this was just an all-around great episode with so many fun character beats, but i just want to say that i really loved the writing and direction for mayfeld this episode. i was extremely disinterested in him (and the entire episode he starred in) in season one and was shocked by how much his scene with the imperial officer here turned me around on him. the way they portrayed trauma through his character here was just so believable and poignant. like, breakdown of that handful of scenes in the officer’s mess hall:
mayfeld sees his old commanding officer sitting in the canteen and goes from confidently striding in to recoiling and returning to din in a panic saying he can’t do the job anymore
mayfeld pulls himself together enough to get din’s feet out of the fire, only to get forced into a prolonged encounter with this man he clearly has unresolved issues with
as if he’s imagined this confrontation happening dozens of times before, mayfeld starts to pick apart the callousness he witnessed under the officer’s command—all his friends, civilians, an entire city killed—completely heedless of the danger he’s placing them all in by doing this now
and then the officer starts talking to him. gleefully telling him, in essence, that it’s all going to happen again but worse and bigger, and mayfeld’s bravado all goes up in smoke.
at first, it looks like mayfeld is trying to regulate his breathing, but as the officer keeps talking, his face starts to crumple. he starts subtly rocking back and forth. his eyes start to dart around the room. then, as the officer toasts the empire, he looks somewhere between tears and laughter, right before—
and then the wide-eyed, tearful look he gives din afterwards, as if mayfeld is just as shocked as he is that he reacted that way
in just a few short minutes of uhhh sitting in a cafeteria, the episode packs in so much nuance and tension from a character i honestly did not expect it from at all. no larger-than-life set pieces, no spelling things out with gratuitous flashbacks or audio, just great acting and directing from a talented cast.
tangentwithtanner
turnnoffyourmind
stormborns
yousharknotpass
areudirty
izzy806
amandla
blakekathryn
