The Mandalorian aired its second episode just days after the premiere, so we’ve already got more to munch on. It’s time to talk about “The Child” and all the troubles it brings. It’s also time to revel in the fact that Jawas will always present problems to anyone looking for a problem-less day.
[Spoilers ahead.]
Summary
The Mandalorian has a baby now. On their way back to his ship (on foot, as Kuiil got to claim all the blurrgs for himself), they run into two Trandoshans who try to snatch away the prize. They are both defeated, but when they arrive back at the Mando’s ship, it’s being stripped clean by Jawas. The Mandalorian disintegrates several of them and tries to board their crawler while it’s in motion, but that doesn’t go well for him. Kuiil finds him again and says that they can barter for his ship parts. The Jawas first ask for his beskar armor, then the baby, but they agree to give him his parts back for “the egg”.
The Mandalorian goes to a cave where a giant horned beast lays in wait. It attacks him several times and almost gets the best of him—but baby Yoda uses the Force to raise the animal in the air, giving the Mandalorian a chance to get his bearings and kill it. He finds the beast’s egg and brings it back to the Jawas, who promptly begin eating the thing. He gets his parts back, but the ship is a wreck. Kuiil insists that they could get everything working quickly if they work together, and they get the Razor Crest up and running in no time. The Mandalorian offers Kuill work on the ship, as the fellow is extremely handy and he doesn’t know to repay the Ugnaught. But Kuiil is happy where he is, and the Mandalorian must depart with only his gratitude on offer. Now he just really has to figure out how he’s going to handle his Force-baby…
Commentary
Baby Yoda is going to be a death of me. I shriek every time it appears. It’s just rude, okay, asking me to deal with this for what will probably be every episode? I don’t know how I’m supposed to review something coherently when my every other comment is actually “Look, the baby Yoda blinked. The baby Yoda ate a frog-lizard whole while the Mandalorian scolded it. The baby Yoda raised its hand. The baby Yoda squeaked because it has very tiny vocal cords.” I have no other thoughts. They are all with baby Yoda.
Speaking of which, he might actually be baby Yoda. If you go back over the first episode, the doctor desperate to get his hands on the kid is wearing an emblem worn by all the clone troopers on Kamino. So either this guy is a clone himself, or he works for Kaminoan cloners and they’re looking for some sweet Yoda genes. Maybe they cloned Yoda as insurance of some sort? If the baby Yoda is 50 years old, that puts its birth around the year that Anakin Skywalker was born—and definitely by the time Emperor Palpatine had started in on his galaxy dominating schemes. So perhaps he initiated a “clone Yoda” plan at the same time that he started thinking about clone armies and so on. Maybe this was the first project he had the Kaminoans complete on his behalf.
Either way, the kid has the Force, and watching him squinch up his perfect fuzzy green face to try and help his new guardian is one of the episode’s highlights, as far as I’m concerned. This episode was even shorter than the last, which is still a sticking point for me. I definitely want more at once, though labeling them as “chapters” is apt, as they do feel very chapter-like. Favreau’s scripts are still a bit underwritten sometimes (he tends to reuse words when he doesn’t need to), but when he hits it, everything comes together. The show is really keeping up with it’s big sweeping landscapes, outlining the titular character in every establishing shot like he’s the only person in the galaxy. Well, him and the baby.
I’m hoping people actually take the character at his actions rather than his tropes, though. To be completely honest, I don’t like most cowboy narratives because they frame their central figures as near superhuman dudes whose only powers are often just wanting to be left alone. The guy is strong, silent, and the best of the best (who wishes he weren’t the best so everyone would stop bothering him). My favorite thing about the Mandalorian so far is, sure, he looks cool—but he’s not cool in any actionable fashion whatsoever. He’s a dumpster fire, as we term it. He spends an entire action sequence trying to climb a Jawa Sandcrawler, makes it to the top after being pelted with trash, and still has to take the thirty foot drop from the roof. He goes mud skiing trying to battle a beast so that said Jawas can have a tasty snack, and almost gets himself killed. He complains about how long it’ll take to fix his beloved ship while his Ugnaught buddy snorts and gets to work.
He’s trying so hard. But he’s a mess.
This just so happens to be my favorite type of hero—trash fires with legitimate skills who can’t ever seem to get a leg up. They’re so put upon. They’re so tired. Everything is always set against them when they’re just desperate to survive. And if you need any proof that he’s really just a marshmallow encased in Very Special Armor, baby Yoda is doing all the work for us. Baby Yoda is protecting its protector with the Force. It didn’t protect the Jawas or the Trandoshans, it’s taking care of the Mandalorian because he may he an amazing warrior with vintage taste in spaceships, but he’s also clearly a very Soft Friend Who Has No Idea What’s Going On.
Do you have any idea how long I’ve waited for this?
There are some gaps in the storytelling so far; it’s weird watching a montage of spaceship repair when there’s very little reason to linger on it. Is the point that the ship is better off than it was before it got taken to pieces by Jawas? Because if not, I’m not seeing a reason why we had to stick with that drawn out sequence. It’s a little bit “look we ticked the sci-fi boxes” for me. But I’m not bothered overall because this series is delivering on something that we’ve only gotten from the cartoons in recent years—a show that truly means to highlight just how weird Star Wars is.
We’re probably going to go into plot overdrive next week, as the Mandalorian is finally going to have to decide what he’s really prepared to do for this baby, but until then, we got to watch him make a friend, get saved by a toddler, and grumpily negotiate with the galaxy’s cruelest hagglers. Vestiges of the Empire will have to wait until next week.
Other asides and highlights:
- It has been pointed out all over the place, but the Mandalorian’s look and primary weapon are similar (though not exactly the same) to Boba Fett’s very first canonical appearance—before the Special Edition added him into A New Hope as a member of Jabba’s entourage—in the Star Wars Holiday Special animated segment. Which leads me to wonder if we’ll get to see him riding a beast that looks like a wonky dinosaur, since that’s how he appears in there.
- Obviously, these episodes are full of easter eggs and surprises, but the best is probably seeing the use of the disintegrator that Vader gave Fett hell for using in Empire. It is terrifyingly effective.
- The Mandalorian having to swing up onto the sandcrawler to avoid getting crushed by rock outcroppings is a straight up homage to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
- While there are grappling hooks in play with the armor, the thing that the Mandalorian uses to keep baby Yoda close to him appears to be some form of invisible energy “lasso”, which makes its Western influences that much more obvious.
- The comment that weapons are a part of the Mandalorian religion is a grouchy oversimplification on our lovable Mando’s part, but it is correct broadly speaking; beskar armor is a signifier of familial heritage and a second skin for many Mandalorians. Because the armor is commonly so kitted out with personalized weapons, it is a really big deal asking a Mandalorian to disarm. (And as we see, asking them to drop a blaster or two is never enough.)
- It amuses me to no end seeing the Trandoshans as yet another sci-fi alien that has transformed from a big rubber lizard suit to a human wearing a bunch of prosthetics. If I’m being totally honest, I kind of prefer the big rubber lizard suits? But I imagine I’ll get used to it. For those not in the know, Trandoshans are a species of hunters, and many of them take up bounty hunting. Star Wars fans first saw them in Empire Strikes Back, standing in the array of bounty hunters on Vader’s Star Destroyer. That particular Trandoshan’s name was Bossk.
We have to wait a whole week for the next episode… but I’ll be right back here on Friday. See you soon!
Emmet Asher-Perrin would like a baby Yoda around to save them from big beasties. You can bug him on Twitter, and read more of her work here and elsewhere.
Correction without malice re:
Common mistake. The anatomical term is vocal cords. A chord-with-H is a combination of tones. An Ithorian (“hammerhead”) might be able to emit chords, because it has two mouths and four throats, but there’s no evidence that Yoda’s species possesses such a facility. (Do the Jedi sing vespers, I wonder?)
I doubt that Baby Yoda was born/produced/whatevered at Palpatine’s order. At the time, he was a no-name senator from a cultural backwater planet, which, if I remember Plagueis correctly, had only very recently joined the Republic. Palpatine was still apprenticed to Plagueis at that time, and would still be for 10 years before Palpatine’s Klingon Promotion.* He just didn’t have the political clout to do that yet. The idea for the clone army itself was seeded by his Senator persona, not the Sith one.
It’s entirely possible Palpatine knew about it after the fact, but he likely didn’t order the project himself.
*Yes, I mixed sci-fi metaphors. What are you gonna do about it?
While I (almost) always enjoy More Star Wars, this episode (or chapter, if you wish) was wholly unnecessary. Let’s look at what happened:
End of ep. 1: Mandalorian has baby Yoda and is ready to leave the planet, unsure of what to do with it.
End of ep. 2: Mandalorian has baby Yoda and has left the planet, unsure of what to do with it.
There wasn’t any real character development to make up for the lack of plot movement, either.
1. Mando is still taciturn, competent, put-upon and conflicted about his bounty being a child.
2. Ugnaught-guy is still helpful for a flimsy reason (peace in his valley).
3. Baby Yoda is still cute.
Granted, we see in this episode that Baby Yoda has access to the Force (which would have been easy to guess and could have been revealed with an extra 30 seconds during the fight with the Trandoshans (note to Emily, there were 3 Trandoshans that ambushed the Mandalorian I think, not 2). The fact that The Child (as my subtitles are naming Baby Yoda) saved the life of the Mandalorian will no doubt come into play later, but again that didn’t need a drawn-out sequence of “Jawas are annoying.”
That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the episode – More Star Wars! Great visuals! Etc. but it kinda feels like this episode was simply filler.
I must register respectful disagreement with the first comment, here: the correct term, at least in humans, is vocal chords, with an H. Actually, the more correct term is vocal folds – the folds, seen from above in their default (open) position (the default is open because, y’know, you’ve got to breathe) look roughly like straight lines cutting across the circle made by the trachea – it’s a geometrical chord, not a musical one. The human larynx doesn’t contain any cord- or string-like structures. It is possible, I suppose, that Yoda’s species is entirely different. Hey, it’s the Star Wars universe, pretty much anything is possible…
We’re going to go with Merriam-Webster and stick with “vocal cords.” With that, let’s move on and get back on topic. Thanks!
I’m surprised no one has mentioned how Mando casually murders a handful of Jawas… sure they stole his stuff, but damn, he’s a cold mofo. Never thought I’d see a protagonist do something like that in Star Wars (besides Anakin as he’s becoming Vader). I’m down with grey characters, but admit I cringed a bit watching the scene with my 6 and 8 yo kids.
I have to agree with @3 here – I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first and felt a little dissatisfied afterwards. Sure, I loved the visuals and worldbuilding and all that, but there were definitely parts I found my attention lagging – especially as there’s almost NO dialogue…just a lot of fight scenes.
I also fee like in some ways Kulli is a little unsatisfying, or maybe it’s just that I’d like to know more about his motivations, exactly. Why exactly does he take such a shine to him?
All of that said, I do agree the whole ‘baby Yoda’ thing I presents a lot of interesting questions, so we shall see!
Also, I’m glad you pointed out how kind of un-cool this Mando is, lol. There were a few parts where I was snickering and thinking, ‘man, that would never happen to Boba Fett’. Or who knows, maybe it did when he was just starting out, or maybe he just is really good at spin and PR. I also noticed the Indy homage, and in a way, I feel like this Mando has a similar feel to those other Harrison Ford type characters (young Han, Indiana Jones, etc) – somewhat put upon characters that are always just getting by on the skin of their teeth, luck, and yes, skill.
You folks haven’t watched many spaghetti westerns, have you? Sparse dialogue and characterization and lots of action are the features, not the bugs. Take it up with Sergio.
I mean, as a primer for this series, you don’t have to watch every single western made in Europe, just one: For a Few Dollars More. It’s all about bounty hunters and outlaws. No babies though.
I’m OK with seeing these episodes as chapters of varying length without the padding required for a regular network show.
Killing the space rhino with just a short dagger doesn’t seem likely. Even twisting the knife probably just tore muscle. Not to mention he killed a mother just protecting her egg. Bad Mando! The Jawas loved the egg though. They kept saying something that sounded like “Sugah!”
I do kinda see why he’d be angry at the Jawas. The ship seems to be his only way off planet. Without it, he’s stranded. They’re stealing his ride and his livelihood.
Some alternate titles I’ve been seeing: “The Mando with No Name”; “Lone Wolf and Baby Yoda.”
One detail that I liked was the concept art paintings at the end of the episode. Very well done. They could do a painterly animated version of this show.
The Mandalorian having to swing up onto the sandcrawler to avoid getting crushed by rock outcroppings is a straight up homage to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Very much true. And the Mandalorian climbing the Sandcrawler himself with Jawas throwing rocks from the small ports is straight out of Super Star Wars, the 1992 SNES videogame, specifically the game’s third level where you have to do the exact same thing.
Also, the Mandalorian struggling to fight the horned beast is shot for shot an homage to Jango Fett’s own scuffle against a similar creature on Attack of the Clones.
@10 – I had the same thought about the animal he killed. But I didn’t even like that in Solo they killed that behemoth by getting it sucked into a black hole. I wouldn’t consider myself a huge animal lover, but I still am a fan of live and let live for the most part (although at least in Solo they really didn’t have a lot of options).
I don’t even know how I feel about the Jawas being disintegrated as a first resort, although they did effectively strand him on the planet which basically could be a death sentence. The beast didn’t really do anything though.
Have we canonically seen large number of Jawas not on Tattooine prior to this episode? That was the only thing that took me a little bit out of the story.
I watched this episode, and all I could think during the Mudhorn fight was that I want a “Monster Hunter: Star Wars” game.
Still, I don’t think this episode was entirely pointless. While it doesn’t have any character growth, it does reveal a lot more about the Mando’s character than the first episode did. I mean, yeah, if this was a movie, this entire sequence could probably be cut without any issue, but that’s one of the benefits of doing this as a series, that they can do episodes like this.
@14: Are you sure they’re not on Tattooine? The planet is not entirely desert, and Kuiil seems to be a moisture farmer, and the bluurgs look like they could be a subspecies of dewback.
This is can hardly be called a coming of age story, since our protagonist is an adult who has plainly been through the wars. He probably has the scars to prove it, under that somewhat battered armor.
While he is certainly laconic, none of the characters seen so far has been exactly talkative. But, there are some things that can be inferred from what little has been said, and behavior. The Mandolorian spends his money on upgrades and charity. His choice of charity–foundlings, signaled that he has a spot for orphans. It is also implied that his people suffered from the wars, and he wants to help somehow. All of which suggests that even though war is all he knows, and he considers bounty hunting an honorable occupation (provided its done honorably) that he’s got some ethical standards.
He seemed wary to me, about accepting the mission, because of the size of the reward, demonstrating that he’s not naive, but accepting the risk for reasons of his own.
I suppose the helmet inspires the analogy, but he seems like a Spartan visiting Athens. This mission is probably challenging his notions of the possible.
Given that this isn’t just a series, but a serial, it seems appropriate to call episodes chapters, and half any hour, more or less, without commercials feels like a perfect episode duration to me.
As for “Baby Yoda”, the theory that he’s a clone seems plausible. Maybe too plausible. But, it’s obvious they’re related in some other fashion.
#15
It’s a different planet. I forget the name.
At first it was a little jarring for me to see Jawas there, but I guess there’s no reason they couldn’t load their crawler on a big transport and move to another system.
Happy Life Day!
@2, It was a “Master Sifo-Dyas” who ordered the clone army. Palpatine suggested it AS a senator, but it had already been in creation for 10 years by the time he did it. No one knows, IIRC, who was impersonating Sifo-Dyas to place the order on Kamino, but I don’t see why it’s so unbelievable that whomever that was could have also gotten some of Yoda’s DNA to create clone at the same time,
But it doesn’t answer why the clone’s growth wasn’t accelerated like the Fett clones, with the exception of Boba.
@19 she might be referencing the novel Darth Plagueis – if I recall (it’s been awhile since I read it), they were the ones who planted the idea in his head.
Granted, it’s part of the Legends canon now, so whatever ended up happening in the Clone Wars arc that covered that plot would take precedence.
All that trouble for a Cadbury Creme Egg.
If anything, this episode reminded me of Genndy Tartakovky’s Clone Wars series (which itself was similar to his own Samurai Jack); it had the same kind of visual, dialogue-free construction.
Especially all those cutaway (non-)reaction scenes of the baby watching the Mando get rag-dolled around.
@19/20 — I always had the impression, just from the movies, that Dooku was the “Syfo-Dyas” who started the Kamino project (at Palpatine’s direction), assuming it wasn’t Palps himself.
@22, I too have that impression, and since Dooku was still in the Jedi’s good graces at that time, it can’t have been too hard for him to get some of Yoda’s genetic material.
To me the timeline is perfectly aligned for him to be a clone, but I could be wrong.
I’m not married to the idea, and I’m not especially wild about it(I hate how claustrophobic Star Wars gets at times, that’s one thing I’m really enjoying about this show, so the mysterious baby just being a Yoda clone would be a letdown TBH), but I don’t think anything we’ve been told indicates that it’s not possible.
I really hope it’s not a clone — I agree the SW universe tends to get too claustrophobic at times. (Yoda knew Chewbacca? By name?)
Another question: How many people (our Mandalorian included) actually recognize the baby for what it is (i.e. were aware of Yoda as a Jedi Master from back in the day, and see the child as a youngling form)? I’m sure the Client and the Doctor do (that’s why they want it in the first place), but just the average thugs, guards and bounty hunters being sent after it?
@24, Most of the thugs we’ve seen have typically been associated with the Hutts. I’m assuming the Hutt cartel had possession of the Child, and it was their people guarding it. And there are obviously multiple parties in pursuit, as IG-11 was hired to kill it, not bring it in alive as Mando was, so it was hired by someone with a different agenda.
I doubt any of the hired muscle we’ve seen has any clue, but there are obviously people in the galaxy who know EXACTLY what the Child is, and what it can do. And some people, thought not the Client and the Doctor, want it exterminated from the galaxy.
I also want to know more about Mando’s evident confusion about what the Child is, because the Jedi are a BIG HUGE PART of Mando history, so it seems he’d have heard a passing mention.
I didn’t realize the character was an Ugnaught, as he’s much taller than all of the ones on Bespin in ESB.
Another thing I am thoroughly enjoying in this series, is all the spoken Huttese.
It’s another thing that made the universe feel like it was shrinking in on itself, was the slow evaporation of non-Common languages. Huttese is the second most spoken language in the galaxy(or at least it used to be in the old canon) and the last time I can remember it spoken was by Anakin in Phantom Menace!
In other news Yoda-let merch will be available Friday 11/22!!!!
Multiple retailers are supposed to have them!
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/21/baby-yoda-apparel-accessories-toys-and-plush-are-coming.html?__source=sharebar|twitter&par=sharebar
@Aeryl: but of course. The new Baby Groot?
Really enjoyed the episode, Baby Yoda is cute AF, and I love how he had to take nap after using the Force.
The jawas were great, and I also enjoyed how Mando is not invincible as the first episode had almost lead us to belive. I just wish Kuiil had joined him. I HAVE SPOKEN.
Emily: the blurrgs look like wonky dinosaurs, like compressed T-Rexes.
@7 – Lisamarie: “That would never happen to Boba Fett”
You mean that loser who got killed by a blind man swinging around wildly?
@11 – Sunspear: Those paintings are beautiful, but I’m not sure if they are concept art, or done after the fact.
@16 – Bill: good analysis.
@21 – Cybersnark: Yes, you’re right, it’s reminisicent of that show.
@30 -ahahaha, touche’.
@27 – yes, it makes things feel so much more immsersive (although I am pretty sure I am recognizing phrases/dialogue lifted straight from background in the movies). The second epsiode I think went on for quite a while before there was any English dialogue at all. There was a point where I did stiart to feel it drag a bit (mainly because action scenes aren’t my favorite thing and it started to feel a litlte video game-y) but I think it does add to the atmosphere/mood.
@31, Well, they’ve apparently used our familiarity with hearing so much Huttese in the movies that we can recognize phrases, to AGAIN edit the Han/Greedo scene, having Greedo use a line of dialogue used by Sebulba in the Phantom Menace to threaten Anakin, to give Han the “necessary” impetus to shoot first.
@Magnus: would be interesting to know. There are photo viewers that can alter a still to look like a painting. Actually used one back in the day when I viewed certain pictures on the net, but wanted to be able to claim they had artistic value…
Pretty sure it’s concept art. You can see slight differences in the scenes and the character designs in the paintings.
Credits concept art confirmed:
some-gorgeous-new-mandalorian-concept-art
I wasn’t saying it was modified stills, more like wondering if they weren’t painted after the fact.
Good episode. Pascal is a great actor, making his character real despite having to wear a bucket on his head. A role that reminds me of the challenge Claude Rains faced in The Invisible Man. He reminded me of Indiana Jones, striving, failing and striving again.