomach. Her insides are mechanical, “I am now in his service.”
Boba Fett tells Mando that the armor belonged to his father, Jango Fett. In exchange for it, he will “guarantee the safety of the child.” The bounty on the child has risen significantly. They look up as an Imperial troop transport lands. Mando races back to the Seeing Stone. Grogu is still in the trance. Mando hurls himself at the barrier, but is again thrown back and knocked out.
Fennec and Boba Fett open fire on the emerging stormtroopers. Fennec lives up to her reputation as every shot hits its target. The stormtroopers take cover behind the rocks. Boba uses his staff to attack the soldiers with brutal efficiency. He smashes their helmets, and then stabs them viciously with its sharp tip.
Fennec shoots as more stormtroopers pour out of the transport. They hit her with mortars and set up a repeating cannon. Fennec flees across a ridgeline as the heavy weapon unleashes a barrage of laser fire. A nearby mortar loosens a huge boulder. Fennec pushes it down the hill. It rolls over the stormtroopers and destroys the gun. Boba then makes short work of the remaining troops. He sees the Razor Crest.
Fennec holds off the stormtroopers on the ridge, but a second transport lands. By the Seeing Stone, Mando gets up and sees the calamity below. He still cannot get to Grogu. Mando decides to join the fight. As he leaves, the force barrier around the child falls.
Fennec is outnumbered and surrounded. They demand her surrender, but Mando arrives in time. He unleashes the Whistling Birds, then uses his Beskar armor to shield Fennec. They are inundated by laser fire. As Mando buckles, a thermal grenade lands in the stormtroopers’ midst. It explodes as Boba Fett, clad in his iconic armor, comes to the rescue.
Boba Fett unleashes a hurricane of ass-kicking. He walks through the stormtroopers, decimating them with his blaster, fighting skills, and armor. Projectiles even fire from his knee guards. The stormtroopers retreat to their transports. They take off, but Boba launches his jetpack missile at the lead ship. It explodes and crashes into the second transport.
Mando, Boba, and Fennec regroup. Suddenly, a turbo laser from space fires down and destroys the Razor Crest. Mando watches in horror as his ship explodes. Boba immediately flies back to the Slave. Mando uses his visor and sees an Imperial cruiser in low orbit. He and Fennec race back to the Seeing Stone.
Moff Gideon watches from the bridge, “Have the Dark Troopers been engaged?” Four Dark Troopers rocket down from the ship. The sentinel-like robots grab Grogu just as Mando arrives. He watches as they take the child to the cruiser. “They’ve got the baby, don’t let them get away!” Fennec radios. Mando tells them to stand down, “I don’t want the child hurt.” Boba is shocked to see the cruiser, “They’re back…the Empire is back.”
Mando walks through the wreckage of the Razor Crest. He finds Grogu’s throttle ball, and the Beskar spear. Fennec and Boba watch him sadly. Boba activates his wrist chain code, he proves the armor belonged to Jango Fett. “Your father was a foundling. Then the armor does belong to you,” Mando replies. Their deal is not yet complete. Boba and Fennec “will ensure the safety of the child. Until he’s returned safely, we are in your debt.”
The Slave lands on Nevarro. Mando enters the office of Cara Dune (Gina Carano). He marvels at her New Republic badge. Mando asks her to search for a prisoner. He needs to find Migs Mayfield (Bill Burr). Mando has to “spring him to locate Moff Gideon’s light cruiser.” He asks for Cara’s help. At first she says “no” as an officer of the New Republic, then Mando tells her “they have the kid.”
In hyperspace, Moff Gideon walks to a holding cell with his guards. Inside, Grogu is throttling two stormtroopers with the force. Gideon watches as Grogu tires out, “You’ve gotten very good with that…but it makes you so sleepy.” He activates the Darksaber. Grogu reaches for its shimmering black blade. “You’re not ready for such things. Looks like you can use a nice, long sleep,” Gideon mutters. He waves his hand and a stormtrooper stuns Grogu. The child is shackled. Moff Gideon gives another order, “When we come out of hyperspace, send an encrypted message to Dr. Pershing. Let him know we have got our donor.”
Boba Fett returns to his armor and ass-kicking glory. Wow, I couldn’t help but smile as the Slave landed on Tython. He was the mysterious figure who approached Fennec’s body in Chapter Five, “The Gunslinger”. It’s awesome to see him ally with Mando, Fennec, and Cara Dune to find Grogu. The first stop is to free Mayfield from the New Republic prison. Let’s hope Grogu can hold on through Moff Gideon and Dr. Pershing’s transfusions. We still have yet to find out what the “M-Count” blood is being used for. We also don’t know what Grogu saw on the Seeing Stone. Could Ezra Bridger be the Jedi that seeks the child? The Mandalorian returns next Friday on Disney+ as another prison break looms.
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