After last week’s thrilling episode, Chapter 12 of The Mandalorian, titled “The Siege”, was a fun side adventure for Mando and Baby Yoda on their quest to reunite Baby Yoda with his kind.
While Mando and Baby Yoda make a pit stop on the planet Nevarro for repairs on the Razor Crest, familiar faces Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) and Cara Dune (Gina Corrano) recruit him to help them destroy the last Imperial outpost on the planet. In the time Mando’s been gone, Karga and Dune have revamped the town and it’s on its way to becoming a respectable Outer Rim settlement; taking care of the remaining Imperial presence would go a long way to finally securing the freedom of the planet.
Their infiltration goes as planned and they successfully rig the base to blow when they stumble across a hologram of Dr. Pershing, the Imperial doctor from Season 1 who led the medical experiments on Baby Yoda. Pershing reveals why the Empire, and Moff Gideon in particular, want Baby Yoda so badly. With the revelation that Gideon is still alive and will be actively in pursuit of Baby Yoda, the crew splits up — Mando jets back to town on his own while Karga, Dune, and their reluctant lackey Mythrol fight their way through the outpost.
The three escape the base in a hijacked transport and are chased through the canyon landscape by Imperials in hot pursuit. They’re almost shot down by TIE fighters when Mando arrives in a newly repaired Razor Crest to save the day, Baby Yoda safely secured in the passenger seat. As soon as the Imperials are taken care of, Mando heads off, presumably for Corvus where a Jedi may be.
But before the credits roll, the scene changes to an Imperial ship. Unbeknownst to Mando, a tracking device has been planted on the Razor Crest by an Imperial spy, allowing Gideon to keep tabs on his location and no doubt he’ll be heading after Mando soon enough. In the last shot of the episode, we get a glimpse of a room lined with menacing robots. It looks like Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) will have a trick or two up his sleeve when he goes to hunt down Mando and Baby Yoda again.
Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) is ready for round two with Mando.
Photo: Star Wars.
All around, “The Siege” was solid but not particularly memorable or outstanding. This side story felt like it lost the momentum that was gained from last episode. But that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing if it means everything gets taken to another level in the next episode.
This chapter was directed by Carl Weathers, who plays Greef Karga, and he brought a lot of light-hearted comedy into a show that thrives on action. If I remember anything from this episode, it’ll be how much I laughed at all the visual gags, the most notable of which involved Baby Yoda. From the opening scene with Mando trying to guide Baby Yoda through making wiring repairs in the Razor Crest to The Child stealing a young boy’s blue space cookies to him throwing up those cookies after a wild ride in the fixed-up ship, Baby Yoda absolutely stole the show.
Mythrol was also a likable comedic relief character. It’s fun to see the creators bring back minor characters from Season 1 like Peli Motto and Zero the protocol droid. As much as they’re incorporating content from the greater Star Wars universe, they’re also making the most out of the characters and concepts unique to this series which is nice to see. It makes me curious about other minor Season 1 characters we might see return in later episodes.
Speaking of what else we might see, this episode also did a great job of teasing what the remnants of the Empire are up to and it’s nothing good. It seems to me that there are two separate projects going on — one involving Dr. Pershing’s experiments to manufacture Force sensitive beings, and Moff Gideon’s new line of beefed up battle droids which fans are theorizing are dark troopers, a line of powerful droids originally introduced in Star Wars Legends. Both of these ventures could lead to all kinds of trouble for the galaxy, so I will be keeping a close eye out for any future references to the Gideon’s plans.
The Mandalorian Season 2 is already half way done! As I’m sure most fans are, I’m really looking forward to what awaits Mando and Baby Yoda on Corvus in the next episode, which releases Friday, Nov. 27 on Disney+.
Jennifer Ng is the opinion editor for The Beacon. She can be reached at ng21@up.edu.
