After last week’s episode, there is no doubt that fans were dying for this one to come out. The Mandalorian met Cobb Vanth last week and we got a little glimpse of the infamous Boba Fett. We saw a bunch of great easter eggs and an expansion of the already deep Star Wars lore.
A Western Beginning
We are getting the Star Wars action that we craved so heavily right off the bat. This episode started pretty excitingly, we got a glimpse of some Star Wars scavengers doing what they can to survive. They just keep reiterating the Western feel with Bandits and scenes like this.
When they pulled the rope on Mando I didn’t prefer to see the precious little child going flying the way he did, but I am certainly glad he’s ok. Mando is super slick, even when things surprise him like this he can land on his feet, rather impressive.
It looks like those bandits knew exactly what to grab, too. Who were they exactly? Most likely a gang of bounty hunters who used their fobs to track Mando out to Tatooine. The encounter showed us the bargaining side of Mando, too. He was quick to convince that bandit to take something rather than the child and eventually lose his life.
Why he passed up Boba’s armor on the ground? He must not have recognized it. The jetpack was a good call, but Mando’s rebuttal was even better. The Child loved it, too.
An interesting friend
Thank you to our friend Peli Motto, Mando has a lead on where he can find some more Mandalorians. But first, he must get something done for them. Mr. Mandible, the ant creature was the source of the information. What did you guys think of this alien design? He was essentially just a giant ant, nothing spectacular about it and no noticeable physical changes.
Then we get to meet the special cargo that Mando will be to be escorting. We also get the answer to the backpack that Mando was wearing back in the season 2 trailer. The eggs need to be fertilized, but Baby Yoda has other things in mind and just can’t stop eyeballing them.
The language of this alien seems very fitting, the frog design is a cool one, but I would have liked to see a different sort of design, similar to Mr. Mandible, the overgrown ant, it looks like this is just an overgrown frog with nothing particularly special, either.
Mando’s got a real challenge to get her safely to her location because he can’t make the jump to light speed and so he’s got to slowly make his way there. This leaves them a lot more vulnerable, but it looks like the New Republic has gotten a hold of the sector he is flying through.
The New Republic
A nice little cameo for Mr. Filoni himself, he returns as an X-wing pilot for the New Republic. These guys are tasked with keeping the peace and finding any remaining Empire-survivors to eradicate. In the process, they must be sure they are running transponders and essentially make sure no one is flying around being sus.
The dialogue here was very realistic. Mando was put in the hot seat. He isn’t technically breaking the law and doing anything wrong. He may have an outdated ship, but why would he need to stay updated? Look at some of the car laws we have today.
The New Republic has some different standards and demands for more. I don’t blame them, the Empire was a pretty nasty thing that just recently happened, too bad the New Republic wasn’t as thorough as they should have been because look at the terror Gideon is causing and the eventual rise of the First Order. But that is a different conversation.
Mando ends up making a run for it and the camera angles for this is perfect. The New Republic is in hot pursuit of Mando and everything about this is absolutely perfect. I felt like I was watching “Space Cops”, the Star Wars universe’s favorite reality show.
The zooms, the camera shaking, the audio, this was damn good. The X-wing pilots were hilarious, “I don’t know where he thinks he’s going in that thing.”
Ice Planet Chillers
It wasn’t Mando’s best landing, but it was definitely a cool one. He got away from those X-wing pilots, but at what cost? It seemed as if things could have gone very smoothly if the ice didn’t crack. I bet Mando wishes he just followed those pilots back to their outpost.
And so there he lands, in the ice cave. The ship is broken, the frog lady is scared, her eggs are disappearing one by one, but at least Baby Yoda is getting his fill of his frog chicken nuggies.
The frog lady is highly intelligent, the way she bypassed the security droid was impressive. He looked like 4-LOM and was the droid who piloted them during chapter 6.
But, things are never easy for this Mandalorian and the frog lady went for a quick dip. I don’t blame her, she found some nice hot pools and thought she’d warm up. It’s probably in her blood to do these things. But because of her choice to sneak off, we get to encounter some of the child’s curiosity.
It seems that the child has a knack for finding eggs, the little guy is a growing boy and he needs his nutrients, but this time, this time he messed with the wrong egg. Those little ice spiders were extremely terrifying and then they just kept getting bigger and bigger.
The Mandalorian is doing a great job of giving us some monsters fear. I mean fear, to the point of going back to your roots and hop like your ancestors did thousands of years ago.
I am not a spider guy, I can hold any snake on Dagobah, but the one thing I cannot do is spiders. So you already know my anxiety went through the roof and I already know I would be right next to the frog lady hopping like I was born and raised in the rain forest.
Saviors
Frog lady has better aim than most stormtroopers and that is a fact. She is a survivor and I love that for her. But when things started to look their darkest, when the mother of those spiders hopped onto I didn’t know how they would get out of this one.
Thanks to the New Republic pilots, Mando, the frog lady, and the child are all off to their original destination. The things that he did for the New Republic ended up being enough for him to get away with breaking and entering a prison transport and hijacking a prisoner that he later killed by planting a fob on him and sending the New Republic to his location. Sorry, not sorry Qin, these are trying times.
I have Spoken
Finally, the last shot of the episode is our answer to the shot of him lazily flying through space barely held together. This episode was a good one and I didn’t expect this one to be this close to the beginning. I am sure glad it was, Disney is good about using the stuff from the beginning in their trailers and leaving the rest a surprise.
Maybe next week we will get our encounter with the Empire. Mando has to finish his promise and get the frog lady to her husband, so we have an idea of what to expect. Chapter 11 will feature him getting that ride on the ferry, which is super exciting because that’s where it looks like Sabine will run into him.
This was a fun episode. It wasn’t nearly as good as last week’s episode, but it was good. The scruff with the bandits and the spider chase had me on the edge of my seat. The frog lady ended up being a great addition to this episode. She helped the team stay safe, she showed some smarts by bypassing a droid, and she can hop pretty fast.
What was your favorite part of today’s episode? Thank you for reading and remember, “uhh, may the force be with you” and utinni!