As we move into the endgame of The Mandalorian season 2, “The Believer” pumps the brakes on the action a bit, but does a ton of character work along the way, paving the way for a big finale next week.
1. The return of Mayfeld
One of the more interesting casting decisions of season 1 was giving Bill Burr, essentially, a lead role in one of the episodes. That episode’s writer/director, Rick Famuyiwa, returns here, and brings Mayfeld with him. The character, an ex-imperial, is needed to gain access to an Imperial facility in order to track down Moff Gideon. Burr is, essentially, playing his stage persona if he wasn’t a comedian but a mercenary. Mayfeld gives a speech that is reminiscent of DJ’s in The Last Jedi, showing how the sides aren’t that different in most conflicts.
2. A changed Mando
Mayfeld’s words, and later his actions, cause Din to establish just how deep his connection to Grogu is. He doesn’t flinch when having to remove his armor to put on Stormtrooper armor to accompany Mayfeld on the mission, and refuses to give into Mayfeld’s taunts about it. But more than that, when Mayfeld sees his old supervising officer, he refuses to follow through on the entire reasons that they are on planet, forcing Din to remove his mask in order to get the information he needs from the Imperial kiosk of whatever it is.
This is only the second time that we’ve seen Pedro Pascal sans mask on the show, and this time was for considerably longer than the first. I’ve got some questions, like when/why he shaves, but more than anything else, this feels like such a ballsy move for the show. At this point, seeing his face is legitimately shocking and feels wrong in a way. Mayfeld, after they escape the Imperial facility, tells Mando that he did what he had to do, and claims he never saw his face, which is about as close as friendship as we’re likely to ever see from Mayfeld.
3. Operation Cinder
There’s a reference made to Mayfeld being a part of ‘Operation Cinder,’ which has been a relatively large part of the post-Return of the Jedi, pre-The Force Awakens canon since the Disney purchase of Lucasfilm. It has mention in comics (“Shattered Empire”), novels (Alphabet Squadron), and video games (Battlefront II). Essentially, after his death, there was a hologram of Emperor Palpatine shown, which called for the total destruction of certain planets/cities that were once Imperial strongholds.
It was a cruel action, and one that has haunted those that participated in it, as we see from Mayfeld. This is another example of The Mandalorian being used as connective tissue between the various Star Wars properties.
4. Mando without beskar
While Din is certainly effective without his beskar armor, we see that he would not be exactly the elite fighter he is without his own equipment. This is important in a way, because the series has shown how superior of a fighter he is at many turns, and it is easy to begin to think of him as a superhero of sorts. But, when just dressed in Stormtrooper armor with a faulty blaster, he’s still a very good fighter, but is far more vulnerable.
This is, likely, to reinforce the idea of just how difficult it will be to take down Moff Gideon. Yes, he’ll have his beskar back, but we have now been reminded that he is just a man, going up against the remnants of the Empire.
5. Finale predictions
One thought that I can’t seem to get our of my mind is that I don’t think we’ve seen enough of Moff Gideon for this to be the end of his story yet, but it also feels like maybe the show needs to move on from him. I think the episode, likely to be a bit longer than most, will spend a lot of time with Gideon, giving him a send off that feels more earned.
I also think we will meet whatever Jedi heard Grogu’s reaching out through the Force, and I think we will also see the actions that may lead to the Cara Dune spinoff, Rangers of the New Republic.
But in terms of actual story, I’m not really sure where this is going. After this breather of an episode, I can’t imagine next week will have nearly as much space. See ya then.
