As much as it pains me to admit I’m going to have to agree with Megan Crouse of Den of Geek! on the matter of this current episode of The Mandalorian feeling kind of wrong. It’s not entirely bad since it does show the Mando being kind of a badass throughout a good portion of it, but with the inclusion of Bill Burr and Mark Boone Jr. one could almost expect that it was going to be a little more gripping. There were plenty of setups in the episode that would have made it much better had it been a two-parter instead of just a one and done deal. Had Favreau been given permission to extend the season a bit it would have been great to see this episode turn into two sections at least to flesh things out a bit.
Upon meeting his old comrade Ran, played by Boone, Mando is hired on for a job that they couldn’t do without him since they need his ship and of course his skills since Mandalorians are without a doubt the best warriors in the galaxy that aren’t Force-users. But of course there’s bound to be some big, muscled-out guy on the crew that doesn’t have much, if any, respect for the Mandalorian, and some crazed individual, in this case the Twi’lek female that hisses at everyone and is basically, as Megan puts it, like a scifi version of Harley Quinn. Then of course there’s Burr playing the leader of the expedition, who didn’t even think they’d get as far as they did before punching the clock of the lone security guard that wasn’t supposed to be there apparently.
If anything the episode just felt too rushed, too hurried along, and didn’t gain enough detail to really make it into something that people could fully enjoy. Burr and Boone are very skilled actors and they can fill out a role like no one else in their own right, but they just weren’t given the chance in this episode since the dialogue was quick, vague, and hinted at the fact that Mando had history with Ran and a couple other characters in the episode. Plus, the hunt and seek game that Baby Yoda was playing with the droid, Zero, was kind of anticlimactic in how it turned out since the Child seemed to think that a Force maneuver of some sort would be effective, but was apparently surprised when Mando took care of the droid with a well-placed blaster shot.
After dumping the other three conspirators on the prison ship they’d been sent to infiltrate and stowing the prisoner that he’d retrieved the Mandalorian made his way back to the station where he’d been recruited, where of course he was going to be betrayed eventually by yet another ‘ally’. Germain Lussier of Gizmodo has more to say on this matter. The great thing about this however is that Mando obviously knows better than to trust people implicitly since he took along a tracking device from the guard on the prison ship that led New Republic forces right to the station as he made his escape. At this point we’re seeing a lot more about the Mandalorian than a lot of people might have expected.
One thing is that he’s not necessarily willing to kill at any given time since he wanted to keep the guard alive. Another tidbit is that no matter where he goes trust is a huge issue since some people want the reputation that would be given to them for taking out a Mandalorian while others are just willing to use his skills and his ship to get what they need and then dispose of him. And then others are simply pissed at him because he has a heart and did the right thing when it should have been business as usual. It’s going to be interesting to see when the Empire, or what’s left of it, finally finds him.
One thing that Boba Fett almost always had going for him, and that Mando is definitely being given by dint of this show, is the reputation that indicates how a Mandalorian is ready for many things and is always able to find a way out of a predicament. They’re known as tough, resourceful, honor-bound most times, and insanely hard to kill, and yet they were almost wiped from the galaxy at one point as it’s been seen and alluded to. However what we’re seeing in this show is that even on their own and cut off from their clan, Mandalorian’s are insanely dangerous and not the kind of individuals that people would choose to tangle with if they had even an inkling of what they were getting into. This current episode had its good moments, especially when Mando was systematically taking out the crew that had tried to doublecross him, but apart from that it just felt too rushed. Hopefully the next couple of episodes will wrap up the season in a profound and very epic manner.
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