Another fantastic episode of the Mandalorian this week. This episode came out early because of the long-awaited The Rise of Skywalker. The last episodes have been great and this one was no different. The Mandalorian’s first season is coming to an end soon and they are doing a great job with setting up the second season.
The child, who has become the star of the show and an internet sensation is the focus of this episode as Mando makes an effort to clear his name. Mando has begun to take a real liking to this child and this episode shows.
KARGA’S PROPOSITION
Mando is still trying to evade the remnants of the Empire and the bounty hunters that are after the child. He gets a message from Karga who asks Mando to return to Nevarro so that he can help the guild kill the client who wanted the child in the first place if Mando helps he will get his name cleared with the bounty and be free to live his life with the child or give him a better life with someone else.
Mando is tempted to take the offer because he has the best intentions for the child. He’s better off giving him to someone who can focus on raising this strange child. Mando’s smart enough to know not to go to the planet and back to the guild alone, so he gets some help. Who is Mando to call when he needs to firepower to fight the Empire? Cara Dune, of course.
OFF TO SORGAN
Mando heads off to Sorgan where we see Cara fighting this huge man; they’re wearing an interesting belt on them that keeps them together as they fight. She, of course, wins the fight and makes some money off it. Here comes Mando with the child following shortly behind him. They are coming to make a deal with her.
He knows he’s going to need back-up for this mission to kill the client and rid the Empire from Nevarro. She’s reluctant at first, which makes a lot of sense because she’s probably been to hell and back from fighting in the war, she also got into a hot mess the last time she did a job with Mando, so I can see why she’s not too keen on it.
After Mando mentions it is the Empire you can almost see the despair and fire in her eyes. The close-up she got was intense. She’s immediately in after and now they need to plan out how they are going to do this. When looking at the weapons and deciding which one she wants, the child takes control of the ship because well, why not? He’s a cute little ball of mischief and they know they’re going to need a babysitter, someone who they can trust…
KUIIL THE BABYSITTER
They pay Kuiil a visit on Arvala-7 and ask him for a favor. We get some more background on his background and his service in the Empire. You can tell Cara isn’t too big of a fan of this guy because of his past. He is just a humble worker who just wanted his freedom, you can’t blame the guy. He didn’t pull the lever to blow up Alderaan.
Kuiil’s servant/protector robot walks in and scares the shit out of Mando and Cara. It’s IG-11, the droid Mando killed in Chapter 1. We get this flashback about how he was able to rewire the droid to make it trustworthy and all that good stuff, but as cool as it was to see, it was a bit long for what it was. It was interesting to watch it learn how to walk and pour tea, but we’d rather watch baby Yoda learn how to do real-life things, not a robot.
Another important part of this is that Kuiil made a comment that the child is indeed NOT a clone. He had worked in the gene farms and would know first hand if the baby was a clone. He said that the child has aged naturally, is too ugly to be a clone, and that he is evolving too slowly to be engineered. This is our confirmation that the child is a naturally born presence.
With comics that have confirmed Anakin’s birth being the child of Palpatine through manipulation of the midichlorians in Shmi. There is a good chance that the child is “the chosen one” and could replace Anakin. I suppose this is how Disney can keep the story going, they could make tons of movies or shows about the child growing into a more powerful Jedi than even Yoda, Anakin, or Obi-Wan.
After the short Mando convinces him to come aboard and join in protecting the child on the mission. He demands to bring his blurrgs, he must dislike speeders as much as Mando dislikes robots. They’re finally off to Nevarro.
BACK TO NEVARRO
Mando and Cara are arm wrestling as they fly back to Nevarro when we see a very interesting display of the force. The child thinks Mando is fighting Cara and is in danger so he begins to force choke her as savagely as Darth Vader. He’s the cutest thing in the entire galaxy, but he can crush your windpipe from across the room. That’s impressively frightening and I did not expect that.
Cara didn’t expect it either and is completely freaked out. The force isn’t common in the galaxy like it was before the Jedi Purge so any display of it is strange. Kuiil is completely amazed at what he saw, along with Mando and everyone in America. The connection between the child and the Mando is becoming very strong. The child feels he needs to protect Mando just as Mando protects him. This being is smart and shows to be aware of his surroundings.
The situation defuses and they head back into the cockpit where we get to see even more of Mando’s hatred toward droids. He refuses to let IG-11 leave the ship and says it with some disgust. He still won’t believe that he is safe to be around, he was programmed to kill so I can understand his distrust.
NEVARRO AND KARGA
They finally land in the outskirts of Nevarro and meet up with Karga. He’s with his most trusted bounty hunters and everyone is suspicious of each other. They head out to make a camp and go over the plan before they go into town at daybreak. What seems like a normal night turns into a nightmare when some random dragon looking things flew in a ruined the party. I knew something bad was going to happen when we saw that space goat as they were traveling through the lava; lava and goats are a sure sign of dragons.
The dragons try and take Karga but are only able to slice up his arm pretty bad. They all start shooting wildly at the dragons trying not to get taken by one. One of the Karga’s bounty hunters gets taken and so does one of Kuiil’s blurrgs. He’s bummed and goes into dad mode to protect the other ones. A dragon tries to take another blurrgs but they can kill him. Three people and a blurrg later it finally dies down and they’re safe. I’m sure they can’t wait for the morning.
Karga is dying from the poison in the claws of the dragon and starts to get all dramatic. Cara does what she can but with just one med-pack it won’t be enough. It seems this plan is going to fail before it can even start and that’s when we see another awesome display of the force from the child. He heals Karga back to complete health and it stuns everyone there and moves Karga.
The original plan to kill Mando and turn in the child changes because he was able to heal Karga. The child moved him as much as he has Mando and now he wants to help fight for his life, too. We all sort of saw this coming though, right? The deal was way too sweet for Mando and why would you trust a bunch of bounty hunters? Anyways, they need to kill the client, so they devise a new plan to take Mando as a prisoner with the child. There are only 4 stormtroopers, so how bad can it go?
INTO THE CITY
They head into the city where they see there is way more than 4 stormtroopers. There’s enough to populate that entire city and then some. This seems like this may get out of hand. They get into the cantina where the client is waiting for the delivery of the child and there are 4 stormtroopers in there. That’s the first thing to go right for them since landing on Nevarro. Shortly after they sit down a few more stormtroopers come running and there went that.
Just as the client is about to see what’s not inside the crib he gets a phone call from his boss, Moff Gideon who is the leader of the stormtroopers on Nevarro. He is calling the shots for the client and pulling his strings. He’s the one who wants to desperately get his hands on the child and utilize his power for his gain. If you thought the client was the bad guy, then this is the super bad guy. He will stop at nothing to get his hands on the child.
Mando radio’s into Kuiil to let him know to get the hell off the planet with the child. This is the biggest mistake Mando makes, yet. He didn’t know they would be listening to his comlink, but they were and now they know the location of the child. This got my heart beating so fast I dialed 91- just in case I needed to hit that last 1 real quick for a medpack of my own.
The scout troopers hop on their speeders and race to catch up to Kuiil and the precious child. A blurrg running has no match for these speeders, even with the headstart that he had the blurrg didn’t stand a chance against them in a race. This is where we see Kuiil’s sad end as he desperately tried to keep the baby safe. After a lifetime of servantry and finally being freed, he dies doing one last favor for a friend. He won’t get to live his peaceful life on Arvala-7, but he will at least be at peace. A personal favorite character of the show, I was devastated to see him die, especially being shot in the back by the Empire.
The child is now in the hands of the Empire and we’re left waiting a week and a half for the next and final episode of season one. Gideon may finally get what he wants and through the child will probably attempt to rebuild the Empire.
I HAVE SPOKEN
This episode of The Mandalorian was great, it built upon the plot of the story and ended with a cliff hanger. We’ve been spoiled with each episode ending with a nice conclusion that this was sort of surprise. Then again, it is the second to last episode, so it would make sense they would make it a two-part episode. Either way, I can’t wait for next week’s episode to release, but at the same time, I feel I can wait because I’m not ready to see this season end.
The ending credits, if you waited for it to play all the wait through, offered a sneak preview of The Rise of Skywalker, which comes out Friday. This sneak peek was action-packed and got me very excited for the movie to come out. I have my tickets and I can’t wait to go. The legendary Palpatine will make his return. Maybe baby Yoda healed him?
Also, Mando will be getting his jetpack in the next episode. Just our prediction, there’s only one episode left so our chances of being right are rather high.
Thank you for reading and may the force be with you!
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