Last time on The Mandalorian,
a stoic Mandalorian bounty hunter was given a seemingly impossible mission. To
travel to some backwater planet and capture, or kill if he’s forced to, a
target that has eluded capture for fifty years. Hm… let’s see, The Galactic
Empire lasted for about twenty-five years, it’s five or six years after that,
and Emperor Palpatine was Chancellor Palpatine for about twelve years before
the conversion… I guess someone had been hunting this target since before Palpatine
even began puppeteering things… If someone has a more definitive timeline, please
let me know. Anyway, he goes hunting on a backwater world, temporarily teams up
with an IG bounty hunter unit, before killing it. Either to protect the child from
the IG unit, as it was ordered to kill the target, or to keep the prize to
himself. And what was the target? An infant of the same species as Yoda. Hm… I
realize that if he gets to live to be 900 like Yoda, that fifty years will be
like five percent of his life span, but still, damn, that’s a long time to be a
baby. Just sayin’. Let’s get to it, shall we?
Chapter 2, The Child
The Mandalorian and the kid start
walking back to his ship. Well, he’s walking, the kid has something like a
floating carriage thing. Apparently, the
trail to the temple required a Blurgg, the path from, not so much. They’re
ambushed by some other bounty hunters, Trandoshans (Lizard looking guys). It’s
a challenging fight for the Mandalorian but he’s able to over power and kill
the reptilians, finishing the last one off by vaporizing it with his rifle. I’m
not a huge fan of guns, but even I would love a combination vaporizing plasma
rifle and stun staff.
In the evening by the fire, the
Mandelorian does some field medicine on the wound he took in the arm during the
fight and some basic repairs to his armor. The Child gets out of the carriage
and reaches out to him. As someone versed in a little of the Jedi arts, I think
it’s clear that the little guy was reaching out and trying to heal the
Mandelorian through the force. He either doesn’t get it, or maybe the Child was
just pointing at the wound. He picks the kid up and sticks him back in the carriage.
He has to do this a second time before the Mandelorian seals him in for the
night.
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| He's movin' on up, to the East Side! |
They make it back to his ship to
discover it’s already being stripped for parts by Jawas. Those little buggers
are everywhere and they work fast. The Mandalorian shoots a few of them before
they get in the Sand Crawler and try to scram. He leaps onto the Sand Crawler
and tries to make his way to the top. Keep in mind, Sand Crawlers are the Jawas
mobile fortress. The fact he’s even able to get on it is something of a
miracle. He fights his way to the top, only to see about a dozen of the buggers
pointing guns at him. He’s hit, knocked off the side and passes out from the
electrocution. He wakes up some time later, the Child watching him and the Sand
Crawler out of sight. He goes back to his ship to find it’s been stripped of
pretty much everything. He and the child go to Nick Nolte… I mean Kuiil’s place
seeking aid. Kuiil helps him make a few minor repairs to his armor, and convinces
The Mandalorian to try and trade for his ship’s parts back. He’s… annoyed at
the thought of bartering for parts they literally just stole from him, but
agrees.
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| Or not... |
The next day they reach the Jawa’s Crawler.
They agree to barter, but only if the Mandalorian disarms himself. This goes
against Mandalorian custom, as weapons are part of their religion, but he does
so… angrily. After some heated words in Jawan, tee hee, you’ll get the pun when
you see the scene, they agree to give him the parts in exchange for The Egg. He
agrees, and the little blighters give him a lift to the cave of the egg.
He makes it to this little valley with
a cave in the back wall. He goes inside, and get’s ROCKED by a… wooly… rhino? Okay,
it’s not really a wooly rhino but this alien horned beast looks bizarrely similar.
It’s like if a wooly rhino took some kind of steroid injection that made it’s
horn enormous. The creature charges out after him. The Mandalorian tries to
shoot at it, but his rifle is jammed with mud. He gets slammed to the ground by
the beast, which seems only mildly annoyed by his flamethrower when the
Mandalorian tries to burn it. It charges and slams him to the ground again,
really ringing his metaphorical bell. I’m not sure if his chest plate is Beskar
steel, but if so that Rhino hits hard enough to crack it and then some. His
armor can’t take another hit, his weapons are either damaged or ineffective,
and the beast is charging again. The Mandalorian pulls out a knife, expecting
to die, but the charge is halted as the Child lifts his hand, and the beast starts
floating upward. As a little green man once said, size matters not. But the little guy only has so much strength.
He drops the creature, but the Mandelorian is able to stick it in the jugular,
or whatever the giant mud rhino equivalent is, killing it. He goes to check on
the Child, to see him passed out.
He grabs the egg from the mud rhino’s
nest and takes it back to the Jawas. The Mandalorian arrives just as the little
shysters were about to roll out. They take the egg, crack it open and start
eating it… well, that was a lot of work get them a hearty snack.
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| Size is insignificant compared to the power of the Force. |
The Mandalorian and Kuiil return to
his ship. The Child is still out for the entire trip back. With Kuiil’s help,
they are able to get his ship up and running again. Not sure how much time
passes, as they do kind of a weird edit to it, but it’s clear the kid is out
the whole time. Once the ship is up and running, The Mandalorian offers Kuiil
part of the reward, and then a job as thanks, but the little Urgnaught turns
him down for both. He wishes the hunter luck, though. The Mandelorian takes off.
Once out in space, the Child begins to stir again. Which is good, it means the
Mandelorian will get full pay for it. Woo.
This was a solid follow up to the
first episode. It had a good balance of action scenes, like the Mandalorian fighting
the Trandoshans, Jawas, and Mud beast, and more character moments, like his quickly
established but nonetheless real bond with Kuiil, and to a lesser extent to the
Child. Speaking of, that little Green Gremlin is freaking adorable. It’s like
if Gizmo from Gremlins had a child that wasn’t a homicidal monster. Just
saying. Now, as the Child is of the same species as Yoda, the fact that he
manifests Force powers doesn’t feel too shocking, but it was still chilling to see
him Force lift the Rhino into the air. From what I’ve seen, lifting more than
rocks takes a fair amount of training, so for a literal baby to lift a minimum thousand-pound
beast, that speaks to an insane affinity to the Force. I can see why the Empire
remnants might want him, and will be deeply concerned if they do. This was also
a good episode to show case how human the Mandalorian is. Last episode, we
mostly saw him kick ass, be stoic and stern, and shoot stuff. That’s all fine
and good, but it doesn’t make for a very interesting character. This time, we
got to see him lose his cool on Jawas, get shot, dropped and outmaneuvered by said
Jawas, and nearly impaled by a monster. That’s some more exciting television, I
tell you what. So, The Mandalorian has now gotten his quarry onto his ship and
is making his way home. I’m looking forward to sharing how the prisoner trade
off is handled. See you next time.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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