The Mandalorian Marathon - Chapter 15: The Believer

It's the penultimate episode of the second season. Again, I'll have to discuss some major spoilers.

In a bid to find Moff Gideon's cruiser, Din seeks out Cara Dune, now a Marshal of the New Republic. Using her position, she is able to recruit Mayfeld for his knowledge of Imperial protocol. He suggests they access a terminal at a secret Imperial refinery on Morak for the information they need. As Cara, Fennec, and Boba Fett are too well-known to the Imperial Security Bureau, Din reluctantly accompanies Mayfeld in infiltrating the facility. During this time, Din is forced to go against his code to find Grogu.

A large of the episode involves Din and Mayfeld's plan to infiltrate the facility by hijacking a transport carrying a highly volatile mineral, during which time Din is forced to swap his beskar for stormtrooper armour. They're later waylaid by a group of pirates who are blowing up the shipments. It's a tense scene as Din fights wave after wave of them while Mayfeld is forced to walk a thin line between trying to outrun them and trying not to destabilise the cargo too much. You know you're in a mess when you end up being saved by stormtroopers.

Bill Burr does a good job providing an interesting foil to Din. While we've seen other characters awkwardly attempt small talk with the terse Mandalorian, his cynicism makes him stand out. He discusses how people still chafe under rules, no matter who's in charge of the galaxy, and talks about how everyone has a line they won't cross until they're desperate.

This theme gets put to the test when they reach the facility. Mayfeld finds the terminal in the officer's mess hall, but balks when he encounters his former commanding officer, Valin Hess. Din is forced to go in Mayfeld's stead and removes his helmet so the terminal can scan his face. When Hess questions him, Mayfeld is forced to step in, creating a tense scene as he calls out Hess over an atrocity referred to as "Operation Cinder".

It's a great episode, and Din's Liam Neeson-style message to Gideon at the end (using the same words that Gideon used) makes me excited for the finale.

The Mandalorian Marathon - Chapter 14: The Tragedy

Wow, Robert Rodriguez directed this? Also, I'm going to have to discuss a fair few spoilers in this episode.

Following Ahsoka's advice, Din takes Grogu to Tython and places him on top of a Jedi "seeing stone" in the hopes of reaching out to a Jedi who can teach him. But as a familiar ship arrives, the stone activates and sends Grogu into a deep trance while surrounding him with a force field. Unable to get him out, Din goes to confront the newcomer: Boba Fett, everyone's favourite bounty hunter from the original trilogy, played by Temuera Morrison (who played Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones). He's accompanied by Fennec Shand, whom he'd found on Tatoone after she'd been shot and left for dead by Calican. They seek Fett's armour, which Din had taken from Cobb Vanth, and offer to guarantee Grogu's safety in exchange for it. Din is reluctant to hand it over, as Boba didn't take the Mandalorian Creed, but their discourse is interrupted when stormtroopers arrive to take Grogu.

If you enjoy action, this episode has it in spades. Most of the running time is taken up by Boba Fett and Fennec Shand fighting the stormtroopers while Din tries to get Grogu off the stone. Fett doesn't have his armour at first, but he's able to take down a squad with a Tusken gaffi stick. Meanwhile, Shand is able to quickly snipe many troopers, even as they begin deploying heavy weapons (including a mortar). Din later joins the fray, using his armour to protect Shand as she fires back. Fett eventually recovers his armour and takes down the transports as they're leaving.

Of course, there's not just action. The beginning shows Din interacting more with Grogu. In the early episodes, Grogu enjoyed playing with a silver ball which he unscrewed off one of the levers in the Razor Crest. Din initially chastised him for playing with it, and later gave it to him. In the previous episode, he used that same ball to connect with Grogu during Ahsoka's training, and does it again here. It also hints at his ambivelance at the thought of Grogu finding a Jedi, having grown fond of The Child.

By the end of the episode, we see Din at probably one of his lowest ever points. An airstrike from Gideon's cruiser obliterates the Razor Crest, and then combat droids known as Dark Troopers (which initially debuted in the FPS game Dark Forces) abduct Grogu.

It's also interesting to see Boba Fett get a bit of depth. In the original trilogy, he was largely a background character who met an unceremonious end in Return of the Jedi. In this one, he's shown to be quite level-headed and surprisingly honourable for a mercenary. Having promised to guarantee Grogu's safety in exchange for his armour, he offers to help Din rescue him.

All-in-all, I'm excited for what happens next.

The Mandalorian Marathon - Chapter 13: The Jedi

Time for another blast from the past. And a hint at the future.

With the Razor Crest ship-shape again, Din Djarin travels to Corvus in search of Ahsoka Tano, hoping to find a Jedi to train Baby Yoda. He visits the city of Calodan, which is under the despotic rule of Morgan Elspeth, a former Imperial magistrate played by Diana Lee Inosanto. Ahsoka, played by Rosario Dawson, is hiding in the forests and harrassing Elspeth's forces, seeking to learn information about her master. Elspeth offers Din a Beskar spear if he kills Ahsoka, and sends him into the woods. The pair soon team up to liberate the town.

Like in "The Heiress", we see the return of a prominent character from the animated shows. Again, I'd already seen Ahsoka in Rebels when I first watched this, but hadn't watched The Clone Wars. If you're unfamiliar, here's the run-down: She was originally a Jedi padawan apprenticed to Anakin Skywalker in The Clone Wars, but later left the Jedi order and became something akin to a Neutral Good ronin. It's clear that her Jedi skills haven't faded.

This episode utilises a strong Kurosawa-themed element, which is something that has been part of Star Wars from the very beginning. The visuals of Calodan and the surrounding woodlands do a great job in painting a bleak world. It seems kind of symbolic, but it's also mentioned that Elspeth helped build the Imperial war machine, so the visuals and deforestation are akin to industrial smog. A subtle environmental message?

This episode also reveals that The Child's name is Grogu, and he was raised on the Jedi Temple in Coruscant until the Empire hunted down the Jedi. Between the action sequences, we get some quiet moments of Ahsoka trying to teach Grogu how to use the Force, but she chooses not to fully train him on the grounds that he's too attached to Din.

As for the action, we open with Ahsoka fighting off Elspeth's faceless goons who are essentially knock-off Stormtroopers before confronting her at the gates. There's also a brief scrap between Din and Ahsoka when she initially assumes he's working for Elspeth. During the final battle, Ahsoka does most of the fighting while Din works with one of the locals (later revealed to be the governor) to free several prisoners whom Elspeth is holding hostage. While she confronts Elspeth, Din gets into a staredown with her main enforcer; a gunfighter called Lang, played by Michael Biehn. We don't get to learn much about him, other than that he's likely from a military background.

Finally, this episode serves as a teaser for Ahsoka, a spin-off show in which Rosario Dawson and Diana Lee Inosanto would reprise their roles. I'm not going to look at that in this marathon. However, I will say that while I enjoyed it, I felt it relied a little too much on having seen Rebels.

Anyway, it's a great episode.

The Mandalorian Marathon - Chapter 12: The Siege

What is it with Imperial aversion to guard rails? And what do we know of Jeans Guy?

When we last left off, Bo-Katan told Din that if he wants to find the Jedi, he should travel to Corvus and seek out Ahsoka Tano (another character from The Clone Wars). Unfortunately, the mechanics on Trask did a substandard job on the Razor Crest, forcing him to seek repairs on Nevarro. Upon his return, he finds the town has become more peaceful: Greef Karga is now serving as the local magistrate, Cara Dune has become the marshal, and the Bounty Hunters' guild house has been converted into a school. We even see the Mythrol whom Din hunted in the first episode, working off a debt to Karga. In exchange for the repairs, Din offers to help Karga and Dune shut down an Imperial forward base in the region.

Once again, this episode provides some great action sequences. Notable moments include Cara's return, during which she single-handedly takes down a criminal gang hiding in the remains of the Mandalorian enclave. There's also running gun battles through the facility, followed by a chase through the canyon as the party escapes in a transporter pursued by speeder bikes and later TIE fighters.

There's also a couple of funny moments, largely provided by Baby Yoda and the Mythrol. For example, Din is trying to get Baby Yoda to help him with repairs. He later leaves him at the school, during which time he uses the Force to steal another kid's sweets. Meanwhile, the Mythrol serves as a Cowardly Lion-type character who acts the party's rogue of sorts. Even that role gets defied at times when he's called to open an electronic panel to open elevator. As he's working, Din flies up to a landing platform on his jetpack, we hear sounds of a battle and see a stormtrooper fall into the ravine, and then Din calls the elevator.

This episode also hints at the Imperial remnant's interest in Baby Yoda. Din and his companions initially set out to knock out the forward base so the troops stationed there wouldn't threaten the town and the hardware couldn't be sold on the black market. However, they soon discover that the facility was a lab in which several cloning experiments were being conducted. The party soon finds a recent holographic recording from Dr Pershing and learn that Moff Gideon is still alive and still seeking The Child. We also learn at the end of the episode that one of the ship mechanics on Nevarro is a spy for Gideon, and has planted a tracking beacon on the Razor Crest.

Looking forward to the next episode.

The Mandalorian Marathon - Chapter 11: The Heiress

I'm getting a Firefly vibe from some of those Razor Crest shots.

Picking up where we left off, Din arrives on Trask (after a bumpy landing) and Frog Lady is able to reunite with her husband. Din and Baby Yoda are then directed to an inn where they can find somebody who has seen other Mandalorians. Seeking passage on a trawler, the pair are promptly betrayed by the ship crew, who seek to harvest the Beskar in Din's armour and lock them in the tank with a carnivorous sea creature. The pair are promptly rescued by a trio of Mandalorians led by Bo-Katan Kryze, the displaced ruler of Mandalore who seeks to reclaim her birthright. In exchange for information about the Jedi, she asks Din to help her seize an Imperial freighter carrying weapons and loot salvaged from Mandalore.

From this episode, we start to run into a major issue a lot of the Star Wars shows face: crossovers with the other shows in the franchise. Bo-Katan is a character who appeared in The Clone Wars and Rebels, and they even got Katee Sackhoff to reprise her role in her character's first live-action appearance. When I first saw this episode, I had watched Rebels but not The Clone Wars, so I was familiar with her backstory which those shows had established. I just wonder if those shows would be required viewing for someone watching this one?

Anyway, that concern aside, it's still a great episode. Bo-Katan kicks a lot of ass, whether it's the Quarren fishermen who targeted Din or the Stormtroopers guarding the freighter. And she isn't alone: she's accompanied by fellow Mandalorians Axe Woves and Koska Reeves, played respectively by  Simon Kassianides and professional wrestler Mercedes Varnado (also known as Sasha Banks). There's some tense moments as the freighter captain kills the pilots and attempts to crash the ship in order to prevent Bo-Katan from seizing the cargo.

In a further development, we learn how dogmatic Din can be in his beliefs. He's shocked when he sees Bo-Katan and her companions remove their helmets (which he considers a serious taboo), but then learns that his covert - The Children of the Watch - are regarded as zealots by other Mandalorians. He initially refuses to be with them until they save him again, after which he reluctantly works with them.

All in all, a fun watch.

The Mandalorian Marathon - Chapter 10: The Passenger

Talk about a road trip from Hell. Getting a Ridley Scott vibe from this one.

When we last left off, Din had acquired Boba Fett's armour from Cobb Vanth and left Mos Pelgo while being observed from afar by a mysterious figure. As he returns to Mos Eisley, he's ambushed by a group of bandits but fends them off, although the mysterious figure isn't with them. Anyway, he meets back up with Pelli, and learns from a "Frog Lady" that there were Mandalorians sighted on the planet Trask. In exchange for the information, Din has to take the Frog Lady to Trask so she can meet her husband and fertilise her eggs. 

The voyage to Trask is troublesome from the get-go: The eggs cannot safely travel through hyperspace, requiring sublight travel; the Frog Lady can only speak her own language, making communication difficult; and Baby Yoda keeps eating her eggs. To make matters worse, they're waylaid by a New Republic patrol who recognise the Razor Crest from the prison ship job in the last season. Din attempts to make a break for it, but crash lands on a frigid world. And there's spiders. Lots and lots of spiders.

The first portion of the episode is largely played for laughs, with Pelli Motto persuading Din to cover an insect creature's stake in a card game, and vouching for Frog Lady whom she only met ten minutes earlier. We get a cool but ruthless "Papa Wolf" moment from Din as he fights off the bandit attack and one of the assailants threatens Baby Yoda, demanding his jetpack. Din agrees to the exchange, and then activates the jetpack when the bandit takes it, sending him plummeting to his death.

The tension ramps up when they encounter the patrol. It starts out as the equivalent of a routine traffic stop, but when Din sees the two X-Wings take up an attack position, he realises he's in trouble.

When they crash land, Frog Lady demonstrates some ingenuity by using Q9-0's wrecked chassis to make a translator to admonish him. She later saves The Child from the spiders by shooting them.

All in all, this is a pretty good episode with a strong horror element.

The Mandalorian Marathon - Chapter 9: The Marshal

 

Well, it's time to start the second season.

Din Djarin is travelling the galaxy in his quest to reunite Baby Yoda with his people. Seeking other Mandalorians, he meets with a gangster called Gor Karesh, played by John Lenguizamo. Karesh attempts to kill Din to harvest his Beskar, but he defeats the goons and learns that there's another Mandalorian in the town of Mos Pelgo on Tatooine. Travelling there, he meets the town marshal Cobb Vanth, played by Timothy Olyphant, who wears Boba Fett's old armour. As he isn't Mandalorian, Din seeks to take the armour from Cobb, who offers it in exchange for help bringing down a Krayt Dragon. But the pair encounter a band of Tusken Raiders who are also after the dragon, forcing Din to make an uneasy alliance.

This is a pretty strong season opener, and it's nice to see the Tuskens being given some depth. Timothy Olyphant steals the show as the frontier lawman he seems to play a lot (like in Justified, Deadwood, and later Fargo). There's a tense stand-off between him and Din, but he still remains affable throughout it until the Krayt dragon shows up. After which point he suggests they work together. The teamwork between the Tuskens and the settlers is also very teeth-clenched. Cobb is initially apprehensive (even while they're breaking bread) but is able to keep the peace with Din. The title character also gets some development, having overcome his prejudice against droids after IG-11's sacrifice last episode. He even allows Peli Motto's trio of pit droids to work on the Razor Crest.

The action sequences are still great. We have Din fighting Karesh's men with his "whistling birds" (a set of mini rockets), followed by a pretty ruthless interrogation. There's also a cool flashback which shows how Cobb obtained Boba Fett's armour and used it to single-handedly rout the Mining Collective who occupied Mos Pelgo as soon as the Empire withdrew from Tatooine. And of course, we have the battle against the Krayt dragon.

All in all, it's a great episode with an intriguing cliffhanger.

The Mandalorian Marathon - Chapter 8: Redemption

Last episode was the build-up. This one's the pay-off.

When we last left off, Mando, Greef Karga, and Cara Dune are trapped in the cantina by Imperial forces. Kuill has been killed by Scout Troopers while trying to take Baby Yoda back to the Razor Crest. The client is also dead, but was revealed to be a puppet of the real mastermind: Moff Gideon, a former Imperial Security Bureau officer turned warlord, played by Giancarlo Esposito.

We open with a comedic segment of the two Scout Troopers waiting to deliver Baby Yoda to the Moff and trying to find ways to pass the time until IG-11 arrives. Meanwhile, Gideon prepares to raze the cantina as the rest of the party try to find a way out. During this time, we learn that Mando's real name is Din Djarin, Greef Karga was once a magistrate, and Cara Dune was from Alderaan. After an action-packed shoot-out, the party escapes into the sewers but discover that most of the Mandalorian covert was wiped out by the Empire. The Armourer deduces that The Child may have come from The Jedi (ancient enemies of the Mandalorians), and tasks Din with reuniting them.

The action in this episode is brilliant, with everyone being able to dish it out to the stormtroopers. Yes, even The Child. We even have a seuqnce where The Armourer single-handedly takes out a squad of them with a hammer and a pair of tongs. Finally, there's a sequence in which Din obtains a jetpack and confronts Gideon as he tries to strafe them in his TIE fighter.

There are also some truly poignant moments too, such as when Din refuses to take off his helmet so Cara can treat him due to his oath, or when they find the aftermath of an attack on the covert. It almost puts Din and Karga at odds again, until The Armourer assures him that neither of them are truly to blame.

All in all, it wraps things up quite nicely and sets up the story for the next season. I'm gonna spoil it now and reveal that Gideon survived the confrontation, and it in possession of a sword which won't be of particular significance unless you've seen The Clone Wars or Rebels. I'm going to mention this now, because it's where we start to see the issues that form in the later seasons.

The Mandalorian Marathon - Chapter 7: The Reckoning

It's the penultimate episode of Season One, and man is it a good one.

Mando receives a message from Greef Karga, who informs him that The Client has effectively occupied his town on Navarro. He offers to cancel the contract on The Child if Mando helps him kill The Client. Although it's an obvious trap, Mando realises that he can't pass up an opportunity for the guild to lose interest in him or his charge. He recruits Cara Dune and the ugnaught, whose name is revealed to be Kuill. They're also joined by IG-11, whom Kuill has rebuilt and programmed to act as a nurse and protector for The Child.

This episode is full of tension from all directions. Mando has serious misgivings about IG-11, stemming from his previous attempt to kill Baby Yoda combined with his own prejudice against droids. There's also moments where Cara butts heads with Kuill over their services during the Galactic Civil War, as Cara served the Rebellion while Kuill worked for the Empire in indentured servitude. We also see what Baby Yoda is capable of with his use of The Force.

The tension only ramps up as the party arrives on Navarro, meeting Karga and several hunters. Both groups give each other some serious side-eye, and there's a moment when they're attacked by hostile fauna which results in a hard choice being made. What follows is a "Trojan Prisoner" strategy to deliver Mando and Baby Yoda's pram to The Client in a town occupied by stormtroopers.

It all amounts to a harrowing cliffhanger which leaves me excited to see the next episode.

The Mandalorian Marathon - Chapter 6: The Prisoner

This isn't the first piece of Star Wars media in which the stormtroopers' poor shooting skills is mentioned to be an in-universe thing. Anyway, this is actually one of my favourite episodes.

Mando takes a job with an old partner-in-crime, Ranzar Malk, to spring an associate from a New Republic prison ship. But he soon has misgivings about the crew he's going to be working with: Mayfeld, a former Imperial sharpshooter played by Bill Burr; Zero, an arrogant droid pilot played by Richard Ayoade; Burg, a Devaronian bruiser played by Clancy Brown; and Xi'an, a Twi'lek knife thrower played by Natalia Tena, who claims to have been romantically involved with Mando.

This plays out like a heist story, but Mando is being deceived from the beginning. Mando reluctantly takes the job when he learns that the security detail is comprised of droids, but gets into a stand-off with the crew when they find a human officer on board (played by Matt Lanter, who voices Anakin in The Clone Wars). And when he finds that the target is Xi'an's brother Qin, the crew double-cross him as revenge for Mando previously abandoning him.

This is probably one of the strongest episodes in the first season so far. The first third roughly consists of the crew picking on Mando, which produces some of the funniest snarky dialogue (apparently Bill Burr was cast as a joke when he went on record saying he wasn't a fan of Star Wars). We also have some truly tense moments as they sneak on board the ship and get into a fight with several security droids. And when Mando is double-crossed, it's satisfying to see him go after the rest of the crew. I won't reveal that detail though.

Great action and characters all around, and we get to see Mando develop his caring side.

The Mandalorian Marathon - Chapter 5: The Gunslinger

Of course there's gonna be some call-backs to the films. I must admit, this episode's kinda slow.

Mando gets into a dogfight with another bounty hunter above Tatooine, and the Razor Crest is badly damaged. He travels to a facility at Mos Eisley Spaceport operated by Pelli Motto, played by Amy Sedaris, and looks for work to cover the repairs. At the cantina, he meets Toro Calican, a cock young gunslinger played by Jake Cannavale who seeks to join the Bounty Hunters' Guild. Calican asks Mando for help bringing in a notorious assassin named Fennec Shand, played by Ming-Na Wen.

Overall, this episode is similar to Unforgiven, featuring a young gunfighter taking up a job and enlisting the aid of a seasoned killer. Star Wars is essentially a Western after all. There's a brief moment where Mando and Calican encounter a pair of Tuskens, but Mando is able to barter for safe passage usining Calican's binoculars. Nice to see a protagonist deal with them non-violently.

While the last couple of episodes took place on new worlds, this one shifts to a location familiar with the fans, showing how much has changed since the fall of the Empire. We're treated to a shot of several stormtrooper helmets on display, and return to the cantina from A New Hope, which is a lot deader than previously shown. But at least droids are welcome there now. There's also some jabs at prequel material. Peli Motto uses three pit droids from The Phantom Menace, but Mando shoots at one of them as they go to work on his ship.

The action's still good, including the opening dogfight and a tense sequence where Mando and Calican try and reach Shand as she tries to snipe them. However, there are some moments which don't make a lot of sense. For example, Peli discovers Baby Yoda in the ship and plans to look after him to try and squeeze more money out of Mando. But that only gets mentioned and doesn't really go anywhere. On another occasion, Fennec tells Calican about Mando's dust-up in Nevarro, but I wonder how she heard about that when she's hiding in the desert?

Anyway, despite some hiccups, there's still things in this episode to enjoy. Plus an interesting cliffhanger.