I have no idea what they are doing with this show, but I'm loving the ride...spoilers below...























I figured Chapter 5 was just a one episode preview of Mando Season 3 along with bringing him into the final battle of Boba season 1. I figured we wouldn't see him visit Grogu until next season of Mando. But my goodness - in this one episode we get:

Cobb Vanth
R2!?!?!?
Grogu???
LUKE?!?!?!?!?!?
AHSOKA???????
MUCH IMPROVED CGI LUKE?!?!?!?!?!?!?
LUKE IN MULTIPLE SCENES TRAINING GROGU?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?


And somehow, someway, given all of that, the thing I got most hype about was

CAD FREAKING BANE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Even though I was pretty sure he'd show up in this show, my goodness he looked great. BETTER than in animation. Those eyes were so menacing. Filoni killed it in this episode. And somehow managed to squeeze Ahsoka in there and made it work. Her knowing Luke brings up so many questions. Also making Grogu choose looks to be the way to save him from a terrible fate at the hands of Ben Solo - but I didn't think that choice would happen until much later.

I can't wait for the Disney Gallery or whatever show they do with all of the behind the scene footage on this season. And the CGI/deepfake on Luke???? I know they hired the guy who fixed the Mando Luke scene with deepfake, I wonder if he did this. Because this was some of the best de-aging I've scene, and there was a LOT of Luke in this episode.

On top of all that, I'm pretty sure this is the first time we've seen actual spice in Star Wars (not hidden inside a container, but actual visible refined spice.) Someone correct me if I'm wrong...I know they stole unrefined coaxium from Kessel where there are spice mines, but pretty sure we never say actual refined spice. Obviously the entire idea of spice was something Lucas ripped off from Dune, but cool to see it here, and it looks very similar to how it looks in Dune, like a magical sand...

I know people are gonna be complaining about how little Boba was in this episode after he wasn't in the last one at all. And with next week being the season finale they have to wrap up the entire battle with the Pikes. We also better see Boba riding that rancor through town. Also according to Wiki the next episode is directed by Robert Rodriguez - I hope they gave him a better budget than that yakety sax speeder bike episode. This season has definitely had some pacing issues with the flashbacks, and these last two episodes, but like I said up above I'm enjoying the ride. My jaw was literally dropped this entire episode.