Category: Star Wars

Yeah, I’m behind. But I don’t care. This show is just mindblowingly good, I don’t mind revisiting these episodes so this is going to be my ketchup week. This one felt like a short episode, even with a running time of 40 minutes. The Siege may have been light on the action, but there’s a lot to unpack here so let’s get to it.

As always, this episode picks up right where the last one left off. The Mando, after receiving some intel from Bo-Katan, now has a name and a place to finish his quest: Ahsoka Tano at the city of Calodan on Corvus. He gets in his poorly repaired Razor Crest gets into space. Except the Crest isn’t doing too well. It’s hobbling along so much that The Mando has to stick Baby Yoda in a service crawlspace and try to explain to him what to do with a bunch of loose wires. It’s honestly a cute scene and something I’m pretty sure every parent can relate to. Mechanic Baby Yoda wasn’t up to snuff, so it’s time to bring the ship’s health back up before continuing on to Corvus. Off to Nevarro they go.

The next scene opens up in the covert’s blacksmith shop, except Lady Armorer isn’t there. Instead there are a bunch of Aqualish thugs who are up to thug stuff. Some them start to argue while one of them grabs what looks like a mink from a cage to prep it for din din. Suddenly a noise distracts them and one poor sap is sent to go investigate. Cara Dune gets the jump on them and dispatches them one by one via hand-to-hand combat. Except for the last dude where she finally pulls out her blaster and puts him down. Why she didn’t do that in the beginning is beyond me. She starts gathering all the loot while making friends with the would-be dinner treat mink, explaining that she has to return all the stuff to the rightful owner. She must a sheriff or deputy right? Right.

The Crest break into Nevarro’s atmosphere and lands in the lava field parking lot. He meets up with Cara and Combat Carl. They’re more than happy to welcome the two of them back to town. Combat Carl orders some techs to repair the ship. One tech looks longingly at the pair. Turns out that Cara dune is the marshal of the town now. Combat Carl, the magistrate. They walk through town and it is just bustling with life, a stark contrast from the scenery we’ve been used to in Season 1 with the empire’s stink all over town. Now that the stink is gone, life can be normal. So normal in fact that the bar where the guild headquarters was, the one that was half shot up and burning to the ground is now rebuilt and turned into a school. Combat Carl wants to leave Baby Yoda there but The Mando is not liking that idea. Where Baby Yoda goes, he goes, but Combat Carl assures him it’s the safest place because he’s got a little favor to ask of The Mando and where they’re going they can’t exactly bring Baby Yoda with them. The three adults leave but before we say goodbye to Baby Yoda for now, we get another little scene with him where he uses the force to steal some macarons from another student.

The adults make their back to an office where we see Blue Horatio Sanz, The Mando’s bounty  from the series premiere. Apparently, Mythorol worked as an accountant for Combat Carl before cooking the books and disappearing, so he’s working off his debt to the tune of 350 years. But they’re not there to rehash old times. Cara and Combat Carl need The Mando’s help. There’s an old Imperial base, Moff Gideon’s old base of operations, that’s still manned by a skeleton crew. There’s a ton of heavy weaponry there that would make a good target for the black market and Combat Carl wants to get rid of it so that Nevarro can be a safe place in the Outer Rim. Without needing much convincing, The Mando is in.

So The Mando, Cara, and Combat Carl take a speeder and make their way to the Imperial base with Blue Sanz acting as chauffeur. It’s obvious he doesn’t want to be there, but knocking 100 years off of his debt repayment is better than walking home across the lava flats. The plan is to go in, overload the reactor to blow, and then get the hell out of dodge. Strike quickly and quietly, but things never go according to plan do they?

The speeder pulls up to an elevator door at the bottom of a canyon. The base is up top overlooking said canyon. The door’s not budging so The Mando jetpacks up to the top to see if he can find a way in. Meanwhile, Combat Carl knocks another 30 years off of Mythorol’s debt if he comes along and helps. There’s a commotion up top and right when the door opens a stormtrooper lands on the ground next to them. Thanks, Mando! The three get and meet back up with The Mando up at the top level where there’s a loading dock filled with loading docks things, like dead stormtroopers, crates, and such, including a nice little armored carrier, a Trexlar Marauder.

The group opens up some bay doors where we see a bunch of parked speeder bikes. I do love me some speeder bikes. They make their way in to a control room where they take out a lone Imperial officer. The Mando determines where the reactor is and the group is off once again sneaking around the base. They finally get to the reactor and Combat Carl makes Mythorol sabotage the coolant lines. Alarms start going off and they begin their escape.

They can’t go back the way they came because that would be too easy and doesn’t advance the plot. So while on their way back, to avoid some stormtroopers they make their way through to a storage room. There are two technicians working hard who, once they spot our heroes, start firing at them. Well, at least one of them is, the other is shooting at the control terminal they were working on. Our heroes shoot those guys down and while they catch their breath they see where they are. The storage room is storing some tanks and inside those tanks are humanoid looking things. Cara is putting two and two together and is realizing that this imperial base isn’t a base, it’s science lab. They need to figure out exactly what’s going on because the stakes seem so much greater now.

With the coolant lines broken, time is running out before the whole base blows up. Mythorol is on it. He finds a holo transmission from Dr. Pershing. I’m going to type it out here, what he said in that transmission, ’cause it’s kind of important:

Replicated the results of the subsequent trials, which also resulted in catastrophic failure. There were promising effects for an entire fortnight but then, sadly, the body rejected the blood. I highly doubt we’ll find another donor with a higher M-count, though. I recommend we suspend all experimentation. I fear that the volunteer will meet the same regrettable fate if we proceed with the transfusion. Unfortunately, we have exhausted our initial supply of blood. The Child is small, and I was only able to harvest a limited amount without killing him. If these experiments are to continue as requested, we would again require access to the donor. I will not disappoint you again, Moff Gideon.

Whoah, right?

The Mando assumes the transmission is old because the last he checked Moff Gideon went down like a flaming meteor and crashed his TIE when the fought five episodes ago. Mythorol confirms though that the transmission is three days old. While everyone’s doing the mental math to realize that Baby Yoda is in grave danger alone at the school, some stormtroopers show up to act as target practice for our heroes. They decide to split up. The Mando can jetpack back faster so he runs down one corridor back to the reactor controls. The other three have to take the speeder back and so they head back to the launch pad.

So they’re split up and there’s a montage that cuts back and forth between The Mando and the other three. The Mando gets back to the reactor controls and jetpacks out of the cavern while dispatching a few stormtroopers along the way. Two stormtroopers that gave chase notice the error codes the coolant lines are throwing, and attempt to turn them off. Seems like their plan is being foiled! The trio heads back to the landing platform / loading dock also taking out a couple of stormtroopers along the way. This is no skeleton crew as there are troopers everywhere. They get pinned down by couple on the dock. Cara jumps inside the Trexlar Marauder and they use that to escape. They drive the land vehicle right off the edge of the platform. Luckily the speeder they parked at the bottom of the canyon broke their fall and they speed away as fast as they can. The stormtroopers can’t give chase, but a bunch of scout troopers hop on the speeder bikes and give chase. I love me some speeder bikes. They pull the same move as the Marauder and try and drive them down the cliff face with varying degrees of success.

The scouts that make it give chase. The Marauder’s outfitted with a pair of heavy artillery guns and Combat Carl takes down one of the three scouts. Cara rams one into the side of a mountain. The last one manages to get on top of the transport and is about to throw a grenade into the cockpit when Combat Carl spots him on the targeting computer and blows him up at point blank range of the Marauder’s guns.

At this point, the base starts to blow up. Seems like the stormtrooper trying to fix the coolant lines failed to do so. Some TIE fighters parked at the top of the base, folded wings and all, start taking off. Four of them give chase to the trio in the Marauder. They’re winding through the canyon, both sides not having much luck in taking down their opponents. Combat Carl gets a lucky break though and nails a TIE, but the debris crashes into the Marauder taking out its weapons. Combat Carl managed to dive out of the way of danger in time and the transport is still in one piece. They make it out of the cannon and are racing across the lava fields. Not sure what they’re plan is at this point. They can’t really go back to town can they? And put everyone in danger? They have no weapons. They don’t have the cover of the canyon anymore. Things are looking bad.

The three remaining TIEs make a run at the Marauder, fly past, and one of them blows up. The Razor Crest enters the field of view chasing the TIEs down. Cut to the cockpit and The Mando is there with Baby Yoda who is eating the macarons he basically force-stole from that kid. Poor kid. One of the TIEs starts climbing to space and the Crest gives chase. The Mando shoots that one down, cuts the engines, and flips the ship 180°. The engines kick on and he starts a nosedive. The last TIE fighter is climbing and shooting at the Razor Crest. It’s a game of chicken now, but only better because of lasers. The Mando spins the Crest to avoid the laser fire and fires back, blowing up the TIE. Baby Yoda is enjoying every second of the greatest rollercoaster ride. So much so that he ends up spitting up some blue macaron onto his tiny robe. And The Mando is a great father. You know how I know? He immediately starts wiping the spit up with his cape. “Onboard maintenance”.

Combat Carl thanks him and The Mando thanks him for the repairs. The ship is good as new but now they gotta jet before Moff Gideon catches wind that they were even there. And so they bid farewell until the next time.

But that’s not all. The next scene cuts to a pair of X-Wings parked right outside town. Are they same X-Wings from Chapter 10? Yep! Kim’s Convenience is there to ask about the Imperial base that blew up. The convenience store owner turned X-wing pilot asks about the transponder logs and the Razor Crest but Combat Carl isn’t giving anything up though. He’s not exactly fans of the New Republic. Kim’s Convenience leaves and runs into Cara outside. He compliments her for cleaning up Nevarro, knows her history as a shock trooper for the Alliance, and notes she’s from Alderaan. He says he served during the that time and asks if she lost anyone. She replies that she lost everyone. Kim’s Convenience expresses his condolences and very quietly leaves a badge behind and walks away, wordlessly inviting her to become a New Republic marshal.

But wait, there’s more! The next scene is in space and we’re treated to a throwback shot of an Imperial Star Destroyer flying overhead from behind. Although, it’s not quite any Star Destroyer we’ve seen so far but there is no doubt it is what it is. A female Imperial officer is on the bridge and opens up a communication channel with the mechanic that looked longingly at The Mando when he landed on Nevarro. He tells her that the device was planted on the ship. I guess the Razor Crest has some sort of tracking beacon on it now. This pleases the officer and she goes to tell her boss the good news. Moff Gideon is in a room with a lot of troopers in stalls that are being looked over by two workers. He turns around slowly enough for every Disney+ subscriber to drink in how much what he is wearing is starting to look like Darth Vader’s armor. A short conversation between the two confirms to Gideon that the beacon is on the Crest and that The Mando still has “the asset”. The camera then pulls back to reveal just how many troopers are in that room. And who knows how many rooms there are on that ship that are full of the same troopers. Roll credits.

Random Thoughts

The scene at the beginning where Baby Yoda is wrestling with the wires and The Mando is desperately trying to get him to connect the wires together? Yeah, Gutter knows what the people want and the people want Baby Yoda. Thankfully, the show isn’t just a montage after montage of Baby Yoda shenanigans, otherwise I’d probably get real sick of it. There have been enough scenes sprinkled throughout the seasons so far to keep things light and leaves us with wanting more. We delight in seeing these moments, instead of dreading them.

Those humanoid things in the tanks in the lab? Those were the failed experiments that Dr. Pershing spoke of. Moff Gideon is trying to take midichlorian-rich blood from one being (Baby Yoda), and transfuse it into another. The “volunteers” are test subjects obviously, to make sure that such a procedure is viable. Moff Gideon, who is not a force user, so badly wants to be a force user he’ll do everything in his power to get there. He’s already got the darksaber, the very Vader-looking suit. He’s probably got a helmet somewhere. Now he just needs the M-count. It makes midichlorians, a George Lucas invention that made every Star Wars fan in the galaxy eyes roll, a tad more interesting as this episode’s major plot point. It was never really explained what midichlorians do, or how it affects someone’s ability to use the force, at least never explained in any of the films. I suppose there’s a book out there that goes into details but it’s something I never really researched. Even with the internet at my fingertips, as I write this I have no desire to look it up on Wookieepedia. The midichlorians, as a mechanism to identify a being’s potential attunement to the force, makes Moff Gideon’s actions much more plausible. If they were never introduced way back in Episode One, it would have made the whole blood transfusion idea way more out there than it is. There is some real life science behind what blood transfusions are capable of so the idea of transferring midichlorians from one being to another via transfusion doesn’t seem all that far fetched. If midichlorians didn’t exist, Moff Gideons experiments would have seemed way crazier than they are. “There’s no proof that the force is somehow connected to blood. Why would blood transfusions work?!?!” But they do exist, and here we are. All Moff Gideon needs is the asset to continue clinical trials. He seems to have endless resources at his disposal and an idea that just might work. He could give himself force powers. Or genetically engineer an army of force users to do his bidding. How scary is that?

The troopers in the stalls in the very last scene? At the time this aired, it was theorized that they were Dark Troopers. I don’t know how anyone could tell because you couldn’t really see them all that clearly. It wasn’t until the most recent episode that they were, for me at least, 100% confirmed to be Dark Troopers. My only exposure to them before was the Hasbro action figure line based on the Expanded Universe. According to Wookieepedia, the Dark Troopers first appeared in the Star Wars: Dark Forces video game, and has had many other appearances across a variety of other Star Wars video games as well. Why does this matter? Because this show is tying together parts of the Expanded Universe and making them 100% legitimate cannon and doing so in a way that doesn’t make you want to roll your eyes.

Alright, it’s late. I’m scheduling this post and hitting the sack. I probably rambled on and didn’t make a lot of sense but I need my beauty sleep. Gonna try and knock out Chapter 13 tomorrow.

I’ve talked to a few fans about how S2 has been going so far, and a lot of comments of E1 has been “It didn’t progress the story”. If they thought E1 didn’t progress the story, they were in for utter disappointment with E2. “The Passenger” was a complete filler episode and a sidestep in any “progression” of the main story. S1 had a couple of fillers too, so it’s not like this is anything new. I’d argue that E1 did indeed progress the story. I mean, last season’s finale had Lady Armorer give The Mando a quest to find others like Baby Yoda. His best bet was to find other Mandalorian coverts that can possibly help him. Episode 1 of Season 2 had him start off right at that spot: he had a tip that someone may have seen one, got a lead from that guy, and off he went. How is that not progressing the story? Did they honestly think he’d find another covert like right away? I mean, this isn’t a Dick Wolf production, things don’t happen in the episode at an accelerated rate with nothing but dialog to connect the dots. If you’re looking at the big picture, you’re going to miss what makes The Mandalorian such an exquisite experience. Each episode has a premise, and that premise is followed through one thousand percent. The premise may not “advance the story” to a great degree, but that’s okay. But no matter where the episode falls within the range of filler-ness, the production value is consistently excellent and top notch. Each episode feels more like a mini Star Wars movie than a TV show. Nothing ever feels rushed, nothing ever feels cheap, the practical effects and wire work has that old school film-making flavor. Jon Favreau is treating the property with the love, care, and respect that was sorely lacking from the last three movies. The Mandalorian has been the best thing to happen to Star Wars since Rogue One. I, for one, am enjoying every tasty second of every episode. No complaints from me yet. Anyways, let’s move on to the recap.

So this episode literally picks up right where we left off from the last episode. With the krayt dragon slain, a hunk of dragon meat strapped to the back of the speeder, The Mando and Baby Yoda are speeding their way back across the desert. Shenanigans are afoot as a band of hooligans are hooliganing by setting a trap, a trap that is basically a clothesline. Speeder bike + clothesline? This is gonna be ugly. Now, since this isn’t Mad Max, The Mando keeps his head on his shoulders as his speeder hits the wire trap nose first. The Mando goes flying but, thanks to his jet pack, lands on his feet. Baby Yoda goes tumbling in what seems like an eternity for a baby to be rolling. The Hooligans attack The Mando but you know they ain’t gonna win. One of them goes for Baby Yoda and holds up a knife. The Mando negotiates for Baby Yoda’s safety, the Hooligan wants The Mando’s jet pack. He gently puts it down, the Hooligan puts down Baby Yoda, picks up the jet pack, and starts running away. Baby Yoda runs to daddy who picks it up. Wordlessly, he activates his jet pack and it and the Hooligan launch straight up into the air with only the Hooligan falling back down to the ground. Hard. Baby Yoda gives him a look. The Mando gives him a look back like, “What? I had to do it.” The jet pack comes back down and lands slightly less gracefully than a reusable SpaceX booster. Insert title card.

With his speeder busted, The Mando has no choice but to walk back to Mos Eisley carrying all his loot across his shoulders. Kinda wonder if his armor, with all its electronic gadgets, has an air conditioning unit. Probably not. The Mando heads straight to the Cantina to find Peli in a Sabaac game. Her opponent, Dr. Mandible, needs a little help to cover a bet and will give The Mando some info he has about where more Mandalorians might be if he can pony up. The Mando says okay. Dr. Mandible loses but says his informant will rendezvous with him at the hangar entrance.

It’s full-on night time now and time for dinner. The Mando’s dragon meat is on a treadwell droid’s arm, rotating like a spit behind an engine. Peli discusses some of the finer details of what Dr. Mandible promised. There is another covert nearby, one system away so they’re close. There’s no cost for the information but the the informant wants safe passage to the system on the condition that they not travel at light speed. The Mando is like nuh-uh but it’s imperative that they travel slow because Frog Lady, aka the informant, is carrying a bunch of her eggs that will die if they travel that way. These are the last eggs of lineage she needs to meet up with her husband who is on the planet with the other Mandalorians so that he can fertilize these eggs. Once Baby Yoda sees the container of eggs, he starts to drool. Given his propensity to swallow frogs whole, you can kinda see where this is going.

The Mando, Frog Lady, and Baby Yoda, are on their merry way in space. As precious as the cargo is for Frog Lady, she leaves it in the cargo hold. It’s a container backpack. I’d be holding on to that thing while strapped to my seat, but this is television and jokes need to be set up. Enter Baby Yoda from stage left. It makes his way over to the container while looking like he’d give up all his force abilities for a boba straw. Meanwhile, The Mando is setting coordinates for the Razor Crest‘s autopilot to make its way to the rendezvous planet. He advises Frog Lady to get some rest as he heads down to his sleeping closet. He drops down and sees Baby Yoda suck in one of Frog Lady’s egg and tries to tell him that it’s not food and to not do that again. After that admonishment, it’s bedtime for them.

Traveling at sublight speeds on autopilot isn’t the best situation for them. Things can happen, especially when you’re asleep. He’s liable to be attacked, boarded, or tracked. Which is exactly what happens. The Mando is woken up by some radio chatter coming in from two X-Wings that appear out of no where. Since the galaxy is under the control of the Alliance now, new rules are in place unbeknownst to The Mando. The X-Wing pilots are insisting that The Mando identify himself in some way. The Mando is reluctant in doing so probably because he has a shady past and/or he’s done something that the Alliance wouldn’t like, like.. I dunno, attacking a prisoner ship or something, just as an example. After some back and forth, The Mando reluctantly sends a ping. The X-Wings lock their S-foils in attack position and ask if he was anywhere near a prisoner transport. Yep. The past is coming back to bite him in the ass so he makes a break for it. He heads straight into the atmosphere of a nearby planet to try and escape the new republic’s law enforcement.

A chase ensues. The heavy, vintage Razor Crest doesn’t seem like it’ll be much of a match against the nimble and agile X-Wings but after some fancy maneuvering, The Mando manages to park his ship under an ice shelf (yes it’s an ice planet no it’s not Hoth) and you see the X-Wings fly by. Just as he’s about to start up the engines to get out from under the shelf, the ice beneath the Crest gives out and the entire ship falls into a cavern. Fade to black to show that everyone blacked out from the impact. No bueno.

When The Mando wakes up, he assesses the situation: there’s a gigantic hole in the side of the ship, power’s out, and it’s about to turn to night. And on top of that, he finds Baby Yoda munching away on some more of Frog Lady’s eggs. He lays it all out for Frog Lady and says to get some rest cause and he’ll figure something out in the morning. Frog Lady ain’t having any of that and uses a busted up droid, the one that almost killed Baby Yoda back in Chapter 6, as a universal translator to call out The Mando’s lack of Mandalorian ethics. And to remind him that she needs to get her eggs to her husband so that her family line doesn’t die off right there on the frozen planet.

This spurs him into action. He gets off his lazy butt and goes outside the ship to begin making repairs. Not long after, Baby Yoda comes outside too and tries to get his dad’s attention. He wanders off and The Mando follows him, only to realize that Frog Lady wandered off. He uses his infrared vision to track The Passenger to a hot spring where she’s taking a bath with her boba eggs. The Mando warns her that she just can’t up and do that and starts gathering the boba and putting them back in to blue milk tea container. While all of this is happening, Baby Yoda, ever hungry, wanders off into a field of eggs, breaks one open and eats the baby spider inside.

And yep, in a sequence that would give anyone scared of spiders the heebie jeebies, all of the other hundreds of eggs start cracking open with baby spiders crawling out. Oh did I say hundreds? Honestly, there’s probably thousands of them. Baby Yoda cries out in distress, The Mando picks him and takes in his surroundings. He finally sees all the eggs and all the baby spiders coming towards them. Then, bigger more juveniles ones start coming out of the cave’s passageways, followed by Mama Spider. The Mando starts pewpewing the bugs as he and Frog Lady book it. Frog Lady even starts leaping on all fours…. leapfrogging if you will… The Mando throws a couple of charges around and one at Mama Spider, the same charges that blew up Moff Gideon’s TIE Fighter, and detonates them. Mama Spider disappears in a cloud of smoke.

They make it back to the Crest, but with the hole in the side of the ship, the only safe place is the cockpit. They make their way in. The Mando is desperately trying to close the door as baby spiders crawl their way in. A couple are threatening Baby Yoda when Frog Lady who at this point probably suspects Baby Yoda of hoovering in some of her eggs into its gullet does it a solid by blasting the the bugs. The Mando barbecues a pile of spiders jamming the door and finally manages to get it closed. Ice spiders are crawling all over the ship so he has no choice but to see if they can get out of there. He fires up the engines and just when they’re lifting up off the ground, Mama Spider lands on top of the Crest forcing it down to the ground again.

Mama Spider wants dinner, and tries to break through the cockpit glass with its mouth appendage to no avail. It pierces through the glass with one of its legs. Things are looking grim: they’re trapped inside the cockpit, an ungodly number of spiders are just on the other side of the door, Mama Spider’s about to break through the glass, and they’re stranded as can be because no one knows they are there. Well, almost no one because some blaster fire shoots down Mama Spider and a bunch of the Baby Ones. You can hear blaster fire continuously going off. The Mando is all, “What the heck…” and wanders outside only to find the two X-Wing pilots firing their blasters at every last spider, saving the Razor Crest and its occupants.

After they eliminate every last spider, there’s a bit of banter between The Mando and Kim’s Convenience. Because of the events in “The Prisoner” episode, the two pilots were willing to let him go. Specifically, he captured three culprits from the Wanted Register and risked his own life protecting that of a New Republic officer. There is a warrant for his arrest, though, due to freeing the one guy, but they consider that a wash so they leave without helping him repair his ship. The Mando gets back in the Crest and seals off the cockpit. The ship hobbles out of the cave, off the planet, and lips its way to its destination. Roll credits.

Random Thoughts

About Baby Yoda eating those eggs. Some people found it horrifying. I honestly didn’t see anything wrong with it considering it’s a show about a baby alien with mystical powers adopted by a man who’d give Iron Man a run for his money. It’s a fantasy sci-fi show but somehow Baby Yoda trying to eat some unfertilized eggs is a major sticking point.

It’s interesting to see that one filler episode, S1:E6 “The Prisoner”, tied to another filler episode in a not-so-inconsequential way. That episode and this one make up a B-storyline that can be threaded along the main story. So all these episodes that feel like filler or “don’t progress the story” may not be so much fluff as initially thought.

Barring any other diversions, the next episode should have The Mando at least make it to the planet. Whether or not he hooks up with the covert there is up in the air. No matter. Like I said at the top, I’m enjoying every high-production second of the show whether it’s a story-progressing episode or more filler.

 

Alright! New season. New shows. Who’s excited? I know I am. Hopefully you found last week’s recap of the season 1 finale a bit of a refresher to lead you into this next episode. If not, then the “previously on” segment at the front of the episode should have keyed you in on the more significant plot points to help set up this next episode and, more broadly, the next season. Specifically, though, the most key thing to remember was what Lady Armorer told The Mando, that he must reunite Baby Yoda with its kind.

And the show wastes no time in setting The Mando off on this journey. We find him wandering into a town of some sort, with Baby Yoda in the pram following behind. He enters a sports arena where a fight is happening between a pair of Gamorreans wielding what I can only assume are vibro-axes. The Mando and Baby Yoda make their way to Gor Karesh. The Mando explains he’s been quested to bring Baby Yoda to its own kind and believes that if he can find other Mandalorians, they would be able to help him. The Mando is acting on a tip that Gor knows where other Mandos may be. Gor, acting like a typical gangster, says some gangster stuff, and has his gangster cronies draw their weapons against The Mando in a not-so-surprising surprise ambush. Gor wants The Mando’s shiny beskar armor and more or less implies he’s taken the lives of other Mandalorians to harvest their armor. Not cool man.

As cool and collected as one can be, The Mando simply reiterates his request for information on where he can find more like him and he’ll just walk out without killing him. More words are exchanged and with a flick of his wrist, The Mando arms his whistling birds wrist rockets. Baby Yoda sees this, knows whats about to go down, and hides itself in the pram.

The birds take out the gunmen surrounding the Mando and everyone comes and tries to take him down all the while Gor Karesh tries to run out the back. The Mando dispatches them pretty easily and goes after Gor. He catches up with him outside and strings him up like a blue fin tuna demanding to know the whereabouts of this Mandalorian the he knows about. Gor gives up the info: Tatooine, more specifically a settlement called Mos Pelgo.

Yep. You can kind of guess where this is going and who is going to be involved. The Mando and Baby Yoda make their way back to Tatooine and yep, you guess it, they land back in Peli Motto’s hangar at Mos Eisley spaceport. She remembers The Mando not being too keen on droids since he almost blasted one the last time they tried to service his ship. She tells them to back off but this time, The Mando is like “nah it’s cool, they can do their thing.” He’s not so anti-droid anymore ever since IG-11 sac’ed himself to save the Escort Party in the last episode. Look at that, The Mando is growing up! Anyways, Peli is beside herself at the site of Baby Yoda. Mando asks her to baby sit cause he’s got some business out in Mos Pelgo. Peli said it doesn’t exist, hasn’t existed in a long time, and that it’s been wiped out. The Mando says he can’t find it on any of the maps so Peli asks R5 to come show him the map he has of Tatooine before the war. And yes, that is the same R5 unit that had a bad motivator. How could it not be R5-D4?

Yeah, that’s R5-D4.

Even in R5’s old map, Mos Pelgo isn’t even marked, but Peli points to the spot where it should be. There’s not much there now but what is there will be able to spot the Crest long before it has a chance to land. The Mando asks Peli if she’s still got a speeder he used during his last visit. Why The Mando feels like a more subtle approach is necessary is beyond me. It’s not like he has to sneak up on the rumored Mandalorian or anything but whatever.

The next montage has The Mando cruising the desert sands, Baby Yoda in a saddle bag, ears flapping undeniably cutely in the wind. There’s a scene where he shares a fire with some Tusken Raiders at night. It’s a nice scene, harking back to “The Gunslinger” episode and his encounter with the sand people where we saw him communicate with them for passage through their lands.

The next scene has The Mando arriving at the tiny, tiny outpost of Mos Pelgo. The shows roots based on spaghetti Westerns shine here more so than any other episode. The outsider coming into town, going into the local watering hole, looking for information. In my best Chandler voice, could it BE any more Western? He meets a Weequay bartender and inquires about a Mandalorian, “Someon who looks like me.” The weequay responds with “You mean the Marshal?” And then, Boba Fett appears. At least, that’s who we’re supposed to think that is. The Mando has no idea that Boba fell into a Sarlacc pit and shouldn’t even really be alive. So he just assumes he’s the real deal; that is until the imposter takes off his helmet. If there’s one thing we know about Mandalorians it’s that they NEVER take off their helmet, not for another living being anyway. So Mando clues in right away that this guys not who he is looking for. The imposter, Cobb Vanth, isn’t dumb. He’s familiar enough with what the Mandalorians are, and figures The Mando is there to take back the armor. The Mando demands he takes it off since it doesn’t belong to him. The discussion quickly devolves to a good ol’ fashioned Western-style shoot out.

But just as it seemed like someone was going to blink first and draw, they are interrupted by a low rumble. They step out of the bar and see this… thing… coming towards Mos Pelgo under the sand. The tiny town’s inhabitants panic and find shelter as the giant thing burrows along and then swallows up a bantha. It’s a krayt dragon. Apparently it’s been terrorizing the town since the beginning of time.

After the krayt has his snack and disappears, Cobb has a plan. The Mando can have his people’s armor back if he helps the town kill the dragon. Who didn’t see that one coming a mile away? THe Mando thought maybe he can just blast it to bits from the sky using the Razor Crest but Cobb says that won’t work cause of vibrations. So now the plan is to go lure it out of its hiding hole.

The next shot is just great: The Mando is on his borrowed speeder speeding across the desert, and along comes Cobb on a modified speder using a single podracer engine with a seat attached to it. The podracer engine is from none other than Anakin’s podracer. Yeah, pretty epic.

On the way across the desert, Cobb relates a story about how Mos Pelgo came to be in the condition it’s in today. Apparently, seconds after the destruction of Death Star II, the Mining Collective came to town and nearly slaughtered everyone. Cobb managed to get away under cover of night while carrying around a camtono of Silicax crystals. Wandering the desert, he collapses right before being found by a group of jawas in a sandcrawler. While inside the Sandcrawler, the jawas try to trade for the crystals offering droids and weapons, but Cobb spots Boba’s armor hanging on the wall and the deal is done. The next flashback shot has Cobb decked out in Boba’s armor make his way back to Mos Pelgo’s bar and take out a bunch of miners. A group of them get away on a speeder but Cobb comes out, uses the rangefinder on Boba’s helmet, targets the speeder, and fires the rocket from the rocket-firing backpack. Yes, it really does fire.

Exit flashback and The Mando and The Cobb are cruising through a canyon when they hear what they probably think is the krayt dragon. But nothing of the sort comes out from behind the rocks. Just some fluffy puppies who want to play. The Mando speaks Tuskenese and is able to give one of the dogs a good scratch when pair of Tusken Raiders appear. The Mando grunts at them, they grunt back, and Cobb demands to know what’s going on because he can’t grunt with them. The Mando reveals that the Sand People want to kill the krayt dragon too.

Makes sense, seeing as to how they ARE Sand People, and the live on sand and the krayt dragon moves under the sand like a Megalodon in the Pacific. So while sharing a fire that night, they all try and get along but Cobb’s feeling inadequate not being able to communicate with the Tuskens and being offered what looks like rotten fruit water. Not only that, he’s being asked to work with the very people that raided Mos Pelgo time and again. He can’t take it anymore and throws the rotten fruit water down, insulting the Tuskens. One Tusken raider furiously signs at Cobb threatening to kill him. Mando can’t take it anymore either so he lights up his wrist flamethrower to distract everyone and calm everyone down.

The next morning, the unlikely alliance of a Mandalorian warrior, a Mandalorian wannabe, and a bunch of Tusken Raiders caravan their way to the cave where the krayt dragon lives. Turns out the Tusken raiders have been offering sacrifices of banthas to the dragon in hopes that they keep its belly full enough to stop it from attacking their village. A lone Tusken escorts a bantha to the cave (don’t worry, this one does NOT look like a body part), yells at the opening and tries to run away only to be eaten. That dude didn’t stand a chance. Clearly this is unsustainable so the bunch of them try to come up with a new plan. They do, but it invovles like every Tusken raider and every citizen of Mos Pelgo. The Tuskens can’t do kill it by themselves. Mos Pelgo peeps can’t do it themselves, but together they stand a better chance.

The Mando and Cobb speed their way back to Mos Pelgo to break the news to the town. The townsfolk are none too happy but agree to working with the Tuskens under the premise that this will broker a peace agreement between the two. Something something the enemy of my enemy is my friend or some such thing. The Tuskens arrive shortly after with a huge herd of banthas, enough to carry all of Mos Pelgo’s mining munitions back to the krayt’s dragons cave.

Back at the cave, a lone Tusken approaches the mouth of the cave. But he doesn’t get eaten. He senses that the dragon’s asleep, giving the hunting party an opening to set a trap. The dragon’s weak spot is its belly, so they have bury the charges, lure it out, and the detonate once it’s over the explosives. What can go wrong?

After the short montage of TEAMWORK! another lone Tusken is seen at the mouth and he starts yelling angrily at the hole. Sleepy dragon wakes up and comes out to see what all the fuss is about. Harpoons are launched and they annoy the dragon enough for it to want to go back in his cave. That’s when the rest of the hunting party come alive and try to annoy him even more to come out of the cave. It kind of works but the pay a dear price for the dragon rears up and spits acid at everyone instantly disintegrating them. Yeah, I didn’t know they could do that either. Despite the losses, it works because the dragon is now in position. Cobb detonates the charges, and it disappears in the cloud of sand, dirt, and dust. Cobb and The Mando smartly assess that it didn’t work.

The dragons pissed now and appears at the top of the mountain just acid-spitting everything in sight. The Mando and Cobb rocket-backpack their way up to the top and land next to it, trying to distract it and stop it from killing everything. And it works. Krusty the Krayt lunges at them, the pair rocket away, and the once again the dragon disappears in a puff of smoke. Everyoen looks around in silence wondering where the next attack will be be coming from.

And yep, it came from behind. The dragon is bearing down on everyone. The Mando gets an idea and orders Cobb to get its attention. Cobb fires the rocket-firing backpack again, getitng the dragon to turn towards them. The Mando asks Cobb if he still has the detontor, to which he says yes. The Mando then tells Cobb to take care of Baby Yoda and before anyone can say, “My Two Dads”, The Mando wacks the back of Cobb’s backpack with the butt of his rifle which sends him flying off and away from danger.

Next, The Mando arms all of the charges the bantha is carrying. And just when you think, wait, is he gonna make the dragon swallow the bantha, the dragon ends up swallowing both the bantha AND The Mando before disappearing under the sand. After a moment, the dragon breaches the surface with its mouth wide open from the electrical discharges coming from The Mando’s rifle. He flies out of its mouth, reaches for the detonator, and blows up the charges attached to the bantha that is now in it’s stomach. Kablooey. After one last howl, the krayt dragon falls to the ground.

My words can’t accurately describe the epicness of this battle.

After the dust settles, we see the Tuskens busy scavenging the corpse ins earch of a krayt dragon pearl. Cobb hands over Boba’s armor to the Mando. They shake hands and mutually agree that they’re bros now. Aaaaand scene!

But wait, there’s more! All these shots of Boba’s armor but no Boba Fett? False. Boba himself makes a quick cameo during the final scene. Yes, I thought it was stupid before, and I still think it’s stupid. I’ve enjoyed The Mandalorian enough to give Gutter from PCU a chance to explain this away, but I’m not hopeful that any explanation is going to not be stupid.

This episode was great. Clocking in at 55 minutes, it’s the longest episode so far and not a single minute of it felt wasted or extraneous. A steady build up to an epic battle made this a treat to watch. But it wasn’t brokering a peace deal, killing the dragon, or getting back sacred Mandalorian armor that made the episode great, it was the friendships that were made along the way.

Random Thoughts

The introduction to the krayt dragon had me thinking that the rest of the episode was going to play out like the movie Tremors. I’m so glad it didn’t. The krayt dragon actually reminded me more of a molduga from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

One of my favorite scenes was this:

The Tusken using the end of the gaffi stick to floss the bantha’s teeth. It reminded me of these weird toothbrushes I distinctly remember my parents had when I was a kid.

I appreciated all the screen time with the Tusken Raiders. It showed that they are just more than just a constant threat they were portrayed to be in the films.

Mos Pelgo sounds like a crappy place to live. Cobb makes it sound like they are constantly under attack from bandits, and before they brokered a peace and took care of the dragon, sand people, and the krayt dragon itself. Bandits? Sure, if the settlement had enough people they seem like something that can be defended against. Sand people? Sure, if the settlement had enough people they seem like something that can be defendded against. Giant krayt dragon that can burrow in the sand and swallow banthas whole? Yeah, time to peace out and find another place to live. Why would anyone continue to live there after say the first attack? And what were they mining to make the settlement worth risking your life over?

A Mandalorian’s signet is earned after felling a great beast. At least that’s what I’ve surmised at how The Mando go his mudhorn signet. Are there do-overs? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure The Mando ranked up after that krayt dragon kill.

And I just made it under the wire! Date still says 11/5. I’ll do better this next episode. Just been a super crazy week.