Boba Fett makes his long-awaited return on “The Mandalorian” as everything goes sideways with “The Tragedy”

I’ve made no secret my frustrations with The Mandalorian this season as the episodes have varied from acceptable to unacceptable, but with last week’s installment and this new episode, I am ready to accept the show’s apology and move forward because “The Tragedy” is another series defining installment that not only kicks the story into high gear, but also brings back a character who is beloved for some reason even though he had the dumbest death of any Star Wars character.

To be completely honest, The Mandalorian, at least with this season, is hardly the most cerebral or deepest of series. It’s all surface level shoot ’em ups topped with a thick layer of ‘member berries. That being said, I do so much love it ever so much. It’s a reliable outing… you know what you’re getting and, unless there is a frog involved, you rarely feel gypped with the result.

This end result? I’m okay with. My secret is that I’ve never really understood why everyone considers Boba Fett such an awesome character. I’ve never really delved into the comics or novels, to me he was just some bit player from a couple of movies who was built up to be this badass character only to die like one of the three stooges.

Oh, and then we saw him as a kid a little while later.

I will admit, though, that almost 40 years later, Boba got the moment of badassery his character never got in the original movies and it was a lot of fun to watch. The entire episode, as a matter of fact, was little more than pew-pew-pew, pow-pow-pow but that’s to be expected of The Mandalorian… at least it’s good pew-pew-pew, pow-pow-pow.

What’s more, the story really feels like its moving along and we’re done with the sidequest of the week formula that really weighed down the narrative of the series. While I get that the series is a quest and that is the way that quests work, I prefer my narratives focused and not dancing all over the galaxy.

The episode itself brought some things that were expected, such as the Empire taking little Grogu, and some things that were not like losing the Razor Crest which was, I will admit, a gut punch. Still, I’m loving the new focus that has been brought to the second season and can’t wait to see Mando enact some vengeance for the Empire’s provocation.