ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 5 REVIEW

Episode Date: April 1, 2023

ScreenCrush Rewind tackles all the movie and TV hot topics, offering reviews and analysis of Marvel, Star Wars, and everything you care about right now. Hosted by Ryan Arey, and featuring a panel of industry professionals. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bo Catan is a cautionary tale. Mandelor must all come together. She can't take it. I accept this sword for my sister. I can feel the anger and confusion throughout the Jedi temple. Hey, welcome back Screen Crush. I'm Ryan Erie. So season 3, episode 5 of The Mandalorian, finally got the show back on track telling a singular story with a clear goal.

The Mandalorians are going to return to their home world led by Bo Catan, and Mof Gideon is going to stand in their way. But a lot of the general audience fans who made the show such a hit are not tuning in for this with casual fans abandoning the show and I want to figure out why. Now, I love this episode and I'm really digging the season so far. In fact, I'm going to talk about what I loved about the episode in just a bit when I'm joined by Matt Singer and Heather Antos. Now, whether you've loved this season or not, you have to admit there is an awful lot of backstory that you need to understand in Star Wars right now. Novels, comics, TV shows, there is a lot of continuity that you need to know for this season to make sense. Now, I think this episode works so well because it finally simplified that backstory into a straightforward tale of good versus evil with a clear-cut goal.

The Mandalorians now want a very simple thing. They want to go home. There's no place like home. But look at the long road to get here. I mean, there is a lot of Star Wars programming right now, which I love, but is this too much of a good thing? Is too much Star Wars ruining Star Wars? Or is Star Wars about to turn into Star Trek? Right, are you saying Star Trek is bad? Oh, not at all. I love Star Trek.

In fact, we cover Picard every week on this channel. Let me explain what I mean. Explain yourself and your intent. So I love that The Mandalorian is telling this giant overarching story across seasons about the retaking of Mandelor and the rise of the first order. And I love that it ties into the comics and shows and movies. It makes me feel like I've been rewarded for paying attention all these years. Just like an Avengers End game.

If you recognize Jarvis from the Agent Carter show, it's like you could give yourself a pat on the back for being a loyal fan. But if you didn't recognize Jarvis, it didn't really matter. But the MCU, at least at that point, was fairly straightforward with mostly huge box office movies as required viewing to understand what was happening in that movie. Whereas, for example, there are 133 episodes of the Clone Wars. Now, like only about a dozen to 15 of those feature Mandelor, but still, you cannot expect your audience to go back and watch 12 episodes of an animated show from 2008. There's too many of them. And it actually shouldn't be a problem filling in massive backstories for your characters.

I mean, Game of Thrones worked pretty well explaining its world in the first couple episodes, because, they kept the focus on people that we cared about. But the Mandalorian has always had a, let's be nice and say, a less traditional story structure. So its introduction of Boca Tan has been a little bit McClunky along the way. Like, I love this show, but it's never been structured like a normal TV show. It's structured like a book. In the first season, each episode was a somewhat self-contained chapter. And in the second season, those chapters started to come together. The problem is, for casual viewers, this gave us a really weak introduction to Bo Catan, and it made the religions of Mandalore confusing. So, like, let me explain.

Oh my gosh, something in here smells amazing. Smells like a cloud, fell in love with the flower, and they had a child. Well, I thank you. That's me. Now, you always smell like skin and feet. Well, now I smell good because I'm wearing cologne. I don't understand cologne. Too expensive, too many fancy names. Ewee de eos. It makes no sense.

Yeah, I don't understand cologne either, and that is why I subscribe to Cintbird. They're the sponsor of this video. Scentbird is a great service for a guy like me because I have no idea what makes for a good cologne. And cologne is expensive, so I didn't want to drop a lot of money on a pricey bottle. Yeah, but what even is scent bird? Now, scentbird is a fragrant subscription service that lets you skip any month without penalties. And if you're new to wearing cologne, this is a great way to start. So to educate me about the cologne, they sent along a descriptive card that explains the ingredients

and the proper occasion to wear the cologne. This month, I received Royal Forest by English Laundry. It's really nice, gives hints of cedar and apple very good. Wow, you do smell better and sound smart at fancy dinner parties. Me lord. Me lord. So my favorite clone from this month is called Manchill by Tous. And you can see this is eight times bigger than a normal sample size you'd get at a store.

It's very nice. It's got hints of lavender, lime, black pepper. Smells incredible. Well, how does this year or even work? Well, Doug, you can choose a designer fragrance every month for just $17. You get a 30-day supply and you get to pick what you want to receive so there are no surprises. This is a great way to learn about cologne. Find what you like without spending hundreds of dollars on a bottle.

So if you want to give scent bird a try, use our code screencrush. to and click the link in the description to get 55% off. That's just over $7 for your first month available in the USA and Canada. So thanks again to Sent Bird for sponsoring us and check out our sample links below. You really do smell great. Thanks, buddy. High five. Okay, so back to Boca Tan. We meet Boatatan in Season 2, Episode 3.

She's got followers, and the big surprise is that they can take off their helmets. We learned that there is a divide in the Mandalorian people. You do not cover your face. You are not Mandalorian. And then she says, I am the last of my line. And you are a child of the watch. Followed by...

Children of the Watch are a cult of religious zealots that broke away from Andalorean society. Their goal was to re-establish the ancient way. That's a pretty zippy way to explain such a deep religious cultural divide, but... Okay, whatever. Then later in the episode, the two of them team up anyway, and we find out what she's looking for. Where is it? There's what? The Dark Sabre, does he have it?

And then, when she helps Den at the end of the season, she lays down a pretty clear rule. Gideon is mine. Got it? And then, after Den wins the Dark Sabre, he tries to give it back to Boca Tan, and Gideon says, She can't take it. It must be one. So the past of the Dark Sabre is a lot for a casual fan to digest. But this is all done just fine.

We learn that there's divides in Mandalorian society and that the Dark Sabre is important, but it's also making it seem like Boca Tan needs that saber or else. The problem arises with the Book of Boba Fett. The Mandalorian episodes of that show not only squandered the cliffhanger of Grogu leaving with Luke, but then the episodes jammed in a lot of exposition about the Dark Sabre and Boketan that just makes it all confusing. Boketan is a cautionary tale. She once laid claim to rule Mandelor based purely on blood and the sword you now possess. And then we get to this season, which starts off kind of aimless, where Denn is off on a pointless droid quest,

and then suddenly all of Boketan's story has happened off screen. When I returned without the Dark Sabre, my forces melted away. It's very weird that she doesn't challenge him for the Dark Sabre. We were told the Dark Saber was important, but now she doesn't want it. We don't exactly know how she failed to retake her world or who she failed to retake it from. And if you didn't watch the Armour's monologue in the Book of Boba Fett, you really don't know much about her. We don't know how Den feels about her. This can all get very confusing for the Normies out there.

I am confused. Now, for me, it's awesome. I'm on board. I always wanted to see what happened. happened after she ignited the Dark Sabre and Star Wars Rebels. I want to see flashbacks where she mourns her sister, all that stuff. But I don't think that this rich past has been explained very well in this show, and it's turning people off. The problem is that the scale of Star Wars is growing so much that only diehard fans are able to keep track of this story. And that

is why I say that Star Wars is turning into Star Trek. Now, don't get me wrong. I love Star Trek. Like I said, we cover Picard every week, I'm a diehard trekker. And Star Trek is massively popular. There are currently six Star Wars shows posting new episodes this year, not to mention a franchise of 13 movies and counting. It's a huge franchise, but there is a lot less cultural resonance with Star Trek than there is with Star Wars. You can stack up the box office numbers and no Star Trek film has made near Star Wars money unless you count solo. Doesn't, doesn't count. The point is that Star Trek has a more niche audience and that's okay. If you grab someone off the street, ask them, hey, who was Picard's first officer or who trained Obi-1 Kenobi, more people are probably

going to know the name of Quiguan Jen than Commander Riker. Star Trek has always been hyper-specific. It takes place in our future following humanity after a World War 3 that technically should have happened in the 1990s. Whereas Star Wars has always been in how general it is. By design, it makes it more relatable. The bars look almost medieval but futuristic. It's a mishmash of several genres in one story. This is one reason why Star Wars toys have always been so huge. The story is a big blank canvas and invites us to add our own story into the saga. Whereas Star Trek seems like it's documenting a future history. And maybe that's why Star Trek toys were never as big. Or it's because they sucked and they look like this thing. Now, look, I am not dunking on Star Trek. I love Star Trek. It is a lot of fun. But I think it's interesting to compare the way that we consume Star Trek stories and the way that we now consume Star Wars stories. See, Star Trek has a sprawling amount of media to draw from. It's been on and off TV for five decades.

And there's hundreds of non-canon comics and novels, not to mention movies in two different universes, the main universe and the Kelvinverse. Having hundreds and hundreds of hours of programming means that there are thousands of items in the Trek universe that need to be catalogued. Planets, weapons, ships, species. this creates a lot of continuity for creators to draw from, but that same continuity can also box a creator in. Whereas with Star Wars, for 16 years, we only had the original trilogy. So we memorized it, we read the novels, we made fun of the Ewok movies,

but it was understood that the movies were sacred text. Now we have an embarrassment of riches. Two continuities to choose from. Games, comics, novels, animated shows, live action shows, and they're all intricately woven so no one is stepping on each other's toes, for the most part. The Star Wars Galaxy used to be so general that it created a wide, canvas for creators to paint on, or for us to paint on with our toys. But now, like Star Trek, that canvas is getting filled in. There's less to the imagination. If a creator wants to tell the

story of what Luke did between the trilogies, well, there's already a comic for that. Or if they want to talk about how Vader built his palace on Mustafa, there's a comic for that. Or if you want to show what's going on in the Mandalorians and a live action show, then you have to draw up on several episodes of the Clone Wars and Rebels. As things become more specific, they become less special. In the book Understanding Comics, Scott McLeod talked about how everybody relates to a smiley face because that could be my face, two dots in a mouth, my face. But as you add details, it becomes less relatable. It looks more like someone else's face instead of yours. Now, I do think that the Mandalorian has placed this universe at a great point. For the first time this season,

we have a clear goal and a clear villain. Moff Gideon is still out there. From now on, it doesn't really matter if you understand the history and nuances of the Mandalorian culture because they have one specific goal. They want to go home. You don't have to know that Boca Tan did this or that. Now, she is their future leader and that's all that matters. I hope that the the Mandalorian becomes a bit more like Lord of the Rings. See, in that story, you didn't need to know exactly how the line of kings was broken. You just know that Aragorn is the rifle king and he's a really nice guy, so we want this nice guy to be king. It's taken a few episodes, but I feel like the show is finally telling us what these characters want in the state of the galaxy, and most

importantly, they're giving us a villain who's behind it all. And they did it with a pirate episode. With a spaceship with a giant steering wheel and Tim Meadows and Zeb from Star Wars Rebels, Zeb was the perfect cameo. If you know who he is, great. If not, he's a cool, a cool, and blue alien and you can move on. And this episode has also balanced out its A-B story plots perfectly. Oh yeah. It's all coming together. Instead of telling one story, then cutting to another one, then back to the original story. Like in episode three, every story thread in this episode connects to the episode, and they all come together to set up the rest of the season. So I'm joined here by two of my favorite people to talk about this.

We have Screen Crush Editor-in-Chief Matt Singer and senior IDW editor, Heather Antos, and Heather also works on the Star Trek line of comics at IDW, which are great. They're in canon with the Star Trek world. So she actually is the perfect person to have talk about the similarities between these two franchises and if one has become any other. So Heather, what's your thoughts on this? Is Star Wars, you know, with the Mandalorian and the complexity, are we seeing it kind of turn into something more niche like Star Trek or is Star Trek even niche? What are your thoughts? They're just two very different franchises. Star Trek has always been more about exploring other cultures, other worlds. It's so much more esoteric where Star Wars has always been

pretty straightforward good versus evil in its various forms in the galaxy and you know i will say that yes the mandolorean though started pretty straightforward in season one has become by season three a lot more esoteric um is that a bad thing no uh does it make you know it a different show than what we first started absolutely and i can see how that might be you know as we discussed last week a bit more confusing for people or turn them off in some ways. I think what they're doing with the Mandalorian culture in this season is cool. I just wish, again, it was a little bit more straightforward in the true nature of what Star Wars storytelling is because we are getting a little bit in the weeds jumping around

from storyline to storyline every single episode. Okay, Heather, just to follow up on that though, like you're somebody who knows Star Wars continuity. You worked on Star Wars comics for years. It's your It's your literal job to know Star Wars continuity. So for you, it's not a problem to follow along with some of these things. But where is the show kind of, where do you think they're misstepping and explaining Bo Catan's history and the different Mandalorian cultures? Like, what approach do you think they should have taken or could have taken to make this a little more clear? You know, it's a quick, it's your very basic writing, who, what, wear, when, and why, right?

And a lot of that can be done and just throw away. dialogue lines without having to have big, you know, exposition dumps or whole episodes dedicated to lore. You know, in that first episode, I would have rather, you know, that whole episode been been more so Bo and then talking about Mandalorian history, going back, you know, that Minds of Mandalore, whatever episode, I think would have made a great first episode for this season, it sets up the exploration of Mandalorian culture, the religious undertones. You set that all up from the beginning from the very first episode. And that sets the trajectory of what the season will be about in a way that just, you know,

the I need to fix my droid and go back to Navarro. The current episode one just didn't do. You know, I think simply starting with episode two, would solve so many of the season's problems because it leads the viewer. This is what the season is about. This is their mission. He's an apostate. He's trying to redeem himself as a Mandalorian.

She's lost her culture. She's lost her way and is trying to find her way. And we see that almost religious experience she has in the waters. But because that was episode two, you know, in my head the whole time I'm like, but what about the droid, but what about Navarro, but what about Greep Kargut, but what about all of this? But what about the pirates? But what about that? I thought that's what this was about. Um, you know, and we haven't touched on any of those things until this most recent episode. So it, you know, it's, you have to be careful with what neon signs you're pointing

your viewers to or your readers too in the comics. And, you know, number ones are very important for that reason. What is this story about? What is this, what is the season about? What are our character's goals and missions? And episode one made it seem like it was about fixing a droid that we haven't seen or talked about in a month. So, Matt, you know, these franchise stories, the MCU, Star Trek, Star Wars, they all have the same problem. And it's something that's actually reflected in comic books, that each issue has to tell its own self-contained story, just like, ideally, even in the age of streaming and binge-watching, every episode of a show should tell a self-contained story, while also fitting into this wide tapestry of the story being told.

And the balancing act is the show is doing too much of one and not enough of the other. you know so where are you thinking the mandolian after episode five or yeah five after episode five how is the mandolian balancing this out is it telling good self-contained stories uh i i mean i guess ish it depends on the week i thought this week's episode you know like in and of itself was was pretty interesting again i don't know that it felt like an episode of the mandolian at times at times i felt like i was watching like the pilot for that new, you know, Rangers of the New Republic show that never got off the ground.

And I thought those were actually some of the best scenes of the episode. But, you know, I feel like we're sort of becoming a broken record at this point, but it's just like even the things that I like about this show, it's like, what does this have to do with The Mandalorian?

Is this still a show about The Mandalorian? It's about Mandalorians, for sure. But how does this? the Mandalorian feel about all of that? Like, even more than, like, telling stories, I think my big concern or my question a lot of the times lately is, like, character. Like, what does, what does Dyn think about all this stuff that's going on, right? Uh, we see him give a speech in this episode about, you know, well, we should help my friend, and here is why.

And risk his life to save mine, as well as the foundling in my charge. And he takes a part in that big action sequence, but like, what does he want at this point? What is his goal at this point? What does he think about the armorer and Bo Catan and all of these people? I mean, seemingly what's happening here is a big development with the armorer at the end of the episode and the armor telling Boca Tan to take off her helmet and sort of thinking that she can in some way, you know, unite the Mandalorian people and do all of this stuff. And while all this is, is happening like mando is just kind of standing off to the side with grogo and it's just kind of like yep okay cool whatever and it's like are we watching the mandolorn or are we watching like the beau catan show

which again not necessarily a bad thing but it's just like to sort of what heather was saying it's like what is the show at this point and where are we going and what is the main character's goals or what does he want and i'm just sort of confused about a lot of that stuff uh even while week to week at times, I'm like, well, this is a cool sequence, and this stuff with the Rangers is pretty interesting, and maybe I would have enjoyed seeing that New Republic, Rangers of the New Republic show. Even while I'm enjoying that, I have a hard time in my mind, sort of understanding, like, well, what am I supposed to take away from this as it relates to Dinn and to Grogu and the overall sort of like flow and direction of the show? I don't really know at this point. We're five

episodes into an eight-episode season. I mean, I guess it's not a bad thing to not necessarily know exactly where a show is going, but I have no idea where this show is going at this point. And I feel like I don't know what the whole point of this season has been really at this point. And we're more than half over. You know, I think you bring up an interesting point. I think there's a difference between being confused at where a show is going versus wanting to know where a show is going, right? I had a bit of an epiphany last night when, you know, when watching this episode, again, which I thought was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed, was it, most TV shows are written with A, B, and C plots that you touch on every single episode.

And for season three of The Mandalorian, it almost feels like, well, episode one is the A plot, and then episode two is the B plot, and then episode three is the C plot, and then episode, know, episode five is the B plot. Rather than, you know, having that through line through every single episode, it does feel like this is one long epic movie that is meant to be watched all in one go, which great. I would love to binge it all and have it all make sense and be great. But when you're doing a week to week release, it is really hard to stay invested. when the Thune Line is at present every single episode. Right.

She's back. Business cat's back. Cats invested. Nobody else. Yes. Heather, those are great points, especially about, like, when you binge the show, any season of it, I think it's all going to, like, come together and make a lot of sense. Matt, I'm curious.

So you're somebody who is, you know, loved Star Wars your entire life. You know Star Wars really well. You haven't necessarily seen all the animated shows. do you understand or follow the story of Bo Catan? Like, as somebody who in that aspect, like, she's new to you on this show, are you getting it? Probably not enough, I would say, is the answer. I mean, I think I have a vague sense of who she is right now on the show. But in terms of her past, you know, I think Ryan, you asked Heather before, like,

how would you explain her backstory? Are they doing a good enough job of explaining her backstory? And I could say for me personally, like, they're not doing a good enough job. Like, I don't really understand. I know she has this history, and she was a leader of Mandalorian people, obviously, for whatever reason, it didn't quite work out. And she wants the Dark Saber, maybe, although that hasn't come up a whole lot on this season. That was a thing last year. So I don't fully understand.

And when things happen, like, at the end of this episode, when the armor is telling her to take off her helmet, after they've made such a big deal of her not taking it off, like, I understand what they say that they want her to, now later unite all these different factions of Mandalorians and not everyone wears their helmet. That I understand. What I don't understand is in this group where they all wear their helmets all the time and yet still have perfect hair when they take them off. I would love to know what products they're using. Katie Sackoff's wig looks fantastic. I can't even put a hat on my head for 10 minutes without destroying this. Katie Sackoff takes off that helmet after literally days of wearing it and it's just like, ah, perfect. But anyway, I don't understand.

No, go ahead. Please. Please. No, no, I was going to say that when she said, you know, when she walked out with her helmet off, I thought for sure everybody was going to follow suit and then like we'd see a sweaty John Favreau behind Paz-Visla because he's in the action figure. I thought, oh, this is the, oh, okay. So I was just as confused as you, and I've seen these shows multiple times. I cut you off I'm sorry. And I agree. That's what I thought was happening. I thought we were about to have some sort of like epiphany moment where they all take off their helmets and we are evolving as a people.

because we already know, like, they implied at least that it was a big deal for them to go out of hiding because they always are hiding underground in these caves, and now they're going to live on Navarro, you know, at least sort of somewhat in the light amongst these people to some extent. So clearly they're, you know, they're not as rigid as they've always been. So then when she asks Boketan to take off her helmet and they walk out together, that's exactly what I thought that was going to be the big moment. And that would be actually a really big moment, but then that didn't happen. And I was like, well, why make her take off her helmet now?

I guess to show that she's following the armorer's instructions, maybe. But that I didn't understand at all. And sort of, again, to Ryan's point, like what Ryan's suggesting, that's like a big moment. And what they did wound up making me just again more confused. And in general, that's how I generally feel about that character is like, she seems interesting and cool but I don't fully understand what's come before

and why she is so important now and especially like what does she want out of all of this you know like and probably a lot of that is by design in terms of like you know we're not supposed to know does she really want to join this group

is she sort of there because she has her own schemes that she's you know working through but I need I feel like I need just like a little bit more of a window into like what's going on or tease something

so much of it is opaque and I get it they're mandoloreans they wear helmets if they're hard to read by nature but I need I don't know I just need something I need a little something more to have a little bit of like a breadcrumb a trail to follow and go oh I see what's happening well this is interesting

I want to see how this plays out I just, I don't know where any of this is headed. I think you're kind of an ideal, like, test audience for this because you're somebody who's, you're a movie critic, you've seen, you know Star Wars, you know your stuff, you know, your geek culture and all that. But if they're not explaining it to you well enough, then that that's kind of a problem. In fact, I think the best description we got of Boca Tan to Denjaran was in that episode of Book of Boba Fett, which maybe a lot of people didn't see.

So no wonder people are confused. I'm sorry, Heather, I cut you off. No, I was going to say, last year with Book of Boba Fett, we did another video. I think it was the same, the three of us, where it was talking about the use of flashbacks and how to use them successfully. And I think if there was a show to use flashbacks and actually help progress the storytelling and progress the character arcs, it would be this to have flashbacks of Bocatan. If we could have flashbacks almost like repurposing some of her episodes in Clone Wars,

one, which would be really cool to see, I would love to see, you know, some of those Clone Wars in live action. But also just explain, like, why the Dark Sabre is a big deal to her, why Mandalorian culture and, you know, their ostracization is a big deal and her missions and her goals. And, you know, they wouldn't need to be, you know, take up, massive real estate in these episodes, but it would do a lot for those people, those moms, about what is going on in this episode? Who are these characters? And if they did that, maybe to play young Asoka, Ashley Eckstein could be live action Asoka, like we kind of always wanted to see her do. Heather, I have a question. So you're somebody who has worked inside of these

big continuities before with Star Wars comics, now with Star Trek comics. So when it comes to like having a space to tell a story, right? What is it you think that is an asset for doing that? For like, you know, I talked earlier about maybe sometimes people feel limited. Let me give me an example. Let's say that Bo Catan had never appeared in anything before. And then for this season of the Mandalorian, they said, oh, we're going to invent a character who was once ruler of Mandalor and she's been exiled. I think they would have approached her storytelling in a much different way. It would have been, the exposition would have been more clear. You know, have been done really well. Whereas now, because they have all this other stuff to lean on,

it almost like tightened the scope of what they were able to do and how they were able to tell those stories because they already exist in other media. So what is it you think like has been done right in the past? And maybe what, you know, what could they do here to make this a little more clear to general audiences? Like, how do you guys approach it, you know, at this level? Yeah, yeah. So just using Star Wars as an example, when we launched the comics in 2015, comics were taking place in between a new hope and empire. And, you know, we're telling the story of Han Luke and Leah and the Rebel Alliance, and then Darth Vader doing his Darth Vaderness. You know, it's, it's an interesting thing when you're given, like,

here is a very boxed in time set with characters that we know what happens to them, really. Like, we know, like, we're not going to kill off Luke. We're not going to kill off Darth Vader, like, what are the stakes? Like, what can we do to explore these characters and advance these stories in a time period that really doesn't need to be explored for all intents and purposes? And, you know, what we did at Marvel was we looked at, you know, how is Han Lincoln Leah? How are they different by the time they hit Empire from where they ended in a new hope? And what, and Darth Vader? How is he different? What has changed for him? And the biggest difference that we saw is in Empire, Darth Vader somehow has found out that Lucas's son.

He didn't know that in a new hope. And so we decided, oh, that's the story we're going to tell. Because, yes, it's not, it doesn't change the characters, you know. No one dies or no one's, no one's life are at stake anymore that they are in an empire. but that does change the way we view those characters. And because of that, when you read those stories, it now does change the way you view the movies. Because we added that color, we added those gaps, you know. And something like this in Mandalorian, I think what, and we've all discussed this, is we don't know how any of our characters feel about anything that's going on around them.

But we, we as a viewer, need to know how they feel, so I know how to feel about their experiences. And, you know, regardless if we know that DEN survives or what happens, you know, that Palpatine returns, or, or, or, this is all very real and happening to them in these moments, and they don't know that they're going to survive. They don't know that Palpatine returns. They don't know, you know, so the stakes need to feel higher. and they just don't. Well, an interesting thing about what we're seeing on this show and all these, like this era of Star Wars is. For one thing, this is what we've wanted to see for 50, almost like 40 years.

Like, what happens after Return of the Jedi? And whether you like the sequel trilogy or not, you know, we know where they end up and not how they got there. So exactly what you're talking about. We have this wonderful room to play where we know where the galaxy ends up and we know where the characters who aren't even in this show end up. So I think what they've done is brilliant,

where we have new characters, kind of like Dr. Afra in the Star Wars comics, where she might die. You know, we're curious what happens to her invader. So we have these new characters, and we get to see how they play out across this Galactic Saga. And when it works, it works. Like, we kind of buried the lead here, but this last episode, I loved straightforward pirate story, straightforward Western story. You know, we're going in, we're stopping the bad guys.

People are changed by the end of it. The status quo has changed. All around, loved the episode, not sure about where it, you know, the entire season and where it's going. But, you know, what's a strength is, we know where the galaxy is going, but not how we get there. But they're still kind of bogging themselves down in the continuity of Boca Tan and all this stuff. You know, like, where did she come from? How many different times has Boca Tan retaken Mandelaar? How many Mandalorian civil wars have there been?

It's really hard to follow. Like, even if you're somebody who knows the lore, it's kind of like when you study the history of Europe and all these different, like, lords and dukes and things like that have fought in different kings. Mandalorian history gets a lot like that. So you kind of just need to paint it with a wide board. brush, which I think they finally did at the end of this episode, when they said, okay, Boca Tan's our leader. Doesn't matter where she came from, who she is, what her history is, she's our gal.

We're getting behind her. She's going to be the queen, and we're all going to do this, and we're all going to find a new way. I think that, the episode ended with this very simplistic thing that we really needed on this show. But like you guys said, I still think that we need to know what's in it for Den, what's in it for Grogu, where, where, what is it they want? This is the way.

I loved the episode. I thought it was super fun. You know, I think seeing Star Wars, Davy Jones, you know, and the pirate ship. You know, I thought all of the designs, the cannons and the ship and the crew, like, I thought all of that was really fun. The armor has never been more badass. Like, she is just incredible. You know, do I wish Din and Grogu had a bigger role in it, for sure? Um, you know, but I thought it was super fun. They did catch me by surprise when, when Din was, you know, petitioning to the Mandalorians to, you know, go back to Navarro and help them. I did, I, I, I, I, I, they built up Visla to be this great nemesis of him. And when he was like, nope, we are Mandalians and this is what we do, like, that was such a great moment, um, for that character and told a lot about, you know, it did a lot of work for that culture in that group and you know it was just

badass and fun and like you said like a true Western the opening theme where they had the like the accordion and it sounded like a little pirate you know like I just all those little like details and colors were super fun and great and again I think I said it earlier here I just wish this was episode three you know if this was episode three and and all the goal is to reunite all of Mandelor and the different factions and that was the, you know, the mission statement for this whole season, man, I would be, I would be in. And, and, yeah, I just hope we get more of this the next three episodes of the season. Totally agree. Well, thank you both for joining us. Matt,

where can the people find you? Oh, I'm over on Screen Crush. Screen Crush the website, not Screencrush the YouTube channel, Screencrush.com, and my Twitter account is at Matt Singer. And Heather Antos, where can the people find you? You can find me at at Heather Antos on Twitter, on Instagram, and probably other places too. Thanks again, Sent Bird for your sponsorship. Check out the links to the samples below. But we want to hear from all of you. What do you think of all this?

Let me know in the comments below. We're at me on Twitter. And if it's your first time here, please subscribe and smash that bell for alerts. For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Erie. I'm going to be able to be.