SERIES: The Mandalorian
EPISODE: S2:E4. “Chapter 12: The Siege.”
STARRING: Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Carl Weathers, Horatio Sanz
WRITER: Jon Favreau
DIRECTOR: Carl Weathers
PREMIERE DATE: November 20, 2020
SYNOPSIS: Mando reunites with Greef Karga and Cara Dune to take out an Imperial base.

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

I’m happy to see Cara Dune again. But I had no idea her actress, Gina Carano, was such a heat magnet. #FireGinaCarano is apparently a thing on Twitter because of her views about the trans community, COVID-19, masks, and the Democratic party. Instead of spouting off about this, I’ll simply invite fans, viewers, and readers to come to their own conclusions…

Mrs. Primary Ignition popped for Baby Yoda putting his arms in the air as the ship lands. Cuteness quota: Reached.

Carl Weathers, who plays Greef Karga, directed this episode. He’s got several directing credits. But nothing as high profile as this. Based on how well this episode turned out, I imagine he’s got many more directing gigs coming his way.

“The Siege” has a lot going for it. We’ve got familiar faces from last season. But we’ve also got a really nice balance of action, excitement, and intrigue. I wouldn’t put this episode in the same league as “The Prisoner” last season. But it was still a thrilling watch.

Listen carefully during the classroom scene. You’ll hear the protocol droid say the New Republic is headquartered on the planet Chandrila, as opposed to Coruscant. Makes sense. Coruscant had become synonymous with the Empire. Best to start fresh somewhere else.

Writers need to start being careful about stormtrooper dialogue. Specifically, parroting lines from the original trilogy. Remember, these movies have been ingrained into people’s minds for 40 years now. So a seemingly harmless line like, “Alright men, load your weapons” can harken back to a very specific moment, and take you right out of the episode.

Another stormtrooper gripe: During the shoot-out sequences I found myself wishing one of our heroes, specifically Karga or Mythrol, would take a non-lethal blaster bolt. Just to show that these stormtroopers can in fact hit a target more than once in a blue moon.

So our base, it turns out, is actually a lab. We don’t find out what exactly they’re doing, but we know it involves blood from Baby Yoda. Given the child’s strength in the Force, that means these experiments could involve the creation of Snoke, or even the Palpatine clone we see in The Rise of Skywalker. On the other hand, it could simply be a matter of Moff Gideon creating clones to serve as the Dark Troopers we see at the end of the episode.

And yes, Dark Troopers were a thing in the old canon. I’m anxious to see them in action.

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.