3x07 Chapter 23: The Spies

[7.0/10] “The Spies” is mostly fine in isolation. The individual scenes are pleasant enough. For the folks who've been clamoring for more plot movement, there’s plenty of that here. Paz Vizsla's big moment worked on me. I even got a few laughs out of Grogu lumbering around in the IG-11 suit.

But this may be the episode of The Mandalorian season 3 I’ve enjoyed the least. Everything sort of comes out of nowhere. Everything feels sudden and rushed. Some of the elements aren’t bad. Some are. But in a season that's been stronger on mood and tone than on narrative fireworks, the sudden turns in the story left me with a bit of whiplash.

Here’s my prime annoyance. Why must we continue to undo every part of the very good ending to season 2? Mando and Grogu say a tearful goodbye. Don’t worry, they reunite over just a few episodes of Book of Boba Fett. Luke slashes all the Dark Troopers. But oh no, now the Imperial Remnant has a new set of even worse Dark Troopers! Our heroes have defeated and captured Moff Gideon. But wait, he’s easily escaped and is back and bigger than ever!

For a story to mean something, actions have to have consequences. Find a new quest for Din Djarin! Find new goons for our heroes to battle with! Find a new worthy opponent who challenges the ability of the Mandalorians to return home! Having essentially reached the end of the arc the show started out with The Mandalorian had a chance to do something new and different with the show’s third season. And instead, this episode in particular sinks us deeper and deeper into rehashes of what they’ve already done.

As much as I love Giancarlo Esposito from projects as varied as Better Call Saul and Do the Right Thing, I don’t really want Moff Gideon back. And if he does return, I’d want a lot more setup than what we got.

Don’t get me wrong, the show has been laying the groundwork within the plotting for him to come back. The bits about him not getting a trial and his prison transport being hijacked all suggested he would return sooner rather than later. But season 3 has been all too cagey about what his goals are and why it should matter to us and to the characters beyond “He’s a Big Bad you already know.”

Case-in-point, I wish we’d gotten Bo-Katan’s monologue -- about surrendering Mandalore to Gideon and disarming in the hopes of saving her people, only to find herself double-crossed and her countrymen all but wiped out -- several episodes before we meet the dude again. The monologue itself isn’t bad. It’s more bare exposition and lore-building in an episode that already does a ton of heavy-lifting on that front.

I like the emotional effect it has on Bo-Katan, though. She worries that she betrayed her people, that no one will want to follow her anymore, that she’s a fraud for carrying the darksaber again after she turned it over to the architect of the Mandalorians’ destruction. Din’s reassurance is heartening. He follows her not because of a fabled weapon or her noble birth, but because he’s seen that she’s worthy of leading through her inner strength and good deeds. She’s earned the right to return home, to lead her people to rebuild the promised land, not by prophesy or conquest, but through genuine honor and compassion. That's a strong idea that adds emotional ballast to the prospect of her leading a force and facing down the man who decimated their planet and now dares to call it home.

Unfortunately, everything in “The Spies” moves too fast and is too packed together for it to have much meaning. Bo-Katan’s old crew ventures to Nevarro to join the Children of the Watch. But there’s basically no time to explore what it might mean to resettle, even temporarily, or integrate two disparate tribes, because boom, they’re just off to Mandalore as a reasonably unified group before you can say, “This all seems a little fast.”

They discover survivors on Mandalore’s surface! But there’s barely any time to reckon with them and what they’ve been through, or explore why they might defect to Gideon’s side, before everyone’s simply on the way to the Forge. There’s barely any time to dig into Gideon’s plans or methods or what he wants out of this whole thing before bam, he’s in some super suit and zooming around an Imperial installation where the center of Mandalorian civilization used to be.

Everything is a giant rush, and without more time to stop and take stock of what this means to the people involved, or establish what Gideon’s return at all and return to Mandalore in particular would mean to these people, little of this has real psychological weight.

Those are the big problems, but smaller ones abound too. As I said, I got a laugh out of Grogu’s bounty hunter droid escapades at first. But him piloting a humanoid-sized robot instead of floating around in his hoverpram is a weak and, frankly, goofy substitute. A giant lizard smashing our heroes’ only means of transportation but without any collateral damage to their strike force is awfully convenient. And most disappointingly, the visuals here were tepid at best, with a flat color palette that blunts the melancholy of returning home, and desultory fight scenes that were chopped up to all hell in the editing bay, robbing them of the requisite tension and excitement.

The only big positive is that, however blunt and harried some of the writing is here, the show does come up with a big moment to seal the bond between the Mandalorian diaspora. Paz Vizsla fights with Axe Woves over some Mandalorian chess equivalent, which turns into a real fight and suggests that, despite an ecumenical spirit, these two tribes just can't work together. Then, when the lives are at stake rather than pride, he sacrifices his own to save both Bo-Katan’s Mandalorians and the Children of the Watch, showing how deep the commitment goes despite fissures on the surface.

It’s a well-earned moment, especially given the onetime foil for Din Djarin steadily changing his tune to a more welcoming and giving one over the course of this season. It speaks to Din’s message to Bo-Katan as they await a return to the Forge -- that their history is one of constantly hovering near extinction, but also one of resilience and rebuilding, a point that resonates with the many Jewish allegories that have run through this season and the series writ large.

But that's the only standout moment in an episode that's heavy on plot movement, but light on the things that make it more than an empty progression of cause and effect, or worse yet, a thin excuse for the pew-pew laser light shows that were always the coating, not the substance, of Star Wars. It’s all squarely fine. Plenty happens in “The Spies”, but not the sort of things that make it all mean something.

It's hard not to give it a lower score but honestly just seeing the Praetorian Guards alone made the episode. There were a few things that pissed me off- how obvious the retreat into a trap was. And how in the 20 seconds they used to escape, they didn't use the same 20 seconds to open the front door and not only rescue Din but completely overwhelm the dark troopers. Not only that but the battle leading up to it was pathetic, no matter how good their training, the wouldn't best the Mandalorian's who've been training in Veskar armor in laser gunnery, hand to hand combat, rocket jumping literally their WHOLE LIVES. Plus the giant missiles on their backs and in their wrists...like c'mon. Dark Troopers literally stood no chance. Praetorian Guards on the other hand....maybe they might've taken down over half of the Mandalorians but no way they'd win against that many skilled and armored. Additionally I thought Veskar can literally glance and block lightsaber style weapons....WTF. Honestly the dark troopers, guards, and gideon himself EVEN with the blast doors trap stood no chance. This was heavily forced. They should've just written a more cunning trap versus beating the Mandalorians with pure fighting prowess. Makes me more mad the more I think about it.

Funny how now the Empire Remnant has a secret underground resistance against the New Republic. How the tables have turned.

This episode was way better in terms of storytelling but it left me very frustrated. I know that the Mandalorians are not likely to win if they want to keep the mythology. But just for once I'd like to see them come out on top. Gideon has become a bit ridicolous. He's the archetype of a bad guy. He was more interesting when he wasn't flying around as a Vader look-alike. I hate to see Vizla die but I should've seen that one coming because I really grew to like him. Grogu inside IG ? Come-on, he's a Force user. Despite the fact he choose not to train with Luke he still has the ability, no ? And we still must have a monster, doesn't we ?

Now, those are personal and, yes, biased points on my behalf. Like I said it was a great episode as such. In the end I see it as a win for the author if he invokes those reactions from me. There were also moments that gave me serious goosebumps. Like when Bo told them what happened between her and Gideon and subsequent how Din told her why he's following her. The talk about Thrawn didn't surprise me. I expected that pretty much from episode one forward.

Only one episode left and I hope there'll be some silver lining.