dave filoni gives us our best episode yet with “the jedi”, and introduces a badass live-action ahsoka tano

The-Mandalorian-Chapter-12-The-Jedi-Ahsoka-Tano-Rosario-Dawson-Sabers-Out.jpg

By: Keaton Marcus

It’s past the halfway point of the second season and I’m already enjoying it more than the first. Don’t get me wrong, the previous season was plenty of fun, but it’s storytelling left something to be desired, and this is fulfilling my narrative needs. Dubbed “The Jedi”, the episode finally introduces a brilliantly casted Rosario Dawson as the iconic Ahsoka Tano in loads of lightsaber-filled, beautifully realized action and plenty of information about The Child. Dave Filoni has brought balance to the force with The Clone Wars, and he’s done it again here.

It all starts with soldiers attempting to defend themselves and their base against a certain someone wielding two lightsabers (Ahsoka) before being easily cut down by her superior skill. Tano narrowly escapes them and the Magistrate (Diana Lee) before we cut to Mando and The Child. This continues directly after Chapter 12, so the two are searching for the mysterious Jedi so she can train the little one. They arrive and are accepted in by Lang (Michael Biehn), who Mando tells that he’s simply a hunter passing through. The Magistrate, or Morgan Elsbeth confronts him and offers him pure Beskar armor if he kills Ahsoka. Mando, heading off into the woods, has a quick (and truly awesome) showdown that pits the two icons together. Afterwards, when Mando tells her why he’s here, she reveals that The Child’s real name is Grogu (you couldn’t find a cuter name, Filoni?) and that he possesses the powers of the Force. So you know how Luke wanted the Jedi to end in The Last Jedi and fans completely trashed Rian Johnson for it? Ahsoka does the exact same thing here but no one is pile driving Filoni for it. Just a note on how hypocritical some of the fanbase can be.

Anyway, enough of my sequel defending rant, it’s time to get in to all the good stuff, and there’s a lot. First of all, Rosario Dawson absolutely kills it as Tano, especially in the action scenes. I’m not obsessed with the character or anything, but I enjoyed her presence in the animated series, and she brings the same energy in live-action form. Like many other fans, I was both excited and worried about the realization of the character in this format, but Filoni’s done a bang-up job of doing the best he could. The transfer seems smooth and the make-up is terrific. I also loved how Grogu (really not thrilled with the name) played a bigger part in the plot than he did in season one or even the first episodes of season two. We’re going to see more Jedi possibly train him in the future, and I would love for the character to have a real arc, and not just be the adorable sidekick. This is also the longest episode in the entire two seasons, running at 47 minutes, and it flies by quickly than many of the shorter ones. Filoni’s fast-paced direction and good eye for cool new aesthetics are absolutely key in providing fuel for this.

The show is also starting to really hit its stride in terms of narrative prowess. Each episode feels more connected to the last as we go along, which was a serious complaint all throughout the first season. Number two isn’t only a series of quests that have no affect on the next, and we get some sort of butterfly effect throughout each episode. This is most prominently seen with episode four and this week’s addition, where the end of the former is Mando realizing that he must take The Child to Ahsoka, and the latter doesn’t just retcon that and give us another individual adventure. It ties loose ends, and although it can’t cover anything, like that odd sequel trilogy tie-in with the cloning or what Moff Gideon’s been doing, I have a good feeling that this is truly the way.

The final opinion is: The Mandalorian’s “The Jedi” gives us more information about The Child as well as providing the weekly dose of well-directed action and a surprising amount of storytelling spartan. I would say…BINGE IT