Recap / The Mandalorian S2E8 "Chapter 16: The Rescue"

"All right, pal. It's time to go. Don't be afraid."

Written by Jon Favreau
Directed by Peyton Reed
Release date: December 18th, 2020

"One X-wing? Great, we're saved."

— Cara Dune

Din and his comrades move to rescue Grogu from Moff Gideon.

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Tropes:

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: During his conversation with Din in Grogu's cell, Gideon moves the darksaber around. At one point we see it edge on. Well, he turns it edge on and the blade disappears, except for the white glow around it.
• Action Prologue: Slave I attacking Dr. Pershing's shuttle.
• Activation Sequence: Moff Gideon orders the Dark troopers activated, a process that takes several minutes. As the boarders move through the ship, we cut several times to the cargo bay where the troopers are powering on, eyes lighting up, hoses disconnecting until the droids step out of their alcoves ready for action.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Before landing the role of Mando/Din, Pedro Pascal was known for portraying Oberyn "The Red Viper" Martell on Game of Thrones, a warrior prince famed for his deadly skill with the spear. In this episode, Din also demonstrates great adeptness with the weapon. Another gag/reference to Martell comes in the form of a Dark Trooper almost crushing Din's head if not for the Beskar steel helmet protecting him, something that Martell wasn't so lucky to have (which led to his death). Though subtle, fans and critics alike were quick to notice.
  • The Dark Troopers are similar in appearance and menace to Cylons. Even in a galaxy far, far away, Katee Sackhoff can't escape frakking toasters. Additionally, Bo-Katan lands the Lambda shuttle at high speed, something Starbuck did on a frequent basis.
• Adaptational Wimp: BARELY played straight with the Dark Troopers. While Luke probably could still kill them with ease, the Legends version of the droids were made of a lightsaber-resistant metal.
• Amazon Brigade: All four fighters accompanying Din onto Gideon's cruiser are women and they carve a bloody swath through the ship while Din runs off to find Grogu.
• Artificial Stupidity: The Dark Troopers are somewhere between this and Dumb Muscle. The one that gets through the door allows it to close behind him instead of holding it open for the others. He then repeatedly punches Din in the head, despite not being able to crush the beskar helmet, instead of snapping his neck or ripping him limb from limb. Even the basic head punch probably would have broken Din's neck if the Trooper hadn't braced him against the wall. When storming the bridge, they take several minutes to punch through the blast doors instead of keying into the ship's computer and overriding the lock. And when facing Luke in the hallway to the bridge, they didn't once attempt to synchronize fire targeting multiple points on Luke to overwhelm his Combat Clairvoyance. Despite their intimidating reputation, they're essentially just mobile battering rams.
• Armor Is Useless: Eventually, for the Dark Troopers. No amount of durasteel armor plating that a humanoid battle droid can mount can withstand the cut of a Lightsaber. The Dark Trooper armor that previously shrugged off blaster bolts, a flamethrower, and a torrent of Whistling Birds might as well have not even been there once Luke goes to work on the Dark Troopers.
• Artistic License – Physics: When the Dark Troopers are bashing through the blast doors, the impact is braced against the floor, which should be showing equal strain and damage.
• Asshole Victim:
  • The Imperial shuttle pilot who taunts Cara over the destruction of Alderaan earns a much-deserved death.
  • In The Stinger, Boba Fett coldly kills Bib Fortuna to take over the Hutt Clan. Remember Bib Fortuna had been a close help to Jabba for decades before becoming a crime lord himself, and even before that he dabbled in slavery (including of his own race, the Twi'leks).
• As You Know:
  • Bo-Katan explains to Din that the Darksaber is an ancient weapon (all but confirming to casual viewers that it's a lightsaber) and that it cannot cut through pure beskar (explaining why Ahsoka's lightsabers didn't slice through Din's armor and the spear back in Chapter 13).
  • Later, Gideon also explains to Din that the claim to the Darksaber and leadership of Mandalore lies in single combat, which veteran viewers would know from The Clone Wars and Rebels. In this case, it’s justified as Din genuinely has no idea what a Darksaber is, having been raised to believe Mandalore was lost beyond recovery.
• Back for the Dead: Bib Fortuna, assumed by many to not have survived the events of Return of the Jedi, appears in The Stinger, shown having taken over Jabba's palace and gotten a little rotund in the time being... only to be casually killed by Boba Fett.
• Back for the Finale: Din recruits Bo-Katan and Koska to help him, Cara, Boba, and Fennec rescue Grogu.
• Badass Boast: When the Imperial pilot asks if Cara knows how many people were on the Death Star when it was destroyed, she smirks and replies "Which one?"
• Bar Brawl: Boba and Koska get into one until Bo-Katan commands them to stand down.
• Beam-O-War: Boba and Koska uses flamethrowers during their fight, the colliding streams dissipating against each other.
• Beautiful Slave Girl: Like his master before him, Bib Fortuna has a beautiful Twi'lek chained to his dais. Fennec frees her before Boba kills him.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Gideon attempts to blow his brains out rather than come face-to-face with Luke Skywalker, or to stop the New Republic from interrogating him. He gets interrupted by Cara, who knocks away his blaster pistol before knocking him out with the butt of her own rifle.
• Big Damn Heroes: The team have barricaded themselves on the bridge as the Dark Troopers slowly break down the door. Gideon smugly tells them they are all going to die. Then a lone X-wing arrives and boards the ship as its pilot disembarks to begin massacring the Dark Troopers, saving everyone's lives.
• Big "NO!": Din, upon seeing the door bay to the Dark Troopers' held open, loses some of his cool and yells "NO!" twice as he rushes toward the controls.
• Bittersweet Ending: Grogu is successfully rescued and Gideon is captured. However, a rift between Din and Bo-Katan has been formed because he took the Darksaber from Gideon in combat (albeit unintentionally), and if she is to rule Mandalore, she has to earn it in combat in order to legitimize her claim to the Mandalorian throne lest she be considered a pretender. Additionally, Din absolutely does not want the burden of leadership that winning the Darksaber entails, and is stymied by the custom of how it passes hands. Meanwhile, Grogu decides to leave with Jedi Master Luke Skywalker to be trained, while Din looks teary-eyed as he leaves with Luke and R2-D2. Also, on Tatooine, Boba Fett and Fennec kill Bib Fortuna and take over Jabba's Palace for themselves.
• Bookends: Just like the very first scene of the season, we once again see Gamorrean Guards.
• Boom, Headshot!: The Imperial pilot who mocks the destruction of Alderaan gets a blaster bolt between the eyes.
• Breaking the Fellowship: Grogu goes off with Luke to be trained, Boba and Fennec head back to Tatooine, Bo-Katan and Koska are left in possession of Gideon's light cruiser, and Din has won the Darksaber in combat, making him the Mandalore, the traditional warlord of all Mandalorians. Unfortunately, this is likely going create a rift between him and his new allies, as Bo-Katan was intending to claim the Darksaber for herself, and now she cannot do so unless she defeats Din in combat.
• Call-Back:
  • Bo-Katan remarks to Boba that, as a clone, she's heard his voice a thousand times. She worked with Clone Troopers in the "Siege of Mandalore" arc of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which is also the only time in canon so far that she's interacted with clones.^note She also fought clones in The Clone Wars comic "Defenders of the Lost Temple", which despite being a The Clone Wars tie-in, is now considered Legends.
  • Bo-Katan explains that the Darksaber, being a lightsaber, cannot cut through pure beskar. This is why Din's armor and the beskar spear managed to withstand Ahsoka's lightsabers back in Chapter 13.
  • Bo-Katan, as the only person on the ship who has fought against/alongside Jedi, is the first to recognize that a Jedi has come to their rescue.
  • Moff Gideon is described as being ISB — or Imperial Security Bureau — which was the Empire's intelligence arm for squashing out potential rebels in covert manners. Admiral Wulf Yularen was the head of this organization, and was a key figure in the efforts against Phoenix Squad.
  • Gideon's words to the effect that Bo-Katan must win the darksaber in combat echo those of Ursa Wren to her daughter Sabine in Star Wars Rebels episode "Legacy of Mandalore":
    Ursa: You won it from him in combat?
    Sabine: Not exactly...
    Ursa: Then you have no claim to it.
  • Grogu's call on Tython back in Chapter 14 is answered.
  • Bib Fortuna survived the destruction of Jabba's sail barge, and has taken over the Hutt's palace (and presumably operations).
• The Cameo:
  • We see that Bo-Katan and Koska have a Mandalorian gauntlet fighter parked outside of the bar they're in. Sadly, we don't get to see it in action.
  • Luke Skywalker appears in all his glory to save the day at the end. R2-D2 is there with him, too.
  • Bib Fortuna (Jabba the Hutt's Twi'lek lackey) is shown at the end to have taken over Jabba's palace in the years since his masters' death, but gets quickly killed by Boba Fett.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Cara's opinion regarding Moff Gideon. As a former ISB officer, she believes he has a lot of valuable intel the New Republic could make use of.
• Character Development:
  • After spending the entire season being faced with questions on what it means to be a Mandalorian and his decision to remove his helmet in his quest to save Grogu, Din's arc culminates in him removing his helmet as he says goodbye to the only being he saw as a son. Not only that, but he also attempts to put aside whatever it means to wield the Darksaber when he tries to return it to Bo-Katan.
  • Boba Fett's no longer satisfied with being a bounty hunter, taking over Jabba's operation from Bib Fortuna.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Beskar spear from Chapter 13 comes in handy because it's the only non-lightsaber weapon that can withstand a lightsaber, or in this case, the Darksaber.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The Jedi that heard Grogu's call? Luke Skywalker, who saves the group from the Dark Troopers.
• The Chessmaster: Even though his men have been slaughtered and his ship captured by Din's crew, Gideon is confident his Dark Troopers are more than enough to retake it. Had it not been for Luke's timely arrival, he'd have been right.
• Clone Angst: Boba's clone heritage is brought up, and it's clear that he hates being seen as just another clone, insisting that Jango was his father and not a "donor" for his existence. All the more poignant in that Jango really did consider him his "son", not just another clone. Furthermore, Boba is objectively different than the Clone Troopers, because Jango requested an unaltered clone to raise as his own son — the Clone Troopers were genetically tailored to be less independent and age at twice the rate of a normal human. But all the other Mandalorians now deride him as no different than the altered clones who helped the Empire take over their homeworld.
• Combat Breakdown: Cara's repeating blaster jams during the fight on the cruiser, so she simply uses it as a club to smack down stormtroopers. She eventually fixes it with a little Percussive Maintenance while the rest of the Amazon Brigade watches.
• Coming in Hot: Koska lands the Lambda shuttle carrying Din and the rest of the crew on the cruiser in this way, aided by Slave I acting like a pirate. This bypasses any security checks they might otherwise have failed.
• Conflict Killer: We don't know if Bo-Katan would have fought Din then-and-there for the Darksaber, but the arrival of the Dark Troopers means they can both put the issue off for another day.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu:
  • Downplayed example, and somewhat justified in-story. A single Dark Trooper almost wipes the floor with Din (and the latter only defeats it with much difficulty), whereas Luke Skywalker massacres the whole Dark Trooper cohort in the lead-up to the ship deck. This is easier to swallow considering Din, despite his skillset, is still mostly a Badass Normal while Luke, after all, is a Jedi Master, and an extremely powerful one at that.
  • Completely averted with the Mando team in relation to the Dark troopers, it is made clear that they would not have had a chance to win if they had to fight with so many troopers at once.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Boba hates being considered just another Jango Fett clone, something that was established in The Clone Wars.
  • Apparently, the line "Freeze! Drop your weapons!" is something they teach in Stormtrooper school.
  • The situation with the claim to the Darksaber parallels Din obtaining the Beskar spear back in Chapter 13.
  • When something boards the cruiser in the middle of the assault, Bo-Katan asks how many life-forms are present, to which Fennec replies "none", because the force attempting to recapture the ship are the Dark Trooper droids that Din ejected. A clear nod to another important "no life-forms" droid moment.
  • Luke's methodical demolition of the Dark Troopers in a hallway, especially the way he is finally revealed to our heroes with his lightsaber cutting through the smoke, brings to mind his father's rampage at the end of Rogue One.
  • At the end, Din removes his helmet so that Grogu can see his face just once before they say goodbye. Just like another father-son duo. Bonus points for the son of said duo being there to witness it.
  • Bib's Twi'lek slave girl yanks at her chain in much the same way Oola did as Jabba fed her to his rancor. Though this one lives thanks to a precision shot from Fennec.
  • Boba Fett stands on the trap door over Jabba's rancor pit, though Bib Fortuna doesn't try to trap Fett in it. He may have thought better of trying to use it on someone familiar with the mechanism, and Fennec would have shot him had it worked in any case. It's also questionable if Bib would have had the time or resources to get another Rancor. (The Book of Boba Fett reveals that he didn't.) To say nothing of the fact that Boba has a jetpack and could avoid falling in anyways.
  • Fortuna keeps some blue Spotchka liquor from Season 1. Fennec helps herself to a bottle after she and Fett take over.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • The single Dark Trooper that Din has to face completely kicks the crap out of him, and he only barely manages to survive because of his Beskar armor and spear, which is the only thing that can penetrate its armor.
  • Conversely, Luke strolls through the Dark Troopers with ease. They can barely lay a hand on him, and those that do quickly lose it.
  • Boba Fett and Fennec make short work of Bib Fortuna's guards.
• Didn't See That Coming: Moff Gideon boasts that he knows everything, but he didn't expect a Jedi to show up and tear through his Dark Troopers. Worse yet, said Jedi happens to be Luke Skywalker, whom Gideon should have every reason to fear.
• Didn't Think This Through: The plan to vent all the Dark Troopers into outer space was apparently made without remembering they have flight capabilities (not to mention the lack of need for air), and the entire force simply flies back to the ship. Presumably, it was made under the assumption that Din would have gotten there fast enough to vent them before they could boot up, which he failed to do.
• Digital De-Aging: Luke was recreated using a body double with the digitally de-aged face of Mark Hamill being superimposed on his body.
• Digital Head Swap:
  • Luke Skywalker's appearance here is created by putting a CGI version of young Luke's face over a body double. An AI-driven deepfake process was strongly considered, but the results were judged unacceptable. Luke's voice, though, is a deepfake: Mark Hamill acted the lines on-set, but the final audio was created by letting an AI recreate his performance with audio culled from age-appropriate recordings.
  • In order to keep the news of Luke's involvement from leaking, a CGI rendering of Plo Koon's head was superimposed over his in the raw, unedited footage.
• Diving Save: After Gideon guns down Bo-katan (who was distracted watching Luke working his way through the Dark Troopers), he takes aim at Grogu. Thinking quickly, Din dives into Gideon's line of sight and takes all the blaster hits on his beskar.
• Doom Troops: Every part of the Dark Troopers is designed to intimidate, from the polished black armor to the glowing red eyes. Even the way they move is menacing, their slow-but-relentless pace accentuated by the inhuman unison with which they do it.
• Door-Closes Ending: The episode ends with the elevator doors closing on Din watching Grogu being taken away by Luke.
• Double-Meaning Title: There's more than one rescue going on here.
  • There's the obvious rescue of Grogu from Moff Gideon's clutches by the combined forces of Din, Cara, Boba, Fennec, Bo-Katan, and Koska.
  • And then there's the surprise rescue of Grogu and his own rescuers by the man who saved the entire galaxy from the Empire: Jedi Grandmaster Luke Skywalker himself.
• Dramatic Unmask:
  • The Jedi rather dramatically removes his hood to reveal himself as none other than Luke Skywalker.
  • Din once again removes his helmet so that his adopted son can see his face for the first (and possibly last) time. Unlike when his helmet came off in Chapters 8 and 15, this time it stays off for the remainder of the episode.
• The Dreaded: The normally smug Gideon is terrified of Luke Skywalker.
• Ear Ache: The blaster bolt that kills the Imperial pilot takes a good chunk out of Doctor Pershing's right ear.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Inverted; every Dark Trooper — the "evil" and the "dogs" here — all shift their focus on the arriving lone pilot from the X-wing instead of continuing their efforts to enter the bridge, as though all the Troopers sense the much more powerful threat coming and are suffering a collective Mass "Oh, Crap!"
• Evil Gloating: After being defeated by Din and dragged to the bridge, Gideon enjoys himself by taunting Bo-Katan for losing the chance to defeat him in combat, and how now she and Din will have to duel for possession of the Darksaber if she intends to rule Mandalore. When the Dark Troopers return, he then boasts about how screwed they all are. Luke showing up takes the wind out of his sails.
• Facial Dialogue:
  • Gideon is his usual Smug Snake self, but when Cara shoves him to the floor we see the anger on his face (until he realises he's lying on a blaster) and when he hears a Jedi has turned up, the audience sees Gideon afraid for the first time.
  • When Luke and Grogu leave the Light Cruiser, Din and Grogu don't say, "I'll miss you" (or the "Baby Yoda" equivalent) aloud, but the sentiments come through in their forlorn expressions, unbroken stares, and Din's Manly Tears.
• Fake Shemp: Like Tarkin and Leia in Rogue One and younger Leia in The Rise of Skywalker, Luke's depiction in the show is a mixture of CGI and a body double for the physical action.
• Fantastic Racism: Bo-Katan and Koska do not see Boba Fett as a "real Mandalorian" because he is a clone, though Fett doesn't take offense because he doesn't consider himself a Mandalorian, either. Then they mock his heritage by saying Jango Fett was not his father, just his "donor". That pisses him off.
• Fat Bastard: Bib Fortuna has visibly put on a lot of weight since we last saw him.
• Fighter-Launching Sequence: We get to see in great details the launching of TIE fighters from Moff Gideon's Imperial light cruiser, going one by one through a narrow launch bay at the prow of the ship.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing:
  • Bib Fortuna is listed in the credits before The Stinger, which he appears in.
  • As the X-wing lands, Grogu perks up. It's the Jedi he called.
  • The Jedi that comes to Grogu arrives in a lone X-wing, has a gloved right hand, and a Kenobi-style lightsaber with a chrome finish and a ribbed brass upper grip, and, most prominently, an emerald-green blade. To hardcore fans, the shot of the lightsaber hilt was confirmation of Luke's identity.
• The Force Is Strong with This One: When Luke Skywalker shows up to save the day, Grogu visibly perks up, sensing him in the Force.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: As the X-wing first appears towards the hangar, there is a brief glimpse of a certain blue astromech droid, giving further hint at who the pilot is.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy:
  • Bib Fortuna has really let standards go since Jabba's time. Fennec singlehandedly slaughters all the palace's guards without them getting off so much as a single shot.
  • The Stormtroopers who get the drop on Cara and Fennec, but instead of shooting them as they should, order them to "Freeze!" and thus are easily caught off guard by the Mandalorians.
• Hallway Fight:
  • The Amazon Brigade vs. Gideon's mooks. The Amazons win.
  • Djarin vs. a Dark Trooper. Djarin barely wins.
  • Djarin vs. Gideon. Djarin subdues Gideon, earning the Darksaber.
  • Luke Skywalker vs. all the Dark Troopers. The part in the corridor outside The Bridge looks a lot like Darth Vader's rampage near the end of Rogue One. Luke defeats the Dark Troopers as easily as Vader defeated the Rebels.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: Doctor Pershing gives Din and his crew valuable intelligence that allows them to infiltrate Gideon's cruiser. He does it without any prompting or being offered any incentives, although no reason is given as to why he's turned against the Empire. He might simply feel that Gideon will decide that he's a liability and so he's got nothing to lose, or he remembers how Din reacted when Grogu was in danger last time and has thought better of being difficult.
• Headbutting Heroes: Bo-Katan and Koska initially refuse to help Din and Boba rescue Grogu from Gideon, with the former dismissing Din's chances as hopeless and that, unlike bounty hunters, they don't just do random jobs. They also dismiss Boba as not a "real Mandalorian". For his part, Boba dismissively tells Din that they don't need Bo-Katan and Koska when they initially refuse to join. After a brief fight between Boba and Koska, Din gets them on-board by offering Gideon's entire cruiser as payment, though the fact that he can find it and therefore can find Gideon is what primarily drives Bo-Katan to help.
• Hero of Another Story: The mysterious and powerful black-clad Jedi, very obviously Luke Skywalker even if he never says his name on-screen, is clearly taking a detour from some great adventure of his own to rescue Din's group.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: Boba has his own take on the one about the pot and the kettle.
  Koska: I didn't know sidekicks were allowed to talk.
  Boba: Well, if that isn't the quacta calling the stipling slimy.
• Homage Shot: The shots of Luke facing and destroying the Dark Troopers in the corridors of Moff Gideon's ship mirror those of Darth Vader facing and killing the Rebels in the takeoff bay of the Tantive IV in Rogue One. Complete with Luke making a fist gesture to outright crush the last one with the Force.
• Honor Before Reason: Bo-Katan holds true to the Mandalorians' You Kill It, You Bought It mindset regarding the Darksaber, when she sees that Din won it fighting Gideon, even though he straight-up offers it to her, and even agrees to yield to her and say she "beat" him in a fight.
• Hostage Situation: The loyalist Imperial pilot holds Pershing at gunpoint in an attempt to get Cara and her friends to back off, believing that the New Republic would not take kindly to learning such a valuable target was lost. He then mouths off about how Alderaan deserved to be destroyed and gets shot between the eyes.
• Hyperspeed Ambush: A false variation, with Slave I launching a phony attack on Lambda Shuttle when both ships emerge from hyperspace.
• Hyperspeed Escape: Once the Lambda Shuttle is aboard Moff Gideon's cruiser, Boba Fett on Slave I jumps away.
• Hypocrite:
  • When Koska tries to belittle Fett by insinuating that he's Din's "sidekick", the bounty hunter aptly responds by quoting Star War's equivalent of the "pot calling the kettle black" idiom. And to add irony to this exchange, Boba Fett is not even close to being a subordinate of Din's (it's just a temporary partnership) whereas Koska is most definitely one to Bo-Katan.
    Koska Reeves: I didn't know sidekicks were allowed to talk.
    Boba Fett: Well, if that isn't the Quacta calling the Stifling slimy. Easy there, little one.
  • Tying into the above, Boba referring to Koska as "little one", when he's barely taller than her (for reference, Temuera Morrison is 5'7", Sasha Banks is 5'4", though her costume probably bumps her up a few inches). Though he is likely a fair bit older, so "little one" could be a reference to her age rather than size.
  • Bo-Katan refuses to take the Darksaber from Din, no matter how much he insists, because tradition says so. It wasn't so long ago that she was giving him grief over his sect's rigid adherence to tradition. In her defense, while Bo-Katan may not respect traditions, she knows her people do, and they would not respect a leader who was simply gifted the Darksaber without earning it, especially when she has more than three witnesses around who can attest to the fact that she came nowhere close to properly winning it in combat. So if she wants the legitimacy of the Darksaber, she knows she has to earn it and fighting Din Djarin is not something she wants to do, especially having said that Mandalorians have been fighting each other for too long.
• Immune to Bullets: The Dark Troopers are invulnerable to blaster fire and at least small explosives (the whistling birds). Din's flamethrower shot into the gaps of one's armor just seems to piss it off. Only Din's beskar spear and lightsabers can damage them.
• Implacable Man:
  • The Dark Troopers. Din has trouble with just one, with none of his standard weapons affecting it in the slightest. The only reason why Din manages to walk away is because he manages to jam his beskar spear in the droid's exposed wires, and that's after a couple minutes of it pummeling him. Gideon even lampshades this when the Dark Troopers are preparing to storm the bridge, saying the end result will be a massacre with only himself and Grogu surviving.
  • For a heroic turn of fate, Luke Skywalker inexorably cuts his way through every Dark Trooper he crosses while the heroes watch through the security cams in cathartic awe, while Gideon starts having a Villainous Breakdown.
• Insane Troll Logic: The Imperial pilot justifies the destruction of Alderaan, which killed billions of civilians, because of the millions of Imperials killed on the Death Star. Never mind the fact the Death Star blew up Alderaan first, and was built with the express purpose of blowing up any world that wouldn't submit to the Empire. The pilot also said that destroying Alderaan was a small price to pay to fight terrorism. He's forgetting the fact that Alderaan was a loyalist planet that Tarkin had destroyed just to prove a point to the rest of the Galaxy without the approval of Emperor Palpatine — who had signed off for the Death Star destroying a random backwater world, but didn't think that Tarkin would use it to destroy an important world like Alderaan, making the whole incident a textbook case of UNSANCTIONED State Terrorism.
• Insufferable Genius: Gideon is basically confirmed to be this, even snarking to Din, "Assume that I know everything." He plans for virtually every contingency, except Luke Skywalker. His "knowing everything" comes back to bite him, as he knows exactly how it's going to go down with his Dark Troopers once he hears Bo-Katan identify the new arrival as a Jedi.
• Interface Spoiler:
  • Bib Fortuna's name is listed in the end credits, even though he does not appear until The Stinger.
  • Similarly, the show is listed under Mark Hamill's credits on Disney+ for the Star Wars page, spoiling his surprise appearance.
• Interrupted Suicide: Gideon attempts to shoot himself in the head when it seems he will be captured, but Cara rifle-butts him unconscious before he can pull the trigger.
• Irony:
  • Bo-Katan dismissed Din's beliefs as extremist and outdated when they first met, yet she refuses to accept the Darksaber from Din (who doesn't want it) because of her belief that it has to be earned in combat lest it loses its cultural and political significance and thus ruin her chances to claim the Mandalorian throne, even with Din forfeiting it.
  • On that same note, Din had no interest in saving Mandalore, considering it to be a cursed planet. With the Darksaber in his possession, he is now its rightful ruler.
  • Boba Fett in the Legends continuity was Mandalore. Here, he doesn't even claim to be Mandalorian.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Gideon claims to have gotten what he needs from Grogu and allows Din to take him so long as he leaves without incident, only to attack as soon as Din turns his back.
• It Is Beyond Saving: Boba has a similar opinion about Mandalore as Din, believing there's nothing left to save. Unlike Din, he believes this because, as far as he knows, the Empire glassed the planet and there's quite literally nothing to save. Bo-Katan disputes that.
• It's All About Me:
  • While she has good intentions, Bo-Katan displays this attitude towards her mission, the Mandalorian people and her desire to unify them as a culture again after The Purge. It takes considerable concessions on Din's part to secure her cooperation, and she only agrees because he possesses valuable intel. Her entitled belief that the Darksaber (and the status it gives its owner) is hers and hers alone is shown to be a major flaw of hers, a flaw that Gideon is happy to exploit.
  • Gideon shows little care that his entire crew has been slaughtered, so long as his Dark Troopers keep him alive.
• It's Personal: Pretty well averted. Bo-Katan struggles to hide it, but she's hit hard when Din tells her that the Child was taken... by Moff Gideon, the architect of the Purge of Mandalore. She still refuses, because she wants to keep her distance from a Fanatic Zealot Bounty Hunter... until Din and Boba manage to change her mind.
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet: A variation when our heroes come across a seemingly empty corridor.
  Koska: All clear.
  Bo-Katan: A little too clear.
• I Want Them Alive!: Cara wants Gideon taken alive. When Din does so, Cara mentions that the New Republic will pay him twice the bounty.
• I Work Alone: During Bo-Katan's mission briefing, Din refuses to be partnered with anyone and states that he's going to rescue Grogu alone.
• The Juggernaut: The Dark Troopers can take blaster bolts, flamethrowers, and even the Mandalorian's vaunted Whistling Birds on the chin with barely a dent in their armor. It then gets inverted on them when a lone Jedi proves to be the unstoppable juggernaut against them.
• Just One Man: When a single X-wing arrives to help, Cara sarcastically remarks, "One X-wing? Great, we're saved." Of course, she doesn't know whose X-wing that is.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Bo-Katan and Koska look down on Boba, not viewing him as a "real Mandalorian" and referring to Jango as "his donor".
  • Moff Gideon intercepting Din at the holding cells isn't just to prevent him from saving Grogu. It means that Din will have to fight him, and if he wins, he'll have earned the Darksaber through combat and inadvertently drive a wedge between himself and two of his current allies.
• Leitmotif: The Dark Troopers have their own music for sequences focusing on them, a very unnerving Techno tune: "Troopers".
• Let's You and Him Fight:
  • Koska trash-talks Boba as Din's "sidekick", leading to a brief scuffle before Bo-Katan calls them off.
  • Gideon invokes this by executing a Xanatos Gambit and losing a melee against Din, making the Darksaber his by custom. He gleefully tells Din that the Darksaber can only be given through Trial by Combat, meaning he is going to likely need to face Bo-Katan sooner or later.
• Like Father, Like Son: Luke Skywalker calmly walks through the hallways of a starship, wrecking the Dark Troopers in his way like he's swatting flies, and even does a Force-Pull-a-guy-towards-me-to-cut-him-in-half move, like his father before him.
• Logical Fallacies: The Imperial pilot at the start of the episode tries to make false equivalency between the Rebel Alliance blowing up the Death Star, killing millions of Imperial crew, when that happened after the Empire blew up Alderaan for no real reason^note other than to make an "effective demonstration" out of spite for Princess Leia refusing to give up the Rebel base location, killing billions, with the intention to do so to any planet that stepped out of line.
• Manly Tears: Din is clearly holding back tears as he watches his adopted son being taken by Luke to be trained as a Jedi.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: It's downplayed, but when Cara shoots the pilot holding Dr. Pershing hostage, she singes a small chunk of his ear off. He starts crying out in pain big time, since said shot clearly hurt pretty bad, but it's far from enough to do any serious damage.
• Mook Horror Show: Din and his team are trapped on the bridge by Dark Troopers. The rest of the ship has been secured. Then a lone X-wing lands in the docking bay, and everyone (especially Smug Snake Gideon) watches in shock and horror as a lone figure with a lightsaber carves a path through the troopers on the lower levels over the security feeds. If they had been regular Stormtroopers rather than droids, they likely would have fled in sheer terror.
• Moral Myopia:
  • The Imperial pilot in the beginning thinks that the millions who died on the Death Stars is a horrifying act of terrorism but the destruction of the pacifist planet Alderaan, which killed billions of civilians for a completely bullshit reason, was perfectly acceptable.
  • Gideon calls the Mandalorians "murderous savages" for storming his ship and killing his crew, conveniently overlooking his long list of atrocities against them, including the Great Purge on Mandalore and his massacre of the Mandalorian Covert on Nevarro. Not to mention that he's probably killed more of his men than they have.
• Musical Nod: For the first time in the series we get an extended queue of one of John Williams' themes from the Skywalker Saga, when an arrangement of "May the Force Be with You" plays when Luke Skywalker reveals himself to Din and Grogu.^note A brief reference was made to Yoda's Theme in Chapter 13, but it was only a minor nod.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Pershing calls the current model of Dark Troopers the "third generation of design", a nod to the multiple phases (from 0 to 3) of the Dark Troopers in Legends.
  • The Dark Troopers' ankle, knee and elbow joints are hollow rings, like the Imperial K2 series security droids in Rogue One.
  • Speaking of Rogue One, when Luke Skywalker emerges from a turbolift and cuts down all the remaining Dark Troopers on his way to the bridge, it is most definitely a "Like Father, Like Son" moment.
  • Bib Fortuna is carrying a spiral Staff of Authority that looks just like the accessory that came with his Kenner action figure, even though the staff didn't actually appear in Return of the Jedi.
  • Upon seeing Boba Fett alive, Bib Fortuna mentions he'd heard many rumors... a nod to the fact that there has been several contradicting versions in Legends of Boba's survival from the Sarlacc.
• Near-Villain Victory: Moff Gideon's Dark Troopers have our heroes trapped on the bridge of his ship and are inexorably punching to create a gap in the blast doors. Gideon lampshades the hopelessness of the situation, saying soon all will be dead except he and Grogu. Then a lone X-wing appears and a mysterious cloaked figure is seen on the ship's monitors masterfully cutting down the near-invincible Dark Troopers. Eucatastrophe has arrived in the form of Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker, like an ancient hero out of legend. The others, all hardened warriors in their own right, can only stare in wonder.
• Neck Snap: Din does this to one of the Stormtroopers guarding Grogu's cell after strangling the trooper with his spear.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • A single Dark Trooper beats the ever-loving crap out of Din with just its bare fists.
  • Luke Skywalker later returns the favor to an entire platoon of Dark Troopers, cutting through them like they're not even there. The last one doesn't even get the dignity of being cut down; Luke simply raises his hand and effortlessly crushes it into scrap with the Force.
• No OSHA Compliance: As the Amazon Brigade fire fight through the cruiser, they cross a bridge over the cruiser's underside hangar exit. The bridge has a railing at shin height, perfect for tripping, and the shielding over the hangar only stops air from escaping, not any hapless Stormtrooper that might fall through it into the void of space.
• No-Sell: Din uses his flamethrower on a Dark Trooper with zero effect. All it does is toss him aside and stare as the fire dies out.
• No True Scotsman: Similar to how Din reacted to Bo-Katan in not seeing her as a true Mandalorian back in The Heiress earlier this season, Bo-Katan similarly sees Boba Fett as nothing more than a disgrace to the Mandalorian armor when they first meet and he speaks aloud; seeing him as just a Clone of a man that apparently wasn't a real Mandalorian.
  Bo-Katan: You are a disgrace to your armor.
  Boba Fett: This armor belonged to my father.
  Bo-Katan: Don't you mean 'your Donor'?
• Not So Stoic: Gideon, normally in possession of Nerves of Steel, panics when he sees Luke Skywalker cutting through every Dark Trooper he crosses with practiced ease.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Din's crew have this reaction when they see that the Dark Troopers not only survived being jettisoned into space, but are on their way back to the cruiser.
  • After spending the entire episode being smug about his Xanatos Gambit, Gideon has a glorious Villainous Breakdown when a Jedi shows up and slices down his Dark Troopers like a hot knife through butter. Worse yet, said Jedi happens to not only be the reason why the Galactic Empire is in shambles in the first place, but is also the son of Darth Vader: Luke Skywalker himself.
  • A lower-key example, but the Mandalorians are clearly having an Oh, Crap of their own as they watch Luke cut his way to the bridge, to the point that they're afraid to open the door for him.
  • Bo-Katan quietly shits herself when Din walks Gideon onto the bridge in cuffs. Because he's wielding the Darksaber she so desperately wants.
• One-Man Army: The Jedi cuts down Gideon's entire platoon of Dark Troopers without so much as breaking a sweat.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Bo-Katan insists that she be the one to fight Gideon, which no-one disagrees with. Gideon, knowing the significance of this, deliberately forces Din to fight him if he wants to rescue Grogu, denying Bo-Katan that honor. When Din wins, he becomes the owner of the Darksaber and Bo-Katan's honor won't let her simply accept it as a gift.
• On Three:
  Koska: Exiting hyperspace in three, two, one...
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • For spending the bulk of the series run calm, collected, and quite smug, Moff Gideon looked absolutely terrified the moment he sees the Jedi cut down his platoon of Dark Troopers. And since said Jedi is Luke Skywalker, the man who toppled the Empire, including its leader and its most fierce enforcer, he's got plenty of reason to be afraid, even if he can't see his face.
  • Din once again removes his helmet. What's more remarkable about it this time is that he does this in front of five other people including a total stranger, and he doesn't seem to care, because it's the first and likely last time Grogu will get to see his face. As Grogu is taken away, you can even see tears in Din's eyes.
• Outside-Context Problem: Heroic example; Moff Gideon seems to have a Xanatos Gambit ready for any possible situation and was prepared for anything our heroes could have thrown at him with the help of the Dark Troopers. But the Dark Troopers were made to fight normal opponents and could probably curb-stomp an army several times their numbers in conventional combat. However, they were not designed to fight Jedi, who are still a rarity in the galaxy at large. The chances of encountering even one, on his own ship no less, probably seemed pretty much impossible to Gideon. And when Luke shows up, Gideon, still living up to knowing everything, knows exactly what is going to happen to his Dark Troopers once he sees the new boarder is a Jedi.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Mando is capable of defeating a Dark Trooper, an incredible feat on its own, but the Jedi manages to defeat an entire group as if they were simple mooks.
• Pardon My Klingon: When Cara's rifle jams.
  Cara: Dank ferrik! Son of a mudscuffer!
• Percussive Maintenance: Cara unjams her blaster rifle by slamming the butt of it on the floor.
• Pet the Dog: After killing the rest of Bib's lackies, Fennec shoots the restraints off of Bib's Twi'lek slave and gestures to her to leave.
• Pistol-Whipping: While Cara's repeating blaster rifle is jammed, she resorts to using it as a club to whack Stormtroopers with. She later thwarts Gideon's suicide attempt by knocking the blaster out of his hands and then smacking him in the face with the weapon's butt.
• Poor Communication Kills: Bo-Katan doesn't bother explaining to Din that she must defeat Gideon to earn the right to wield the Darksaber, only insisting that he be left to her. When Din is left with no other choice but to fight Gideon, it never occurs to him that he's throwing a serious wrench in her plans until Gideon spells it out for him.
• Punch-Clock Villain: One of the Imperial shuttle pilots tries to talk his way out of the boarding action, saying he just works there. He's then shot in the back by his comrade, an unrepentant Imperial loyalist.
• Punched Across the Room: Din's first contact with a Dark Trooper is a punch that sends him sliding against a wall on the opposite side of the hallway. That's only the beginning of one hell of a strenuous fight.
• Punctuated Pounding: Subdued and juxtaposed. While the Dark Troopers punch away at the bridge's blast door, Gideon smugly waxes about how everyone in the room will be dead but him and the Child, juxtaposed rhythmically with each blow to the door.
• Put Down Your Gun and Step Away: When Din steps into Grogu's cell, he finds Gideon holding the Darksaber over him, who demands Din drop his blaster and kick it over to him.
• Race Against the Clock: Din has only a few minutes to sneak onto the cruiser and seal the Dark Troopers in their storage bay before they finish powering up. He shows up just a bit too late, and one droid manages to make it through the door. The rest, ejected into space but still active, simply fly back in through the underside hangar bay.
• Reluctant Ruler: Now that Djarin wields the Darksaber, he is by tradition the rightful ruler of Mandalore, a title he has no interest in keeping. Unfortunately, he can't simply give it to Bo-Katan unless she defeats him in combat, a scenario neither of them is looking forward to.
• The Reveal:
  • Dr. Pershing is a clone engineer, which was only hinted at by his uniform previously.
  • The Jedi that Grogu managed to contact? Luke Skywalker.
  • A lesser example, but if Gideon told the truth about his intentions for Grogu, the Empire already has the information they needed from his genetics.
• Rock Beats Laser: Din's Beskar spear is the only weapon he has that can take down a Dark Trooper, after his blaster, flamethrower, and Whistling Birds fail to penetrate the droid's heavy armor plating.
• Royal Brat: Boba derogatorily calls Bo-Katan a princess for snobbishly dismissing him as a fake Mandalorian and trash-talking him. Technically she is royalty, as she is the last heir of House Kryze and her older sister used to rule Mandalore — though her sister's title was actually "Duchess"^note Duchess and Duke are traditionally analogous to the titles of Princess and Prince of Mandalore.
• Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: As cool as the TIE Fighter launch chute boarding action may have been, many knowledgeable fans have pointed out that official dimensions given for the TIE and Lambda-Class shuttle means that sequence shouldn't have gone as smoothly as it did.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Two Mandalorians walk into a bar... where there are already two Mandalorians? All the other bar patrons clear out in a hurry.
• Sequel Hook:
  • Grogu is going with Luke to train, and Din promises they'll meet again one day.
  • Din and Bo-Katan have to work out the problem of him winning the Darksaber in combat with Gideon, thereby denying it to her unless they duel.
  • Boba Fett and Fennec take over Jabba's palace, setting up his own series.
• Shoot the Hostage Taker: An Imperial true believer shuttle pilot takes the cloning engineer Dr. Pershing hostage when the heroes board the disabled Lambda shuttle. After gunning down his copilot who was trying to surrender, he decides to start punching Cara Dune's Alderaanian Diaspora Berserk Button. He also seems to acknowledge that she's a Rebel drop trooper, not putting two and two together that she would be a proficient pistol markswoman as a corollary. She drills him in the face after she's had enough of his fanatic ranting, with Pershing's ear getting scorched in the process.
• Shoot the Rope: Fennec blasts the chain of Bib's Twi'lek slave after slaughtering his mooks, allowing her to leave.
• Simple Solution Won't Work: When Gideon points out that the Darksaber must be won in combat, not just taken as an offering, Din simply says "I yield," and tries to give it to Bo-Katan. Bo-Katan silently refuses this option, however, as she knows it is still an offering, regardless of Din dressing up the situation as her having "won" it.
• Smash to Black: The episode smashes to black as the elevator closes on Luke and Artoo leaving with Grogu.
• Smug Snake: Even after Din has defeated him and brought him to the bridge in cuffs, Gideon is a gloating jerkass, confident his platoon of Darktroopers will save him. Until the Jedi arrives.
• Spanner in the Works: Bo-Katan thinks that Gideon will be on the bridge, but he's actually guarding the Child — his most important asset. Thus Din ends up fighting him instead of Bo-Katan.
• The Stinger: After the credits, Fennec and Boba storm Jabba's palace on Tattooine, now being run by Bib Fortuna, and murder him. Boba then takes the throne for himself. Cut to the title card, The Book of Boba Fett, coming in December 2021.
• Super-Strength: The Dark Troopers nearly breach several blast doors by hammering them with punches.
• Taking the Bullet: After trying to kill Bo-Katan, Moff Gideon turns his gun toward Grogu, but Din Djarin throws himself between them and intercepts the blaster shots with his beskar-clad body.
• Taking You with Me: When it becomes clear that his Dark Troopers don't stand a chance against the Jedi, Gideon shoots Bo-Katan, then attempts to shoot Grogu before turning the gun on himself. Din goes in for a Diving Save before Gideon can succeed, allowing his armor to No-Sell the blasts, and Cara stops the attempted suicide.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Boba and the Mandalorians do not get on well, even coming to blows with Koska when they first meet in the cantina. Bo-Katan and Koska see him as just another rogue Fett clone wearing Mandalorian armor, and Boba sees their plan to reconquer Mandalore as a fool's errand, dismissing their ancestral homeworld as a dead planet that's not worth the effort.
• Tempting Fate: A New Republic X-wing shows up at Gideon's cruiser. Only one. What's a single X-wing pilot going to do, Cara asks? Well...
• Terms of Endangerment: Boba and Bo-Katan really don't like each other. To annoy and antagonize her, Boba constantly refers to Bo-Katan as "Princess".
• Thrown Out the Airlock: Din sends the whole battalion of Dark Troopers (minus the one that got through that he just destroyed) into space this way. Unfortunately, they're droids that can survive in a vacuum and have built-in flight capabilities, so they just fly back in through the hangar.
• Too Dumb to Live: After the shuttle is boarded, the shuttle's copilot takes Pershing hostage, and immediately gets belligerent with his attackers. Not exactly as bright as it is. Then he decides it would be a good idea to openly mock burly Alderaanian dropper Cara Dune (who's probably twice his size) over the destruction of her homeworld. And reveal he was on the Death Star when it blew up the planet. And outright stating it was a good thing that pales to the loss of all the Imperial soldiers and technicians killed when the Rebels destroyed the Death Star in turn. His lifespan afterward is measured in seconds.
• Trying Not to Cry: Din is clearly holding back tears as his adopted son is taken away from him in the end.
• The Unreveal: We still don't know what Gideon was planning to do with Grogu's blood by the end. He only vaguely claims that it would help bring order to the galaxy.
• Unskilled, but Strong: As astute fans have noted, Gideon is not actually assuming any lightsaber form in his fight with Din. Justified as Gideon is an ex-ISB agent who would be unlikely to even know dedicated lightsaber combat, much less have formal training with such. But, as the fight demonstrates, against another brawler like Din, he doesn't need skill to be a threat with a weapon that can cut through almost anything. It's not until Din pulls out the beskar spear and starts parrying his blows that the tide turns against Gideon.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee:
  • Our heroes thoroughly discuss the plan to rescue Grogu. It actually would have gone fairly smoothly if Djarin had been able to shut down the Dark Troopers before they were deployed, and they nearly prove to be the plan's undoing.
  • In addition, Bo-Katan had planned to defeat Gideon herself and reclaim the Darksaber. When she sees Din holding the saber, she realizes that her plans have just fallen apart.
  • And for the trifecta, Gideon boasts about his plan for the Dark Troopers to kill Team Djarin so he can reclaim Grogu. That plan falls apart the moment Luke Skywalker shows up and methodically destroys all the Dark Troopers.
• Vehicular Turnabout: Din offers Gideon's entire light cruiser as payment to Bo-Katan for her assistance, presumably because they'll have to kill most of the crew just to rescue Grogu in the first place. By the end of the episode, the crew has been killed, Gideon captured, and the Dark Troopers destroyed, so there's nothing keeping Bo-Katan from taking it.
• Villain Ball: Despite otherwise averting it, Gideon picks it up briefly when he tries to backstab Din with the Darksaber. Rather than aiming low for Din's legs, which only have armor on the front, he swings at Din's midsection, allowing Din to parry the blow by blocking with his jetpack, which has a beskar casing and thus resists the blow. You'd think Gideon, as knowledgeable as he is of Mandalore, would be aware that beskar can block a lightsaber. This one mistake allows Din to mount a defense and ultimately turn the tables. In addition, Din almost certainly would have honored the deal he made with Gideon had Gideon not betrayed him, though it's equally possible that Gideon was lying about having what he needed from Grogu and was only trying to get Din to let his guard down.
• Villainous Breakdown: When Luke shows up and starts cutting through his Dark Troopers, Gideon wordlessly panics and uses a hidden blaster to shoot Bo-Katan, whose Mandalorian armor blocks his shots. Then Gideon tries to shoot Grogu, which is intercepted by Din. When everyone else still standing take aim at him, he then tries to blow his own brains out, but gets his suicide attempt thwarted by Cara bludgeoning him with the stock of her rifle.
• We Need a Distraction: Fennec, Cara, Bo-Katan, and Koska go in guns blazing after crashing the shuttle so Din can sneak out after the fact and get to the holding cells without trouble. Gideon anticipates the strategy and is there waiting for him.
• We Will Meet Again: Din makes this promise to Grogu when he hands him over to Luke.
• Wham Shot: The shot of a lone X-wing, followed by a shot of Grogu reacting to the pilot, makes it clear just who has shown up to rescue them before the actual reveal. And if that wasn't enough, the Jedi in question is wearing a hooded cloak, a black outfit, a black glove on his right hand, and wields a green lightsaber with a distinct silver-and-gold handle. This all serves as tantalizing buildup to the shot where he finally pulls down his hood to reveal Luke Skywalker.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: What happened to Doctor Pershing after he helped Din remains unclear until Season 3.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Darth Vader may have massacred a hallway full of Rebel soldiers in Rogue One, but it's perfectly acceptable for his son Luke to do the same thing when his opponents are droids.
• What You Are in the Dark:
  • Gideon makes a deal with Din: he and his companions can walk away with Grogu (since Gideon already has Grogu's blood), but not the Darksaber. Din reluctantly agrees since he's worried Gideon may kill Grogu out of spite, but Gideon reneging on the deal makes it a moot point.
  • Bo-Katan could take the Darksaber from Din and only those present would ever have to know the circumstances under which she obtained it. Yet, even though her opportunity to reclaim Mandalore is literally being handed to her, her honor won't let her take it without earning it.
• The Worf Effect: The Dark Troopers are The Dreaded amongst the Imperial remnants' ranks, especially when they have become fully-automated battle droids. One Dark Trooper is enough to give Din a hard time (forcing him to use up his precious ammo he would need against Gideon) and it can survive the vacuum of space and return with ease. Then Luke Skywalker shows up and mows down squads of Dark Troopers like wet tissue.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: After the team captures Pershing's shuttle, Boba Fett pretends to be a pirate chasing it in Slave I so they can force an emergency landing.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Koska hits Boba Fett with a jetpack-assisted Tornado DDT during their brief fight. Appropriate, considering who her actress is. Before that, Boba took Koska down with a two-handed choke toss.
• Xanatos Gambit: Gideon went to the brig anticipating that Din would head there alone to rescue Grogu, while his allies stormed the bridge as a distraction0. Either he would win the battle, killing Din and escaping with Grogu, or he would lose to Din, making Din the Darksaber's new owner. This would cause a fight between Din and Bo-Katan as she needs to win the Darksaber in combat in order to legitimize her claim to Mandalore. That looked likely to happen until the Dark Troopers reboard the ship to rescue Gideon. Even then, he might have been able to pull off a win had Luke Skywalker himself not come onboard and wrecked the entire platoon of Dark Troopers.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
  • Boba's reaction upon learning that Bo-Katan wants to reclaim Mandalore.
    Boba: You gotta be kidding me. Mandalore? The Empire turned that planet to glass.
  • Bo-Katan doesn't say it, but it's written all over her face when she sees that Djarin has captured Gideon and taken the Darksaber, inadvertently ruining her plans to defeat Gideon herself and reclaim the Darksaber.
  • The team's reaction to a single X-wing coming to their rescue (before they find out exactly who is in that X-wing).
    Cara: One X-wing? Great, we're saved.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Din comes into possession of the Darksaber after defeating Moff Gideon in single combat. This complicates Bo-Katan's plans, as she had intended to be the one to beat Gideon and use the Darksaber to reclaim the throne of Mandalore, and Din can't just give the Darksaber to her or yield without defeating the purpose of earning it.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The Imperial pilot at the beginning of the episode states that he was on the Death Star and saw Alderaan blow up, and offers an Armor-Piercing Question to Cara: "Do you know how many millions of lives were on those bases?", followed by claiming that Alderaan's destruction was "a small price to rid the galaxy of terrorism". That earns him a headshot when Cara has heard enough.

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