Thank God, the child didn’t eat the tadpole.
This episode is probably most important thing to happen to Star Wars in a long time as it unlocks and creates interest in the greater Star Wars universe. Bo-Katan Kryze flys into live-action bringing all ‘The Clone Wars’ and ‘Rebels’ baggage with her and she is played by the same actress, Katee Sackhoff, who voiced her on those shows. This isn’t a reimagining of an animated character, this is the animated character. A character that is very important to the Star Wars universe with big connections to both the Republic and Rebellion eras. She was the leader of Mandalore and the holder of the Darksaber. Dank farrik, her sister was Obi-Wan’s girlfriend.
Once again the episode is written by Jon Favreau but you can feel Dave Filoni’s influence all over it. ‘The Mandalorian’ is quickly becoming a continuation of Filoni’s animated work carrying on plot threads and visually ideas. The episode, expertly directed by Bryce Dallas Howard who lives up to the family name, feels like half an hour of live-action ‘Rebels’. The plot is a continuation of where the series has been headed this season with Djarin on a quest to find more of his people so they can give him information on how to return the child to the Jedi. When he is double-crossed by some Quarren fishermen who are after his armor, three Mandalorians come to his aid. They are lead by Bo-Katan Kryze and she offers to give Din the information he needs in return for a favour.
That favour is to help highjack an Imperial cruiser full of weapons that they can use to take back Mandalore. This is they type of story we got weekly on ‘Rebels’ and the class of the cruiser they were taking was from the show as well. This isn’t a slight on ‘The Mandalorian’ as ‘Rebels’ was a fantastic show. From information we get it looks like the season will lean heavily on ‘Rebels’ going forward and this is a good thing. It rewards the fans for investing their time in ‘Rebels’ but also if you haven’t watchede it you won’t feel lost but it’s there to fill in the gaps if you want it too.
The introduction of more Mandalorians also gives us the answer to the helmet on or off question that fans have been asking. Ever since episode one we have been told that not taking the helmet off is the way. This goes against what we have seen in animated shows where everyone is removing them. When Djarin keeps his on, one of Bo-Katan’s team refers to him as being “one of them” and Bo-Katan explains that Din is a member of a cult called ‘Children of the Watch’ that has extreme ancient Mandalorian beliefs. Din’s code is being challenged and he his starting to realise there may be more than one ‘way’.
The child also grows in this episode. Following on from the egg eating controversy of the previous episode, this time he observes an egg hatch and we see him interact in a positive way with the tadpole. Din leaves the child in the care of the frog lady for the majority of the episode and the toddler is learning there is more to life than violence. But, he will still eat anything he can fit in his mouth and the episode ends with him sucking down an octopus-type creature.
So far, of the pre-season rumours of what and who we are going to see, three ‘leaks’ have been true and one false. We’ve had Boba Fett, Cobb Vanth and Bo-Katan but Mercedes Varnado (Sasha Banks) isn’t playing Sabine Wren. The big rumour of Ahsoka Tano appearing does appear to be confirmed as Bo-Katan giving Din directions to find her.
This might just be the best episode so far and is definitely the best looking with some gorgeous shots and outstanding moments.
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