now they call him mandover the images of Star Wars brought to television with live actors and computer graphics starting with The Mandalorian, passing through The Book of Boba Fett, the next Ahsoka that we will see in August and The Skeleton Crew in the coming months. That's what Dave Filoni and Kathleen Kennedy themselves called it on the British stage of the recent Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023, when announcing the film directed by Filoni that will be released in theaters and will serve as an epilogue to the stories he has been plotting. years: a film about which nothing is known, except that it would have been important to watch the new episode of The Mandalorian carefully to imagine its scope, and in fact they even screened it in preview that same day.
Now that we have also seen it, we begin to understand how ambitious Filoni's film can be, someone who has played with the Star Wars mythology inside and outside the canon, interweaving stories, ideas and characters belonging to different media to put on stage. . an episode like this: reading ours analysis of episode 3x07 of The Mandalorian You will understand better why, but be careful because the following lines contain many spoilers.
The empire returns
The beginning of Chapter 23 of The Mandalorian, “The Spies,” is an explosive mix of information, revelations and confirmations that will drive fans of the Star Wars Expanded Universe crazy. The one Elijah Kane worked for Moff Gideon It was Pulcinella's secret and her encounter with the probe droid in the Coruscant alley that seems straight out of Blade Runner confirms all suspicions. However, Kane's role remains very limited, because he only serves to show us Gideon in his secret base, among the tanks full of clones that, according to him, he is not interested in, like eight seconds later in a meeting of holograms that represent The Imperial forces remain standing. Among these shady characters, two in particular stand out.
Gilad Pellaeon, played by Xanader Berkeley, comes straight from the pages of Tymothy Zahn. We have already told you the influence that those novels, now belonging to the Legends label, are having on the narrative of the new canon, and the fact that this character makes his appearance in person for the first time in this episode confirms it for many. hypothesis. In the novels, Peleon He was Grand Admiral Thrawn's right-hand man and Zahn wrote the two characters as if they were Sherlock Holmes and Watson. In the transition to television, Captain Pellaeon doesn't seem to have lost his stoic determination, especially considering the tone with which he challenges Gideon himself.
The conversation between the two mentions it several times. Thrawn, whom Gideon evidently wants to replace as leader of the new Empire that is reconstituting itself in the shadows: it is clear that the Grand Admiral - who will return to the scene in Ahsoka with the features of the actor who lent him his voice in Star Wars Rebels, that is, Lars Mikkelsen is becoming a key antagonistic figure in the Mandoverse, and The Mandalorian 3 is paving the way for Filoni's future plans. At the same time, the television series continues with references to the films and pre-established stories. The episode's intro refers to the cloning program that was temporarily lost along with Doctor Pershing and the infamous Necromancer Project which another of those present, Brendol Hux, would be working on. If the name doesn't sound new to you, it's normal: Brendol is the father of Armitage Hux, who we saw first serve Snoke and then Kylo Ren with barely concealed contempt in the sequel trilogy.
Filoni chose a successful actor: Brian Gleeson, who is none other than the brother of Domhnall Gleeson, the interpreter of Armitage Hux. At that point it might have been even more sensible to recruit his father, the great Brendan, directly, but he was evidently neither available nor interested. In any case, Brendol Hux is not a new character: in fact, he dates back to Aftermath, a trilogy of novels that Chuck Wendig wrote as a prologue to Episode VII. In those stories, which take place between The Mandalorian and The Force Awakens, Brendol was the head of a program that involved kidnapping and training children who would become Imperial stormtroopers: Finn and Jannah were among them.
In any case, the episode's prologue reveals how these horrible individuals are reconstituting the Empire, united around the figure of Thrawn, while cultivating disagreements, grudges and lies. We are facing a prototype of First order, but if it is true that Filoni is respecting the narrative established in the novels of the new canon, then there are some pieces missing from this mosaic: Rae Sloane, for starters, and that is the ambitious admiral who de facto founds the First Order. at the end of the Wendig novels after the catastrophic Battle of Jakku, and which also appears in the Star Wars Battlefront II campaign; and then the fact that in those stories there is no mention of Gideon, who will presumably die much sooner, perhaps at the hands of the same Thrawn he is trying to overthrow. What is certain is that the problems are slowly coming to a head.
Mecha-Grogu and the Mandalorians
The rest of the episode focuses on the Mandalorians traveling, amid arguments, to Mandalore and the Great Forge, but what could have been another transitional episode turns out to be much more balanced, interesting and revealing. Without a doubt, the credit also goes to the excellent Rick famuyiwa, which he directs on behalf of Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau with a strong penchant for placid but impressive cinematography. The episode confirms an old leak about the exoskeleton that Grog should have piloted during the season: at the time it seemed absurd, today we discover that it is none other than the IG-12, that is, the IG-11 regenerated by the Anzellani with a piloting compartment in which our Baby sits calmly. Yoda. We suspect that what was intended to be a pleasant joke will become a key element in future action scenes.
With everything that happens at the beginning and end of the episode we weren't expecting such an introspective moment in the middle, focusing on the long-awaited moment of truth: we finally find out how Gideon got the Dark sword, and the answer is not a spectacular flashback or anything, but a story of Bo-Katan Kryze admitting that she turned her in to the Moff to save the Mandalorians at the end of the Purge. Of course, Gideon kept the weapon and vitrified the planet anyway.
The entry on the scene of the Mandalorians loyal to Bo Katan Kryze It also serves to illuminate the disastrous situation in which the warrior population of Mandalore finds itself, fragmented and weakened by the infighting that has overthrown even the Death Watch. Bo-Katan's confession seems to have put an end to the dispute between the factions, and at least to have conquered our protagonist, who manages to be captured again in this episode, just a few minutes later and by the forces of Moff Gideon himself. There would be a long parenthesis to open here about how our people ended up in a trap like this, but the fact that Gideon was hiding right in the Great Forge would explain the presence of TIE Interceptors in the Mandalore system without a Star Destroyer. deploy them: they were simply on the planet.
Famuyiwa directs the action on Mandalore with clarity. The confrontation between the Mandalorians and Gideon's new stormtroopers, who wear armor in beskar, is truly spectacular and ends with the dramatic sacrifice of a character we've gotten to know a little better over the past few weeks and now we know why. Even worse, Gideon won the first round and is now wearing Mandalorian-style beskar armor - Moff has also surrounded himself with Praetorian Guards, the same ones Rey and Kylo face in Snoke's throne room in Episode VIII , remember? -then it's fair to wonder not only who made his armor, but also who warned him about the Mandalorians' arrival. We have a suspicion, we will see if the answer is as banal as it seems.
Conclusions
The new chapter of The Mandalorian 3 is undoubtedly the best of the season in all aspects. The excellent Famuyiwa presents a balanced episode, beautiful to watch and full of information and revelations about the narrative that Filoni has crafted in the previous weeks. By introducing new characters and answering some questions we had on our minds, "Spies" raises new questions and sends us back to the next episode for a season finale that we hope lives up to this penultimate episode.
PRO
- It is the best episode of the third season.
- Excellent balance between action, humor and introspection.
- This is Pellaeon and Brendol Hux's first time in live action
AGAINST
- Mando still looks like a fool
