The Mandalorian
Well, it took a couple of weeks to get there. After Bo-Katan counseled the Mandalorian to go to the forest planet of Corvus to meet the Jedi Ahsoka Tano, Din Djarin lands on Corvus for the latest stage of his quest and as always the case for our armored adventurer, there is shit to do in addition to the quest.
The city of Calodan on Corvus is currently under the tyrannical thumb of the city magistrate, Morgan Elsbeth, and her army of guards. A thorn in Elsbeth's side is Ahsoka Tano. The arrival of the Mandalorian seems to provide the Magistrate a solution to her Jedi problem and tasks him to go out and kill Ahsoka Tano.
Well, that's convenient since Ahsoka Tano is exactly who Mando is looking for.
With zero loyalty to Elsbeth who is terrorizing the citizens of Calodan and opening torturing prisoners, the Mandalorian has no intention of killing Ahsoka Tano. He needs her help for a resolution of his quest to help the lovable green floof we've come to know as Baby Yoda.
Ahsoka Tano uses the Force to communicate with the Child and is able to provide some backstory to Din Djarin.
The Child is Grogu and is a bit older than his babyish appearance would let on. Grogu was training as a Jedi before the rise of the Empire. Gorgu is spirited away from his training and as Ahsoka puts it, his memory grows dark.
Din Djarin agrees to help Ahsoka Tano liberate Calodan from Morgan Elsbeth's reign of terror. But Ahsoka is looking for information. In a fierce one on one battle, Ahsoka Tano demands from Morgan Elsbeth the location of Grand Admiral Thrawn. (This means something if you've seen the animated Star Wars series, The Clone Wars. Which I haven't. Man, I need to go back and watch the Clone Wars.)
With Calodan free, Ahsoka Tano reneges on her promise to train Gorgu, citing complications due to Gorgu's attachment to the Mandalorian. There is an ancient temple on the planet Tython where Grogu can use the Force to decide his own fate.
So the Mandalorian is not rid of the kid yet and his quest is not yet at an end.
Halfway through the 2nd season, it's clear there is more going on that just the Mandalorian hopping from planet to planet on his quest. While the Empire may have fallen, the Empire's erstwhile leaders and servants are still up to shit and somehow, someway, Din Djarin is going to wind up in the deep end of whatever mess these remnants of the Empire is stirring up.
And I reckon when that happens, the Mandalorian is going to need help. And I reckon that help will take the form of Ahsoka Tano and Bo-Katan and if we're lucky, Timothy Olyphant will be back around for another go as Cobb Vanth.
Fargo
The 4th season of Noah Hawley's captivating crime drama anthology has come to a close and few walk away alive.
Cannon Limited and the Fadda Family are in the middle of an all out war with mob violence out of control.
Loy Cannon is losing. Happy and Leon betray Loy by cutting their own deal with the Faddas. Loy is still burned by the Fadda's murder of his son Satchel.
Loy is unaware that Satchel is alive who is walking with his dog back to Kansas City. After an encounter with some racist hicks where Satchel and his gun get the morons to turn tail and run, Satchel continues his walk.
(I've read that Satchel Cannon is destined to grow up to take the name of Mike Milligan, a character that appeared in an earlier season of Fargo.)
Justo and Gaetano Fadda set up a hit on crooked cop Odis who has betrayed the Faddas. The traumatized Odis is almost relieved when he finds himself staring down the barrel of Gaetano's gun. After killing Odis, Gaetano trips, accidentally discharges his gun which blows half his own head off.
Crazy nurse Oraetta helped to start this whole mess when she killed Donatello Fadda, putting the volatile Justo in charge of the Fadda family. Oraetta is now under arrest for her attempted murder of Dr. Harvard via poisoned macaroon.
Ethelrida Smutny has the ring from Donatella Fadda that Oraetta kept has a souvenir. Ethelrida thinks she can negotiate with Loy Cannon to get him to release her parent's house and funeral home business. And Donatello Fadda's ring is the key to all that.
And that is where we are when we reach the season finale.
Spoiler: everybody dies!
OK, not quite everybody. Ethelrida is OK at the end.
But...
Ebal pays Oraetta's bail where she is brought to a tribunal where Justo is accused of betraying the Faddas. Ebal has Donatello Fadda's ring (given to him by Loy Cannon) and a confession from Oraetta that she put Donatello out of his misery on his instructions from Justo.
(The ring Loy got from Etherida has sealed the deal she sought for her parents as Loy's son Lumuel turns over the key to her parents' house and funeral home business. Their business with Loy Cannon is done.)
Meanwhile, Justo and Oraetta have been driven out to the middle of nowhere where a big hole in the ground awaits them. Standing on the precipice of this grave, Oraetta's final request is Justo is shot first so she can watch him die. One gun shot to the head sends Justo's body falling to the bottom of the grave. Oraetta watches this tableau for a moment before a second shot sends her body tumbling after.
Our attention turns to the Cannon home where Loy finds his son Satchel waiting in his room.
(Side note: the young actor who plays Satchel seems noticeably taller than the last time we saw him. The pandemic did delay production of the season finale so the young man may have had a growth spurt.)
With his son returned and with the war with the Faddas over, Loy Cannon has good reason to feel some relief from the pressures he's been under.
Ebal has other plans. Unlike the volatile Faddas, Ebal has been a voice of calm and reason, someone Cannon could do business with. But with Faddas out of the picture and the New York crime operation wanted a firm hand on things in Kansas City, Ebal tells Loy Cannon that he will need to give up half of his holdings to the national crime operation.
Loy Cannon is not happy with this development. But the war between his operation and the Faddas has been long and costly and reluctantly, Loy accepts defeat.
He returns home, standing on the front porch, looking in on his happy family, content at least that his family is together and safe.
Yes, something bad is going to happen to Loy.
Suddenly, Loy is brutally and repeatedly stabbed. The attacker is Zelmare. Her eyes lock with Loy's dying stare as she whispers to him, “For Swanee.”
Over a season 4 montage, we get this narration from Ethelrida: “History is a form of memory. But what does it mean to remember? We think naturally of our own past. Our lives, day by day. And through them, we see the events of our time. We are black and white. Rich and poor. Foreign-born and domestic. And yet if our pasts are separate, then aren’t our histories separate too? Segregated? Ask yourself — who writes the books? Who chooses what we remember and what gets forgotten? My name is Ethelrida Pearl Smutny. This is my history report.”
Ethelrida gets up from a chair, grabs a couple of suitcases and leaves the frame to the sound of a final gunshot.
I'm not sure what that final gunshot means.
And we're not quite done. In a mid-credits flashforward scene,we see car travelling down a lonely country road. Inside the car is Mike Milligan, the Kansas City mob hitman from the show’s second season. Milligan stares out the window thinking back to when he was a young boy named Satchel Cannon.
I found Fargo to be a uniquely compelling series that took its time to explore these flawed characters in a complex world of organized crime. Chris Rock as Loy Cannon was particularly interesting to me. I've only known Rock from his comedic work but he comports himself very well in a dramatic role.
The Crown
I'm going to leave it to Kieran Hodgson to bring you up to speed on what the hell is going on in The Crown.
Apparently, Gillian Anderson who plays Margaret Thatcher has gone on Twitter to compliment Kieran on his impression of the former prime minister.
Supernatural
The series finale of Supernatural was two weeks ago but the story about the damn thing just will not die.
I let my daughter Randie have some space on this blog last week to elucidate on her issues with the series finale.
In the intervening weeks, it seems new clues are turning up that suggests that "Destiel" is canon in both directions.
But only in Spanish.
It seems that in the Spanish dub of the episode when Castiel tells Dean he loves him, Dean replies "And I you."
Now Randie is on a dogged pursuit of other foreign language dubs to see if Dean's reciprocation of Castiel's stated affections continues in other languages.
In Norway:
Castiel: Jeg elsker deg, Dean!
Dean: Jeg elsker deg også, Castiel!
The whole thing is a complicated mess. I may have to let Randie borrow some blog real estate to help sort this out.
OK, that is that for this Tuesday TV Touchbase. Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down, will ya? I'm trying to watch TV here!
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