Book Review - Behind the Curtain by Anita D Hunt

Warning: This post will be discussing abuse and suicide. Reader discretion is advised.

There often comes a time when you explore titles in genres that you don't normally read. During this year's visit to Swanwick, several attendees launched books published by Spellbound Books, including Anita D Hunt with her thriller, Behind the Curtain. This review is part of a Reading Between the Lines blog tour organised by Lynsey Adams.

Blurb

Two wives.
One dead.
One alive.
One perfect husband.

Penny-May cannot quite believe her luck when the handsome and charming Sam is interested in her, especially so soon after the death of his first wife, Lucy. As the relationship develops and Sam’s true nature begins to emerge, Penny-May believes that it is all her fault for not being perfect, for not doing as she is told, for not being Lucy. After all, according to everyone else, he’s the perfect gentleman. Isn’t he?

As desperation sets in, Penny-May is stunned to come across the diaries of Sam's first wife. Will the legacy of Lucy's hidden diaries finally give Penny-May the strength and upper hand to escape Sam?

Review

It's safe to say this book takes a dark tone. The bulk of the story is from Penny-May's perspective, utilising a first-person point of view. It opens with a prologue which takes place in media res, in which she laments her marriage to Sam and wonders about Lucy. We then flash back to roughly two years earlier, where Penny-May secures a temp job as a personal assistant at Sam's firm of architects. She later learns that he's apparently grieving his first wife, who is mentioned to have committed suicide.

Roughly the first third of the book shows Penny-May working more directly with Sam, which soon blossoms into a romantic relationship and later a marriage. You'd think that part would play out like a romantic novel, if it wasn't for the prologue. The book is also interspersed with chapters from Sam's perspective, which utilise a third-person point of view but nonetheless establish that he isn't a nice person. This becomes especially apparent after he's introduced to Penny-May's brother Daniel, who has Down's syndrome. While his interactions are cordial, subsequent chapters from his perspective show his ableism, and it's only a matter of time before that mask slips.

After Sam marries Penny-May, things get unpleasant very quickly. Sam's mother looks down on Penny-May, believing that she married him for his money, while Sam himself is incredibly controlling. It isn't long before he gets physically abusive, and at that point Penny May has few people she can turn to, especially because Sam's regarded as a pillar of the local community.

In the final third, Penny-May discovers Lucy's diaries, showing her journey that was almost identical to Penny's. It further reinforces how vile a person Sam truly is. This is accompanied by Penny-May's escape, which provides an incredible twist and some much-needed catharsis.

All-in-all, Behind the Curtain is a well-written thriller. It will make you angry, but I'd say that's the desired effect, and helps create a truly gripping story. The book is available from Amazon here, and I recommend checking it out.

About the Author

Anita D Hunt lives in the beautiful County of Cornwall. She has a Master of Arts in Creative Writing and is a published poet, theatre critic and short story writer with four of her short stories appearing in the three volumes of Cornwall Writers anthologies. She is also an admin on the Cornwall Writers team. 

Anita works in the care industry working with people with dementia and delivering cognitive stimulation therapy sessions for them. She is passionate about equality and accessibility for all. With this driving force, she has several volunteering roles within the County as well as singing and performance signing for Rock Choir Cornwall. 

In what spare time she has left, she spends her time with her family, walking her elderly dog and turning her hand to anything crafty. 

She has often been known to say that ‘sleep is for wimps…’

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Happy writing.

Renegade Nell - A Review

Yeah, I'm procrastinating again. Dealing with post-Swanwick Blues and contemplating what to work on next, I decided to take a look at Renegade Nell, a swashbuckler fantasy series created by Sally Wainwright (of Gentleman Jack fame). While the Kestrel and Scar stories aren't really fantasy, I hoped to get some inspiration for them.

Taking place in 1705, we follow Louisa Harland as Nell Jackson, a soldier's widow who returns to her father's pub in Tottenham. During her journey, she's confronted by a gang of highway robbers led by Isembard Tully but defeats them with the aid of a fey called Billy Blind, played by Nick Mohammed. Not long after returning, she gets into a fight with Thomas Blancheford, the spoiled and boorish son of the local magistrate. In revenge, he kills Nell's father, arranges to have her and her sisters evicted, and then kills his own father and frames Nell for it. Now an outlaw, Nell must find a way to clear her name. Meanwhile, Thomas and his sister both fall under the sway of the unscrupulous Earl of Poynton, a powerful sorcerer and ringleader of a Jacobite plot to depose Queen Anne.

Going into the series, I was expecting some entertaining swashbuckler fantasy, and that delivers. There are some great sequences where Billy Blind inhabits Nell to give her superhuman strength (and the ability to catch bullets), but he won't inhabit her all the time. Nevertheless, Nell is still a cunning fighter even without Billy's help, and provides plenty of witty lines when she doesn't take anyone's crap. We don't know much about where Billy Blind came from, and he doesn't know either.

There's an impressive array of other characters too:

• Enyi Okoronkwo plays Rasselas, a stable hand at the Blancheford estate who becomes one of Nell's first allies. After Blancheford's father covers up the death of Nell's father, it's Rasselas who blows the whistle and later joins Nell when she goes on the run.
• Frank Dillane plays Charles Deveraux, a foppish noble whom Nell deduces to be Isembard Tully. The pair pose as an aristocratic couple at one point, which produces some funny bickering as they comment on their wanted posters.
• Jake Dunn plays Thomas Blancheford, who is a spoiled and foppish bully but later gets consumed by guilt after he kills his father. It's satisfying to see Nell kick his ass at the beginning of the series.
• Alice Kremelberg plays Blancheford's widowed sister, Sofia Wilmot. She initially covers for Thomas when he kills their father, and soon becomes a student of Poynton's black magic.
• Ashna Rabheru plays Polly Honeycombe, an aspiring novelist and romantic at heart who is looking to escape from an arranged marriage and later develops a crush on Nell.

One thing I wasn't expecting was the harsh critique of the inequality and elitism of society at that time (which honestly hasn't changed much). Nell is disdainful of how the law only protects the wealthy and influential, and fears that a magistrate won't help her since she's apparently killed one of their own. A later episode shows her posing as a doctor to infiltrate Newgate Prison, where she finds children serving sentences or awaiting execution for stealing bread or blankets. There's also a recurring theme (including a whole musical number) in which Nell is demonised by the newspapers, showing how the media often serves the interests of the elite while profiting off sensationalism. This is where I found the writing to be the strongest.

Sadly, there's only one season with eight episodes. When I was reading up on things, I discovered that Disney cancelled the series at the end of July. It's surprising what you find when you don't use Twitter. I guess Disney weren't keen on the aforementioned themes.

However, the series is available on Disney+ and is definitely worth a watch.

Happy writing.

Swanwick 2024 - My Write Up

Once again, it's that wonderful time of year. No, not Christmas, but it can feel like Christmas (especially at the times you don't know what day it is). I'm of course talking about my annual visit to the Writers' Summer School at Swanwick. This has been my eighth visit to the school, and my third visit as a member of the committee which organises it. One of my roles in the months leading up to the school is processing applications for the "TopWrite" scheme which offers subsidised places for 18-30 year-olds starting out in the writing world. Much bigger than this was the technical side of things, which involved a lot of running around to switch on screens and microphones in the conference rooms. That was hard work.

Like every year, the school hosts a wide variety of fascinating courses. These include "Specialist Courses", which comprise four sessions spread over the week; "Short Courses", which comprise two sessions taught on the same  day (with lunchtime between them); and single session "Workshops".

Being on tech meant not always being able to attend the courses I was interested in, since I give first dibs to my volunteers as to where they want to be. I remember being told on my visit "don't try to attend everything because you'll tire yourself out by Tuesday". Boy is that true. Not only was I in charge of tech, I was also running my own course, gave a one-to-one session on writing action, and sold a few copies of The Lady's Favour.

For the specialist course this year, I attended the first two sessions of "The Secrets of Storytelling" by Simon Hall. There were some truly interesting pointers, including the use of senses in writing and how to show not tell. There was even a segment which involved looking at the story in the song "Escape". I do like Piña Coladas. Getting caught in the rain...not so much. Unfortunately, I had to miss the latter half so I could get a bit of quiet time and make some preparations for other parts of the school (including my own course).

Sunday's short course was "Talking Taboos" with Liz Hurst. The first session was dedicated to writing sex scenes, which is something I don't really do, but was nonetheless insightful. The second session looked at swearing, including when and where to use them to great effect and the law of diminishing returns. I don't really use that much swearing in my prose. Kestrel might use "bloody" or "arse" from time to time, but nothing more severe than that. My poetry is a bit more potty-mouthed though. This was followed by a workshop on "Secrets of the Psychological Thriller" with Lesley Kara. While that's not my usual genre, it was nonetheless fascinating.

On Monday, I attended "Writing Fillers" with Maggie Cobbett (pictured above with my book). That provided some interesting pointers on where to submit photos or letters to magazines, and could be an avenue that's worth looking into (I haven't done any ghostwriting since pausing my Fiverr gig last October). The workshop that afternoon was "Find Your Historical Fiction Voice" with Fiona Forsyth. Historical fiction is one of my main genres, and I got some great pointers about avoiding use of slang or explaining terminology in narrative.

On Wednesday, I ran my own short course on writing content for Table-Top Roleplaying Games. Being a rather niche area of writing, I didn't get many attendees, but that nonetheless helped create a comfortable environment to bounce ideas. In fact, I've since started working on an adventure in my comic fantasy setting called "The Curse of Faltitek", which got brainstormed as part of a group exercise. After a particularly stressful evening with that side of things, I found a sense of catharsis in that.

In addition to courses, there was a fantastic array of evening events. These included a poetry open mic on the Sunday night, which I was on hand for and read one of my own works. There was a campfire singalong on Monday night where I sang a couple of pirate songs from memory, and enjoyed some marshmallows. There was also a fancy dress evening on the Wednesday with the theme "Diamonds are Forever", complete with a disco. I didn't do much dancing this year; it was too hot and I picked up a few blisters on my feet. But I had a pleasant evening in the bar.

Agent 0075, Licensed to Quill

As this was the school's diamond jubilee, there was a special celebration dinner preceded by a cake cutting ceremony with a speech from the Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire. This ceremony included an announcement of members for next year's committee from a vote held at the school's Annual General Meeting. I had run for chair at next year's school, but was unsuccessful. However, I am still on the committee, so I can keep the mics running for another year.

Insert Portal reference here

Despite the stresses of the technical side, this year's Swanwick was still an enjoyable experience. People enjoyed my course, I sold half of my stock in the book shop, and I made a lot of new friends. It was great to be approached by people who said they had voted for me in the election, enjoyed my performances, or showing appreciation for my running around. Tech is a big job, and often regarded as a thankless task, but it was great to see that proven wrong.

I'm certainly looking forward to returning next year, although I will have to step down as a committee member afterwards. If my finances hold out, I'm sure I'll be able to attend in Swanwick 2026. Might even get some writing done.

Happy writing.

The Lady's Favour - Taking Stock of My Work

Well, last weekend I published another book. However, this wasn't a new story but rather a collection of my three earlier stories: Gentlemen of Fortune, The Pirate King, and The Homecoming, released together as The Lady's Favour (the original working title for Gentlemen of Fortune).

These three stories follow my wondering rogues Kestrel and Scar as they meet Rosanna Barclay, recently arrived in Port Royal from England in search of her missing father (Gentlemen of Fortune). They're later tasked with bringing down the operations of Port Royal's leading information broker "Lord" Pettigrew (The Pirate King) and return to England where Kestrel is forced to confront his past (The Homecoming).

I originally started writing Gentlemen of Fortune at the tail end of 2015, and finished the initial draft in 2016. After several rejections and re-writes, I eventually published it in 2021 for a university assignment while it was being considered by an American pulp magazine. When there was a delay in the magazine's decision-making, brisk sales at the Swanwick Writers' Summer School led me to self-publish it on Amazon. Publishing the e-book was relatively effortless, but I remember struggling to publish the paperback due to Amazon's cover formatting, to the point I decided that any individual stories I subsequently published would be e-book only.

I followed Gentlemen of Fortune with The Pirate King in 2022, announcing at the end of August that I would be launching it on Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19th). Unfortunately, matters were complicated when the queen died a week later, and the funeral was held on the same day. Nevertheless, I opted to proceed with the publication as planned. Not everyone grieves in the same way, and I wasn't exactly grieving myself so I saw no reason to alter my plans. In 2023, I followed up that story with The Homecoming, which I'd originally started as part of another university module. That story got published at the end of October, and gave me a nice trilogy.

This year has seen me get a new work contract along with a flat move, which took up a lot of time. With that in mind, I decided to put that trilogy together, make a few edits (don't worry, nothing gets altered so another character shoots first), and this time publish this as a physical release.

What's next for Kestrel and Scar? Well, this month I'm focussing on my course for Swanwick in August (plus the tech requirements). As for future stories, I'm thinking perhaps a trilogy of origin stories. One for Kestrel, one for Scar, and one for how they first met. I've also got a ton of other story drafts in various stages of completion. The sky's the limit.

The Lady's Favour is currently available on Amazon as a paperback and an e-book. In the meantime, happy writing.

The Mandalorian Marathon - Wrap-Up

Well, that was a fun month, and it was nice to revisit one of the first live-action series set in the Star Wars universe.

The Mandalorian serves as a pretty good Space Western. I love the action and the characters, and it's nice to see other stories in the wider world of Star Wars. The first two seasons are pretty solid, but I think the decision to continue Din and Grogu's story in The Book of Boba Fett made it difficult to maintain a coherent story. The pacing of the third season was pretty slow as well due to a lack of a clear goal until the end, even if there were still some solid episodes within that season. Granted, the first season didn't have a clear goal beyond keeping Grogu safe and keeping flying. Kinda like Firefly.

If I was to tidy up the third series, I'd have the Din and Grogu-focussed episodes from The Book of Boba Fett as the first two episodes of the third season. You could then cut a lot of exposition from the actual first episode of the season. Secondly, I'd cut out the episode with Dr Pershing. He barely appeared in the previous two seasons so it seems odd to give him a day in the limelight. It would make Elia Kane's appearance in "The Pirate" more tense.

Anyway, because there were only eight episodes in each season, I'm going to do a "pick of the season" for each one (excluding The Book of Boba Fett).

For the first season, it's a toss-up between three. I liked "The Sin" for the emotional depth, "The Prisoner" for the humour and catharsis factor, and "Redemption" for the blazing action. Ultimately, I'm going to say "Redemption", and give the honourable mention to "The Prisoner".

For season two, I'm set on "The Tragedy" as my pick of the season. It's got some great action, the return of familiar faces, and our protagonist at one of his lowest points. For the honourable mention, I'm going with "The Passenger" for its atmosphere.

Finally, my pick for season three would have to be "The Mines of Mandalore". Again, I love the tense atmoshpere and horror element it provides, along with the development it gives to Bo-Katan. My honourable mention would go to "The Pirate" for the epic battle between the Mandalorians and the pirates.

As for the future? Whether they do a fourth season or a movie, I'll probably look at that later down the line.

But for now, I've got a book to format. That's right, I'm publishing The Lady's Favour at the end of this month.

The Mandalorian Marathon - Chapter 24: The Return

Well, here we are at the end.

When we last left off, things were bad. The expedition to scout the Great Mandalorian Forge ran into an Imperial ambush. Din was captured, Paz Vizsla was killed, and Bo-Katan was forced to retreat. Axe Woves managed to find an opening to return to the fleet, but Gideon scrambled his air force to knock out the ships. Meanwhile, Grogu saves Din and he opts to put an end to Gideon. In the process, he learns that Gideon has been making clones of himself.

Most of this episode is taken up by the action. Din fights with Gideon. Grogu fights his Praetorian Guards. The Armourer reinforces Bo-Katan's team and they storm the base. Axe Woves even sends the captured cruiser on a collision course. It's all suitably epic for a season finale, and there's not much else to say.

When everything's resolved, I can't help but wonder what else there is to do. Bo-Katan re-lights the great forge, and Din formally adopts Grogu as a Mandalorian apprentice. The Armourer tasks him with leaving Mandalore to travel the galaxy with his adopted son. Din settles down on Navarro and subsequently offers his services to Carson Teva as an "independant contractor", taking on New Republic bounties. He also takes an IG unit head amongst the trophies in the officers' mess at Adelphi base, using it to rebuild IG-11 so he can serve as Karga's new marshal.

There's talk of another season and/or a film in the works. Honestly, where can they go next? I suppose we could get an opportunity for something else to threaten Navarro so he can team up with IG-11 again. Plus there could be the jobs he takes with Carson, maybe going after more pirates or Imperial war criminals. I'm sure there's scope for more stories, but I don't know if there's enough for a season arc. There's also the issue of what to do with Greef Karga, following the passing of Carl Weathers.

We'll see how this plays out.

The Mandalorian Marathon - Chapter 23: The Spies

Getting a Blade Runner vibe from that opening scene. After a season largely comprised of diversions, we're about to get some actual story. Although I'm not sure what spies the title is referring to.

Din and Bo-Katan return to Navarro, where they introduce their respective coverts to one another. Bo-Katan then proposes a move to re-settle on Mandalore. Din and Grogu opt to travel with her, alongside Koska Reeves, Axe Woves, Paz Vizsla, and The Armourer. On the surface, they encounter another group of Mandalorians who have been surviving on the surface in a sail barge ever since the bombings ended. Meanwhile, we learn that Elia Kane is still working with Moff Gideon, who is part of "The Shadow Council"; a secret alliance of Imperial warlords. As they tease the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn (a plot for Ahsoka), Gideon hatches a plan to remove the Mandalorians once and for all.

This episode has a lot of build-up with a great payoff, although there's some underlying tension from both the teeth-clenched teamwork between the Mandalorian factions and the reveal of Gideon's return. And that's on top of the hazards we've already seen earlier in the season.

There is some comedy at the beginning too. Greef provides Grogu with a mecha built out of IG-11's chassis, which includes buttons that say "Yes" and "No". Chaos ensues, but it even provides a dramatic payoff when he uses it to diffuse a fight between Axe Woves and Paz Vizsla (which is also funny on the grounds it's for the pettiest of reasons).

We also get some drama when it's revealed that Bo-Katan had actually surrendered the Darksaber to Moff Gideon after he defeated her forces in a bid to avoid a purge, only for him to renege.

The final part of the episode has the expedition travelling to the remains of the Great Mandalorian Forge, where they discover Gideon's hidden base. And he's got troopers wearing Beskar whom I initially thought were the return of Imperial Supercommandos from Rebels.

Great climax, with a harrowing cliffhanger. I'm excited for the finale.

The Mandalorian Marathon - Chapter 22: Guns for Hire

Strange mix of guest stars in this one. Feels kinda like stunt casting.

When we last left off, The Armourer tasked Bo-Katan with uniting the other Mandalorians in a bid to reclaim their homeworld. She sets out with Din and Grogu to search for her old force now under the command of Axe Woves, who set up his own privateer fleet with the captured Imperial ships. They trace him to the lush outer rim world of Plazir-15, but are summoned by the world's rulers: an unnamed Duchess played by Lizzo; and her husband Captain Bombardier, a former Imperial officer on the Amnesty Program, played by Jack Black. The pair seek the Mandalorians' aid in investigating a series of incidents involving rogue droids in exchange for an audience with Axe Woves and a future promise to formally recognise Mandalorian sovereignity.

Overall, this story feels like a police procedural, and an uncomfortable one at that. The pair meet with Commissioner Helgait, played by Christopher Lloyd, and learn that many of the droids who perform the community's menial work are repurposed battle droids dating back to the Clone Wars. Din seems to sink back into his old anti-droid sentiments, and very much becomes a bigot with a badge while Bo-Katan serves as a more level-headed foil. That said, they do briefly reverse their roles while dealing with Ugnaughts. There also seems to be some social commentary with regards to automation and "leisure classes", but that doesn't seem to go anywhere.

Copaganda aside, the visuals of this episode are stunning, with both the domed city and the surrounding countryside. The city's rulers both seem likeable (real-world issues aside), with a particularly funny moment where the Duchess asks if she could hold Grogu. We also get a pretty cool moment at the end when Bo-Katan finally meets Axe Woves, and Din is able to get him back on her side by revealing his capture by the cyborg; as Bo-Katan defeated the cyborg who had defeated Din, she's technically won the Darksaber. 

Although with the cliffhanger of the previous episode, you can't help but feel uneasy about the reunion. I'm still curious about where that goes.

The Mandalorian Marathon - Chapter 21: The Pirate

We're five episodes into this season and finally coming back to a thread from the first episode. Despite that fact, this is still a strong episode.

The "Pirate King" Gorian Shard launches a full-scale invasion of Greef Karga's town on Navarro, and he's forced to flee with the townspeople. He gets a message out to Carson Teva of the New Republic's Adelphi Rangers, trying to appeal for backup. Carson travels to Coruscant to directly appeal to his superior, who is reluctant to muster a fast response due to Navarro being an independent world. He then locates the Mandalorian covert through R5 and appeals to Din to help his friend.

The first portion of the episode is tense, with Carson trying to get through to his superiors, which includes a meeting with Elia Kane (who suggests using the pirate attack as a way to convince Navarro to join the New Republic). It goes to show that the New Republic's obstructive bureaucracy is probably no different from the Empire's. When he finds the Mandalorian covert, Paz suggests killing him outright to protect the covert's secrecy until Din intervenes. And when Din talks to the rest of the covert about intervening, Paz speaks about how he previously came into conflict with Karga's hunters back in the first season. You think he's going to speak against it, until he talks about how Din and Bo-Katan helped him save his son and offers support.

The second half is largely a battle sequence as the Mandalorians retake the city. Din and Bo-Katan use their craft to deal with Gorian's ship and fighters, while Paz and the Armourer lead the ground forces. When you get down to it, sometimes you just have to have some action. It's also nice to see Karga give the Mandalorians a heroes' welcome, after his previous conflict with them.

We also set up the story for the remainder of the series, as the Armourer tasks Bo-Katan with uniting the other Mandalorians in a bid to reclaim their ancestral homeland (allowing her to remove her helmet in the process).

When all that's resolved, we get a tense final scene as Carson stumbles across a derelict ship. It plays out like a horror movie as he sends in a probe to investigate, learning that Moff Gideon was extracted by Mandalorians. Having watched Rebels, I was reminded of Clan Saxon, a Mandalorian clan who served as Imperial viceroys.

The Mandalorian Marathon - Chapter 20: The Foundling

Now that the Living Waters have been visited and Din's back in the covert, I guess the writers had to figure out what to do next. As such, this feels a lot like filler and turned this season into "The Meander-lorian". I'm also getting a "Beware the Grey Ghost" vibe from it.

Din volunteers Grogu for combat training, but their sparring is interrupted when a winged beast snatches another foundling. As Din and Paz run out of jetpack fuel while trying to pursue the creature, Bo-Katan shadows it back to the lair in her ship. She promptly volunteers to lead a hunting party to rescue the foundling. Meanwhile, Grogu is forced to stay with the Armourer, who forges him an extended flashback of how he escaped the Great Jedi Purge; he was spirited out of Coruscant by Jedi Master Kelleran Beq, aided by several members of the Royal Naboo Security Force.

Despite this episode being a filler, it's not actually that bad. It's cool to see Bo-Katan leading the hunting party and gain acceptance amongst the covert. Through her, we learn more about the practices of this particular group of Mandalorians. We also get to Paz Vizsla get some more depth. In his first appearance, he accused Din of cowardice by taking an Imperial bounty. In The Book of Boba Fett, he challenged Din for the Darksaber, and in the earlier episodes of this season he always disparagingly referred to him as an apostate. But he still works with them, especially when it's later revealed that the foundling who was snatched is his son. He's also a lot nicer to Bo-Katan; when the hunting party is camped, Din explains that the Mandalorians find a secluded spot to eat so they can remove their helmets. Paz tells Bo-Katan that as the leader of the hunting party, she can stay by the fire.

The rescue sequence gets tense as they climb the mountain with grappling lines and later encounter chicks in the creature's nest. In a similar vein, we get some more blazing action during Grogu's flashback as he and Kelleran are pursued by clone troopers. It's also great to see that not everyone agreed with the purge, as Kelleran's allies fight the clones. It's implied they're part of Padmé's security detail, whome she probably sent to extract any Jedi they could while she went to find Anakin on Mustafar.

Of course, I can't talk about this episode without talking about Kelleran Beq. Apparently he was a character who appeared in some game show, but this is his first canonical appearance. He's also played by Ahmed Best, who previously played Jar Jar Binks in the prequel trilogy. Alright, Jar Jar was a reviled character, and Ahmed Best got a lot of flak for playing him. But I wish him well, and I'm happy he was able to find another role in the franchise. I couldn't help but draw a parallel with the aforementioned episode of Batman: The Animated Series which featured Adam West.

Although I'm still wondering what else happened to Grogu. That could be its own story.

The Mandalorian Marathon - Chapter 19: The Convert

Ah, the "Paperclip" episode. And probably one of the weaker ones of the series.

Picking up where we left of, both Din and Bo-Katan have bathed in the living waters. But as they're returning to Bo-Katan's castle, they're attacked by a squadron of TIE Interceptors. Din has to bail out of Bo-Katan's ship so he can engage them with the Hotrod N1. But after they fend them off, a bomber squadron razes the castle.

And now for something completely different. The rest of the episode follows Gideon's scientist Dr Pershing, who has since accepted a pardon through a New Republic "Amnesty Programme" and has become a celebrity on Coruscant. At a housing project set up for the numerous ex-Imperial personnel on the programme, he re-unites with Elia Kane, the former comms officer from Gideon's cruiser (whom I thought was killed during the season two finale, but then noticed on the re-watch she only got hit in the shoulder). Frustrated in his soulless 9 to 5 and learning that his field of research is illegal, Pershing joins Kane on a plan to salvage some lab equipment from a de-commissioned Star Destroyer.

You can probably see why this episode is considered weak; all told, it has little to do with the main series. Din and Bo-Katan's skirmish with some suspiciously organised Imperials takes place entirely before the opening titles, and they don't appear again until the very end of the episode. It seems rather meandering.

Having said that, it's interesting to see what life is like on Coruscant now that the New Republic is in power. All told, it's not great. You've got a sheltered high society who are completely indifferent to the regime change, obstructive bureaucracy, and work cultures that seem to value busy work. On top of that, there's unsettling treatments for Amnesty personnel who are deemed "failures" that are apparently based on Imperial technology that people on the Outer Rim believe to be horror stories or propaganda. Other than that last part, it seems to perfectly encapsulate the illusions of western democracy.

Anyway, after that lengthy diversion, we see Din lead Bo-Katan to his covert. After proving that he's visited the living waters, he's welcomed back to the covert with open arms. When the Armourer learns that Bo-Katan had also bathed in the living waters and hadn't removed her helmet since, she's also invited to join the covert.

Well, I suppose we could get some hooks from this episode for the rest of the series.