Main cast: Temuera Morrison (Boba Fett), Ming-Na Wen (Fennec Shand), Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Timothy Olyphant (Cobb Vanth), Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka Tano), Jordan Bolger (Skad), Sophie Thatcher (Drash), Carey Jones (Black Krrsantan), David Pasquesi (The Majordomo), Corey Burton (Cad Bane), Jennifer Beals (Garsa Fwip), and Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker)
Director: Dave Filoni
Mandy told Fennec in the previous episode that he would help her and Bobo for free. It’s the least he can do after her coming to his aid the last time, after all. However, because no one wants to go back to the boring geriatric Bobo Foot show so soon, Mandy decides to go on a side trip first to Ossus, to see Luke and Grogu.
There, he meets up with those two as well as Ahsoka again, and Luke confides to Ahsoka his worries that one day people would make movies that would ruin his reputation and image. Well, fortunately for us all, those movies never happened.
Then, Mandy catches up with good old Cobb Vanth, and the two of them get together to take down the meanies that want to kick Bobo out of his palace. Together with Black Krrsantan, they find themselves against the bounty hunter Cad Bane.
There will be a bombing, lots of shooting, and lots of fighting, although all the fun stuff is packed in the second half of the episode.
The first half is the calm before the storm, as Luke and Grogu gaze into their navels, Ahsoka talks to Mandy about his attachment to Grogu, and Grogu just acts cute and smug because that thing knows how much I miss looking at him.
From the Desert Comes a Stranger is a nice second episode of this new season of The Mandalorian, as it follows nicely from where the last episode of the second season ended. Old friends show up, but never in a gratuitous way, and things lead up to a nice showdown later on.
However, de-aged Luke Skywalker has some eerie uncanny valley going on, and the script gives that poor fellow some of the corniest lines ever to utter.
Wait, what? This is The Book of Boba Fett, not The Mandalorian? Oh, right, he’s in here somewhere for the second part of the episode, but who cares. His show is ending after one more episode, and then we’ll all be clamoring for the ongoing adventures of the true Mandalorian of our hearts.
So, there will one more episode, and Mandy is sticking around, as are Grogu and Cobb. How bad that can one be, due to this?
