Let's Talk About THE MANDALORIAN Chapter 14: "The Tragedy," Which Features Boba Fett Like We've Never Seen Him Before!
Holy crap! Can you believe that last episode of The Mandalorian!? I was not expecting that at all! This was even better than the last episode which introduced Ahsoka Tano! I watch it a few times since it premiered and I still can’t get over how freakin’ badass it was!
The Mandalorian Chapter 14 is titled “The Tragedy” and this episode finally played with Boba Fett and they did that in the greatest ways possible! While Boba Fett has always been a fan-favorite character, we never really got to see him in real action. Well, that all changed with this episode, it featured Boba Fett in a way we’ve never seen before and he is a complete badass! Boba Fett kicked so much ass in this episode in the most awesome and brutal ways! This was how badass Boba Fett has always been in my imagination, and now seeing that come to life… stunning!
I’ve believed that Boba Fett was a badass ever since I saw him in Star Wars, and Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and director Robert Rodriguez proved it in this episode! Rodriguez did an incredible job bringing this latest chapter of The Mandalorian to life. While he was a last-minute director replacement for the episode, he was the right guy for the job.
The episode just jumps right into it with Din Djarin coming to the planet Tython with Grogu. It’s here that Ahsoka said he’d find the ancient ruins of a temple that has a strong connection to the force. He takes Grogu and places him on the seeing stone at the top of the mountain, which is where Grogu can choose his path and reach out through the Force so that a Jedi may sense his presence and come searching for him.
Well, once Djarin places Grogu on the stone he starts looking for a way to activate the structure. As he’s doing that he sees a starship circling them. That starship is the Slave I, Boba Fett’s ship! As Djarin tells Grogu that they have to get out of there, Grogu reaches out through The Force in a big way and a blue beam of light surrounds him and shoots up into the sky. This acts as a force field that Djarin can’t get through to grab Grogu.
Djarin leaves Grogu behind to protect him from what he perceives as a threat. He takes position behind a rock, narrowly avoiding blaster fire and a hooded man approaches Djarin, telling him that he has been tracking him. Djarin asks if he is a Jedi or if he is after the Child. The man removes his hood revealing himself at Boba Fett and he is there for his armor. At first, Djarin thinks Fett is referring to Djarin’s Baskar armor to which he tells him that he will have to peel it off his dead body. Fett then clarifies that he is not after Djarin's armor, but the armor that he took from Cobb Vanth back on Tatooine. Fett says it belongs to him and Djarin asks if he is Mandalorian.
Fett tells him that he is just a simple man making his way through the galaxy just like his father before him. When Djarin asks if he took the Mandalorian Creed, Fett replies that he gives his allegiance to no one. He explains that the armor belonged to his father Jango Fett. There’s a lot of tension here between the two and it’s during this exchange that Fett reveals that sharpshooting Fennec Shand is with him and she is locked onto Grugu with her rifle and ready to shoot if Djarin doesn’t comply.
Djarin and Fett come to an agreement to diffuse the situation and they all put down their weapons to talk it out. Shand remarks that Djarin looks like he has seen a ghost and that’s when Djarin says he thought that she was dead. Fett says that she was left for dead on the sands of Tatooine, as was he. He adds that fate sometimes steps in to rescue the wretched. Shand explains that Boba Fett was her fate and that she is now in his service.
Djarin and Fett argue a bit more about the armor. Fett wants it but Djarin objects to giving it to him on the grounds that it goes against the Mandalorian Creed. But then Fett extends a deal saying that in exchange for the return of his armor, he promises to guarantee the safety of the Child as well as his own. Fett agrees to the terms.
This is where the episode takes a turn for the awesome! Another starship flies in and lands, and the three run and Djarin goes back to Grogu, who is still surrounded in the blue force light rising up into the sky. Djarin once again tries to force his way inside the force field but is blasted back by it.
Fett and Shand end up taking a position at a rock near the shuttle that just landed and several Stormtroopers emerge from it and start shooting. Fett and Shand find themselves under fire but manage to take out a few of the Stormtroopers. As the Stormtrooper commander orders his troops to disperse, Fett and Shand split up to do more damage.
It’s at this point that we get to see Boba Fett in all his glorious action! He is using a Gaderffii stick as his weapon and he is using it to brutally smash the Stormtroopers. When he hits the Stormtroopers with this thing, he is breaking faces and bones. Fett is a warrior on a mission to survive and one by one, he’s ambushing the Stormtroopers and obliterating them. It’s so cool to watch as pieces of the Stormtrooper armor smashed into pieces as Fett attacked them.
Watching Boba Fett fight was truly the highlight of this episode. There are waves of Stormtroopers that keep coming and another ship lands that more of them emerge from. But, Fett and Shand manage to hold their ground and they take out most of them. He even uses knee rockets! While this is happening, Djarin continues to watch helplessly as Grogu is meditating through The Force. He once again tries to grab Grogu, but it’s no use. So, he decides to protect him by heading down to fight the Stormtroopers who are attacking.
Not long after Djarin leaves, Grugo stops his Force meditation and the blue Force light stops and he collapses from exhaustion. Grogu is now in a very scary and vulnerable position. As the Stormtroopers close in on Shand, they tell her they are after The Child, and that’s when Djarin shows up and uses his whistling birds to take down several stormtroopers. He and Shand then join forces to fight against the rest of the advancing Stormtroopers.
As the battle continues, Boba Fett makes his way to Djarin’s ship and takes back his armor and jetpack. He’s now completely decked out in the armor and ready to continue the fight! He’s using his weapons and also hand to hand combat to take out the Stormtroopers. This is too much for the Stormtroopers and the ones that are still alive retreat and run to their ships and take off.
After scanning the ships with his helmet scanner, Fett uses his jetpack's rocket to take out one of the shuttles, causing it to collide with the other ship next to it. Both of them explode in flames and crash. Right after that a laser blast shoots from the sky hitting Djarin’s Razor Crest and blowing it up! It’s done for, there’s no fixing it now. All Djarin could do was watch the burning wreckage like the rest of us. It was a very sad sight to see.
Djarin realizes that the blast came from an imperial light cruiser and that the urgency to protect Grogu rises within him.
Aboard the cruiser, the gunnery officer informs Moff Gideon that it was a direct hit. Gideon is giddy about this as he asks if the Dark Troopers have been engaged. Four of them come flying out of the light cruiser and they head to the ancient ruins where Grogu is. Djarin, Fett, and Shand run up to try and stop them, but they are too late. The Dark Troopers get to Grogu first, snatch him up and rocket back up to the light cruiser.
Fett races after the Dark Troopers following them to see where they are headed. It’s here that he sees the light cruiser and seems to learn for the first time that the Empire is back. As Fett heads back, the Imperial cruiser jumps into hyperspace and Grogu is gone.
Djarin is feeling completely defeated as he surveys the little that is left of his ship and while digging through the charred remains he finds the knob that Grogu enjoyed playing with and he puts it in his pocket. He also finds the Beskar staff that Ahsoka gave him in the last episode. This is all that survived.
Fett proceeds to show Djarin a hologram of his chain code, which has been encoded in his armor for 25 years. The chain code contains his family lineage. This is where Djarin learns Fett’s father was a foundling. Fett confirms this and proceeds to tell him that Jango Fett even fought in the Mandalorian Civil War. Djarin is now able to recognize Fett and his father as Mandalorians, so Djarin allows Fett to keep his armor.
Djarin believes that this is it for them and that their agreement is fulfilled, but Fett reminds him that their time together is not done. He and Shand promised to guarantee the safety of Grogu in exchange for the armor's return. Since the Child has been taken, Fett says that he and Shand are in Djarin's debt until the safe return of Grogu.
The trio of characters take off on the Slave I and head back to Nevarro city where Djarin meets back up with Cara Dune who has become a Marshal of the New Republic. He asks her for help to find someone on the New Republic prison registry. Djarin explains to her that he is looking for a former Imperial sharpshooter named Migs Mayfeld, who was played by Bill Burr in the first season of the series. He was apprehended near the Dilestri system on a derelict prison ship. It’s revealed that Mayfield is serving a 50-year sentence in the Karthon Chop Fields for helping a prisoner escape, and being an accessory to the death of a New Republic officer.
Dune asks why Djarin needs him and he explains that he needs help in locating Moff Gideon's light cruiser. While Dune is sympathetic to Djarin's plight, she tell him that she needs to follow the rules as a Marshal of the New Republic. Djarin then tells Dune that the Imperials have the "kid."
The show then cuts to the light cruiser where Moff Gideon finds Grogu in his holding cell using the force to violently throwing around a pair of Stormtroopers tasked with guarding him. Grogu is smashing them against the walls and is clearly pissed off at his current situation. Grogu is even Force choking them in a rage. Gideon just stands there watching with a curious, fascinated, and pleased look on his face. Grogu eventually succumbs to exhaustion.
Gideon compliments Grogu for his display of Force powers as he walks up to him and shows Grogu the Darksaber before deactivating it, saying that the Child is not yet ready to wield this weapon. He goes on to tell Grogu that he could use a nice long sleep and then a stormtrooper stuns him. Gideon then orders two other Stormtroopers with him to put Grogu into shackles.
Gideon tells one of the officers that as soon as they exit hyperspace to send an encrypted message to Dr Pershing, telling him that they have gotten their donor. As the Imperials leave the cell, a stormtrooper applies a pair of electric-powered shackles around Grogu's wrists.
All, throughout the episode I was really hoping to see a Jedi character swoop in, but that didn’t happen. Looks like we’ll most likely have to wait until the end of the season.
“The Tragedy” was one hell of a great episode. I was so happy to see how it turned out and I hate that we only have two episodes left this season! But, I can’t wait to see how the story plays out the rest of the season.