The Mandalorian

Review: The Mandalorian Episode #2 : The Child

The first episode of The Mandalorian wasn’t a disappointment to me. As a fan I felt that it could have been better yet it did set up some wonderful things to bring us into the world of this bounty hunter. Jason reviewed the first episode and I’m jumping in with the second episode of this series; expect some spoilers. 

Plot

After the events of the first episode, fans get to see more of Baby Yoda (Editor’s note: The child is clearly a member of Yoda’s species but there is no canon name for this race. Hence the term “Baby Yoda”). The Mandalorian now has his bounty and has to get off of this planet. That is actually going to be more work than the bounty hunter thought. Jawas have taken what they wanted from his ship. Remember that the ship had been parked on this planet with no protection, giving those little junk-loving nightmares free reign to scavenge whatever parts they wanted from it.

The Mandalorian attempts to use force and fails; those walkers are just armored mobile cities for Jawas. So he must take our new friends back to Kruill the Ugnaught who helped him in the first episode. Everything that happens after this part would be too much to spoil. The ramifications of what will happen in this episode is going to be felt through the first season. Will the bond between the bounty and the hunter grow? Will we see the this bounty hunter finish this job? These questions will not be answered in this episode. After the dull plot that we all witnessed in the first episode, the second actually became much simpler and less cluttered. Jon Favreau and company picked up the slack in this episode even if we only had two talking characters and a bunch of Jawas.

Performance

In this episode we only  have two characters that talk. The focus for me wasn’t on Nick Nolte’s performance as Kuiil or Pedro Pascal’s continued badass performance as Dyn Jarren. This episode’s outstanding performance comes from our little Baby Yoda. From the first moment you see him your heart melts. In this episode we see him moving around and trying to use the force to help out Dyn Jarren. These moments made the episode better than the first one to me. Also we have a baby Yoda using the Force to stop a vicious attack from a massive beast. That was the best moment in the whole thing. It brought us to the point where Dyn Jarren realized he was in over his head with this bounty.

I would like to see more of the galaxy in this time after the defeat of the Empire. I want to see the hole that is left in their wake and who will try to fill it.

Cinematography

This episode is set on that desolate planet with browns and dark colors. Director Rick Famuyiwa brought a lighter tone to this episode even with the dark setting. I’m so happy that the show had our baby Yoda out and about. They also didn’t waste any time showing that the Force is present even if it doesn’t involve one of the Skywalker family members. 

Being able to see inside the control room for the Jawa walker was one of those moments I’ve been waiting for. As a kid, I loved the Jawas and always wanted to see more of their world. Taking Dyn Jarren into a situation where he can’t really use his weapons and has to work for the Jawas was something that kept the episode grounded in reality. The battle with the creature for “The Egg” was refreshing, not everything in the galaxy can use the force. Seeing that battle gave me hope for a larger scale battle in the future of the series.

Verdict

The first episode brought us into this new world of The Mandalorian, while the second gave us a peek at what he is willing to do for his way of life. Introducing the Baby Yoda and showing off his force abilities was exciting to see. Now I’m getting nervous that Dyn Jarren will be giving up everyone’s new favorite baby to the wrong people. I’m happy that Disney+ decided to release each episode on a weekly basis. Binging this show seems like a waste.

Jason has a little something he would like to add to me review.

“Well, looks like I was wrong when I said not to expect any explorations of the Force for the time being as the second episode immediately begins to dabble in it! At this point we cannot talk about these episodes without engaging in spoilers so please – only read further if you have watched the first two episodes of the show. Mini Yoda – aside from being utterly adorable – seems to have a natural connection to the Force and is already capable of using it even though it exhausts him. Do all members of Yoda’s species have this natural Force affinity or is this baby exceptional somehow? I don’t know yet but here is my prediction for season one:

The Mandalorian seems to be a very honorable character so far and I feel that he is going to refuse to hand over Mini Yoda for a bounty. That or other bounty hunters will capture Mini Yoda and deliver him to the Client in which case the Mandalorian must rescue him.”-Jason

Between the Jawas, Dyn Jarren battling to save his ship, and baby Yoda using the force, I felt like everything is going to work well for this first live action Star Wars television show.

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