Star Wars Television

The Mandalorian – The Foundling

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  • Title: The Mandalorian – Chapter 20: The Foundling
  • wiki: link

In an episode that keeps its focus on our main characters (amazing how much better that works!), “The Foundling” spends more time with the Mandalorian cult that have embraced both Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) and Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) after their return from Mandalore. Along with Grogu finally beginning his Mandalorian training, whose abilities shock some members of the tribe, and flashbacks to his escape from the Jedi Temple (which feel a bit unnaturally shoehorned in here to make use of Coruscant sets and visuals used in the previous episode), we also see Bo-Katan lead a group of warriors including Din after one of the children is snatched by a local predator.

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Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Pabu

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  • Title: Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Pabu
  • wiki: link

Since it doesn’t feel as if the squad is ready to hang up their blasters permanently, “Pabu” feels darkly foreboding. The episode’s title comes from the hidden colony of refugees Phee Genoa (Wanda Sykes) leads the Bad Batch to after a successful job. While the retreat offers a respite from recent events, and a young friend for Omega (Michelle Ang), it’s far from dull as the squad comes together to help save the locals from a natural disaster before deciding to stay and help the community rebuild (possibly staying just long enough for their troubles to follow them to Pabu?).

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The Imperial Scientist – The Convert

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Mandalorian – Chapter 19: The Convert
  • wiki: link

While there is a Mandalorian story that opens and closes the episode, the vast majority of “The Convert” takes place far, far away from our main characters and their adventures. As with Andor, the show turns its attention instead to Coruscant. In this case the storyline involves former Imperial soldiers and scientists granted amnesty being slowly reintegrated into the New Republic. Our main focus is Penn Pershing (Omid Abtahi), a character’s name I had to look up and still won’t remember, who was getting on all hunky dory with his new life, despite his less than prestigious new job, until another Imperial agent, now with the New Republic, started fucking with him.

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Star Wars: The Bad Batch – The Outpost

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Star Wars: The Bad Batch – The Outpost
  • wiki: link

“The Outpost” becomes the second episode of the season to focus on Crosshair (Dee Bradley Baker) rather than the Bad Batch as we catch up with the former member of the squad and his struggles working for the Empire which is increasingly uninterested in clone soldiers. Sent to an out-of-the-way Imperial depo, it doesn’t take long for Crosshairs to grow impatient with the racist Lieutenant Nolan (Crispin Freeman) who treats the clones as out-of-date equipment he’s stuck with using. Crosshairs manages to make a friend on his journey, but that will be short-lived given the suicide mission they are both sent on (and denied medical attention after making it back). The episode is far from subtle, but gets the general idea across, if a bit hamfistedly, while suggesting there may be a path of redemption for Crosshairs.

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The Mandalorian – The Mines of Mandalore

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Mandalorian – Chapter 18: The Mines of Mandalore
  • wiki: link

So, maybe don’t have your main bad-ass character be so inept he needs to be saved twice within a half-hour? In some schizophrenic narrative storytelling, we learn our Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu have left the Mandalorian moon of Kalevala without journeying to the planet as promised. Instead, Din picks up the side quest he quickly abandoned to go Mandalore in the first place. Looking for the supposedly important droid part on Tatooine doesn’t keep his interest all that long however, as he takes the first droid Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris) pushes on to him in a segment that’s completely out of place given the sequence of events of the season premiere and completely superfluous to events of this episode where the Mandalorian’s own scanners would easily have sufficed.

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