Saturday, December 12, 2020

What I’m Watching: The Mandalorian

The Mandalorian: Season 2, Episode 7 “Chapter 15: The Believer” (B+)

The fact that this episode is the second-to-last of this season shouldn’t be a disappointment to fans since Disney Plus just announced a horde of new Star Wars shows coming to the service in the future, including two spinoffs of this one. There are more than enough recurring characters to use, and this installment brought one of them back while setting him up for a future reappearance given that he’s now supposed to be dead. Mayfeld was a lot of fun this time around, startled to be plucked out of droid-supervised labor and even more surprised that the Mandalorian was the one who was springing him. It was interesting to see the two of them converse about things, even if Mayfeld was the one doing most of the talking. The pirates boarding their ship was reminiscent of a cross between “Mad Max: Fury Road” and the Reavers from “Serenity,” and the Mandalorian did well in hand-to-hand combat to knock them all off. It was strange for them to hear at the end of all this that their impressive efforts would bolster the Empire, shortly after TIE fighters showed up to save the day, another unusual event. Mayfeld was unexpectedly respectful to the Mandalorian, telling him that he had never seen his face and earning himself a second chance from Cara with his alleged death and freedom. The Mandalorian sending a threatening message to Moff Gideon was a bold move, and I’m excited for what I’m sure will be an action-packed finale.

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