What to Watch Verdict
"The Tragedy" does its name justice with an episode of major consequences.
Pros
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🔵 Slow motion blaster shots bouncing off Beskar will never not be incredible.
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🔵 Boba. Fett.
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🔵 Doesn't waste any time.
Cons
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🔵 The circumstances that lead to Grogu's kidnapping are completely avoidable.
This post contains spoilers for The Mandalorian.
Check out our last review here.
Boba Fett? Where?!
For the longest time, we were simply told that Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) was meant to be feared with very little illustration in the saga itself. This week's episode of The Mandalorian finally showed off just how formidable the bounty hunter can be. Particularly when he's paired with one Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen). This ends up pretty beneficial for Mando (Pedro Pascal), who finds himself pretty useless for the first half of the episode. (If at first you don't succeed, maybe stop running directly at the literal Force field surrounding your space baby.)
What begins as a Mandalorian, um… Beskar staff measuring contest… on the surface of Trask ultimately results in an Imperial ambush featuring two ship loads worth of Storm Troopers. The fight that unfolds is as solid as any Storm Trooper battle, featuring some incredible moves from all parties on the right side of the fight. Regrettably, the battle ultimately ends with a Moff Giddeon (Giancarlo Esposito) and the unfortunate capture of one Baby Yoda.
So far as action goes, “The Tragedy” is a pretty great episode. However, the situation that leads up to Grogu’s inevitable kidnapping is a sequence of completely avoidable and utterly silly events that were simply set in motion to ensure that Mando was separated from the Child. First there was Boba Fett insisting he takes his jet pack off in addition to holstering his blasters, then the silly repeated attempts to break through the field, capped off with him abandoning Grogu on the stone instead of continuing to fight from the higher vantage point. It’s sloppy, is all.
While Grogu and Space Dad’s separation is devastating – the episode is aptly titled – there are some silver linings that are as conveniently put into place as Mando’s questionable absence from the Child’s side at the time of kidnapping. Grogu spent all that time on the rock calling out to other Jedi. Inevitably, someone heard that call. Which someone is a question we may not find out this season, but there’s undoubtedly another Jedi in our future. In addition to that fire power, Mando now has Boba Fett and Fennec in his debt. The return of Fett’s armor was stipulatory upon Grogu’s safety. Grogu is decidedly unsafe.
Mando will need more than a Bounty Hunter and a sharpshooter on his side, though. He returns – with a lift from Boba Fett, as Mando’s ship is no more - to ask Cara Dune (Gina Carano) for help in breaking out a prisoner to help them rescue the kid. There’s some resistance, as Dune sees herself as legit now, but the look on her face makes it clear that she’ll ultimately be helping out with the jail break.
It felt like both a lot and very little happened in The Mandalorian’s shortest episode yet. Though it only clocked in at thirty-four minutes, we did get to close things out with Grogu absolutely walloping on some Storm Troopers. You took the baby away from Space Dad, and he is very, very angie.
