So, Luke Skywalker is definitely an LL Cool J fan...
Seriously though, having Luke show up the way he did was honestly pretty great, to say the absolute least. The thing that this episode gets really, really right is the overall atmosphere. The moment the X-Wing entered the ship and the tone of the music changed, I instantly got chills. The Darktroopers turning to face Luke and seeing him walk down the hallway before fighting, alongside the low-end tone of the initial orchestra just added all kinds of tension. The fight itself was badass, especially the final hallway scene. I greatly enjoyed that it was pretty much of Vader's hallway fight from Rogue One. The Force Crush on the final Darktrooper almost had me feeling sorry for it.
I also mentally ran through every possible Jedi in my mind that it could've been, primarily because I actually refused to believe it was Luke, since I'd figured it would be too easy. While I was kinda expecting Ezra Bridger, Luke makes the most sense overall, and I was honestly pretty ok with him showing up. The CGI was definitely kinda stiff, though. I personally thought that it was a little worse than "Leia" in Rogue One; since Leia's actor is moving around, and spend less time on the screen overall, the imperfections were less noticeable to me. Also found out later that Mark Hamill did the voice lines for Luke in that scene. Since the live-action actor likely had to lip-sync his lines rather than actually speak them, that might explain the stiffness. Also, Espositos look of fear as Luke saws through his Dark Troopers was phenomenal. Top-notch acting there.
The ending between Din and Grogu was so precious as well. I thought it was sweet that Grogu reached to feel his helmet, but seeing Din remove his helmet entirely was a real tear-jerker. Considering how ingrained the oldschool Mandalorian teachings are within him, I says an immense amount that he was willing to remove his helmet for someone he truly loved, probably for the first real time in his life. I get the feeling that this may potentially be a catalyst for him to slowly abandon the customs of his guardians, since it's been established that their teachings are most definitely not the norm amongst Mandalorians currently.
My only real issues with the episode were with Gideon and the Dark Saber. Firstly, Gideon trying to fight Din made no sense, even in the context of trying to further Screw-over Bo-Katan. He had Grogus blood, he effectively had Bo-Katan cornered, he still had the Dark saber, and he knows that the only thing Din truly cares about is rescuing Grogu. I feel like Gideon probably could've let Din go with Grogu, and he would've still been the "winner" overall. Also, while I understand that the rules of the Darksaber have been established well before The Mandalorian, the fact that it basically has Wakanda-esqe rules is honestly just crap. Bo-Katan is literally Mandalorian Royalty, and Din pretty clearly has no intention or desire to rule Mandalore. Plus, skilled and lethal as she is, I have a very hard time seeing Bo-Katan best Din in a duel straight-up. Also, apparently blasters can....jam...?
Finally, I kinda mentioned it before, but the music in this episode was just insane. The Mandalorian (and Star Wars in general) has always had great composition, but with this episode, the music that played during Luke's walk through the ship (A Friend by Ludwig Göransson) was something really special. Instead of being a distinctly bombastic, heroic soundtrack, we get this quiet, relatively slow piece with light singing in the background. It felt like it was switching between mysterious, soothing and downright terrifying throughout, which is probably conveying what the heros are feeling. Here's this one man army sawing through a bunch of heavily-armoured droids like paper, one of which laid out Din like last weeks dinner not too long ago. They don't know if they should be relieved, or if they should be ready and fearful of potentially fighting (in vain) for their lives. And when he parts back his hood, we get his regular heroic theme from A New Hope. Just,
erughhhhhh! So damn good. Music is such a big deal for me, and good music will make me instantly fall in love with almost any production. The piece during the credits was also nice to listen to, and the Darktrooper theme was surprisingly decent. I'd say this is the first time Dubstep has been successfully introduced to Star Wars.
Amazing episode, and a distinctly solid, conclusive finish that didn't try to kill anyone off, which is always a major plus in my book. This episode really showed the love that the people who made this show have not just for this project, but for Star Wars as a whole. I actually re-watched the episode and sync'd it up with Star Wars Theory's live reaction (particularly with the Luke fight). While I only watch him on occasion, and I don't consider myself even remotely as much of a Star Wars fan as him, to see him literally be brought to tears on this episode was really something special. Even though I don't hate the Sequels as much as most other fans, I felt like this show, and this episode in particular, was the boost Star Wars needed to get people on all "sides" (for lack of a better term) to truly fall in love with it once again.
Christ, I did not mean for this to go for as long as it did.