2x06 Chapter 14: The Tragedy

[8.0/10] This one is just made of awesome. It’s nothing but action sequences and fan service, but both are done well! This is the Star Wars equivalent of candy for dinner. There’s little in the way of deeper themes, little in the way of emotion, and little in the way of character development. “The Tragedy” exists just to blow up the status quo in terms of plot and give the fans a rollicking good time, and it succeeds on both counts.

My favorite moment, though, had nothing to do with those rocket-launched fireworks. It was the quiet scene that Dinn and Grogu shared on the Razor Crest before landing on Typhon. Mando doesn’t want to give The Child up. He clearly feels like Baby Yoda’s space dad and has grown close to the little force-sensitive tyke in their time together. But he also realizes that, after testing the kid’s powers and ensuring it’s not a fluke, that Grogu needs to be with someone who can hone his abilities, who can capitalize on the potential this “special” little guy has in store. Mando believes it isn’t him, and however hard it is for them to part, he wants to do what’s right.

Pedro Pascal sells the hell out of the emotions in that scene, what giving up this child who’s changed his life menas to Mando. The puppeteers and sound designers do almost as good as ob on their end, conveying how even if he can’t articulate it exactly, Grogu has an intuitive understanding of what’s about to happen and shares some of his surrogate father’s wistfulness over it.

But then it’s time for some ressurections and firefights. Look, if it was up to me, Boba Fett would stay dead. Hell, as much as I love Ahsoka as a character, if it was up to me, she would have stayed dead too. There’s far too many people who seem to be goners who nevertheless come back to life in Star Wars. Enough with the fakeouts and returns.

Still, if they gotta do it, I like how they did it here. I don’t know that we ever saw signs of Boba Fett being this noble or decent, whether in the Original Trilogy films, Attack of the Clones, or The Clone Wars series. But it works with Temura Morrison’s sand-worn gravitas. The adjustments to his backstory work well, making him the progeny of another Mandalorian foundling, searching for his father’s armor, possessed of similar honor and principles as Dinn is. That doesn’t necessarily line up with the character we’ve known to this point, but it passes the smell test, and makes for a cool character regardless of whether that character matches neatly with Boba Fett.

Plus, Ming-Na Wen is back as Fennec! There too, we have a resurrection that seems like it shouldn’t be possible, but I like the character and the performance so much that I’m willing to let it slide (no pun intended). Fans of Mulan and Agents of Shield like me are excited to have her back in the fold, and robotic midsection or not, the prospect of her and Boba as a team makes for an intriguing one.

If that weren’t enough, director Robert Rodriguez, a proven action director, gives them tons of badass moments to make fans fist-pump. Boba gets two (arguably even three) of them. We see him in his Tatooine survivor form, knocking Stormtroopers around with his Tusken staff like a master. Then, when the show has made the audience wait just long enough, he dons his old armor once again and makes mincemeat out of not only the enemy troopers, but their transport ships. It’s a hell of a coming out party for the character we last saw gobbled up by a sarlacc.

Fennec gets her moment in the sun too, using her sharpshooter abilities to pick off imerials until she’s corner and has to improvise with a giant boulder. Throw in a backwards shooting dive off the rock, and you have anolther badass role for Ming-Na Wen to inhabit.

Mando gets his time to shine too. Beyond his usual rough and tumble style, we get a nice setup and payoff with his use of the whistling bird. More to the point, we see how much he strains and struggles to reach Baby Yoda, and how he resolves to protect The Child when retrieving him proves impossible. I don’t know who Grogu is communing with in that bright blue beam, but I’m excited at the possibilities, and it makes for a great escort mission for Dinn and his fellow bounty hunters.

And yet, this one ends, true to the title, in tragedy. The dark troopers zoom down and kidnap Grogu before our heroes can stop them. Moff Gideon’s ship blasts the Razor Crest, leaving Mando without a vessel to go off in search of his adopted son. Gideon himself bests The Child, wearing the kid’s force powers out on mooks before taunting him and eventually caging him. It’s the most distress we’ve seen our favorite little tridactyl in since last season’s finale.

But there is, true to this franchise, hope. Boba and Fennec guaranteed The Child’s safety if Mando returned Fett’s armor, so now they’re committed to helping him rescue Grogu. Cara Dune (ugh) is willing to use her position as a New Republic Marshal to help spring Bill Burr (ugh) to track down the evil Moff. There’s not a lot of depth to this, but the pieces are moving in exciting ways, and there’s a clear path between here and the end of the season,

That’s a good thing. Despite its name, “The Tragedy” is more like a basket of quadruple layer nachos rather than an elegantly-cooked meal, but it goes down easy all the same. I’ll take thrills and unexpected returns by the barrelful when they’re this good.

Another good episode and whatever could have been done good or wrong with it, this was going to be an easy win in the end just because the return of a Star Wars icon like Boba Fett was destined to steal the scene anyway.
Still I didn't like the gratuitous violence that (as usual) Rodriguez felt so necessary to tell his part of the story, I mean all those slashing and armors fragments flying al around, and especially a couple of shots where the camera indulged few seconds too much on a smashed helmet or a dead stormtrooper body. Pulp Wars uh..?
Melee combats have always been a Star Wars trademark, still coreography and visual storytelling never needed graphic violence to bring to life the most epic Star Wars fights, action and pathos. We have been through mutilations and body slashing before in this universe, but always with a certain narrative style.
Besides the fact that this is still a show and a franchise for the whole family, little kids included, gratuitous violence remains just that. Not sure why the production let this pass without any apparent restriction, but at least Rodriguez spared us some blood splatter so in the end should we even be thankful somehow I guess?
Plus I found some other weaknesses in the screenplay that gets streched a bit too thin for me in the central part of the story, where the more stormtroopers lands, Mando goes back and forth from Grogu always getting bounced back by the Force field, etc...well this is just what keeps happening for like ten minutes and to be honest is not exactly great writing, felt more again, like an excuse to have Rodriguez to carry on his smash and bash thing, which we all knew how good he is at..if only it didn't felt so misplaced in a Star Wars story. I remain with the feeling that this episode has been largely saved by the charisma and weight of a powerful character like Boba Fett that luckily managed to eclipse all the rest.

The episode earned its title well, since it is the worst turn of events that could have been possible for Mando, as the baby has been kidnapped by the baddies and his space ship was completely destroyed to boot. Mando and the baby do manage to visit the ruins of the ancient Jedi temple, which looks part Stonehenge and part Amon Hen from the game LotRO. After touching the stone, the baby goes into some magical Jedi trance and even Mando cannot get him out of it. He gets accosted by Bobba Fett who wants the armour back, but Mando does not want to give it to him as Bobba does not believe in the Mandalorian creed. It turns out Bobba has backup as it was he who found the wounded Fennec and healed her and she is now his ally. Bobba tells Mando to detach his jetpack for negotiation, which has a huge bearing on the plot as just after that they get attacked by two waves of Stormtroopers, luckily Bobba and Fennec start to fight them while frantic Mando goes back to the ruins to fetch Grogu, but the baby is still in trance, creating such a strong force field that it stuns Mando for some time. Meanwhile, the battle rages on, and Bobba and Fennec manage to defeat most of the Stormtroopers and make them fly away, before that Bobba sneaks into Mando's spaceship, which is customarily left open, and takes the Mandalorian armour, which allows him to shoot down the ships with Stormtroopers. This does not help much, though, since the big baddie Moff is parked in his spaceship nearby and he sends some badass guys he calls dark troopers to get the baby; unfortunately, the force field lets go short time before the troopers are sent to find the baby, or he would have been well protected by it since even Mando in his beskar armour could not cross it. The baddies easily capture Grogu as he lies exhausted by his feat, whereas Mando and Fennec try and fail to reach him in time. Mando's ship is completely destroyed by some blaster fire and the only things he gets from the debris are Grogu's favourite ball and the beskar spear he got in the previous episode. Luckily, now he has Bobba and Fennec as his allies since Bobba considers himself beholden to the deal of getting the armour in exchange of protecting the child and promises Mando help until the baby is found. It also turns out that Bobba's dad was a foundling so he had the right to the armour after all. Mando is in hard spot, however, since he lost the baby and the spaceship which was like a home to him. Now he is at the mercy of Bobba for his travel, I wonder whether he would be able to afford a new ship? I guess these may be very expensive things. As for the jetpack, it seems to me it was destroyed in the battle as there was a great deal of havoc wreaked there, and there is no way of getting a new one as the Mandalorian lady smith is dead? The baby is imprisoned on Moff's ship but he shows his magic skills by throwing the Stormtroopers around and choking them, Moff orders to put him to sleep and handcuff him, which would prevent the baby from using his magic, rendering him defenceless? Definitely a dramatic episode with a sad ending, the worst so far in the whole show.