In “The Mandalorian” recap, Mando teams up with a group of mercenaries to facilitate a prison break…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
It’s hard out here for a bounty hunter.
Ever since leaving the Bounty Hunter Guild, our fearless Mandalorian has run into all sorts of problems trying to find jobs to help fund him in his journey across the galaxy while trying to protect the “asset” — a 50 year old baby Yoda that is sure to become your favorite plush toy with the holidays right around the corner.
The latest episode of “The Mandalorian” saw Mando team up with a group of mercenaries as they seek to orchestrate a prison break for another member of their crew.
The team Mando works with this week is chocked full of guest stars including comedian Bill Burr, Clancy Brown, Mark Boone Jr. and Natalie Tena, who has scored the nerd trifecta after appearing in the “Harry Potter” films, “Game of Thrones” and now “Star Wars.”
Of course, the prison break goes wrong and then Mando deals with a treacherous crew but in the end we do get to see some sweet X-wing action.
With that said, let’s get to our recap of the latest episode of “The Mandalorian” titled “Chapter 6: The Prisoner”…
I Told You That Was a Bad Idea
Living outside the law away from the Bounty Hunter’s Guild puts the Mandalorian in a tough spot as he continues to explore the galaxy with baby Yoda while trying to find refuge away from the watchful eyes of everybody who wants to cash in by finding the asset.
After taking down a rival bounty hunter and an assassin last week, Mando travels to an outpost to team with a man named Ran, who he used to work with while doing jobs outside of the scope of the Empire. Now with the New Republic in place, Ran is still running the same old schemes but he’s in need of another person for an upcoming job and Mando fit the bill perfectly.
It seems Ran is seeking to break someone loose from custody but there’s a very small window to attack the prison transport before it arrives at the holding facility. So Mando will be teaming up with four more outlaws, who will be assisting him in this caper.
The first person is a former Imperial sharpshooter — not a Stormtrooper, you wise ass — named Mayfeld, and he’ll be the one running point on the mission. The muscle for the job is a particularly nasty Devaronian named Burg and much to Mando’s chagrin, there will be a droid on the job as well — it’s name is Q9-0 but everybody just calls him Zero. The fifth member of the crew is a Twi’lek named Xi’an, who has history with the Mandalorian from previously working under this same employer.
It seems Xi’an and Mando also had some sort of relationship but that faded away after he left the crew and struck out on his own as a bounty hunter.
One more necessary component for the job — Ran tells Mando that they need to use the Razor Crest because it’s one of a few ships left in the galaxy that can stay off the radar of both Imperial and New Republic sensors. He reluctantly agrees even after learning that Zero will have to pilot the ship because their arrival and landing have to be precise to ensure they don’t set off any alarms on the prison transport.
While en route to the prison transport, Zero discovers a message from Greef Karga sent to the Mandalorian about his escape with the child. The droid can’t quite decipher the broken message yet but it obviously recognizes that Mando is in more trouble than he’s been letting on.
Meanwhile in the cargo bay, Mando finds out unbeknownst to him when he took the job that the prison break involves a New Republic transport, which means potentially even more trouble coming his way if they get caught.
Add to that, Mando also deals with a testy Burg, who wants to find out if Mandalorians are actually great fighters as the reputations that precede them. Mayfeld even throws in an insult that perhaps Mando is nothing more than a Gungan hiding under that helmet. Meesa Jar Jar Binks would be none too pleased to hear those insults.
Just when it looks like Burg and Mando are going to test that theory, the door opens up to reveal baby Yoda in his secret compartment. Mayfeld is immediately interested and Mando is quietly guarded about the baby but before anyone can get too inquisitive, the ship slams down into prison transport as Zero finds a landing spot outside of the radar.
Once inside, the group carefully makes its way through the various hallways while trying not to alert the droids guarding the various prisoners. When the droids discover their presence, a fire fight breaks out but just as the team turns to Mando as the hired gun, he’s nowhere to be found. Just when it looks like they’ve been abandoned, Mando pops out behind the droids and proceeds to wreck each and every one of them into a scrap pile of metal and broken parts.
What is already seeming like a risky plan goes even more awry after the outlaw crew discovers that the transport ship supposedly manned only by droids actually has a one man flight team on board as well. The lone soldier is inside the control room and he nervously points his blaster at the outlaws while also clutching an emergency alarm that will bring New Republic forces down on its location with the press of a button.
Mando does his best to defuse the situation but ultimately Xi’an kills the guard when he’s not looking but as he falls to the ground, the tracking locator that was once dormant has suddenly started blinking red. They are soon alerted to the fact that in 20 minutes, New Republic forces will be descending upon this prison transport and there will be no escape.
The team rushes to free the prisoner and when they arrive and open the cell, Mando recognizes the person they are rescuing as Qin — Xi’an’s brother and apparently another member of his former crew. Mando is none too happy to see him but he’s even less enthusiastic after the team betrays him, knocks him into the cell and locks the door behind him. They escape with Qin while Mando is stuck in a holding cell.
Of course a resourceful Mando finds a way out of the cell and he quickly gets back to the control room where he shuts down the lights and cuts off communications between Zero on the ship and the rest of the team desperately trying to get off the transport before the New Republic forces arrive.
One by one, Mando begins taking out his traitorous crew starting with Burg, who puts up the greatest fight and nearly powers his way through every attempt to slow him down. Eventually, Mando gets the upper hand by trapping Burg in a pair of blaster doors that he can’t out muscle. He then takes out Xi’an despite her best attempts to knife him and finally Mayfeld falls to the Mandlorian as well.
When he finally catches up with Qin, he’s about to board the Razor Crest but since he’s the key to receiving payment, Mando decides to finish the mission.
Inside the ship, Zero uncovers the full message from Greef and he tries to tell his team about the plentiful bounty being offered for Mando’s head but because communications are blocked, he can’t reach out ot anyone. Instead, Zero ends up chasing baby Yoda around the ship after he escapes his secret room for the second time. Just when it looks like Zero got the drop on the cute moving plush toy, baby Yoda tries to use his Force powers but before he can move anything, the droid explodes thanks to a precise shot from the Mandalorian, who made it back on board.
He then flies on the Razor Crest back to the space port where he reunites Qin with Ran, who is happy that the job was successful even if the majority of the team got sacrificed. Ran pays Mando his money and he boards the Razor Crest and leaves the hangar.
Ran can’t help but laugh because he is preparing to launch a gun ship to go after Mando and kill him but that’s when Qin discovers a parting gift from the former bounty hunter. Mando put the New Republic tracking beacon on Qin, which in turn brings a trio of X-wing fighters out of hyper speed as they descend upon the space port.
Seeing the gun ship in the hangar, the X-Wings open fire as Ran and Qin pay for betraying the Mandalorian but at least the rest of the crew got a better fate after it’s revealed that Mayfeld, Xi’an and Burg were left captive on the prison ship transport rather than killed.
As the Mandalorian jumps back into hyper space, he turns to the child and says that he tried to tell him this was a bad idea. He then hands over the little ball from the switch on his control board that the baby loves to play with as they head off to the next stop on the run.
“The Mandalorian” returns next Friday on Disney+ with a brand new episode.
