The dialog, the story telling, the intensity, the action, the characters, all just AMAZING.

What the eff is the budget for this show??? That escape during the eye was better than most major films.

I’m not going as far as some saying that all Star Wars should be just like this - I think SW is huge enough to have different types of story telling that all work great. But this show is absolutely an example of how to do something smaller scale that still has stakes. It’s cliche to even say at this point, but there were more stakes in the small moments in this episode than anything in the sequel trilogy which was supposed to be galaxy wide impact. The MCU could also learn from this in terms of smaller stories they feel intense.

Also - I have to mention just how consistently they are making us care about the characters by showing us their families. It seems like common sense but it's so rarely done. Last week we saw Syril with his overbearing mother and that added context into why he'd be pushing so hard to advance his career. Also last week seeing Mom Mothma deal with challenges at home gives way more depth to her double life as an Imperial senator and a rebel leader. Same with Luthen and seeing him with his wife. Also on the heist you got the Imperial on the inside and him falling in love with the native.

Then in this episode we have the commanding officer from the Empire and meet his wife and son with some great dialogue before they are all held hostage. These are all three dimensional characters. Also if was interesting that last week we got to know the heist crew with the exception of Taramyn, and with one quick line in this episode "he was a stormtrooper" we got depth to his character.

Just REALLY well done.