Wow. What a cliffhanger. I don't think I've finished an episode on the edge of my seat like that since you know who was disintegrated by [spoilery cameo] at the edge of the space-time rift at the end of Sex and the City.
But whew, before we even get there, we've got a ton of stuff to unpack in this episode so let's get started.
So the first thing everyone's going to ask about is that scene. Okay, so for the record, I have nothing against frank and honest discussions of controversial issues relating to sexuality or residential zoning, and the intersection of the two, and I think topics like this are fair game for a fictional TV show about a man who used to sell death sticks but was mind-controlled into rethinking his life.
BUT! These subjects have to be treated thoughtfully and with respect to the real world problems they're related to and frankly I think some of the elements like the visible genitals on the high-density apartment complex were just exploitative and crass and no more than a surface-level understanding of the issues.
Again I hope nobody gets the idea that I'm being a prude, or sex-negative, or am against housing density, and in fact I think this show blew a really good opportunity to explore those issues in a smart and entertaining way, and completely wasted a Daniel Day-Lewis cameo in doing so.
Don't get me wrong, there was a lot of good stuff in this episode, like who wasn't excited about all the mysteries teased by the time skip. We all know Star Wars takes place a long, long time ago, but this is the first time they've made use of it by having the NASA/Space-X/Comcast Interstellar Exploration Team stumble upon an old lightsaber on some unnamed planet.
This brings up a lot of exciting questions! How long do lightsabers last? What planet was it? When one of the crew members stole the lightsaber for themselves and killed the rest of the crew, was that like an Among Us reference?
Anyway, the commercial break brought us back to the Star Wars "present" where it seems Death Sticks Guy is finally reaching the end of his rope at his insurance job. We all saw this coming but we just weren't sure if this was the episode he was going to snap. Well, it wasn't. Maybe next episode.
Fortunately some of the more interesting characters' stories seem to be getting off the ground, like young Max Rebo finally picking up his first jizz instrument which we all know is going to kickstart a lifelong love of jizz music, and all things jizz.
After crashing a stolen speeder bike, a teenage Gial Ackbar is finally sent off to military school by his exasperated parents, where he has a talk with a kindly admiral who suggests he get into admiraling.
Okay, so finally the cliffhanger! The good stuff! So yeah, Star Wars has established you can survive having your arms and legs cut off, and being eaten by a sarlacc, and being cut clean in half, but can a person survive being run through a deli slicer and then eaten in sandwiches by at least 20 people? Of course you can come back as a force ghost but something tells me that we're not going to be watching the main character be a force ghost for the rest of the season so honestly he's going to come out of this ok.
The other possibility? They make the bold choice of having him be a force ghost the rest of the season, and maybe we learn where force ghosts spend their time when they're not appearing to people. Maybe we get to see him talk to some of the other force ghosts. Maybe he gradually welcomes well-known characters into force ghostdom one by one and they have those inane welcome-to-heaven group conversations people are always imagining when celebrities die.
Either way I can't wait to watch the next episode of Disney's Star Wars: Death Sticks Guy.