Pirate King Gorian Shard returns to Nevarro for revenge. Greef reaches out to Carson Teva for help, but Teva has to find alternative allies when the New Republic refuses to assist.
Tropes:
- 2-D Space:
- Shard's snubfighters fail to take the z-axis into account and are blasted by Din first from below, then from above. Vane fruitlessly attempts to warn the poor mooks who don't see their deaths coming.
- Also happens to the pirates on the ground. While they manage to pin down the first squad of Mandalorians in a two-sided ambush in the street, they seem to forget they're fighting soldiers wearing jetpacks; Paz Vizsla and the second squad are able to drop down from the sky practically on top of them and turn the tide against the pirates.
- Ace Custom: We see the most exemplary display yet of how mind-bendingly fast and agile Din's Hotrod N1 really is here, as he handily dances around enemy fire not just from all the Pirates' snub fighters, but from their Corsair ship as well.
- Ambiguous Situation:
- Carson Teva theorizes that Gorian Shard's attack on Nevarro is connected to uprisings involving Imperial remnants. Shard himself gives no indication that he's working with anyone else, but the fact that the pirates got involved on Nevarro, a planet once occupied by Moff Gideon, within the same time frame as the Moff's previously undetected escape, is a remarkable coincidence.
- It's no clearer where Kane's loyalties lie than it was in Chapter 19. She could have been covering for Gideon or a bigger fish by dismissing Carson's concerns, or she could have just as equally been approaching the situation with an Imperial-minded Cold Equation in recommending Nevarro being shunned because they need to look after their own holdings before they can think about helping independents. Though given that snippets of the First Order theme are playing during the conversation, it's clear that, intentionally or not, her blocking Carson behind bureaucracy is helping out the nascent First Order.
- The Armorer's hoisting of Bo-Katan as a unifier of Mandalore isn't clear as a plan, since Din still claims ownership of the Darksaber and its cultural significance, and the Children of the Watch into which she's been inducted are viewed by other Mandalorians as a bunch of reactionary cultists.
- Carson later finds the shuttle that was meant to transport Gideon wrecked without a sign of him in it, and a piece of beskar embedded in its walls. Whether this is a frame-up or some unknown Mandalorians truly did rescue Gideon is left unclear for now.
- Armor Is Useless: As is typical for Mandalorians, this is averted. Their armor stops a lot of fatal hits, most notably Paz taking a shot in the chest from a mounted gun and scrambling to cover before he is hit again. Most of them aren't wearing beskar, though (just like Din himself at the start of the series), so when they get hit, they get hit a lot harder, and some of them do go down.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Some of Shard's pirates drunkenly shoot at some Kowakian monkey lizards for fun. Those same monkey lizards warn the Mandalorians about some pirates waiting to ambush them.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: Paz Vizsla stands up to seemingly argue against helping Din and Greef given all that has been lost helping them before. He seemingly implies that too much was sacrificed in order to save Grogu. Except they are Mandalorians! Sacrificing to protect their foundlings is what they do! Paz and Din are both dads who love their sons. Both have put themselves in danger to protect each others' sons. He then expounds in detail what they have to gain (adulation, return to galactic prominence, land to call their own openly) and gives his full support. Paz masterfully gathered up all the sentiments of disinclination in the attending Covert members and quashed them with one blunt about-face, giving the proposal the passion that Din's pitch was lacking.Paz: I was there on Nevarro that night. I fought against Greef Karga and his hunters. I saw my brothers and sisters fall at the hands of the Imperial butchers that hunted us in the sewers. I saw many die to save the life of this one, tiny foundling. And now we are asked to sacrifice yet again. The question we should be asking ourselves is, "Why? Why should we lay our lives down yet again?" [Beat] Because we are Mandalorians! I have had my disagreements with this man, but he risked his life to save my son. And Bo-katan Kryze did not give up on my child's life... even when the rest of us did. [Beat] These two are asking us to take up arms in the name of a brighter future. And I for one will take up arms to fight by their side. This is the Way!
- Big Damn Heroes: The second strike team is flanked by the pirates and outgunned, only for Paz to drop in with his repeating blaster cannon and wipe out the pirates. He then finds himself pinned down by a heavy cannon from Karga's office porch overlooking the city square, which is where the Armorer steps in to save the day.
- Bulletproof Human Shield: The Armorer uses a Klatooinian pirate to intercept the blaster fire of an Aqualish pirate, before throwing her beskar hammer in the latter's face.
- Call-Back:
- While arguing for assistance for Nevarro, Carson Teva brings up the fact that recently its capital city was occupied by Imperial remnants and that TIE fighters flew openly in its skies.
- Carson Teva confirms that he served in the Rebellion alongside R5-D4.
- Din recalls Carson Teva previously helping him out. He tactfully omits their later encounter.
- The Mandalorians fighting together, providing covering fire for each other and advancing in an orderly fashion, echoes how they behaved under competent military leaders in The Clone Wars. Bo-Katan, no stranger to such battles, stresses that she expects them to conduct themselves as a tight military unit.
- The rumors about Moff Gideon escaping en route to trial are confirmed here, though the exact circumstances of Gideon's escape are left ambiguous until The Spies.
- When Greef refers to himself as "Magistrate Greef Karga" in his speech at the end of the episode, his protocol droid chimes in that his title is actually "High Magistrate", a humorous reversal of their dialogue from the season premiere.
- In the previous episode, the Armorer first thought Bo-Katan saw the Mythosaur in a vision. When Bo clarified it was in the flesh, she didn't have a follow-up. This episode reveals she sees it as something far more significant, as did Bo.
- Call-Forward:
- Carson Teva warns the requisitions officer that something is building in the Outer Rim, and that if the New Republic doesn't do something about it, it will be too late. Although Teva's warnings fall on deaf ears, the problem he's talking about will culminate in the First Order.
- Likewise, his situation with the requisitions officer falling on deaf ears before finding a contact to help him is what Luke and Lando would do with Xarah Blacwood before ultimately relying on Shriv years later, albeit for the Sith's return.
- The Cameo: Garazeb Orrelios appears as one of the pilots in Carson Teva's unit.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Teva was able to locate the Mandalorian settlement by tracking down R5, who he had fought with during the Rebellion.
- Child of Two Worlds: Bo-Katan has been both a less traditional Mandalorian and a Child of the Watch. Previously, Children of the Watch accepted Bo-Katan as a convert—she was allowed to stay only so long as she adhered to their orthodoxy. Now, the Armorer declares there is value in Bo-Katan's mixed background: it makes her the ideal person to unite all of Mandalore. To highlight this, the Armorer even grants her dispensation to walk around without her helmet.The Armorer: Mandalore must all come together. You have walked both worlds. You are the one who can unite us.
- Combat Pragmatist:
- The Mandalorians have no problems attacking the pirates from behind and shooting ones that are already on the ground.
- The pirates on the ground, for their effort, set up ambushes, manage to pincer one group of Mandalorians and resort to heavy cannon fire from an elevated tower. Their tactics were good, the Mandalorians were just better.
- Continuity Nod:
- The statue of IG-11 in Nevarro is shown without the parts of the real IG-11, which were extracted when Din tried to make it functional again.
- Zeb expresses doubt that the New Republic will send any aid to Nevarro; he knows all too well what it's like to be fighting a small fight with the larger support network unwilling and/or unable to assist after the Rebel Alliance did the same thing during the occupation of Lothal back in Season 4 of Rebels.
- When Greef warns Mando that he's outnumbered in a dogfight, Mando responds with "I like those odds," after causing two snubfighters to collide with each other.
- Creator Cameo: A man with a cowboy hat is sitting in the foreground at the bar while Teva and Zeb are talking. It's Dave Filoni.
- Didn't Think This Through: When Bo-Katan attacks the cruiser, Shard orders his fighters to break off pursuit of Din's N-1 and reinforce him. Naturally, all that does is allow Din, previously on the defensive, to turn around and shoot them down.
- Dirty Coward: When the tide turns against Gorian Shard, Vane opts to fly off and save his own skin. Shard even yells at Vane that he's a coward as the underling flies away.
- The Dog Bites Back: During their occupation, some pirates shoot at some Kowakian monkey-lizards for laughs. Later, when the pirates are setting up an ambush for one of the Mandalorian teams, one of the monkey-lizards warns them, which allows the Mandalorians to turn the shootout against them.
- Draw Aggro: The Mandalorians' opening move against the pirates is for Din to piss off the Pirate Corsair and all its snub fighters in his Hotrod N1, reigniting their previous ire towards him, and drawing them away so Bo-Katan in her Kom'rk assault dropship can airdrop the commando squads to sweep the city. After that's done, Din leads the enemy fighters into an Aerial Canyon Chase, peeling them away from the Corsair so Bo-Katan can attack it without being hounded by its fighter screen. When Pirate King Shard calls the fighters back for support, Din is able to shoot them in the back as they attempt to shoot Bo-Katan down. Meanwhile, the Corsair is too busy trying to pick off the two ships to provide air support to the groundside pirates, leaving them ill-equipped to handle the Mando strike teams.
- Dynamic Entry: The first strike team lands right on top of a band of pirates roving about the city, some of the Mandos goomba-stomping some pirates on landing. The Anzellan Droidsmiths watch from their tiny workshop as the Mandos reduce the pirates to corpses and move on without missing a beat.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: Gorian Shard's pirate crew is composed of various different races from the Galaxy, including Nikto, Klatooinian, Quarren, Trandoshan, Aqualish, and Ugnaut (plus whatever race Gorian Shard himself is). No human in sight, though.
- Evil Is Petty:
- Possibly; Gorian Shard claims his attack on Nevarro is due to Greef killing his men, but Carson Teva believes that Shard's attack is part of a larger uprising supported by the Imperial remnants, a belief bolstered by the fact that a major Imperial remnant leader, Moff Gideon, once occupied Nevarro himself. Whether Shard is motivated by anything but petty revenge is left unresolved by the end of the episode.
- Played straight with Shard's decision to try strafing the townspeople when his forces are defeated by the Mandalorians; rather than try to escape when his ship is on its last legs, he opts to try and spitefully murder innocent people before he's shot down.
- Failed a Spot Check: The Trandoshan manning the heavy cannon somehow doesn't hear everyone around him getting pummeled to death by the Armorer and her smithing tools or the blaster fire one of his friends does briefly get off, and only realises what's going on when she subjects him to a Railing Kill.
- Fighting for a Homeland: The Mandalorians agree to liberate Nevarro after hearing that Din was offered a tract of land that they could make into a home.
- Gatling Good: Paz lays it on thick with his tri-barreled heavy repeater with a backpack power cell; first to mow down the pirates that boxed in the squad from behind, and then he turns it on the pirates in the courtyard in a deft about-face maneuver. He tries (albeit in vain) to lay suppressing fire down on the swivel blaster cannon the pirates set up on the Karga's office balcony, and then continues to lay it on thick on the fleeing pirates after the Armorer dispatches the swivel cannon nest.
- Good-Guy Bar: The home base of the New Republic Adelphi Rangers squadron has one of these for the rangers to unwind during off-duty time. Faces seen inside include Trapper Wolf, Jib Dodger, Sash Ketter, Garazeb Orrelios, and Carson Teva.
- Greater-Scope Paragon: Carson Teva is being set up as one, asking the Mandalorians for help against the pirates while his own hands are tied. It allowed Nevarro to be free from Shard's occupation while still being independent of the New Republic's administration. Time will tell if Teva will have a greater role from now on. It is telling that his departure is accompanied on the music track by the Resistance leitmotif.
- Heel–Face Turn: Paz continues to show that Din and Bo-Katan's actions have earned his respect, and even his loyalty to an extent.
- He Knows Too Much: The Mandalorians, Din included, are understandably annoyed that Carson Teva is not only dropping in unannounced, but found them in the first place. Paz suggests killing him to keep the secret, but Din lets him leave because Carson helped him in the past. It ends up moot because, at least for now, they choose to openly resettle on Nevarro.
- Heroic Bystander: A Kowakian Monkey-Lizard, of all things, warns a team of Mandalorians of an upcoming ambush as reprisal towards the pirates' mistreatment towards the monkey-lizards. Funnier still is that this warning is taken completely seriously.
- Hollywood Tactics: The pirates are clearly not the best tacticians.
- Just to start with, Shard decided to park his ship in atmosphere above the city, where it is vulnerable, instead of shelling the city from orbit. Though considering the city had no aerial defenses, that might have just been a case of underestimating potential threats.
- The pirate fighters completely fall into 2-D Space, and are blindsided by Din multiple times.
- On the ground, both the pirates and the Mandalorians tend to stand out in the open exchanging fire. While many of the Mandalorians are heavily armored (in fact, you can see the less-armored ones taking cover more often), the pirates are cut down easily.
- Hypocritical Humor: Paz dismisses Captain Teva out of hand, telling him "Clear out, blue-boy"... while clad in armor painted head to toe in a shade of blue.
- I Like Those Odds: Din's response, verbatim, when Greef observes that the pirates have his people outnumbered ten to one. Of course, given that they're Mandalorians, and Din has already proven himself a better pilot once before, it's not an empty boast.
- It's Raining Men: Bo-Katan uses her Gauntlet's troopship capabilities to jetpack-drop the Children of the Watch's warriors into Nevarro.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- Zeb is cynical about Carson Teva's odds at getting help from the New Republic, especially since their outpost hasn't had a dispatch returned for weeks. He's proven right when Colonel Tuttle ultimately refuses Teva's request.
- Carson Teva bluntly tells Kane she didn't see the light, she was captured. She prefers "liberated", but his point remains that she's still thinking like an Imperial.
- Kane's cold recommendation they just leave Nevarro at the mercy of pirates is given weight when she adds there's a ton of mid-rim New Republic planets suffering from the same pirate and Imperial remnant raids they're trying to deal with, they can't afford to stick any extra necks out for an independent outer-rim planet that refused to join. Though her heartless focusing on leaving them because they didn't join loses the audience's sympathy (as Carson says above, ulterior motives or not, it's a very Imperial way of thinking about the issue), her main argument is enough for Tuttle to deny Carson's request.
- Karmic Jackpot:
- By responding to Greef Karga's plea for help, the Covert not only are received as heroes once again but have public land to call their own and can walk freely among the citizens of Nevarro without persecution.
- After having been a bristly jerk to Din, even almost fighting him to the death for the Darksaber, this episode makes it clear that Paz Vizsla will give Din and Bo-Katan his full support from now on, Din for helping to save his son, and Bo-Katan for not giving up on saving him even when everyone, Paz included, already had.
- Kick the Dog:
- Gorian Shard and his men announce their presence on Nevarro by shooting at the town unprovoked, then occupying it to use as their personal playground.
- Kane suggests Nevarro just be left to the pirates because they didn't want to be part of the New Republic.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: The remaining pirates fleeing Nevarro are cornered by the vengeful townsfolk in front and the Mandalorians behind. Realizing the situation for them is hopeless, they throw down their guns and surrender.
- Moral Myopia: Shard accuses Greef of murdering his men, ignoring their culpability in the matter.
- More Dakka: When a squad of Mandalorians is pinned down by the pirates, they are rescued when Paz Vizsla shows up with his blaster minigun. The pirates then counter by bringing in a heavy blaster cannon that they fire from the high ground.
- Mythology Gag:
- After Shard accuses Greef of gunning down his men in cold-blood, Greef simply replies that they shot first. This is no doubt a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Special Edition of A New Hope, which changed the scene where Han coldly guns down Greedo to Greedo shooting first and Han shooting back in self-defense.
- After Din and the Covert defeat the pirates and save Nevarro, Greef gifts to them an area called Bulloch Canyon. The name references Jeremy Bulloch, the first actor to portray Boba Fett (not counting the cartoon).
- The pirate Corsair ship makes the same careening-out-of-control sound when it crashes in the hills behind Nevarro City after Din and Bo fatally damage it that the Super Star Destroyer Executor did as she plummeted into the second Death Star.
- Never Found the Body: Teva discovers that the shuttle carrying Moff Gideon to trial was attacked and left adrift. Teva discovers the crew dead, but no sign of Gideon, quickly concluding that the Moff was extracted by someone.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Carson Teva travels all the way to Coruscant to appeal directly to command for help, but they're swamped with requests as is and don't feel especially willing to help an independent outpost against some pirates. That Officer Kane speaks up to point out that Nevarro isn't part of the New Republic doesn't help matters.
- Oh, Crap!: Shard's poor bosun has several of these throughout the battle, as things keep going more and more wrong for the pirates.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The Armorer tells Bo-Katan to remove her helmet, because she believes seeing the Mythosaur is a sign that the Mandalorians need to retake Mandalore and believes Bo-Katan can gather the scattered tribes as one. The Armorer understands that requiring Bo-katan to adhere to dogmatic strictures of this faction like the helmet rule may put off other Mandalorian factions Bo would seek to rally, so she gives Bo dispensation to go helmetless.
- Quality vs. Quantity: The Mandalorians are outnumbered ten-to-one by the pirates by Greef's estimate, but armored Mandalorians fighting in cohesive military squads and armed with superior equipment (not least of which is their signature Beskar body armor and jetpacks) easily overwhelm pirates using basic ambush tactics. In the skies, the Pirate Corsair and its snub fighters is geared more towards terrorizing non-combatants than dealing with foes that have the air power to fight back; Din in his insanely nimble Hotrod N1 makes mincemeat of the snub fighters, and Bo-katan's Gauntlet fighter/transport is a machine purpose-built for war by a civilization that excels at it, doing serious damage to the Corsair in her first strafing run at it.
- Railing Kill: During the battle for Nevarro, a Trandoshan sets up a heavy cannon on a balcony and starts taking potshots at the Mandalorians, pinning them down. The Armorer sneaks up behind him and, with a single hammer blow, sends him toppling backwards over the balcony railing to his death.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Though Greef can't actually fend off the pirates himself, he refuses to leave his people behind and joins them at the lava flats as they wait for aid. When the townspeople corner the surviving pirates, he's at the front with his blaster ready.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Vane flies off when he's the last man standing, leaving Shard to his fate.
- Self-Deprecating Humor: Greef forgets his own extra pomp he put on his title in his post-liberation speech, and takes the chuckles from the populace in stride after his protocol droid jestfully corrects him.
- Shout-Out:
- The Ugnaught first mate to Shard is basically the Star Wars version of Mr. Smee from Peter Pan, being Shard's generally more pleasant first mate. His appearance mostly calls back to his Disney incarnation, with the striped shirt, red hat, and white hair.
- The probe that Teva's R2 unit sends into the derelict shuttle lights up a planar scanner composed of swirling blue light to sweep the cabin in a shot-for-shot recreation of the opening of Aliens.
- Stealth Expert: The Armorer isn't what you'd call subtle in her appearance, but she still sneaks past the pirates into Greef's office to start whaling on them with her tools before any of them notice her.
- Take a Third Option: Unwilling to abandon Nevarro to the pirates and unable to enlist New Republic aid, Carson Teva opts to seek out the Children of the Watch to enlist the help of Din Djarin and his comrades.
- Taking You with Me: Down to one engine and no fighters, Shard's last act is to attempt a spiteful bombardment of the townspeople. It doesn't work, because his ship's maneuverability is all but gone, because he's trying to control all the guns himself, and because Din and Bo-Katan finish shooting him down before he can cause more damage.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: The Armorer tosses her hammer at one of the pirates fortified in Greef's office during the attack.
- Wham Line:
- "Remove your helmet." Considering that the Armorer excommunicated Din for showing his face to others, the fact that she instructs Bo-Katan to do so suggests a major change in her outlook.
- The final scene has Carson Teva stumble upon Moff Gideon's disabled prison transport. The crew is dead and his body is missing, but there's a piece of foreign metal in the wall.Teva: It's a fragment of beskar alloy.
- Wronski Feint: During the aerial dogfight, right after Din tells "I like those odds..." to Greef over the radio, his N-1 Starfighter swerves away from a pursuing pirate subfighter, revealing another one coming from the opposite direction, and the two fighters collide in a pretty fireball.
