THE MANDALORIAN - CHAPTER 15 - THE BELIEVER (Patreon)

I think this might have been the best episode yet.

For a show that’s always gotten by on playing to it’s strengths (cute + flashy danger) and merely glided along with every else, we’ve rarely been treated to episode that works as honest-to-god singular story. That would be one where “a character has a clear arc that builds and crescendos through dramatization and all to an important thematic point.” Sure, The Mandalorian has had some functional beats and nice character moments and things that at least allude to those notions of growth, but something episodically contained, shown through dramatization, and complete with thematic import?

Honestly, I’d argue we’ve only gotten a couple of them, most notably last season with the emotional connection that was built with Baby Yoda in Chapter 2’s “The Child” (which has become the foundation for the entire show) and then I’d make a good argument for the fun dramatic turns of Chapter 6’s “The Prisoner,” where Mando had to do a job with an old gang of thieves (which was a declaration of his own growth and maturity in comparison to them). That last episode especially bears mentioning because this week we have returned to the character of Mayfield, that would be Bill Burr’s gun man who is seemingly from Space Boston.

I kid, of course. Because much as I argued then, Burr’s character fits the temperament of the show in a way few other actors have. It’s not just that he’s surly and funny, it’s that he still “plays the truth” of his scenes. Meaning all of his cracking wise still feels grounded in the actual reality of the narrative. Heck, Burr is the kind of performer who even has a decent dramatic gear when he needs to get a bit more serious. Which is great because this episode ends up catering right to that very gear.

Why is Mayfield involved in this episode, exactly?

Well, turns out to be a somewhat decent reason in that Mando and his new team need an ex-imperial to help them find Moff Esposito’s ship and therefore find Grogu. So they negotiate a temp release of Mayfield (through Cara) for a “change of view.” He’s not happy about this, but’s also stuck. But the more crucial bit of framework in the episode’s set up comes in a surprisingly prescient scene, as he and Mando have hijacked a truck (complete with super explosive energy thingies) and are trying to use it to get inside the imperial mining base. As they pass by some playing children, it prompts Mayfield and Mandoto have an important conversation about the state of the empire.

Mayfield begins by taking the whole “both sides” view of the war. New republic? Empire? They’re all just invaders on the land, none any better than the other. He begins extending the view to each of their own temperament, seeing them both as neutral figures who do their own jobs for their own reasons, often with their own sliding scales of morality. But Mando still sees himself as a devoted soldier to his Mandalorian cause, thus declaring, “we’re nothing alike.” But Mayfield’s argument also invites the question of the viewer: if this is true, then what was the rebellion for? What was taking down the Empire all about? Was the so-called cause of the movies misguided? Is this genuinely what the show believes?

Luckily, we also get an answer to these questions within the episode. Because even more crucially, it turns out that this scene wasn’t a little stopover with some textural world building (the kind that the show seems so fond of). No, this was an important stroke of storytelling set-up because Mayfield’s thematic beliefs are bout to be put to the test.

Because the two successfully deliver their mining material after a pirate attack (which is so well done, and I’ll get to in a second) and suddenly find themselves being cheered by stormtroopers, who help them fight back the attacking pirates. It’s a weird inversion, and an even weirdly more humanizing one for the empire. Was Mayfield’s point even more correct than we realized? Are we about to see the more human side? You can practically see the tension on Burr’s face as they take in the surreal moment. Then, as they go over to do their job and find the terminal, there’s a hitch. Turns out there’s an officer, Valin Hess, who Mayfield served under and could potentially spot him.

For once in this ding dang show, they actually play the tension and let the nervousness set in. Mando has to go to the computer and take HIS helmet off and just then the officer starts asking questions and good granola is Mando so bad at this (if he were a video game character, his charisma and persuasion skills would be at the minimum). Out of necessity, Mayfield rushes in to smooth it over and not only does he see Mando’s face, but he also does such a good job that it all leads to a celebratory drink with Mr. Hess.

But now no longer afraid of being made, Mayfield can’t help but turn the conversation to the past. Specially, a memory. A battle. A city destroyed. 10,000 dead… And all because of Valin Hess, the very man sitting in front of them. This is where that dramatic gear of Burr’s kicks in. He doesn’t overplay it, but you just feel that quiet fixation on the topic. And more importantly, you see the pain and rage and sadness and loss, all of the emotions that his character has clearly been so good at covering up for so many years. But all Hess can do as an excuse and invoke some calls to the glory of the fallen, with only the most facile and surface-level notions of remorse… It all becomes too much for him. So Mayfield shoots him dead.

Cue escape scene and more importantly, cue the end of that escape where Mayfield shoots the fuel thingies and blows up the facility (so that the remanent empire doesn’t get a huge advantage in the war). Through HIS ACTIONS, Mayfield’s showing the kind of learned lesson that he probably doesn’t even know to articulate. There are million ways to be misguided on the political spectrum, but turns out saying space fascism is “the same” as all other things sure isn’t one of them. He just needed a reminder from the very face that spurned his empire-leaving in the first place. And for this sudden sparkle of morality (even if it was more built from personal pain, then political awareness), Cara and Mando give Mayfield his freedom in an off-the-books kind of way.

From start to finish, it is a story told in all aspects.

And what’s funny is swear that I mentioned those other two episodes in my notes before realizing that they were all directed by the same person, Rick Famuyiwa (who also wrote this episode along with “The Prisoner”). It is safe to say that I am a huge fan of how he approaches this show, because he genuinely does so in a compete way. Heck, even the action of this episode is a blast. But it’s not just because it has great geography and cinematography. It’s because you see that it was “written” from the ground up in a way that understands how to manufacture tension in action.

Specifically, it understands that things need to go wrong.

Because when I think about last week’s episode, there’s lots of fun and pizazz and demonstrations of badassery, and such things are clearly fun! But I also noted that such approach really misses the big marks on drama. Because for things to be genuinely involving, things need to go wrong. Bad guys needs to stack the odds against our heroes, create goals that feel like spinning plates, and you have to genuinely believe their in trouble. From the start, the truck scene makes great use of this. Mando is constantly hit, thrown to the ground, and overwhelmed by the pirates. He doesn’t get to show how cool he is, instead he runs out of bullets at the worst time. You even think they’re going to get the thermal detonators off when they have him pinned down. And right when you think Mando’s solved it? The pirates come back stronger (the shot near when they ALL keep coming back with more thermal detonators is just aces). These are amazing, full swings of momentum. And even the ending save where the TIE fighters rush in feels less like Deus Ex Machina, but instead this wonderful bait and switch that plays with our emotions because we are so not used to such sight. Everything about the sequence works so damn well. And for perhaps the first time…

I can say the same thing about every little thing in the episode.

Just aces.

RANDOM THOUGHTS!

-Wait, how long do imperial protocol code thingies last? I remember the “older code” thing being a fun hiccup in Return of the Jedi, but this dude’s been out of the imperial game for years, right? Note: this doesn’t actually matter, it’s just funny to think about.

-I really love when Burr has careful pronunciation of the phrase “internal imperial terminal” because 1) it’s awkwardness means you know an actor had trouble saying those lines and only got it more or less right at the end, but 2) that line is hilariously impossible to say and so not his fault. Seriously, try to say it casually.

-Mayfield: “Oh my god this guy reeked… gloves are still wet.” This line is so funny because it’s that specific kind of observation you don’t see as much in these sort of things.

-*Driving toward explosions* “Proceed with caution” / “Is she serious???”

-During the truck fight, I swear I heard a couple of Fury Road homages on the score.

-Okay dumb little thing, but wasn’t it implied that it had to Mayfield’s face that was scanned because he’s former imperial? Why did Mando’s work? I almost thought it was a set up for something, but maybe it was just vague.

-A note on the cinematography, remember how I talked about about the show being way too comfortable being at chest level on the z-axis with the camera? (z-axis refers to the height of the camera placement, and whether it’s looking up or down). Well, this episode is all over the z-axis with so many great choices of angles (best emphasized not only during the truck chase, but with the ending waterfall and sniper stuff). It really looked fantastic. And it’s just another sign of a filmmaker who really, really, really knows what they’re doing. Hell yeah, Rick.

-Even the show's episode title, "The Believer" is thematically driven in a way the show rarely tries to be.

-Genuinely loved the call back of Boba’s delayed-sound bombs from Episode II (a great sound design thing that is honestly one of the best little choices in the prequels).

-Speaking of Episode II, I love that this episode really focused on Mayfield and told that story, but I’m waiting for the Fett storyline to, you know, get into the the Fett-ness of it all and actually have something to say about the character. Because so far he’s just been… hanging around. And the fact that we didn’t dig in the moment he appeared sort speaks to the worst teasing instincts of the show.

-When we see a bunch of stormtroopers mowing down the pirates at the end of that truck sequences, I’m reminded of how much the “they’re bad at aiming” is a result of all the times they were used lazily. I mean, all action narrative has the “you can’t kill James Bond” problem, but it would help if the mindless shiny white armor goons were shown to be effective at something once and while, too (which some of the best star wars scenes do). Which again, is just another reason to like this episode.

-Lastly, as we head toward the season two finale, I’ll say that it’s episodes like this that keep me watching the show. But it makes for this weird authorial game that I play in my head. Because I think a figure like Filoni knows enough to get the baseline to work, but I wish the kind of story discipline that Famuyiwa is displaying here was all over the entire show. Because if we got something with this quality more or less every week? I think we wouldn’t just be satisfied with The Mandalorian on the whole, but LOSING OUR MINDS at how good it is.

Anyway, that’s just conjecture. What do I know.

<3HULK