Chapter 19: The Convert

I get it, Coruscant is a beautiful place and is part of the Star Wars heart. Although most of this episode was aimed away from Mando and focused more on some side characters with another subplot. These short shows don't have time for subplots, unless it's a short 20 minutes at the most but not an entire episode.

We had Mando at the beginning with the soundtrack department overusing Mando's two tone chime everytime he came on screen. Yes it was overused and i know it's his signature theme but do they have to use it every time we see him? The dog fight at the beginning looked weak, entertaining but it looked like something just to keep us watching.

I don't know if the rest of the episode meant something, maybe it plays a bigger part but i'm sick of sticking up for this series if it just continues to be silly like this. Please make sense, build up to something, give us the meaning. At the minute i'm confused, to the point i actually didn't care for the final scene and i know i should.

People claiming for longer episodes of The Mandalorian, but when they asked for longer episodes of the series they meant more of the Mandalorian, Din Djarin, himself not from a scientist people barely remember for season 1. Sure this might be some trigger for the season plot, but if you consider that next episode will be officially mid-season, the pacing of this season is quite slow and the only development we have seen was what happened in the end of this episode.

Unlike previous episodes of the season, the beginning and the ending were really awesome. The interactions between Din Djarin and Bo-Katan felt way better than on episode 2, not only on dialogue, but how both behaved in scene. Here we feel like Bo-Katan and Din Djarin are on the same level, both are amazing and can look after themselves.

A lot of the talk that came when "Andor" was released was about the political elements of "Star Wars" and how good it could be when it actually worked. Personally, I loved what that show brought to the current slate, but I was also okay with the other shows doing what they do best. For this, it's the character development through the adventure aspect that always got me hooked. However, this episode takes a bit of a left turn and focuses on the political landscape. And it was a very nice detour, although it felt like it was a bit misplaced in everything going on.

A majority of this episode is spent with Omid Abtahi's Dr. Pershing, a character who has been featured in previous episodes but never got much more than a scene in. However, with this episode, the show tries to juggle around some of the incomplete storylines from previous seasons, and for the episode that it was in, it worked very well. This hour was directed by Lee Isaac Chung, one of the great modern filmmakers, and his abilities are put to good use, although clearly limited by the medium that he's working in. But he manages to deliver a visually interesting episode that really captures the visual landscape of Coruscant and the rebranding that it's going through on the heels of the Empire's fall. It's also interesting to see where Dr. Pershing fits into it all, and it's clear that the work he did in previous seasons is the stepping stones that they're putting into place so that we'll get to where the sequel films went in later eras. All of that is very interesting, but it does feel like they're doing a bit of cleanup after everything that went down and the unnatural nature that went through those films in terms of connectivity and plot threads that were created out of nothing, and damage control is not necessarily what is needed from this show. However, the philosophical discussions and commentary that were to be found in this episode were very well-executed and hopefully, we'll return to Coruscant at some point so this episode isn't alone.

"Chapter 19: The Convert" is a fascinating hour of "Star Wars," although it does feel like it was dropped into the middle of something else. However, it definitely works for what it is and it's a great return to a beloved planet and a fascinating deep-dive into the psyche of a so-far pretty uninteresting character.

I'm amazed this episode has so many people being negative. For my money, the Coruscant plotline - while technically a detour which takes up most of the episode's runtime - is some of the best worldbuilding, best acting and best writing to come out of any of the Disney+ Star Wars shows. It feels like Jon Favreau popped over to the Andor editing room, watched an episode, thought "hey this is good stuff, I should try that" and inserted a story of complex motivations, flawed institutions and heartbreaking intrigue. In terms of cinematography, tone and scale, it feels far closer to Andor than The Mandalorian, but what can I say? It's a welcome change from previously stilted, awkwardly structured and relatively emotionless episodes. Whatever new approach Chapter 19 was presenting, I think I prefer it.

This episode invests way to much stake in a side-character. It appears to be that this investment is intended to pay-off in a future episode, but it was way too much of a deviation without any immediate pay-off or obvious progression.

There is a brief interaction with the Mandalorian before a long-cut to the side character (30 minutes roughly). The Mandalorian scenes in this episode are great, but total about 10 minutes. I feel like the 30 minutes dedicated to the side character could have been further condensed or needed to get us a lot more invested in this character. It felt like an unnecessary side-quest.

We shall see how this story plays into the future, but this episode left quite a bit to be desired.