By Ben Wright (@iamzavagno | www.xgeeks.co.uk)
This review contains spoilers.
We pick up immediately from last week’s episode, where a stunned Bo-Katan struggles to come to terms with what she witnessed within The Living Waters. Din soon regains consciousness and the three leave and return to Bo’s castle. They don’t get very far, however, as a squadron of TIE Interceptors is in pursuit! What follows is an incredible space-to-planetary dogfight that looked incredible! The way they positioned the camera really sold the fighting and manoeuvres and the audio all worked perfectly! This was movie quality on the small screen! Before they can return to the castle, TIE Bombers bombard it, leaving nothing but flaming ruins. Bo-Katan is devastated and before she can pursue the Bombers, more Interceptors arrive and both Din and Bo have to make their escape.
This was just the intro and they delivered some excellent dog fighting! This was such an energetic start to the episode, but it served as a part of a bookend to a much slower-paced story that we were about to fall into…
We move to Coruscant and follow Dr Perhsing as he delivers a speech to the high society folks of Coruscant. We learn that he, and many other ex-Imperials, are part of the New Republic’s Amnesty Program. We are introduced to a number of ex-Imperials including Amnesty Officer G27 who was played by James Chen! This was very exciting for me as Chen played Kal in The Walking Dead, a B-list background character who just disappeared from the show. I love this actor, so to see him appear here was an extra treat! Of course, the main face we are reunited with is Moff Gideon’s Comms Officer, known now as Amnesty Officer G68, played by the amazing Katy O’Brian. She continues to push Pershing to bend the rules and restart his cloning work – with the aim of helping the New Republic. This leads the pair to break into Moff Gideon’s former ship to retrieve the equipment he’ll need. We learn that G68’s actual name is Elia Kane, but unfortunately for Pershing, it’s all a play by Kane to entrap him. While it appears Kane is working with the New Republic, I never bought it, and my suspicion was rewarded when it is revealed she has in fact infiltrated the program and is clearly working with other ex-Imperials – but for what end? That remains unclear. As does the fate of Moff Gideon, as there are many rumours about what happened to him, so he could well be making a return and be part of the transition from Empire to the First Order.
Returning to the Children of the Watch, Din and Bo-Katan are redeemed and no longer apostates. This is clearly not what Bo wants, but at this moment in time, her options are limited!
I loved this episode, but I feel more casual viewers may struggle with the story and tonal shift of the episode in regard to the Coruscant and Pershing elements. Personally, I loved exploring the Amnesty Program and it was fascinating to see how ex-Imperials were being reintegrated into society. In a way, this very much felt like an episode more akin to Andor than The Mandalorian, but I really didn’t mind that as I enjoyed it so much! With the introduction of this story, I feel the season will be split between Mandalorian elements and the forming of the First Order, as we know this is somewhere this show will be heading further down the line. I am very excited to see how all of this plays out!
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