“Chapter 16 – The Rescue” was written by Jon Favreau and directed by Peyton Reed. In the final chapter of the season, Mando (Pedro Pascal) and his allies head to Moff Gideon’s (Giancarlo Esposito) Imperial Light Cruiser to rescue Grogu.

Despite my thoughts on the redundant story structure in this season, Disney has finally brought back Star Wars. They had a bit of a tumble with “The Rise of Skywalker” last year but we’re back, baby! Picking up slightly after where we left off in the penultimate episode, Boba Fett’s ship, the Slave I, is in pursuit of an Imperial Shuttle transporting Dr. Pershing (Omid Abtahi). The shuttle eventually yields and allows our heroes to board, but the Empire won’t go down without putting up a fight. One pilot kills the other and holds Pershing at gunpoint, taunting Cara Dune (Gina Carano) with the destruction of her home world of Alderaan by comparing it to the destruction of the Death Star during the Battle of Yavin. He should’ve thought twice because she blasts him right in the face without hesitation.

Now that a “disguise” has been obtained, Mando and Boba (Temuera Morrison) walk into a bar on a nearby planet to find Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) and Koska Reeves (Sasha Banks). Mando mentions that he knows the location of Gideon, and more importantly to Bo-Katan, the location of the Darksaber. The fellow Mandalorians agree to accompany them, but only if Bo-Katan is the one to handle Gideon. They make a plan and split into three different teams. Mando goes alone to disarm the Dark Troopers and recover Grogu; Bo-Katan, Dune, Koska and Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) take over the bridge and kill Gideon, and finally, Boba Fett is the alibi to enter the ship. It was weird not having that third Mandalorian that showed up in episode three this season along with Bo-Katan and Koska Reeves, but it was obvious that they were trying to do an A-Force ripoff, and it was amazing. As Kathleen Kennedy has said, “make the Force female.” It was well-executed here, but hasn’t worked in any of the other scenes.

The group in the Imperial Shuttle exit hyperspace, followed by the Slave I shooting at them to make it convincing enough for them to be able to enter the Cruisers landing bay without suspicion. They waste no time getting up to the bridge while obliterating the Stormtroopers throughout the ship as they go.  At the same time, Boba Fett blasts the straggling TIE Fighters. Mando, on the other hand, is too late, and Gideon orders the Dark Troopers to be deployed. The blast doors are shut, but not without one of the Dark Troopers getting through and putting up quite the fight with Mando. Luckily, he eventually destroys it. Just as the remaining Troopers are about to get out, Mando opens a conveniently placed set of doors that go straight into outer space. He then makes his way to the prisoner cell holding Grogu, but Gideon makes his way down there in time to beat Mando after escaping the bridge just before Bo-Katan and the others arrive.

Gideon is threatening to kill Grogu if Mando tries anything funny. Mando doesn’t have any grudge against Gideon besides this one, so he allows this as long as he can take Grogu away. They both are in agreement, or so we think, and as Mando is just about to leave, Gideon strikes the impenetrable beskar with the Darksaber. Even though it seemed a fight between Moff Gideon and Bo-Katan was more likely, the star of the show had to get his time in the spotlight after being pushed aside by cool cameos this whole season. It was evident that something between the two was going to go down the second he kidnapped Grogu. Gideon is eventually disarmed by Mando, and is brought to the bridge as a prisoner of the New Republic. The Darksaber is presented to Bo-Katan, but she is not allowed to accept the offering. Whomever withholds the Darksaber is the rightful ruler of Mandalore (currently under the rule of the Empire), only it must be won over in a duel. This is a minor change from what was previously canon; in “Rebels” Sabine Wren presents the Darksaber to Bo-Katan and no duel is needed to complete the exchange, but what was now established makes Mando the rightful ruler of Mandalore because he was the one to disarm Gideon, and, for a second, it seemed as if Bo-Katan may try to win it back. However, thanks to convenient timing, the dozens of Dark Troopers fly back up to the ship.

Our protagonists on the bridge prepare for the Troopers to breach, until a single X-Wing arrives. They all shrug that off as if they weren’t going to do anything, but everyone watching knew exactly what was happening. I am still in awe that creators Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni and director Peyton Reed pulled this off. Peyton Reed directed episode two this season, as well as “Ant-Man,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” and the upcoming “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” I was conflicted when finding out he would be helming the season finale, but this is without a doubt the single greatest thing he’s ever directed. However, I still think it should’ve been much, much longer than roughly forty minutes. Moff Gideon gets a hold of a blaster, and non-fatally shoots Bo-Katan, fails to kill Grogu, then attempts to take his own life; Cara Dune prevents that from happening. 

Over the security cameras we see a green-lightsaber-wielding Jedi demolishing the Dark Troopers like they are nothing. You never get a glimpse of the person doing this, but as I said when the X-Wing flew in, I knew exactly what was happening. The appearance of a single prosthetic hand is what defied my level of anticipation. Luke Skywalker was the Jedi that responded to Grogu’s call through the Force. I had hoped Luke would get some cool scenes of annihilating Stormtroopers in “The Last Jedi,” but we never did. The single action scene in this one episode provided everything I’ve ever wanted from his character. Especially the hallway fight reminiscent of his father’s (Darth Vader) in the best scene of “Rogue One.”

They used CGI on Mark Hamill’s face to de-age him, just as they did for Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) in “Rogue One.” It may have taken the audience a bit out of the moment, and perhaps an actor that looks like young Mark Hamill, such as Sebastian Stan (who is also a member of the Disney “family”), would have been better. But I didn’t care one bit. I’ll admit I was tearing up because of how great this moment was. He comes through the doors to take Grogu with him to be trained, and before saying one last goodbye, Mando removes his helmet to show Grogu his face in what may be the most emotional moment in all of Star Wars live-action filmography. The classic John Williams theme, then suddenly R2-D2 shows up beside Luke. I couldn’t handle myself! The nostalgic factors were through the roof! Before the season concludes, we get one final glimpse of Din Djarin looking at his son as the father figure that he has been. But why couldn’t Din come along? It’s possible that Luke may find him as a distraction in his training, but Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) did say that his role as a father figure is important. Also, he’s not really doing anything that we know of after he completed the single task he’s had arching over these past two seasons. Also, it is horrible to imagine if Grogu may have escaped one Jedi massacre, Order 66, only to have fallen to another, led by Ben Solo (Adam Driver), and having it be all Luke’s fault. This would bring all eras of Star Wars to full circle. I think specifically choosing Luke confirms that theory because, how could Grogu not be featured in the sequel trilogy, if his death did not occur?

The credits come up, but don’t go anywhere. The episode isn’t over yet! Bringing us back to Tatooine, we see the exterior of Jabba’s Palace, and, for a moment, I was a bit confused. This show is set a few years after “Return of the Jedi,” meaning Jabba the Hutt and all of his associates were killed on the sail barge destruction in the Dune Sea near the Great Pit of Carkoon. It turns out Bib Fortuna (Matthew Wood) somehow escaped before its demise, and he may have snuck a few of Jabba’s leftover frogs because he is much heavier than when we last saw him. Fortuna is now the ruler of the Palace. However, Boba Fett and Fennec Shand enter and kill many of the Gamorrean guards and Weequays. Fortuna is left on the throne and is blasted by Boba as payback for leaving him to die in the Sarlacc Pit. With the absence of the announcement by Kathleen Kennedy on Disney Investor Day of the Boba Fett show, we finally get confirmation that “The Book of Boba Fett” is coming to Disney+ December 2021. Who doesn’t want to see a show where Boba Fett is the most powerful crime boss in the galactic underworld?

It was also said that “The Mandalorian: Season 3” would debut at that same time, and with the lack of content, I don’t see two shows in the same universe focused on similar characters overlapping. There is no big setup regarding season 3 other than Grogu becoming a Jedi, although I don’t think that will be a main plotline in the show, perhaps an event to occur between seasons. I believe the bond between Mando and Grogu is a big selling point, but that storyline as well as the Moff Gideon storyline feels complete. The producers didn’t leave us on a cliffhanger, and they did exactly what they should’ve done by bringing the whole series this far to fruition while leaving a door open for future possibilities.