Yeah, I’m behind. But I don’t care. This show is just mindblowingly good, I don’t mind revisiting these episodes so this is going to be my ketchup week. This one felt like a short episode, even with a running time of 40 minutes. The Siege may have been light on the action, but there’s a lot to unpack here so let’s get to it.
As always, this episode picks up right where the last one left off. The Mando, after receiving some intel from Bo-Katan, now has a name and a place to finish his quest: Ahsoka Tano at the city of Calodan on Corvus. He gets in his poorly repaired Razor Crest gets into space. Except the Crest isn’t doing too well. It’s hobbling along so much that The Mando has to stick Baby Yoda in a service crawlspace and try to explain to him what to do with a bunch of loose wires. It’s honestly a cute scene and something I’m pretty sure every parent can relate to. Mechanic Baby Yoda wasn’t up to snuff, so it’s time to bring the ship’s health back up before continuing on to Corvus. Off to Nevarro they go.
The next scene opens up in the covert’s blacksmith shop, except Lady Armorer isn’t there. Instead there are a bunch of Aqualish thugs who are up to thug stuff. Some them start to argue while one of them grabs what looks like a mink from a cage to prep it for din din. Suddenly a noise distracts them and one poor sap is sent to go investigate. Cara Dune gets the jump on them and dispatches them one by one via hand-to-hand combat. Except for the last dude where she finally pulls out her blaster and puts him down. Why she didn’t do that in the beginning is beyond me. She starts gathering all the loot while making friends with the would-be dinner treat mink, explaining that she has to return all the stuff to the rightful owner. She must a sheriff or deputy right? Right.
The Crest break into Nevarro’s atmosphere and lands in the lava field parking lot. He meets up with Cara and Combat Carl. They’re more than happy to welcome the two of them back to town. Combat Carl orders some techs to repair the ship. One tech looks longingly at the pair. Turns out that Cara dune is the marshal of the town now. Combat Carl, the magistrate. They walk through town and it is just bustling with life, a stark contrast from the scenery we’ve been used to in Season 1 with the empire’s stink all over town. Now that the stink is gone, life can be normal. So normal in fact that the bar where the guild headquarters was, the one that was half shot up and burning to the ground is now rebuilt and turned into a school. Combat Carl wants to leave Baby Yoda there but The Mando is not liking that idea. Where Baby Yoda goes, he goes, but Combat Carl assures him it’s the safest place because he’s got a little favor to ask of The Mando and where they’re going they can’t exactly bring Baby Yoda with them. The three adults leave but before we say goodbye to Baby Yoda for now, we get another little scene with him where he uses the force to steal some macarons from another student.
The adults make their back to an office where we see Blue Horatio Sanz, The Mando’s bounty from the series premiere. Apparently, Mythorol worked as an accountant for Combat Carl before cooking the books and disappearing, so he’s working off his debt to the tune of 350 years. But they’re not there to rehash old times. Cara and Combat Carl need The Mando’s help. There’s an old Imperial base, Moff Gideon’s old base of operations, that’s still manned by a skeleton crew. There’s a ton of heavy weaponry there that would make a good target for the black market and Combat Carl wants to get rid of it so that Nevarro can be a safe place in the Outer Rim. Without needing much convincing, The Mando is in.
So The Mando, Cara, and Combat Carl take a speeder and make their way to the Imperial base with Blue Sanz acting as chauffeur. It’s obvious he doesn’t want to be there, but knocking 100 years off of his debt repayment is better than walking home across the lava flats. The plan is to go in, overload the reactor to blow, and then get the hell out of dodge. Strike quickly and quietly, but things never go according to plan do they?
The speeder pulls up to an elevator door at the bottom of a canyon. The base is up top overlooking said canyon. The door’s not budging so The Mando jetpacks up to the top to see if he can find a way in. Meanwhile, Combat Carl knocks another 30 years off of Mythorol’s debt if he comes along and helps. There’s a commotion up top and right when the door opens a stormtrooper lands on the ground next to them. Thanks, Mando! The three get and meet back up with The Mando up at the top level where there’s a loading dock filled with loading docks things, like dead stormtroopers, crates, and such, including a nice little armored carrier, a Trexlar Marauder.
The group opens up some bay doors where we see a bunch of parked speeder bikes. I do love me some speeder bikes. They make their way in to a control room where they take out a lone Imperial officer. The Mando determines where the reactor is and the group is off once again sneaking around the base. They finally get to the reactor and Combat Carl makes Mythorol sabotage the coolant lines. Alarms start going off and they begin their escape.
They can’t go back the way they came because that would be too easy and doesn’t advance the plot. So while on their way back, to avoid some stormtroopers they make their way through to a storage room. There are two technicians working hard who, once they spot our heroes, start firing at them. Well, at least one of them is, the other is shooting at the control terminal they were working on. Our heroes shoot those guys down and while they catch their breath they see where they are. The storage room is storing some tanks and inside those tanks are humanoid looking things. Cara is putting two and two together and is realizing that this imperial base isn’t a base, it’s science lab. They need to figure out exactly what’s going on because the stakes seem so much greater now.
With the coolant lines broken, time is running out before the whole base blows up. Mythorol is on it. He finds a holo transmission from Dr. Pershing. I’m going to type it out here, what he said in that transmission, ’cause it’s kind of important:
Replicated the results of the subsequent trials, which also resulted in catastrophic failure. There were promising effects for an entire fortnight but then, sadly, the body rejected the blood. I highly doubt we’ll find another donor with a higher M-count, though. I recommend we suspend all experimentation. I fear that the volunteer will meet the same regrettable fate if we proceed with the transfusion. Unfortunately, we have exhausted our initial supply of blood. The Child is small, and I was only able to harvest a limited amount without killing him. If these experiments are to continue as requested, we would again require access to the donor. I will not disappoint you again, Moff Gideon.
Whoah, right?
The Mando assumes the transmission is old because the last he checked Moff Gideon went down like a flaming meteor and crashed his TIE when the fought five episodes ago. Mythorol confirms though that the transmission is three days old. While everyone’s doing the mental math to realize that Baby Yoda is in grave danger alone at the school, some stormtroopers show up to act as target practice for our heroes. They decide to split up. The Mando can jetpack back faster so he runs down one corridor back to the reactor controls. The other three have to take the speeder back and so they head back to the launch pad.
So they’re split up and there’s a montage that cuts back and forth between The Mando and the other three. The Mando gets back to the reactor controls and jetpacks out of the cavern while dispatching a few stormtroopers along the way. Two stormtroopers that gave chase notice the error codes the coolant lines are throwing, and attempt to turn them off. Seems like their plan is being foiled! The trio heads back to the landing platform / loading dock also taking out a couple of stormtroopers along the way. This is no skeleton crew as there are troopers everywhere. They get pinned down by couple on the dock. Cara jumps inside the Trexlar Marauder and they use that to escape. They drive the land vehicle right off the edge of the platform. Luckily the speeder they parked at the bottom of the canyon broke their fall and they speed away as fast as they can. The stormtroopers can’t give chase, but a bunch of scout troopers hop on the speeder bikes and give chase. I love me some speeder bikes. They pull the same move as the Marauder and try and drive them down the cliff face with varying degrees of success.
The scouts that make it give chase. The Marauder’s outfitted with a pair of heavy artillery guns and Combat Carl takes down one of the three scouts. Cara rams one into the side of a mountain. The last one manages to get on top of the transport and is about to throw a grenade into the cockpit when Combat Carl spots him on the targeting computer and blows him up at point blank range of the Marauder’s guns.
At this point, the base starts to blow up. Seems like the stormtrooper trying to fix the coolant lines failed to do so. Some TIE fighters parked at the top of the base, folded wings and all, start taking off. Four of them give chase to the trio in the Marauder. They’re winding through the canyon, both sides not having much luck in taking down their opponents. Combat Carl gets a lucky break though and nails a TIE, but the debris crashes into the Marauder taking out its weapons. Combat Carl managed to dive out of the way of danger in time and the transport is still in one piece. They make it out of the cannon and are racing across the lava fields. Not sure what they’re plan is at this point. They can’t really go back to town can they? And put everyone in danger? They have no weapons. They don’t have the cover of the canyon anymore. Things are looking bad.
The three remaining TIEs make a run at the Marauder, fly past, and one of them blows up. The Razor Crest enters the field of view chasing the TIEs down. Cut to the cockpit and The Mando is there with Baby Yoda who is eating the macarons he basically force-stole from that kid. Poor kid. One of the TIEs starts climbing to space and the Crest gives chase. The Mando shoots that one down, cuts the engines, and flips the ship 180°. The engines kick on and he starts a nosedive. The last TIE fighter is climbing and shooting at the Razor Crest. It’s a game of chicken now, but only better because of lasers. The Mando spins the Crest to avoid the laser fire and fires back, blowing up the TIE. Baby Yoda is enjoying every second of the greatest rollercoaster ride. So much so that he ends up spitting up some blue macaron onto his tiny robe. And The Mando is a great father. You know how I know? He immediately starts wiping the spit up with his cape. “Onboard maintenance”.
Combat Carl thanks him and The Mando thanks him for the repairs. The ship is good as new but now they gotta jet before Moff Gideon catches wind that they were even there. And so they bid farewell until the next time.
But that’s not all. The next scene cuts to a pair of X-Wings parked right outside town. Are they same X-Wings from Chapter 10? Yep! Kim’s Convenience is there to ask about the Imperial base that blew up. The convenience store owner turned X-wing pilot asks about the transponder logs and the Razor Crest but Combat Carl isn’t giving anything up though. He’s not exactly fans of the New Republic. Kim’s Convenience leaves and runs into Cara outside. He compliments her for cleaning up Nevarro, knows her history as a shock trooper for the Alliance, and notes she’s from Alderaan. He says he served during the that time and asks if she lost anyone. She replies that she lost everyone. Kim’s Convenience expresses his condolences and very quietly leaves a badge behind and walks away, wordlessly inviting her to become a New Republic marshal.
But wait, there’s more! The next scene is in space and we’re treated to a throwback shot of an Imperial Star Destroyer flying overhead from behind. Although, it’s not quite any Star Destroyer we’ve seen so far but there is no doubt it is what it is. A female Imperial officer is on the bridge and opens up a communication channel with the mechanic that looked longingly at The Mando when he landed on Nevarro. He tells her that the device was planted on the ship. I guess the Razor Crest has some sort of tracking beacon on it now. This pleases the officer and she goes to tell her boss the good news. Moff Gideon is in a room with a lot of troopers in stalls that are being looked over by two workers. He turns around slowly enough for every Disney+ subscriber to drink in how much what he is wearing is starting to look like Darth Vader’s armor. A short conversation between the two confirms to Gideon that the beacon is on the Crest and that The Mando still has “the asset”. The camera then pulls back to reveal just how many troopers are in that room. And who knows how many rooms there are on that ship that are full of the same troopers. Roll credits.
Random Thoughts
The scene at the beginning where Baby Yoda is wrestling with the wires and The Mando is desperately trying to get him to connect the wires together? Yeah, Gutter knows what the people want and the people want Baby Yoda. Thankfully, the show isn’t just a montage after montage of Baby Yoda shenanigans, otherwise I’d probably get real sick of it. There have been enough scenes sprinkled throughout the seasons so far to keep things light and leaves us with wanting more. We delight in seeing these moments, instead of dreading them.
Those humanoid things in the tanks in the lab? Those were the failed experiments that Dr. Pershing spoke of. Moff Gideon is trying to take midichlorian-rich blood from one being (Baby Yoda), and transfuse it into another. The “volunteers” are test subjects obviously, to make sure that such a procedure is viable. Moff Gideon, who is not a force user, so badly wants to be a force user he’ll do everything in his power to get there. He’s already got the darksaber, the very Vader-looking suit. He’s probably got a helmet somewhere. Now he just needs the M-count. It makes midichlorians, a George Lucas invention that made every Star Wars fan in the galaxy eyes roll, a tad more interesting as this episode’s major plot point. It was never really explained what midichlorians do, or how it affects someone’s ability to use the force, at least never explained in any of the films. I suppose there’s a book out there that goes into details but it’s something I never really researched. Even with the internet at my fingertips, as I write this I have no desire to look it up on Wookieepedia. The midichlorians, as a mechanism to identify a being’s potential attunement to the force, makes Moff Gideon’s actions much more plausible. If they were never introduced way back in Episode One, it would have made the whole blood transfusion idea way more out there than it is. There is some real life science behind what blood transfusions are capable of so the idea of transferring midichlorians from one being to another via transfusion doesn’t seem all that far fetched. If midichlorians didn’t exist, Moff Gideons experiments would have seemed way crazier than they are. “There’s no proof that the force is somehow connected to blood. Why would blood transfusions work?!?!” But they do exist, and here we are. All Moff Gideon needs is the asset to continue clinical trials. He seems to have endless resources at his disposal and an idea that just might work. He could give himself force powers. Or genetically engineer an army of force users to do his bidding. How scary is that?
The troopers in the stalls in the very last scene? At the time this aired, it was theorized that they were Dark Troopers. I don’t know how anyone could tell because you couldn’t really see them all that clearly. It wasn’t until the most recent episode that they were, for me at least, 100% confirmed to be Dark Troopers. My only exposure to them before was the Hasbro action figure line based on the Expanded Universe. According to Wookieepedia, the Dark Troopers first appeared in the Star Wars: Dark Forces video game, and has had many other appearances across a variety of other Star Wars video games as well. Why does this matter? Because this show is tying together parts of the Expanded Universe and making them 100% legitimate cannon and doing so in a way that doesn’t make you want to roll your eyes.
Alright, it’s late. I’m scheduling this post and hitting the sack. I probably rambled on and didn’t make a lot of sense but I need my beauty sleep. Gonna try and knock out Chapter 13 tomorrow.
