Ricky Church reviews the seventh episode of The Mandalorian season 3…
This season of The Mandalorian has been rather hit-and-miss in quality with some episodes diverging too much into subplots that took away from the main story or being fairly repetitive. What a marked improvement the penultimate episode ‘The Spies’ was as it had a terrific balance of character, story and action as the combined Mandalorian forces travelled back to Mandalore and discovered several more surprises on the surface. Considering the build up to the return to Mandalore as well as Moff Gideon, it was certainly exciting even if the road here could have been better mapped out.
What helped establish the stakes going into these final two episodes immediately was the opening with Moff Gideon and the Shadow Council, a group of high-ranking Imperial officials, discussing their plans and the inner turmoil between them. Not only was the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn in Ahsoka teased (along with a Legends character making their canon appearance), but even the Sequel Trilogy was hinted at with Project Necromancer, led by General Hux’s father no less, undoubtedly pointing to Palpatine’s eventual return.
Yet it showed despite their pact to reform the Empire, each of the generals had their own plans, vying for as much power and control as possible. Gideon is perhaps the boldest of them, questioning Thrawn’s return along with the reveal the experiments he was conducting with Dr. Pershing and Grogu were of his own doing, keeping them to himself instead of providing them to Project Necromancer as he was supposed to. It paints an interesting picture of the complexities and ambitions between each of the Imperials, from Pallaeon’s practicality not to draw attention to themselves, Hux’s smug attitude and Gideon’s outright powerplay. Giancarlo Esposito, as always, excels at villainy and he captured Gideon’s ambition and superiority very well, especially in the climax as he was gloating with full glee over his apparent victory and the strength of his new Dark Troopers.
As for the Mandalorians, we got to see several different factions together as not only the Children of the Watch and the Nite Owls finally met, but survivors on Mandalore who were living in a Mad Max-like fashion, travelling in whatever pieces they could scrounge and cobble together. It would have been nice to have had more time to see the Watch and Nite Owls come together explore their animosity more deeply as they had barely said hello before Bo-Katan recruited a number of them to search Mandalore’s surface. The previous episode would have been the perfect time to do that, but it unfortunately dealt with a subplot that has no bearing on the events in these final two episodes. As it is, it was nice to see their beliefs and lifestyles weren’t so easily handwaved away as Axel Woves and Paz Vizsla got into a fight over a chess-like game and an insult to Vizsla’s honour.
Katee Sackhoff also gave a terrific performance as Bo-Katan particularly in the scene where we finally learnt more about her story in the time between Star Wars Rebels and The Mandalorian, including the reveal she had actually surrendered to save Mandalore and its people, but Gideon laid waste to the planet anyway and claimed the Darksaber. It is quite a significant moment and piece of development given her history and how as a younger woman in Death Watch she would have likely fought to the bitter end instead of putting her people first. Sackhoff carried Bo-Katan’s regret well in both her line delivery and body language. Where she tells Din “I was selfish” you can see the weight her role in Mandalore’s downfall, her sister Duchess Satine’s death and her failed leadership has taken on her. As an aside, it would be nice if the series acknowledged Satine and what led Bo-Katan to join Death Watch and fight against her own sister in the first place since that is one piece of crucial information we don’t yet know.
Of course, as the leading star Pedro Pascal did a great job as Din Djarin (even if he’s not in the costume much of the time). His own delivery with his exasperation on Grogu’s toddler-like excitement at driving IG-11’s (now rechristened IG-12) body around and touching everything he can. Pascal also made every bit of the conversation between Din and Bo strong as he conveyed his faith and fealty in her position and leadership. It is also an interesting distinction that her group of Mandalorians place so much reverence on the Darksaber while Din freely admits it couldn’t matter less to him and his people given how strict they are to ancient Mandalorian traditions and folklore while Bo-Katan and her group are a little more lax about their rules.
Helming ‘The Spies’ was director Rick Famuyiwa and he made quite an exciting episode with its blend of plot, character development and especially action. The climax was very tense as the Mandalorians fought Gideon’s evolution of the Mando Stormtroopers seen in Rebels using the Beskar alloy. The shootout was a pretty coherent action scene as you could tell what was going on and who was who with nice choreography between all the combatants, especially when they went hand-to-hand. Din’s capture would have been a good cliffhanger to end on on its own, but Famuyiwa went further with Gideon ordering the destruction of the Mandalorian fleet and Paz Viszla’s epic sacrifice.
Granted, Paz Viszla’s death is only epic for the number of enemies he took down on his own to give Bo-Katan and the others time enough to escape as well as the appearance of the Sequel Trilogy’s Praetorians to take him down. There’s not much of an emotional connection to the character as we didn’t really get to know him aside from how devoted he is to his son and The Way despite his sometimes confrontational relationship with Din. Even still, it was quite a moment to end on that spells a lot of trouble for our heroes in next week’s finale.
SEE ALSO: The Mandalorian: How Chapter 23 Foreshadows the Rise of the First Order
Rating: 9/10
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
