The Mandalorian Review: Chapter 14: The Tragedy (Season 2 Episode 6)
The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 6, “Chapter 14: The Tragedy,” brings back a classic character for a big, action-filled showdown.
That description is a bit tedious because it is now the third time this season that The Mandalorian has utilized that. First with Bo-Katan and again with Ahsoka, this is a season that has been pulling from the Star Wars that is available to fill out the ranks on this show.
In contrast to the other two canon appearances, Boba Fett is one that most people — fans or otherwise — will be familiar with. he doesn’t have a lot of baggage to him in the same way that a lot of the other characters do, simply because of how limited he has popped up within the franchise.
To make it even more different, this is about both relying on the nostalgia that many will have but also rehabilitating him. If there is a single character from the larger oeuvre that the tides have largely turned against in recent years, it would be Boba Fett. That comes down to a lot of people rightly pointing out that it doesn’t make sense why he is such a big deal.
When people look back on him, it largely centers around the iconography of the character. They think about the way his armor looks or the kind of mystique that envelops him. Outside of that, he does very little on the films and is defeated by a blind Han Solo. It’s not necessarily the makeup for a compelling figure.
“Chapter 14: The Tragedy” works to repair that image. It takes the character and bluntly illustrates why he has been seen as a captivating and menacing force throughout the movies.
To do so, it revolves the episode around a bloody and bombastic warzone. Prolific director Robert Rodriguez brings that to life in a compelling fashion that doesn’t shy away from the savage mayhem of the action. It’s dangerous and deadly, in ways that Star Wars has rarely been outside of Rogue One.
It’s action that makes it perfectly clear why Boba Fett has been a formidable threat, even in the periphery. It does that in pacing the weapons that Boba has at his disposal. At first, it only gives him a staff with a deadly edge to say, effectively and efficiently, that is all he needs.
The audience is already primed for him to be in his iconic armor by that point and then it can just coast on that energy and that nostalgia. It’s almost an acknowledgment to the people that thought he has always been cool. It gives us the visual of the suit and also the execution of all of the violence at his disposal.
“Chapter 14: The Tragedy” also serves really nicely as being the pivot point for the remaining episodes of the season. This is what will pivot all of the plot into high gear and give it a real sense of what it is going to do, which is really important for this show.
Very often it wants to be so focused on the side quests element that it sometimes feels actively disinterested in the main plot and this forces it to engage fully with that. it also has the potential to bring in a lot of the threads throughout this season into one unified force.
What did you think of this episode of The Mandalorian ? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The Mandalorian airs Fridays on Disney+.
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Drew Koenig
Drew has an ongoing, borderline unhealthy obsession with pop culture, but with television in particular. When he's not aggressively trying to get out of a perpetual state of catching up, he can be found passionately defending the ending of Lost. More of his online work can be found at The Lost Cause and he also co-hosts The Lost Cause Pod.