The Mandalorian – Chapter 23: The Spies review S3 E7
This was an interesting episode of The Mandalorian, one that seems destined to make the path to the Sequel Trilogy a little smoother. Maybe that’s not a good thing?
The opening act features Elia Kane strolling the dark streets of Coruscant where she encounters an Imperial Probe Droid that patches her through to Moff Gideon. He’s shocked to learn the pirates were held off by Mandalorians, specifically his nemesis, Din Djarin and Bo-Katan Kryze.
Gideon heads off to a Imperial officers virtual meeting where everyone remembered to unmute themselves as they scheme and twist their mustaches. One of the members of this inner circle, Gillad Pellaeon (Xander Berkeley, 24) is getting everyone hyped for the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn. In attendance of note is Brendol Hux, the father of that rascally scamp Gen. Hux in the Sequel Trilogy. Brian Gleeson, the brother of Domhnall Gleeson, plays his father in a nice nod of continuity the likes of which were rare from one Sequel Trilogy film to the next.
Hux is all about Project Necromancer, the plot to revive Palpatine in the highly unlikely event his Sith apprentice would ever turn on him. The Empire can churn out massive battleships in days, but they must have union contractors working on The Death Stars and Emperor revival projects…
Gideon gets everyone’s attention and support for reinforcements when he mentions the Mandalorians are starting to pose a threat again. This feels unearned as it’s been more than 20 years since the Mandalorians were any kind of threat to the Empire.
Connecting the Mandalorian world to the larger scope of the Sequel Trilogy timeline is starting to cause problems. While Clone Wars helped fill in the entire war gap from Attack of the Clones to Revenge of the Sith ultimately, the time spent on the TV shows setting up the ST won’t be worth it given their complicated story. Are the Imperials working on reviving Palpatine or creating Snook?
Maybe a bigger question is when will the Mando universe explain how the New Republic could possibly be so lax as to allow the Empire, or First Order for trademark branding purposes, to ever be a thing?
The New Republic just seems incredibly sloppy to let Imperial Probe Droids freely run around. At this point we’re going to need a series to explain how silly the New Republic was as the threat of the FO rises. And it’s probably more frustrating knowing that Luke, Han, Leia, Chewie, Lando, etc. have to just sit back and let everything just happen in order for the Sequel Trilogy story to come about.
I’m breaking down the timeline problems as this episode didn’t have a ton going on for most of it. Bo-Katan and Din bring her crew back to Nevarro to join up with The Armorer’s crew. The Armorer welcomes them and immediately squashes any tension among the two factions. Bo-Katan remarks the only thing that stopped Mandalorians were Mandalorians. And an ex Sith Lord, but why quibble?
Greef Karga has a surprise for Din and Grogu — a repurposed IG-11 newly dubbed IG-12 complete with a torso cockpit for Grogu to operate the droid. This 100% wasn’t done to sell new toys, absolutely not though it is funny watching Grogu spam the “yes” and “no” dialogue buttons. Who is he? The Zodiac? Yes! No!
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The Mandalorians head back to Mandalore, which still seems needlessly early since they already have a new base of operations. This is an overly aggressive expansion.
Naturally Axe Woves and Paz Vizsla give each other the stink eye and get into a mini brawl before Grogu breaks it up. It’s not long before they encounter some Mandalorians (Charles Parnell and Charles Baker) who’ve survived on Mandalore. They would have been useful a few weeks back…
Bo-Katan explains she lost the darksaber in striking a truce with Moff Gideon, who betrayed her and ordered a wholesale slaughter on Mandalorians anyway. That explains her beef with the Gideon.
As they start their expedition for the Forge, the Mandalorians spot a fleet of Imperial jet troopers rocking Beskar armor. This is introducing another problem. If Gideon has an appreciation for Mandalore lore, why wouldn’t other Imperial troops use Beskar armor instead of the flimsy First Order armor? The Sequel Trilogy is a narrative mess and there’s no sense in tying up good Mandalorian storylines to get closer to a destination let’s say only half the Star Wars fanbase wants to revisit.
Before anyone can cue up Admiral Akbar, the Mandalorians walk into a trap. The jet troopers were running just a bit too quickly. Gideon has been using Mandalore as his base where he’s got TIE bombers and a fleet of fighters along with an impressive amount of Beskar Jet Troops. Din gets cut off from the others and fights pretty well until the numbers get him.
Gideon flies in with his own beskar armor complete with a red and black color scheme like the Darth Maul loyalists. Because the show isn’t called Bo-Katan Kryze, Gideon simply orders his troops to take Din away. The other Mandalorians break free thanks to Bo and the darksaber while Paz plays Hodor and blasts away at the jet troopers. This hardly felt like the need for a sacrifice play since there was a bottleneck from the hole Bo created that would have made any jet troopers sitting ducks.
Paz takes out the jet troopers despite crazy odds and his blaster overheating, but can’t handle the deadly three Praetorian Guard with lightsaber-like staffs. They make quick work of him and The Armorer’s most loyal ally is now dead. And for some reason the guards don’t go after Bo-Katan and crew and head off in the other direction. Well, OK then…
Like last season, Gideon captures one of our main heroes only this time it’s Din instead of Grogu, who hopefully still remembers how to call Luke Skywalker on speed dial.
Spies was somewhat uneventful, but when the excitement kicked in it was very good even with the senseless death of a show fan favorite.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Photo Credit: Disney