The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 5 Recap: ‘The Jedi’
After seeing the returns of Greef Karga and Cara Dune last week, Disney+’s hit Star Wars spin-off series The Mandalorian Season 2 has returned and this time has brought with it the highly-anticipated arrival of the live-action portrayal of a fan-favorite Clone Wars character!
RELATED: The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 4 Recap: ‘The Siege’
Return of the Jedi
A city goes into hiding as alarms ring out regarding blaster fire in the nearby forests and we see a group of soldiers firing at a hooded Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) who uses the Force to make quick work of some of them while wiping the others out with her lightsabers and stealthy use of the surrounding fog. Ahsoka is looking to learn some kind of information from the leader of Calodan, Magistrate Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto), and free the people of the town from her rule alongside her lieutenant Lang (Michael Biehn), giving her one day to decide whether she wishes to concede.
Not So Lovely Town
Meanwhile, Mando and The Child approach the planet of Corvus, with The Child still proving to be fascinated by the ball top of one of the levers of the ship and uses the Force to unscrew it and have it for himself. Mando lands the Razor Crest in the desolate forest on the outskirts of Calodan, making note that he’s never had dealings with a Jedi before and that the area is not a good-looking one and heads towards town looking for information on Ahsoka, meeting Lang as he’s questioned regarding his business in town, simply stating he’s been tracking someone for a few days as part of a hunt for the Guild. As he tries to talk to the locals, they all seem to cower away from him as they are afraid to talk to him and he is escorted by two guards to see the Magistrate, who has asked for him.
What a Mansion
Mando arrives at the Magistrate’s residence, which is locked behind coded gates and has prisoner cages right outside that sporadically electrocute the prisoners locked within them. The residence is a far more tranquil and lush location in comparison to the rest of the town, with lots of greenery and even aquatic life in the ponds surrounding the large estate. The Magistrate offers Mando a proposition to hunt down Ahsoka and kill her, with him stating his price is generally high, especially for such a job, to which she responds by offering him a spear made out of pure Beskar.
I Keep Him Around for Luck
Though only implicitly accepting the job, Mando asks of where he can find the Jedi and meets with Lang near the gate into town, who questions the nature of The Child, which Mando says he keeps around for luck. Mando makes his way through the burned-out forests with his rifle at the ready as he reaches the coordinates given to him by the Magistrate, but while his tracking tech initially shows nothing, he’s suddenly ambushed by Ahsoka, with his armor protecting him from her lightsabers. After a brief fight in which Mando plays self-defense, he is able to stop her as he mentions Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) sent him, with Ahsoka looking over and noticing The Child and sheathing her lightsabers.
The Child Has a Name
After night falls, Mando paces in the distance while Ahsoka sits with The Child, attempting to get a read on him and his abilities. She reveals to Mando that the two can feel each other’s thoughts and reveals The Child’s name is Grogu and that he was raised at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, with many masters training him over the years, but at the end of the Clone Wars when the Empire rose to power, he was hidden and someone took him from the temple, though his memories after that are sad as he was mostly alone. Ahsoka reflects on knowing Yoda, the only one of Grogu’s kind that she knew, and asks if he can still wield the Force, with Mando seemingly confirming he can as he refers to his powers. Mando asks that Ahsoka help Grogu in his future, to which she’s uncertain of but offers to test him and his abilities in the morning.
RELATED: The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 3 Recap: ‘The Heiress’
No Child-Sized Backpacks Here
Utilizing a test in which the two must gently pass a stone between them with the Force, though Grogu seems uninterested or disheartened by something, with Ahsoka noting she senses a lot of fear in him and that he’s hidden his abilities to hide for years. She puts Mando in her place and has him ask Grogu to take the stone with the Force, to which he initially shows reluctance much to Mando’s frustration, but in an effort to connect with him and help him use the Force he pulls out the lever top from his pocket, to which Grogu quickly pulls it. While impressing Mando, Ahsoka says she can not train Grogu as his attachment to Mando makes him vulnerable to his fears and his anger, mentioning that she’s seen what such feelings can do to a fully-trained Jedi Knight, e.g. Anakin Skywalker. Mando pushes harder for Grogu’s training, offering to help Ahsoka take out the guards and the Magistrate in exchange.
The Team-Up They’ll Never See Coming
Ahsoka reveals the identity of the Magistrate and reveals that during the Clone Wars, her people were massacred and that her anger of surviving fueled an industry that built the Imperial Starfleet and plundered and destroyed worlds. Electing to team up to bring them all down and save the prisoners, Ahsoka begins by storming the outer gate and taking out the guards on the scout wall and destroying the alarm bell. The Magistrate comes out from her inner gate and stands in the middle of the street amongst her various guards and Lang, with Ahsoka slowly approaching down the main street and tossing a piece of Mando’s armor towards them to fool them into thinking he’s dead. She asks the Magistrate where is her master, to which she only retorts by telling the guards to kill Ahsoka, who deflects off the blaster fire and retreats on nearby rooftops while the Magistrate orders the guards to execute the prisoners and go door-to-door for the rest of the town, though Mando successfully stops them in time. Ahsoka hunts down the various guards one by one through the alleyways of the various streets, leaving only Lang and a couple of droids, though she eliminates one during a brief standoff. Lang confronts Mando in the middle of the street while Ahsoka climbs over the inner gate to the Magistrate’s residence, with the latter battling in the walkway next to the residence’s ponds while the former mostly talk until Lang seemingly backing down after Ahsoka successfully disarms the Magistrate of her spear, only to try and pull a gun and Mando being quicker on the draw while also shooting down the remaining droid on a rooftop behind him.
Where is Your Master?
With the Magistrate defeated, Ahsoka questions her on the location of her master, Grand Admiral Thrawn, who may have survived following the events of his seeming demise in Star Wars: Rebels. With the city cleared, Ahsoka says goodbye to Mando at the city’s gates and gives him the staff the Magistrate promised him, saying it belongs with a Mandalorian. Mando asks Ahsoka to wait at the outer gates while he goes and retrieves Grogu from the ship, though seemingly knowing he’s unwilling to part ways with the young Force user, she elects to head inside the town with a local citizen whom Mando interacted with on multiple occasions throughout the episode. As he attempts to say goodbye to Grogu, Ahsoka appears outside the ship and once again states she can not train him, but that there is a possibility of a path forward for Grogu if Mando takes him to the planet Tython, where he will find the ancient ruins of a Jedi Temple with a strong connection to the Force and that he must place Grogu on the seeing stone at the top of the mountain, where Grogu will then choose his path and if reaches out through the Force, a Jedi may sense his presence and come looking for him.
