I’ve gushed about The Mandalorian already, and I’m pleased that it has continued to reward my faith. Turns out Dave Filoni is a really good storyteller. He not only has an encyclopedic knowledge and appreciation for Star Wars canon that he didn’t create, but also the stuff he did. Star Wars: Rebels is well worth your time and I just finally got around to watching how he more-or-less seamlessly developed the final season of The Clone Wars so it intertwines with prequel canon and at least tries to make some parts of Revenge of the Sith better by proxy.

Without getting into spoilers, it’s all coming around full circle now. People have been excitedly speculating on some of Filoni’s characters, heretofore confined to cartoon form, making the jump to live-action, and The Mandalorian just recently delivered in a big way and is promising even bigger reveals to come.

But Filoni by all I’ve seen is a humble dude, and one of the things I most appreciate about the episode I just watched on Friday is how he doesn’t hinge the story on you having ever heard of Character X even if the person next to you might be squealing in recognition. You get the gist of things by watching and can connect important dots internally within the confines of the current show (and its previous Season). The important questions are covered and any subsequent Googling or watching/reading of external material is supplemental; enjoyable enhancement but not required.

And that’s great. Some of us met an old friend and some of us met a new one but all of us got a thrill. That’s not an easy balance to pull off, and kudos are in order. And I continue to look forwards to Fridays for the time being in a way which threatens to anchor my quarantine haze.