TV Review: THE MANDALORIAN: Season 2, Episode 8: The Rescue [Disney+]

The Mandalorian The Rescue Review

Disney+‘s The Mandalorian: Season 2, Episode 8: The Rescue TV Show Review. The Rescue may be the best episode of The Mandalorian to-date. If it isn’t the best episode in its entirety, it certainly has the best ending. The Rescue‘s ending is emotional and satisfying, ending one section of the show’s storyline and beginning another.

The Rescue also exposed the chief flaw in the series over and over again – adversaries of little-to-no substance that pose little-to-no threat (Moff Gideon being the exception).

The Dune Moment

Carasynthia “Cara” Dune (Gina Carano)’s best emotional moment in The Mandalorian TV series takes place at the beginning of The Rescue. Seeing how the Empire (and possibly a large majority of the civilian population) saw the rebels as “terrorists” was something new yet it made sense. It made the conflict between the Empire and the Rebellion more realistic i.e. one side internally and externally vilifying the other.

The space pilot’s continuous taunts of Cara Dune are very good as is the visible anger slowly building up inside of Dune. When the shot is taken, it is the ultimate culmination of a tense moment and it is also ludicrous. What if the shot went through the pilot’s head into the glass of the cockpit, put a hole through it, shattering it, and killed them all? It is an outrageously reckless shot.

The shot also makes The Rescue a better episode à la Fennec Shand being shot in The Gunslinger – the shot effectively raises the stakes for everything that came after it in The Rescue.

The Doctor’s Help

Why does Dr. Pershing (Omid Abtahi) give the would-be hijackers all of that Intel about Moff Gideon’s light cruiser (Imperial Class 546) and the Dark Troopers?

It’s inexplicable and far too convenient. If he doesn’t freely and willing give the hijackers the intelligence that he does, most, if not all of them, would be killed in their boarding attempt. Why does the doctor risk getting people that he has worked with on the light cruiser killed?

Is it self-preservation?

Does he tell the hijackers because he is afraid if one of them actually gets out alive, the survivor(s) would kill him? Is that his calculation? Is that worth gambling against the near-sure-thing as the Dark Troopers?

It doesn’t really make sense. The hijackers don’t torture him or threaten him. Some would argue that the blaster-grazing by Cara Dune was enough pain to get the good doctor to spill his guts but in the next scene following the blaster grazing, he has absolutely no damage from the blaster and is in no pain. What is stopping him from setting a trap for the hijackers by omitting information?

Why does he suddenly become a traitor? Again, self-preservation?

The doctor’s characterization and personality, even after multiple appearances on The Mandalorian, are completely undeveloped and thus his motivations and thinking, even in critical moments, are left an enigma.

Stormtrooper Slapstick and The Dark Troopers

The Star Wars tradition of hapless cannon fodder enemy soldiers continues in The Rescue. Storm Trooper slapstick is on full display in this episode with all the hallmarks of ineptitude the viewer has unfortunately come to expect from them.

The Storm Troopers, once again, can’t shoot straight, don’t use their environment to their advantage, and are killed effortlessly by their adversaries e.g. Putty Patrollers fighting Power Rangers.

How much better would The Mandalorian be if there were soldiers on the Empire’s side with the skill, accuracy, and the longevity of Cara Dune?

99% of the actual worthy adversaries present in The Rescue are held back by a mechanical door, then Deus Ex Machine shows up, and wipes them all out. Because of that, there is: a.) no desperate fight between the Dark Troopers and the hero hijackers and b.) no heavy losses on the heroes’ side to equal the losses on the Empire’s side.

So it seems the ultimate point of the Dark Troopers is to present a threat that is not actually realized, or at the most only toyed with, and then dispatched.

Moff Gideon, The Heiress, and the Saber

The fight between Moff Gideon and The Mandalorian / Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) is one of the many surprises in The Rescue but it isn’t out of left field. The Mandalorian said he would do whatever it took to get Gorgu back in The Believer and he backs it up with multiple kinetic acts in The Rescue. Gideon and The Mandalorian’s battle is a grand exposition of prowess, with Gideon a surprising agile and fierce combatant, a nearly-equal match to The Mandalorian.

It is the verbal aftermath of the fight, however, that proves to be far more interesting. Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff)’s disbelief at a spoiled opportunity and then her unwillingness to take the Dark Saber from The Mandalorian, a sword she has not earned in battle, says a lot about her e.g. her eyes seeing the prize but her mind knowing that the sword would be no more than a trinket if she doesn’t earn it in combat. Bo-Katan is in an impossible situation, one she didn’t anticipate, but she handles it correctly, keeping her honor but not gaining the prize (an example of Spannungsbogen)…for now.

The Mandalorian’s willingness to give up the Dark Saber without a second thought shows that he is completely without worldly ambition, a mere engine of actions, agency, and limited emotions, almost the complete opposite of Bo-Katan and her unexplored depths. It would have been a good fight between the two of them but that, I believe, is being saved for another day, a day when The Mandalorian has something else to fight for besides The Child and that new desire, and Bo-Katan’s Mandalore throne-quest, will come to a head.

The Helmet Moment

A combination of Pedro Pascal’s desire for audiences to see his face so they know its him playing The Mandalorian while simultaneously adding weight to an emotional moment between two lead characters results in probably the most emotional scene in the series to-date. The Mandalorian wants Grogu to know him, the real him, the person behind the religious zealot. The Mandalorian wants that connection with Grogu before Grogu leaves and does what it takes to achieve it. The Mandalorian makes a choice – he chooses The Child over his religious beliefs and practices. The Mandalorian found something that meant more to him than his religion, starting in The Believer, all the way up to this key moment in The Rescue. This is what makes this critical moment so impactful – there has been a previous, substantive build up towards it. It isn’t just dropped in the viewer’s lap in this episode. It has been developed over sixteen episodes and crescendos in The Rescue with a tearful goodbye. The viewer feels it. It’s real. It’s good writing, good planning, and good acting.

The Jedi Surprise

When the X-wing lands in the landing bay of Moff Gideon’s light cruiser in The Rescue, the viewer thinks “Oh great. Those Republic X-wing guys are back. In the nick of time…again.”

The moment the figure is walking down the halls of the cruiser, the viewer is thinking, “It’s just some no name Jedi,” then the viewer sees the green light saber, then the gloved hand, then the action intensifies, as the viewer thinks “it’s not him. It isn’t him.”

The viewer watches a glorious action sequence unfold, inter-cut with reactions shots from the bridge of the cruiser. This sequence is what the Darth Vader melee scene in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story wanted to be. There is no fan service in this The Rescue action sequence. It could easily become that but writer Jon Favreau avoids over-using things while also avoiding breaking canon e.g. Vader personally fighting at the end of Rogue One then hours later in Star Wars: A New Hope, sitting the entire fight out and letting the Storm Troopers breach and take Princess Leia’s ship. That inconsistency is not present during the Jedi fight sequence in The Rescue. This The Rescue action scene is thoughtful and tasteful. It teases the viewer as it progresses, it titillates them. It builds up and up upon itself until the character that has perpetrated all of this action and mental stimulation is revealed.

This is how you properly use an old character in something new while not degrading that old character or the mystique that has been built around them. In this case, Luke Skywalker as a character is made that much better and that much more important to the Star Wars universe at the conclusion of The Rescue.

Everything is just perfect.

The Luke scenes are brisk and directly to the point and then they are over, leaving the viewer wanting more (like a CGI Luke Skywalker TV series on Disney+ or more appearances in The Mandalorian universe).

Luke’s CGI face was much better than Princess Leia’s clay face with its uncanny valley / dead eyes from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The cost and return-on-investment of The Mandalorian‘s episodes really came through throughout The Rescue, but especially in Luke’s key face reveal moment.

Like everyone else, I am amazed that Luke is in The Rescue and further amazed that Disney was able to keep his appearance a secret, especially in this day and age.

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