The Mandalorian Season 2, Episode 8 has finally been released on Disney+, and it really was
a truly incredible episode to finish off the season, setting up some incredible connections
for the new Star Wars shows and bringing back the character we’ve all been waiting for,
Luke Skywalker.
So I’m going to break down everything that went down in the episode and how it connects
to the other Star Wars TV series and films.
But before we get into it I want to tell you guys about the awesome STAR WARS: Card Trader
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So, to begin the episode We startright off with a space battle, where Boba’s ship,
Slave I is in hot pursuit of Doctor Pershing inside of his imperial shuttle.
Boba immediately hits the shuttle with one of his ion cannons, giving him the opportunity
to board the ship.
Once Din Djarin and Cara Dune board the ship, one of the imperial pilots savagely kills
the other before taking Pershing hostage.
As he does this, we find out that this pilot served on the first Death Star during the
destruction of Alderaan, Cara Dune’s home planet.
He however asks her to think about not just how many were killed on Alderaan, but how
many of his friends, family and co-workers were killed on the deathstar, obviously continuing
the theme from last episode, humanising the devastation that the imperials also felt after
the Battle of Yavin.
It wasn’t only the Rebel alliance who suffered with Alderaan and Jedha being destroyed.
Following that, Slave I lands on the surface of x, before walking into a Cantina where
they come across Bo-Katan and Koska Reeves, of course last seen on Trask.
For those of you who don’t know, Bo-katan was the ruler of Mandalore and the Holder
of the darksaber before the Great Purge, and before Gideon stole the Darksaber from her.
As the two begin talking, Bo-Katan berates Boba Fett, calling him nothing but a bounty
hunter sidekick and telling him that he is not a real Mandalorian.
Boba Brushes this off, but things soon get a bit heated, with Koska Reeves getting into
a scuffle with Boba.
She uses the phrase.
Mando quickly lets Bo-Katan know that he has the coordinates of Moff Gideon, and asks her
to join him on his quest to save Grogu, also adding that his light cruiser will be useful
to reclaim Mandalore and her rightful place as holder of the Darksaber.
Bo-Katan of course agrees, because she badly wants the ancient black saber back, but Boba
scoffs at retaking Mandalore because the empire “turned it to glass”.
This leads to Bo-Katan calling him a disgrace to the armor her wears and making fun of him
for being a Clone, which in turn begins another small sparring match between Koska and Boba.
After we move back to the ship, Doctor Pershing confirms that the Dark Troopers used by Moff
Gideon in the last episode do not have humans inside of them, like Phase 0 Dark troopers
did, but instead they are a Phase 3 design, making them fully autonomous battle droids.
Eventually the group enter hyperspace and begin to devise their plan of attack on Moff
Gideon.
Because they’ve stolen the imperial shuttle, they are forced to put on a show, with Boba
in the Slave I pretending to attack the others in the shuttle, making gideon believe he still
controls the pilots of the imperial shuttle.
Eventually, the crew minus Boba boards Gideon’s arquiten’s class light cruiser, but Gideon
is one step ahead of them, activating his Dark Troopers from their cold storage and
putting their awesome black and red armor into action.
And where Boba is now travelling to will shock you.
Make sure to watch to the end of the video where I’ll breakdown the after credits scene.
As the crew continue sneaking through the ship, we get a glimpse at an awesome Silver
protocol droid.
This is an RA-7 model protocol droid, which was of course first seen in a New Hope and
featured heavily in both the Clone Wars tv series and Star Wars: Rebels.
And I don’t know about you guys, but in this episode it really feels like they’re
building up Cara Dune and Fennec Shand’s relationship, so maybe they’re both heavily
involved in the Rangers of the New Republic spin-off show which was recently announced,
or something similar.
Following this, the Dark Troopers begin marching out of their holding area, and unfortunately
Din Djarin happens to be nearby when they are about to exit.
Din Djarin manages to use Doctor Pershing’s code cylinder from earlier to stop the door
from closing, but sadly one manages to get out and attack Mando.
Code cylinders are of course featured in almost every Star Wars movie, as the main way imperials
gain access to internal computer systems, but we get a fantastic look at how they work
in the Star Wars: Rebels episode, “Through Imperial Eyes”.
After this Din Djarin defeats the Dark Trooper that escaped from the storage area, and jetted
the others out in to the cold void of space, but you can’t help but feel bad for Mando
as that one on one fight probably reminded him of his childhood, where the B-2 Battle
droids of the separatist army raided his home town of Aq-Vetina, which we learned from a
reference book, and killed his parents.
Immediately after this, the rest of the crew violently storm onto the bridge of the cruiser,
while Mando busts into the holding cell where Grogu is located.
When the door opens, he sees something that hurts him deeply.
Grogu in holocruffs, with Gideon holding the Darksaber over his head, ready to kill the
young Jedi.
Once inside Gideon informs Mando that the person who holds the darksaber has the right
to the Mandalorian throne, which you would already know if you’ve seen the Clone Wars
and Rebels, but for those of you who don’t know, there’s a very long and rich history
of the Darksaber changing hands through violence, gifting and treachery, so make sure you check
out the video in the pinned comment below or on the Card Screen now to get up to speed
with every person who has held the Darksaber.
For a Mandalorian to have a rightful claim to the Darksaber, they must also defeat the
current holder of the ancient weapon in single combat.
Eventually, Moff Gideon pretends to allow Mando to take Grogu, but very quickly turns
on his, scorching his Beskar armor with the saber, leaving not even a scratch.
The two then engage is a ferocious battle, until Mando defeats Moff Gideon in single
combat, making him the rightful holder of the Darksaber.
As you can imagine, when Bo-Katan sees Din Djarin walking onto the bridge with the Darksaber,
she panics, as she knows that she no longer has a rightful claim to it.
Now this is also very strange, as during the Events of the Mandalorian Civil war in Star
Wars: Rebels, Bo-Katan was happy to be gifted the Darksaber by Sabine Wren, who in turn
stole out out of Darth Maul’s lair on Dathomir.
In Both of these cases, the Darksaber was simply picked up and transferred, without
a traditional Mandalorian battle, so it’s weird to see Bo-Katan change and revert to
the traditional ways.
Moff gideon did also make a very small comment which almost confirms that he is one of the
imperials in the First Order faction of the IMperial remnant, and hopes to restore the
Empire from the shadows of the Unknown regions.
For those of you who don’t know, this small faction was entrusted by Palpatine himself
during operation cinder and later to destroy the worlds that they governed over and flee
to the unknown regions, where they would eventually form the First Order sometime before the Force
Awakens.
This faction is separate from the Sith Eternal Cultists who Palpatine also prepared for his
reawakening.
Eventually, the horde of Dark Troopers from earlier return and begin brutally bashing
down the door, hoping to gain access to the bridge.
The crew are on the verge of the defeat as the Dark Troopers are moments away from getting
inside the bridge, but out of no where, the man we’ve all been waiting for, Luke Skywalker
himself, the Son of Anakin, bursts on the scene, and absolutely tears the Darktroopers
to shreds.
I’m sure I don’t have to explain who Luke Skywalker is, and I can’t say enough just
how awesome this is to finally see him.
After this, we get another heartwarming appearance from Luke Skywalker’s loyal astromech, obviously
belonging to his Father Anakin and mother Padme before him, R2-D2.
Again, absolutely incredible to see this little astromech return at Luke’s side.
After this, we get a heartbreaking scene where Din Djarin agrees to hand over Grogu to Luke
Skywalker so that he can join Luke’s Jedi order and Both mando and Grogu shed tears,
as Luke walks back into the elevator with R-2, taking Grogu with him.
An absolutely awesome and heartbreaking way to end the episode.
Now after this, we get an incredibly interesting post credit scene with Boba Fett himself.
In the scene, we cut straight to Jabba’s palace on Tatooine, where we see that Bib
Fortuna, Jabba’s old right hand man has taken over Jabba’s throne and now rules
his criminal empire.
This is exactly what happened in Star Wars: Legends also.
After this, Fennec shand bursts into the palace, and kills Bib Fortuna’s associates, before
freeing his Twi’Lek slave.
Following this, Boba arrives into the palace, and takes the throne of Fortuna for himself,
ruling over the criminal empire with Fennec Shand at this side.
Finally they confirm that Boba Fett’s tv series is called “The Book of Boba Fett”
and is airing December 2021 on Disney+ .That is absolutely stunning, and I can’t wait
see what happens.
Let me know down below how you think Boba will run his new criminal Empire.
So that is my full breakdown of the Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 8, Chapter 16 - Luke Skywalker
returns.
Cheers guys, hope to see you in the next one!