By Josh Whitney | Marketing Representative
Only three days after the pilot aired, the second episode of “The Mandalorian,” called “Chapter 2: The Child” premiered on Disney+ this past Friday. The third episode of “The Mandalorian” airs today.
The second episode picks up directly after the events of the pilot, “Chapter One,” with the bounty hunter traveling with the new baby Yoda back to his ship, Razor Crest.
When the Mandalorian arrives back at his ship, he discovers it has been ransacked by Jawas scavenging for parts. In what is no doubt one of the most satisfying moments, the Mandalorian sprawls out on the rocks overlooking his ship and starts picking off Jawas with his rifle. The Jawas run for their lives and head back into their mobile junk fortress — a sandcrawler — for a slow escape.
The bounty hunter attaches some sort of magnetic leash on the baby Yoda alien and pursues the sandcrawler on foot. The Jawas attempt to distract their pursuant by heaving a barrage of scrap metal out the windows of the tank. After several minutes of this pursuit, the Mandalorian finally reaches the roof only to be looking down the barrels of several stun guns. Then, our hero is shocked into paralysis and falls on the top of the tank with a great thud.
Discouraged, the Mandalorian reunites with the Ugnaught Kuiil from “Chapter One” to plan a course of action for getting back the parts to his ship. Kuiil recommends a trade and eventually the Jawas and the Mandalorian settle on an agreement: the parts of the Razor Crest in exchange for “the egg.” We learn that “the egg” is buried deep in a cave guarded by an alien known as a Reek, as seen in “Attack of the Clones.”
The Mandalorian approaches the Reek’s cave and we are only exposed to the distant sounds of his pistols before being launched out of the hole with armor ravaged. The beast and the bounty hunter engage in bull fighting-style combat until the Reek has the Mando pinned down. Just when it seems like all is over, baby Yoda lifts his little hand up and “wingardium leviosas” the beast just long enough for the bounty hunter to get a killing stab on it. The baby passes out from exhaustion and the two return back to the Jawas, possessing the egg.
In what appeared to be a triumphant moment for our characters, the Jawas accept the egg and immediately crack it open for a quick snack. The episode comes to a close with the bounty hunter inviting Kuiil to join his crew, to which Kuiil turns down the offer. The episode ends with the Mandalorian repairing his ship and returning to space, where little baby Yoda finally wakes up from its deep slumber.
This episode definitely felt a lot slower than the first episode. Because many of the main characters have already been established, this second part was able to focus more on the narrative and less on who people are.
That being said, this episode felt very reminiscent of “Star Wars: A New Hope” thanks to the addition of several familiar species and vehicles. Sandcrawlers, Reeks and Jawas are all quintessential aspects of the Star Wars universe. I think most people view the Jawas as little annoying creatures, so having the main character start picking them off from a distance was a nice touch. That scene definitely made a statement about the kind of audience this show is targeting.
I also think that this little baby Yoda alien using the Force on the beast in this episode plays into my previous theories about the baby having some connection back to Yoda himself. It would be irresponsible to assume that just because this baby is the same species as Yoda that it should naturally have the same Force ability as him. ere are obviously billions of humans in the Star Wars universe who are not considered “Force-sensitive” while others like Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker are quite adept with it.
My predictions for next week are actually pretty shallow at this point. We know that William “Bill” Burr (Patrick Kuby in AMC’s “Breaking Bad”) and Giancarlo Esposito (Gustavo “Gus” Fring also in “Breaking Bad”) still need to make their appearance in this season. Most of the scenes shown in the promotional footage for “The Mandalorian” have already been seen in these first two episodes.
Especially after leaving this episode with no real cliff hanger, there is very little information about what the next episode holds to speculate. Fans can expect “The Mandalorian” to return again today where we will continue to unravel more of the mystery and dive deeper into the Star Wars universe.
