This episode almost redeemed the season for me. Wish the revelations in it were set up much earlier, during the first half of the season. It’s the same mistake they did with Book of Boba Fett, where the cool story elements such as Cad Bane felt like too little, too late. There’s no reason why the reveal of Gideon having escaped or the Shadow Council scene couldn’t be written in some form as part of an earlier episode (for example Chapter 4, which is the most lacking in the story department).

But moving on to what I loved: I was fist pumping the air when I recognized Gilad Pellaeon and let out an audible gasp when they showed Hux Sr. Part of me wishes they had included Rae Sloane as well, she’s great, but on the other hand it may had been too confusing for a casual audience to have 2 Grand Admirals to keep track of.

The reveal of the IG-12 was a surprisingly good alternative route to sort of bring back IG without undoing his heroic death, and also to give Grogu some much-more needed agency. This is also something that should have happened sooner.

Really liked the worn-down scout Mandalorians including Skinny Pete from Breaking Bad. But I wonder whether they knew anything about the Imperial base, especially as it’s hinted they have been roaming Mandalore since the end of the Purge. Also I’m not very sold on the fan-theories claiming the Armorer or another Mando is a double agent.

The Beskar Troopers were so cool and effective is almost a shame that clearly something’s gonna happen to them as they won’t be the main forces of the future First Order. And Paz Vizsla went out like a badass, I saw his sacrifice coming lightyears away but it still hurt.