'The Mandalorian, Season Two' – Episode 15: 'The Believer'


Today was meant to be my review of Bernard Cornwell's 'The Last Kingdom' but I'm having trouble ordering my thoughts there so you might have to wait a little longer for that. In the meantime, lets just say I loved it, because I did. That did leave a 'blog post sized gap' in today but then I woke up this morning, realised that today is 'new episode of The Mandalorian' day and got watching soon afterwards. Pretty good timing really :o)

After last week's episode, I didn't want to hang around getting into whatever happened next. There's a little green Grogu in peril and I need to see people rushing to his rescue, dammit! 'The Believer' gives us some of that (which is fair enough as there's still one more episode to go) but gives us a lot more at the same time. Not the episode you're expecting then but very much the episode you didn't realise that you needed, until you watch it.

There will be mild spoilers, just so you know ;o)

Djin Darin has most of his crew together but before they can go off on a 'big rescue', they really need to work out where Moff Gideon is first... I mean, it would help, wouldn't it? They need one more person to hack into the Imperial network, and locate Moff Gideon's ship, but can he be trusted? And will doing the right thing prove to be the death of them all?

We all know by now that 'The Mandalorian' has an endearing habit of either bringing in characters from earlier episodes or characters from the expanded universe; either hinting at that wider universe or just to tie off a loose end or two. This time round, it's the turn of Migs Mayfield (you know, the guy on the prison ship in Season 1) to take a bow and wind up a character arc that you didn't even know was a thing until we see him breaking up scrapped TIE-Fighters on a prison planet. By the end of the episode though... Bill Burr was just amazing at taking us through Mayfield's journey. I love a show that has the nerve to take a peripheral character and make him suddenly carry an episode pretty much all by himself; and Burr just nails it. It's really good character development and great TV that keeps you guessing through some very tense moments.

Promoting Mayfield to centre stage is also a bold move by the show in that it acknowledges that there's only so much tale left to be told in terms of Grogu. There's clearly only enough for the season finale, and that's fine, so why not take some time and make what's essentially a side mission into a whole episode's worth of story? And it works, it really does.

That's enough about Mayfield, the rest of the episode is great as well; mostly because of the creepiest Imperial Officer ever (and he is, he needs to appear in a prequel to something, anything) but also because we've got Dune and Shand having an impromptu sniper contest as well as Fett just being awesome in armour that looks suspiciously clean compared to last week. Looking smart there Fett! ;o) And if that wasn't enough, we get a seismic charge scene! Possibly the best thing about 'Attack of the Clones' is back and sounding just as awesome as it did back then.

And what a way to end this episode and set things up for the next... Djin Darin recycling Moff Gideon's speech and throwing it back at him. If that isn't foreboding enough for you, is that Gideon looking worried or really angry? Either way, it's looking good for next week...

'The Mandalorian' is really stepping up a gear now and it's at just the right time. The wait for the finale starts... now.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

‘The Long and Hungry Road’ – Adrian Tchaikovsky (Black Library)

Image
After not finishing ‘Witchbringer’ (not the book’s fault, I still think it could be worth your time), I thought I’d change pace a little and go for a short, sharp burst of something instead. Something that would blow a few cobwebs away and wake me up a bit :o) Now in my experience, there’s nothing shorter and sharper than a Warhammer short story so that was the direction of my reading taken care of. And as far as the focus went… I’ve read a few Warhammer tales, in my time, but I’ve never read a tale that looks at the events of the 41st Millennium through the eyes of the rapacious Tyranids. So when I saw ‘The Long and Hungry Road’ on Amazon, it pretty much chose itself. To face a Tyranid invasion is a waking nightmare. The skies darken with spores, your mind echoes with alien screeches, and countless weapon-organisms descend upon you with razor teeth and claws. How much greater would your horror be, to realise that the hive ship above thinks nothing of your fate – that it crushes you
Read more

'Mad God' (2021)

Image
It's that time again where Youtube throws me a 'Shudder' advert and I think to myself, 'I'm paying five quid a month for this, I really should watch something, lets give it a go...'   This time round, 'It' was the film 'Mad God' and the trailer was this mad batshit crazy shot of stop-motion horror that was over before I'd had a chance to get my head round it; leaving me pretty unsettled but with no clear idea just why that was... That's all I need sometimes, I was in... It's almost an hour later and, damn, that was grim, bleak and... What the hell just happened? A corroded diving bell descends amidst a ruined city and the Assassin emerges from it to explore a labyrinth of bizarre landscapes inhabited by freakish denizens. That is about all I can tell you about 'Mad God' and that's only because I had a quick look on IMDB and that was all IMDB could tell me... 'Mad God' is any number of things but it's not
Read more

‘Worms of the Earth’ – Robert E. Howard.

Image
Page Count: 27 Pages I have a copy of this on my shelf and the plan was to pick it up for a read on the way into work this morning. Well, that was the plan but I was half asleep, leaving the house, and totally forgot… No matter though, that’s what the Kindle app is for (although if I’d been a little more awake, I’d have read it off Project Gutenberg instead, you can find ‘Worms of the Earth’ Here ). 99p later and my ‘commute reading’ was secured 😉 I always seem to fall into the trap of just reading ‘Conan’ stuff whenever I fancy reading a little Howard. Not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just that there’s a lot of his other stories out there that are more than worth your time when you come across them. ‘Worms of the Earth’ is very much one of those tales but you knew that already, didn’t you? You didn’t? You should do something about that, take it from me… After witnessing one of his subjects die at the hands of Roman governor Titus Sulla, Bran Mak Morn vows vengeance on Sulla but at w
Read more