The eighth and final episode of The Mandalorian is here and our titular anti-hero is having his final confrontation with the big bad of the season… until his next final confrontation, that is.
The finale is very satisfying and seems to really address many of the complaints that the most annoying of fans keep bringing up. Basically, they’ve been complaining that this show has been more of an anthology series than a plot-driven series which they apparently expected which is dumb. The finale seems more like an origin story… the Mandalorian is given a mission to find Baby Yoda’s people and return him to them instead of just running around in circles trying to say hidden.
I actually loved the two storm trooper characters in the beginning of the episode. I found their dialogue and banter one of the most entertaining things that this show has done all season.
IG-88 is a character that I absolutely loved and wish we could have had more of. While he might not be sticking around, he certainly made a heck of an impression with an amazing action sequence, lots of humor thanks to Taika Watiti, and an excellent sacrifice at the end.
As far as the story goes, as I said, it was an incredibly satisfying finale that tied up a lot of loose ends, had some great character moments that felt natural and not tacked on for the sake of season finale-ness, and set up some plot threads for next season. Pretty neat that they’re picking up a plot device from the animated series… thanks Dave Feloni!
Jason Gaston 