Ch. 22 of The Mandalorian is the strangest, most polarizing episode yet.
I try to make sense of it all.
The Short Take:
An unexpected series of events, to say the least. I see some thematic threads that can make a lot of them more legible, though.
Image Credit: Tell-Tale TV
[SPOILER WARNING: More so than with other episodes, I would encourage you to try to experience this one fresh before you keep reading.]
The Long Take:
We love a good loophole.
Scratch that. The Internet apparently hates loopholes. Or, more accurately, many fans of The Mandalorian are up in arms about Din Djarin handing the Darksaber over to Bo-Katan Kryze just because he can explain away that she technically defeated an enemy who defeated him, thus making the case that she won the Darksaber by combat (as opposed to friendship and kindness). In case your memory of this has faded, he’s referring to the events of Ch. 18 “The Mines of Mandalore,” in which a one-eyed cyborg “Spider Tank” captured Din, prompting Bo to pick the Darksaber up off the ground and destroy said Spider Tank with it. So, according to Din, she really should have kept it from that point forward.
I can see how handing over Mandalore’s most storied weapon on a technicality might bother some. Loopholes are inherently cheap and infuriating because they’re by design a circumvention of the rules based on the granularity rules themselves. They’re not grand. They’re not flashy. (Unless you’re in a courtroom drama. Then they can be a climactic gotcha moment. I feel safe saying that The Mandalorian may be many things, but a courtroom drama it is not.)
They are, however a way to fight the system from the inside.
I thought of this subtext once I realized that this episode contains two paralleled exploitations of a loophole, connecting the Palazir-15 good cop/bad cop storyline with the fight to win back the mercenary Mandos at the end of the episode. Lizzo and Jack Black use a loophole to hire Din and Bo. They need some muscle to take care of the pesky rogue droids, but The New Republic won’t allow any military forces to enter the city walls (that’s why Axe Woves & co. have a camp outside). To get around this rule, Captain Bombardier and The Duchess invite Din and Bo to their party because they can argue that weapons are a part of Mandalorian culture, and therefore, in order to respect that culture, Din and Bo must remain armed as they enter. Though the context and the tones of these two scenes could not be less similar, this skirting of New Republic law resembles Din’s convoluted interpretation of Mandalorian rules surrounding the Darksaber just so they can say she won the fabled blade, rather than receiving it as a gift.
Image Credit: IMDB
The Internet, including many critics and podcasters whose opinions I value, did not appreciate this handover. Several of them have specifically cited the lack of ceremony, conflict, or dramatic stakes. If they were okay with Bo having the Darksaber generally, it was more that Bo didn’t have to fight Din to get it. But I think that the whole point of his “push my glasses up my nose” sort of rebuttal to Axe Woves is that the rules were ridiculous and arbitrary to begin with. As I mentioned earlier, the exploitation of a loophole reflects an attempt to fight the system from the inside, to critique the system itself. When Bombardier and The Duchess bend the rules in order to protect their subjects, they implicitly call out The New Republic as failing. Whether he means to or not, Din illustrates how silly the Darksaber rules and traditions are when he successfully finagles the Darksaber out of his hands and into Bo’s. These archaic expectations don’t make sense and don’t serve anyone, and the only way to defend against them is to be just as arbitrary back.
Why build a critique of broken systems into this episode? To me, the broader arc of this season has been to chronicle the reunification and (hopefully) evolution of The Mandalorians as a people. And in order to move forward, they’re likely going to have to confront some of their cultural edicts as archaic. Maybe it’s a stretch, and I’m reading too much into this as usual. But when I hear a chorus of voices saying something doesn’t make sense, I always want to try to redeem it — to figure out in what way it does make sense.
There are others, of course, who are actually more mad that Bo now has the Darksaber instead of Din, and that Din was willing to give up the Darksaber so easily, rather than coming into his own with it and ascending to some grander destiny with it. I’m sure there may be some misogynistic undertones to some (but not all) of those takes. Others, on the other hand, have been expecting Bo-Katan to be an antagonist this season. And that’s reasonable. One of the promotional posters for Season 3 shows Din standing tall while holding The Darksaber, like it’s his and he’s supposed to wield it. If, in the end, those expectations were set under false pretenses, that’s a problem.
I, however, really like that Din is so supportive of Bo-Katan in this pivotal moment. I think that Din stepping up to support Bo-Katan’s claim to the throne of Mandalore is just as heroic as if he had, in a more stereotypically alpha male hero fashion, tried to make a play for that throne himself.
To be clear, I’m not shipping Din and Bo. Though I did chuckle at a meme that said, “She’s everything. He’s just Ken.” I feel like that would be kind of hokey, and I want Bo-Katan to be a boss all on her own. But I do adore their partnership. I have all season, but in this episode in particular, the detective duo trope, and so many of the genre touchstones that make me want to call this “CSI Mandalore,” works so well for their story as burgeoning allies here. They play off each other and balance each other out perfectly.
Bo needs Din and Din needs Bo. We see that Bo can’t talk to the Ugnaughts and needs Din, who is more familiar with their ways and values, to translate. Din, on the other hand, can’t talk to the droids because he’s biased by his past trauma. He needs her to smooth things over. I could watch a spin-off series that’s just Din and Bo traveling the Galaxy solving mysteries, honestly. They nail that “I think you’re a weirdo but at the end of the day have your back” buddy cop comedy energy. So it makes sense that in a pivotal moment like trying to win back the mercenary Mandos, Bo needs Din to support her. To give her that last assist to get there.
Image Credit: Looper
If I zoom out to consider other non-Din/Bo parts of the episode, a theme of partnerships emerges, albeit faintly. When we begin the episode to see what Axe Woves and the other Mandalorians who abandoned Bo-Katan have been up to, we get this delightfully bizarre and touching Romeo and Juliet story between a Mon Calamari prince and a Quarren, Captain Shuggoth. We know from The Clone Wars that these two races have been at war with one another for longer than anyone can remember. I can see Bo and Din as a platonic counterpart, as they are also from two different worlds within Mandalorian culture — two sides of the helmeted coin. (Though, if we take into consideration the fate of our star-crossed squids, that doesn’t bode well for Din and Bo.)
Ignoring whatever vacuum or lack fans might feel this creates for Din as a character, I find Bo-Katan’s redemption arc extremely compelling. And I suspect that this is what the creators behind the show have had their eyes on the entire time. Just look at the way they cut together the “previously on” montage at the top of the episode; it clearly shows what story they have been trying to tell the whole season, counter to many fans’ expectations, as I discussed last week. She’s failed as a leader of Mandalore’s past. That failure haunts her. She’s in her own head about not believing in herself. She feels like she can’t win her people back.
There are two scenes to show that Bo is not confident. As they approach the planet, Bo explains that she’s the one who commandeered all the Imperial ships for the fleet, but she very quickly says, “Axe Woves is their leader now.” Then later, when they’re in the space metro together, she says “I’m not their leader anymore. Axe Woves is.” Katee Sackoff’s expressions here fill in all kinds of subtext: she knows Woves will resist, but she’s also uneasy, like she thinks she doesn’t deserve to take back this group of Mandalorians and ships who were once under her banner. Considering all that, it’s hard to deny that this season has been about her working her way back to the throne of Mandalore, not just in the eyes of others but in her own.
That said, I really did want to see Din learn how to wield the Darksaber properly. That’s really the only thing I’m bummed about. But maybe that could still happen? I think we’re in the team-up phase in preparation for the face-off phase. All the Mandalorians need to unite so they can defeat Moff Gideon — who has been foreshadowed endlessly all season — once and for all. Only then will they retake Mandalore. Could something that happens along the way necessitate that Bo-Katan train Din in how to use the Darksaber? Or perhaps might they pick up another Mandalorian that we know is out there — Sabine Wren, who is from Rebels and soon to appear on Ahsoka? She’s the one who originally gave Bo-Katan the Darksaber before The Purge. And she is the only other Mandalorian that we’ve seen go through extensive training in how to psychologically get to a place where the Darksaber no longer feels heavy. (See Rebels Season 3, Episode 15, “Trials of the Darksaber.”) She seems like a key piece of the passing of the Darksaber puzzle here, especially for viewers who have not seen any of the animated shows.
Image Credit: StarWars.com
Predictions at this point are probably futile, as hundreds of fans at Star Wars Celebration in London this weekend have already been treated to an early screening of next week’s episode, Chapter 23. I couldn’t have predicted much if any of this week’s episode, so it stands to reason that there’s a lot more unexpected turns just on the horizon.
Before I wrap up, I do want to acknowledge that this episode was weird. Not bad, just weird. Bo-Katan regains possession of the Darksaber in the same episode that Lizzo knights Grogu and gives Din and Bo a giant key to her kingdom. And that’s not even half the crazy stuff that happens in this episode. Admittedly, I didn’t know how seriously to take what was happening, but I had a lot of fun going along for the ride.
Image Credit: Vulture
A special thanks to The Rebel Base Card Podcast for having me on as a guest this week. Our conversation about this episode definitely helped me sort through some thoughts so I could write this review. If you want to hear how everyone’s probing questions led me here, give it a listen.
“I feel safe saying that The Mandalorian may be many things, but a courtroom drama it is not.”
After this week who knows? I didn’t think it would be a beautiful olive procedural! I’m Dowb for the court case episode 😄
The loophole parallel you note (between Din rule-lawyering his way out of having to carry the Darksaber and how Captain Bombardier & The Duchess hire the two detectives of Law & Order: SWU) is very well observed. It hadn't occurred to me to see them in tandem, and now I'm wondering if it's possible Din realized how he could use the loophole with the saber only after he heard the plan of the planet leaders.
I enjoyed the weirdness of the main part of the episode -- I found it fun in the same way a wacky Clone Wars episode could be. And I didn't think the Darksaber hand-off was a problem in and of itself -- I think a lot of us immediately saw that Bo-Katan had rightfully won the saber back when the Mines of Mandalore aired, so I don't know why it was such a shock to people.
What's intriguing me (which is a nice way of saying I'm worried a little) is what/where the agency is for the characters. The season seemed to set up a conflict between three main characters (Din, Bo-Katan, and the Armorer); I appreciate that the story has been them learning to see how they have to work together instead of fighting, which has defused tension instead of amping up the dramatic stakes. But...that also means we've lost a lot of chances for drama. I get choosing to work together and I also get them deferring to one of the others to take up the mantle...but it starts to feel like none of them want to lead.
I'll tie that into the other thing that's been gnawing at the back of my mind: their collaboration has all been built around this goal of taking back Mandalore. But...who are they taking it back from? The Morlocks and Spider Tanks? Din found out the planet isn't poison, so there's no inherent natural force keeping them away. Presumably the push to "reclaim" the planet will run headfirst into the conflict with Moff Gideon and his Imperial remnants...but why not make that connection even clearer by having an Imperial base on the planet earlier in the season?
All of this is to say: while I've enjoyed the heck out of each of the episodes this year, there seems to be some shaky foundations to the narrative drive right now. Of course, I also remember thinking the show in its first season had gotten into a fun-but-shallow "planet of the week" structure through episodes four, five, and six; I was surprised that this was all the show was going to do narratively. And then the last two episodes turned that thought on its head and reshaped how the whole season looked in retrospect. I am predicting (slash hoping) the next two episodes do the same for this season.