The long awaited second season of Disney’s “The Mandalorian” has finally- and graciously- been bestowed upon us. At this point, three episodes have been released, starting with Chapter 9 and spanning to Chapter 11.
The first episode came in with a bang. Our main man Mando finds himself on Tatooine with The Child in search of more Mandalorians to help him deliver The Child to his kind. He is told of one Mandalorian who lives at an outpost far from the main outpost of Mos Eisley. Mando travels to the outpost in search of others and comes along the town’s resident “Mandalorian,” Vanth, who is in fact, not a Mandalorian. He had found the armor after being picked up by Jawas. The armor, which a lightly seasoned Star Wars fan could easily identify, belongs to Boba Fett, clone son of the infamous bounty hunter Jango Fett, and ex-bounty hunter for Darth Vader. Mando demands the armor from Vanth but he refuses to give it up before Mando helps the town with a problem. What ensues is a Star Wars typical alien fight in which Mando heroically blows up the giant worm creature that has been terrorizing the town as well as the nearby Tusken Raiders. Mando is given Boba’s armor and leaves with the child back to the Razor Crest. The final shot of the episode is of the back of a man’s head, fully dressed in the clothes of a Tusken, and he turns around revealing Boba Fett himself, very much alive after escaping the Sarlacc he had been previously thought to be killed by.
The episode was an all-around hit. Exactly what we needed from the first episode back. The episode was directed and written by Jon Favreau and starred Pedro Pascal and Timothy Olyphant with appearances by Amy Sedaris and Temuera Morrison. An action-packed return to the series with enough of The Child’s adorable antics to make you excited for the next Friday. However, Chapter 10 was not as thrilling as many were hoping for.
Chapter 10 was more of a filler episode, finding Mando and his new passenger and her cargo, as well as The Child, on an ice planet after being chased by the New Republic. This episode was a good one for those who love Baby Yoda and “dad” Mando heavy episodes. The Child gets into lots of trouble this episode and ends up unleashing a hoard of alien spider creatures on everyone.
This episode is hard for me to talk about. First, after the last episode’s ending, it didn’t feel like it was part of the same story line, like it was a last-minute addition. Second, I HATE spiders. Most of the episode was either taken up by shots of these freaky spider things or the sounds of their legs skittering across the ice and snow of the planet. I couldn’t stand it. It made me physically ill and it was not a very fun experience. We did get a nice cameo from Dave Filoni, executive producer of “The Mandalorian” and director and writer of the “The Clone Wars” series, so that was something fun for me and others who knew of him. All in all, not my favorite episode so far.
The most recent episode, and my favorite so far, is Chapter 11. Mando finally comes across three real Mandalorians and my little Star Wars lore ridden heart exploded this episode. Of the three newly introduced Mandalorians, one is Bo Katan Kryze, a direct relative of the late duchess of Mandalore, the literal planet that Mandalorians hail from, Satine. Satine Kryze as well as Bo Katan have been featured in the “The Clone Wars” series as well as “Star Wars Rebels” respectively. Mando finds out that his creed is known as a cult of extremists to other creeds and is tasked with helping the three other Mandalorians in taking down an imperialist ship. Mando is directed by Bo Katan to seek out an ex-Jedi to help him learn more about The Child and the name that leaves her mouth has been swimming around my head since rumors began over the summer. The woman that Mando is suggested to find is Ahsoka Tano, ex-padawan of THE Anakin Skywalker before he turned to the dark side and became Darth Vader.
This episode was by far my favorite and it was directed by Bryce Dallas Howard who is my second favorite Mandalorian director. It reintroduced characters from old series that some may not know and expanded the universe again for those who didn’t already have the pleasure of being acquainted with it as well as others. It also doesn’t help that Ahsoka Tano is one of my favorite characters in the entire Star Wars universe but that doesn’t take away from how amazing this episode was. I genuinely can’t wait for the next one.