“Chapter 11 – The Siege” was written by Jon Favreau and directed by Carl Weathers. After being mishandled on Trask, Mando (Pedro Pascal) travels back to the planet of Nevarro for better repairs on the Razorcrest.

In last week’s episode, the Razorcrest left Trask in good enough condition, but would enough viewers really question the insufficiency of repairs done by the Mon Calamari mechanic to demand an episode based solely on that? Keeping up the trend that was used last season of filler every other week, Mando and The Child deliberately go off course for their ship to be fixed even though the show would’ve been able to proceed with the result of last week’s episode. But no, we needed some sort of excuse to see Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) and Cara Dune (Gina Carano) as the creators probably realized they had very little placement into this season’s storyline. I will say that this episode, despite consisting of no character development, does have some sort of plot progression that requires attention to detail that does give a clearer picture of the overall story.

We open up with the Razorcrest on course to Nevarro and learn that Cara Dune has now become the marshal of the town through an excellently choreographed fight sequence between her and a group of Aqualish crooks. After being defeated in the finale of season one, the Empire is said to have fled Nevarro, but an Imperial base is still active on the planet. Mando, Karga, Dune and Mando’s first bounty of the series, the Mythrol (Horatio Sanz) set out to destroy the base by turning off the lava cooling system before any further activity takes place there. The Child is left behind yet again on this quest and it is clear that it was never expected his character would be such a hit during season one, although I believe secluding him was warranted this time around.

Once our protagonists arrived at the base, which we later find out to be a lab, it was nice seeing Stormtroopers again, even though we just saw them last week, as well. I don’t think we needed an entire episode giving revelations that could easily be delivered in an evil Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) monologue. “Show, don’t tell” is Screenwriting 101, but sacrificing yet another episode in such a short span of a show wasn’t worth it; remember, we’re already halfway done with this season. We learn that the Empire needs Baby Yoda’s blood to create some sort of beings we see in chambers at the lab. It turns out the Empire also knows he is Force sensitive, as they say he has a large M-count, referencing one of the most controversial aspects of the prequel trilogy and something I am not a fan of at all, Midi-chlorians (cells inside beings that give them Force abilities).

Anyway, the tension here was very well directed but I do think including scenes of Stormtroopers approaching the town just as Mando arrives at The Child’s rescue could’ve added to that. Instead, we focus mainly on the escape of Greef Karga, Cara Dune and the Mythrol, and I will admit that the chase along the trench of lava ensuing between the TIE Fighters and Scout Troopers on Speeder Bikes and the Imperial transport occupied by the group is also amazingly directed. As they get close to the town and the TIE Fighters are closing in on the transport, the Razorcrest swoops and blows them all out of the sky.

Mando and The Child both continue on their journey to Corvus to find the Jedi, Ahsoka Tano. Back on Nevarro, the remaining heroes are debriefed on their mission by one of the New Republic X-Wing pilots that we saw in episode two this season, played by “Kim’s Convenience” star, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee. Here we also learn that Cara Dune is from Alderaan, the home planet of Princess Leia which was blown up in “A New Hope.” As the episode concludes, Moff Gideon is shown on a Star Destroyer as he learns of one of the mechanics working on the Razorcrest placed a tracking beacon on it. The cruiser also houses Imperial mech suits, possibly for clones they were building in the lab, teasing a large scale finale.