The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte’s editorial board.
Back to the ol’ grind
With the first episode giving us a slow, but interesting start to this new season of The Mandalorian, many viewers have been intrigued to see the story of redemption that seems to be taking place.
This new episode heavily feeds into the theme of redemption that was teased in the previous episode, showing a lot of the development that Din Djarin (played by Pedro Pascal) has done for himself during the last seasons and series that we have seen the character. Even though this episode introduces some new and exciting things to the show, it also offers some awesome fan-service moments that any Star Wars fan, both new and old, will enjoy.
There’s always a bigger fish
Much like the last episode, the opening of this one shows us a familiar face that we were all expecting to show up sooner or later, that being Amy Sedaris as Peli Motto. We see Peli arguing with a Rodian, but that quickly gets cut off as Mando (of course) flies in to ask Peli a favor. Although Mando initially asks Peli if she could help him get a part to fix IG-11, she ends up selling him a different droid, one that is definitely familiar to hardcore Star Wars fans": R5-D4. If that name sounds familiar, that’s because it is. In A New Hope, R5-D4 is the droid that almost went home with Luke before R2-D2 ended up in the Lars homestead.
Although the encounter ends much differently than expected, Mando is still happy with his purchase, as he can now go to Mandalore and see if all the legends about it are true. Before we land on Mandalore, however, we take a nice moment to see Mando go full-dad mode while he tries to teach Grogu about the basics of space travel. Although that scene might play out differently in the heads of some, I promise that it is one of the more wholesome moments that the show has had so far.
When the trio land on Mandalore, R5 immediately gets sent out to do some reconnaissance to make sure that nothing bad will happen on the old, desolate planet. As expected, R5 goes missing and Mando has to run after him. He finds that R5 has been taken by a group of aliens called Alamites, which he ends up taking out with the darksaber in a very clunky fashion. This proves that although Mando has a lightsaber on him, that doesn’t automatically mean that he is a master with it.
After getting R5 back to the ship, Mando comes to the realization that the air on the planet is actually breathable, and that all the legends that he heard before were false. Mando and Grogu walk the planet and end up finding the mines rather quickly. When the duo reach the mines, Mando stumbles across a buried helmet, which he takes a second to admire before being struck and kidnapped by a giant robot spider. While Mando is being taken hostage, we hear him command Grogu to go find Bo-Katan Kryze (played by Katee Sackhoff), which the little guy promptly does.
After Grogu finds Bo-Katan and brings her to the mines to help Mando, we hear her reference the times that she spent with Jedi, which is a clear reference to the Clone Wars series and the work that she did with Obi-Wan Kenobi. When Bo-Katan and Grogu reach where Mando is at, a fight occurs with the giant metal spider and Bo, where she proves that she is actually a better fighter than Mando. During the fight, she actually ends up using the darksaber, and shows that maybe she actually is the one who deserves to wield it. These scenes all place questions into the audience’s heads, and I loved it.
After getting some rest after their battles, Mando awakens and immediately wants to keep pushing on toward the waters, even though he was just nearly killed. Bo-Katan clearly has no personal interest in going, as we heard in the previous episode, but this time she offers to guide Mando there just to show him that there is nothing there.
The moment they reach the waters Mando strips himself of his excess armor (while still keeping the beskar on) and slowly walks into the water before being dragged under by some sort of creature. Bo-Katan, being the proven badass that she is, jumps in after him and picks him up out of the water. While she is swimming up with him, we see a huge eyeball swimming around them, proving the ever-popular Qui-Gon Jinn quote true: “There’s always a bigger fish.”
This episode got the ball rolling in every single way possible. From the fan-service moments to the scenes that actually made you question some things, this episode showed that Jon Favreau and everyone else behind this show are still pushing for it to be one of the best things to ever come out of the Star Wars franchise.
Sources:
IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb, IMDb
Photos:
Collider, slashfilm, boundingintocomics
Contact Conor Butler with comments at cmbutler@bsu.edu
