The Mandalorian season 2, episode 5 review: The Jedi

“I’ve never had dealings with a Jedi before.” Major spoilers for The Mandalorian season 2, episode 5, “Chapter 13: The Jedi”, follow.

After making their pitstop on Nevarro to fix up the Razor Crest, the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda are back out on their search for the one and only Ahsoka Tano in the latest episode of Disney Plus‘ The Mandalorian season 2.

Luckily, once they arrive on Corvus, the planet Bo-Katan told them to search, it’s pretty easy to track her down.

The search for Ahsoka Tano

Well, in most forms of media where a certain figure is being searched for by the main character, typically the object of the search is extremely hard-to-find. This often makes for an extremely difficult search for said object and/or person which normally ends in a lackluster reveal. This episode of The Mandalorian throws that trope out entirely though and immediately brings Ahsoka Tano to the forefront of the episode within the first two minutes.

In what is a great opening scene, we get to see several things about Ahsoka. Firstly, this episode features a great role-reversal where instead of an evil monster attacking an innocent town, Ahsoka is the monster in this situation and she’s trying to save it. It’s a really fun reversal that works for her character. Secondly, she looks great. She looks exactly like Ahsoka should look in live-action.

Rosario Dawson plays this older iteration of Ahsoka with incredible confidence, but a seemingly reluctant repressing of emotion. When the Ahsoka’s emotion does peak out of though, Dawson plays it wonderfully and organically makes this version of Ahsoka feel tired, but hopeful nonetheless. It takes some getting used to not hearing Ashley Eckstein’s voice coming out of Ahsoka’s mouth, but Dawson does a solid enough job of taking the mannerisms that Eckstein provided and adapting them into her performance.

And then in comes Din Djarin who nearly gets himself killed by Ahsoka once he finds her. But finds her he does and their connection is summed quickly once Ahsoka sees Baby Yoda. He’s says he’s there to talk to her and she hopes that it’s about Baby Yoda. Boom, and now they’re on the same page.

Father and Son

After the trio’s initial meeting, the episode then moves onto Ahsoka’s assessment of the little green guy and well, what do you know, we actually get a lot of answers. First, we find out what his real name is, which is Grogu (Gro-gu? No clue on the spelling yet.). Second, we find out that he was actually being trained at the Jedi Temple of Coruscant, but went into hiding after Order 66 and was trying to survive on his own. Now, while these aren’t universe shattering revelations, it’s nice to finally have some answers for the little guy’s backstory. Still, even though we got his real name, he’s still going to be Baby Yoda forever.

But, the real meat of this episode comes when Ahsoka wants to see Grogu use the Force. After failing, she convinces Din to try and use his connection to get him to use the Force, which eventually does work. So, while the backstory elements for Grogu are nice, it’s great to finally get a verbal affirmation from the show that confirms the father/son dynamic between Din and Grogu, as stated by Ahsoka herself.

However, the relationship between two causes one of the best callbacks so far in The Mandalorian. Ahsoka sees the possibility of Grogu becoming another Anakin because of his attachment to Din. It’s a nice callback that really helps serve several purposes. It helps to establish how much Anakin’s shadow still reigns over the universe, albeit in different ways for every other person. And, it gives a solid story reason as to why Grogu and Din will stay together past this episode.

To kill a magistrate

The most disappointing part of this episode is the actual plot of it though. It’s relatively simple. Ahsoka is keen to get rid of the magistrate of this town because she is straight evil. Mandalorian acts like he will kill Ahsoka for the magistrate. Uses information to find her. They team up to take out the magistrate. Super simple and not all that interesting of a plot. It’s been done probably hundreds of times.

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However, where the episode succeeds is in the execution of said plot. The episode uses the aforementioned role reversals to keep the episode interesting, while also being slow and meditative in its action sequences. The action in this episode is not like the previous episode, which is bound to disappoint some people, but the reason it works is that the action feels authentic. This episode takes the Western and Samurai genre influences for the show and doubles down on them to great effect. This often creates a slow and deliberate pacing to every scene, which is most apparent in the action, especially for Din and Ahsoka’s respective final duels.

Speaking of final duels though, we do get to find out what Ahsoka is searching for in this town and that is information about Grand Admiral Thrawn, who was last seen in the finale of Star Wars Rebels. Could this be setting up a plot point for season three of The Mandalorian? Possibly, but probably not. It’s more than likely laying the groundwork for the long rumored animated series focusing on Ahsoka and Sabine Wren’s search for Ezra Bridger. Either way, it’s fantastic to even hear Thrawn mentioned in a live-action series.

Even with a mediocre plot for the episode, Ahsoka Tano shines in her first appearance in the live-action medium.

What did you think of The Mandalorian season 2, episode 5? Are you excited by Ahsoka Tano’s debut in The Mandalorian season 2? Let us know in the comments below!