The Mandalorian wrapped up its sophomore season on Disney +, and within its roughly
45 minute runtime, it packed plenty of action, surprises, and huge moments.
Spoilers for chapter 16 of The Mandalorian, "The Rescue," ahead!
The episode picks up as Mando and his intrepid gang of pals embark on a risky mission to invade
an imperial ship, rescue Grogu , and defeat Empire higher-up Moff Gideon.
In the process they cause a whole lot of havoc, including smashing through the ship's
front door with a stolen Imperial shuttle, and dispatching several platoons of Stormtroopers.
"Scuse me."
Separated from the group, Mando stalks through the imperial ship to find and free Grogu, and
finds Moff Gideon already waiting there for him. The two end up deuling in hand to hand combat.
After a pretty spectacular fight sequence, Mando bests Moff Gideon once and for all,
bringing him to Bo-Katan , who wanted to defeat the villain herself, as a prize.
However, in defeating Moff Gideon, Mando has created an interesting new problem;
as the Imperial boss explains, according to Mandalorian custom, the Darksaber belongs
only to whomever wins it in battle, and that determines who can sit on the throne of Mandalore.
Mando offers her the Darksaber several times, but she doesn't take it — and the
crew is attacked by Dark Troopers before we find out how this conflict is resolved.
Mando seemingly already agreed to help Bo-Katan take back the planet of Mandalore
back when he and Boba Fett approached her for help at the beginning of the episode,
but their new conflict certainly throws a monkey wrench into the works.
Clearly, these two allies will be at odds now that Mando has become the apparent Chosen One.
Sadly, it seems as if the cutest cast member of The Mandalorian may appear on the show a little
less frequently going forward — if he shows up again at all. At the end of the episode,
when all hope seems lost, a Jedi ends up answering
Grogu's call that he clearly sent out from the Jedi temple in "The Tragedy."
In an exciting twist, it's none other than Luke Skywalker himself — thanks
to some clever de-aging technology used on original Star Wars actor Mark Hamill.
Grogu is drawn to Luke, who's joined by beloved droid R2D2, but he's still hesitant to leave
his surrogate father. After Mando grants permission and is assured that Luke will
protect the tiny creature with his life, he says a heartbreaking goodbye to Grogu. In the
episode's sweetest moment, Mando even removes his helmet, letting Grogu see his real face.
Grogu was destined to train with Luke all along, and what will become of the adorable
creature under the master Jedi's tutelage — and how much he'll appear on The Mandalorian
going forward — remains to be seen. Hopefully we'll find out if he avoided the fate suffered
by some of Luke's other students at the hands of Kylo Ren and his followers...
Additionally, Mando removing his helmet also spells big changes for our hero going forward.
This is now the second time in as many episodes that he's chosen to break his oath to follow
The Way and show his face to other living beings. The first time he did it, in "The
Believer," he did it to accomplish his goal of finding Grogu's location. This time, however,
he did it so he could better connect with his surrogate son — just like when Luke helped remove
the Darth Vader helmet from his father's head at the end of Return of the Jedi. While Mando's
future seems inextricably linked with the retaking of Mandalore, his commitment to the Mandalorian
ideals he was raised with seems weaker than ever. How will that impact his alliance with Bo-Katan?
Seeing a young Luke Skywalker — who, judging by his incredible decimation of every single
Dark Trooper, is in his prime — was a pretty big surprise, but in the aftermath of a spectacular
second season, fans are left wondering who else might end up returning to The
Mandalorian as the series moves forward. Beyond original trilogy favorites like Luke and Boba,
characters like Bo-Katan and Ahsoka Tan have shown up in live-action appearances
after winning over audiences in The Clone Wars, the beloved animated Star Wars series.
Since then, fans have been hoping to see other animated Star Wars characters, like Star Wars:
Rebels' Ezra Bridger or Grand Admiral Thrawn. Obviously, that didn't happen in season two,
but in The Mandalorian's third season, there's a whole galaxy of possibilities ahead...
and as for Ahsoka, you'll be able to catch her in her own standalone series soon,
which will more than likely be where Bridger and Thrawn come back into play.
Meanwhile, we never explicitly find out just what Moff Gideon wanted Grogu's blood for,
but we know that Doctor Pershing is an Imperial cloning engineer.
And we also saw very Snoke-like shapes floating in tanks in the Imperial base that Mando, Cara Dune,
and Greef Karga infiltrated back in Chapter 12, "The Siege." It's never explicitly stated, but it
seems like a good bet that Grogu's Force-powered blood is what helped create Supreme Leader Snoke,
and resurrect Emperor Palpatine for Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker. But will we ever find out
if this is the case for sure? Or is there another evil purpose Grogu's blood serves for the Empire?
After saying goodbye to the main cast, a post-credits scene showed Bib Fortuna , Jabba
the Hutt's right hand man last seen in Return of the Jedi, lounging on his boss's old throne.
Boba Fett's partner Fennec Shand easily dispatches Bib Fortuna's henchmen,
and then Boba proceeds to kill Bib Fortuna himself.
If you're wondering how Bib Fortuna actually survived the events of Return of the Jedi
to only be killed in this episode of The Mandalorian, you're not alone. Bib Fortuna's
last on-screen appearance was on Jabba's barge, which was thoroughly exploded by Luke Skywalker,
Han Solo, Princess Leia, and the rest of the gang. But while we never saw Bib
Fortuna make his escape into the Tatooine desert, we'll just have to assume he jumped
ship at the first sign of trouble. After all, if Boba Fett can survive being literally swallowed by
a horrific sand monster, Bib Fortuna could probably hitch a ride back to the palace.
Anyway, after Bib Fortuna's unceremonious execution, Fennec perches next to Jabba's
throne, while Boba takes the seat as his own. Immediately after the scene ends,
the official announcement arrives: a new series, The Book of Boba Fett, will arrive
on the service in December of 2021, potentially along with the next season of The Mandalorian.
As if it wasn't exciting enough to see Boba in action this season in The Mandalorian,
news that Temuera Morrison will be starring in an entire series focused on the character is
a Star Wars bombshell. More details about The Book of Boba Fett will undoubtedly emerge soon,
but for now, it's thrilling enough to know that we'll get an entire series devoted to Boba.
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