‘The Mandalorian’ – Season 2 – ‘The Siege’ – Review
Season Two of The Mandalorian is picking up speed and Din Djarin’s quest to return The Child to its homeworld takes a very interesting narrative turn in Episode 12: ‘The Siege’.
Running on empty after his encounter with both the Ice Spiders, the New Republic and his battles alongside Bo-Katan Kryze, the Mandalorian heads to the familiar port of Nevarro. And it’s a full-on reunion this time. Now a prosperous trading town thanks to the administration of the Mandalorain’s long-time friend Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) and his right-hand woman Cara Dune (Gina Carano), who is now the town’s newly minted martial. Seeking repairs for the Razor Crest, Djarin is brought in on a new mission to help secure the planet of Nevarrop completely from the clutch of The First Order…and this is where things get interesting.
‘The Siege’ is under the firm direction of Carl Weathers himself and this minted action cinema legend brings a quick-pace to this episode. In watching ‘The Siege’, you initially think the episode is going to go one way, but instead, Weathers flips the switch on the narrative and takes his audience down another corridor entirely. As audience members, we get to peer into the sinister motivations of The First Order in ‘The Siege’ and trust me when I tell you that I certainly didn’t see this twist coming. This narrative uncovering raises the stakes of Djarin’s mission even higher and plays into Moff Gideon’s overall plan for total domination of the galaxy, with star Giancarlo Esposito making a special guest appearance.
Not only is Carl Weathers on board as director for ‘The Siege’, but he also takes on the role of Uncle Greef in this episode as he and Cara Dune are reunited with The Child in one of the episode’s most adorable moments. For audience members wanting peak Baby Yoda moments, well you’re in luck, and there are some truly hilarious hi-jinks that provide some levity to kinetic thrills of the episode. ‘The Siege’ feed into the idea that ‘it takes a village’ to raise a child, and seeing the Mandalorian amidst his ‘family’ of Karga and Dune is a very reassuring sight that builds into the greater themes of this series.
Gina Carano’s Cara Dune also gets some great moments in ‘The Siege’ and this episode is very pivotal for her character’s place in the show. Not only do we get to see her taking charge as Nevarro’s new marshal, which leads to plenty of good ground and pound action where she gets to put her MMA skills to work, but she’s out in front in the episode’s exhilarating chase scene. But besides the action is the character, and it’s in the episode’s closing moments that we get some light shed on her character’s backstory and involvement with the Rebel Alliance. And after this moment everything makes sense in relation to Cara Dune’s purpose. Carano once again excels and I can’t wait to see what she does next in The Mandalorian as Cara Dune.
This episode of The Mandalorian is all about the high-intensity thrills and for those with an aching for some high-speed action moments, well, you’ll get them in ‘The Siege’. Using action to build-off action, Weathers crafts an intense speed chase scene that sees Karga, Dune, and the newly unfrozen Mythrol on the run from a batch of Storm Troopers. Beginning with a speeder bike chase to a full-on canyon run with a batch of TIE Fighters in pursuit, ‘The Siege’ builds up the kinetic tension and will have you on edge. This pulse-pounding dogfight is a great throwback to 1977’s A New Hope with Mando going full Han Solo and showing off his cowboy style.
‘The Siege’ is a very important episode to the overall narrative direction of Season Two of The Mandalorian and I believe we’ll see narrative moments playing out in later episodes to great effect. And make sure you buckle in tight….because this one’s wild.
The Mandalorian streams every Friday on Disney+
Image: Walt Disney Pictures
