In the recap for “The Mandalorian”, the bounty hunter runs into problems trying to leave the planet after capturing his asset, who appears to have some special abilities of its own…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Two episodes into the new “Star Wars” live action series and there have already been more than a few twists and turns but the biggest one so far might be the running time for the series.
The first episode only went 39 minutes and the second installment dropped at 30 minutes flat.
Now obviously there’s nothing wrong with shorter episodes, especially when so many series feel obligated to go an hour deep for 20 or 25 episodes a season with enough story to maybe fill half that. It’s just strange that one of the marquee series that helped launch Disney+ has a run time closer to a sitcom than a typical drama show.
That said, “The Mandalorian” is off and running with a ton of action through these first two episodes including the return of the Jawas in episode two that mostly revolves around the bounty hunter trying to escape a planet called Arvala-7 with his asset intact.
The asset as we found out in the debut is a baby Yoda — because that species has no known name, we’re just going to refer to it as baby Yoda for the time being — and now the Mandalorian is tasked with returning this child to a benefactor willing to pay a lot of money for this particular bounty. The question now becomes will the Mandalorian be willing to hand over a baby to a man who appears to be a Galactic Empire sympathizer with a doctor just itching to get his hands on a live specimen?
It seems we’ll find out answers to that in the coming weeks but for now let’s recap the latest episode of “The Mandalorian” titled “Chapter 2: The Child”…
It’s Hard Out Here for a Bounty Hunter
After wiping out an entire colony of gun-wielding aliens, the Mandalorian escapes with his asset as he leads the baby Yoda through the desert sa he works his way back to his ship to leave the planet.
Along the way, the Mandalorian is attacked by a separate group of Trandoshan bounty hunters, who also have a location fob as they’ve also been tracking the same baby Yoda for “The Client”.
Trandoshans have been seen previously in “The Empire Strikes Back” when a bounty hunter named Bossk, who was among the people Darth Vader gathered to offer a reward for the capture and return of Han Solo. Bossk failed to win the bounty because an old friend of his named Boba Fett was ultimately the person who brought Han back to Darth Vader before then turning him over to Jabba the Hutt.
After fighting off the Trandoshan bounty hunters, the Mandalorian was wounded but still able to finish his journey back to the ship.
Just when he arrives, the Mandalorian spots a group of Jawas disassembling parts from his vessel that they intend to sell on the open market. With his rifle in hand, the Mandalorian disintegrates several Jawas before they are able to gather up all of the parts stolen from the ship and make a getaway in their Sandcrawler.
The Mandalorian gives chase and manages get on board the giant rolling tank but he’s blasted by a pulse rifle that knocks him back down on the ground.
Eventually, the Mandalorian recovers and realizes that he’s stuck on this planet unless he can get his ship repaired. With limited options, he turns to Kuiil — the blurrg riding native who helped him track down the encampment where the baby Yoda was being held. Kuiil offers his assistance tracking down the Jawas in order to hopefully make a trade to get back the parts of his ship that were stolen so he can repair everything and then take off.
When they finally catch up to the Jawas, the Mandalorian has nothing he’s willing to give them in exchange for the parts that will get his ship back up and running. They are curious about the baby Yoda but he obviously refuses that request.
The Jawas then ask him to retrieve ‘the egg’ and that will be sufficient payment to get back all the parts of the ship that they stole in the first place.
The Mandalorian agrees but he has no idea the kind of trouble he’s inviting because ‘the egg’ belongs to a Mudhorn — a massive horned creature that we first encountered during “Star Wars: Attack of the Clones”. The Mudhorn is awaken by the Mandalorian and it immediately attacks the bounty hunter.
Just when it looks like the Mudhorn is going to stop the bounty hunter into the dirt, the baby Yoda raises his hand and the creature is lifted into the air giving the Mandalorian just enough space to stab it with his knife after exhausting all of his other weapons. When the creature falls back to the ground, the baby is immediately exhausted from the power he just used and he snoozes off into a nap.
Given what happened it would appear that this baby Yoda is using the Force much like the two other creatures from this same species. Both Yoda and Yoddle were members of the Jedi council and thus powerful with the Force. It would appear that this particular species has a very special relationship to the Force, which makes this baby that much more valuable — and potentially dangerous.
It’s also interesting that the Mandolorian and Kuiil both look completely shocked that this baby could lift a massive creature up into the air as if they had never even heard of the Force before. Based on the timeline for this series, “The Mandalorian” takes place approximately five years after the events in “Return of the Jedi” so you have to wonder how widespread word of the Force was after the Jedi were nearly made extinct.
Remember even Vader had his doubters in “Star Wars: A New Hope” until he Force chokes one of the officers mocking his “ancient religion”.
With the Mudhorn defeated, the Mandalorian retrieves the egg before returning it to the Jawas, who immediately break it open and begin feasting on the contents inside. It seems this egg is a delicacy to the Jawas but for obvious reasons, it’s not easy to get your hands on one.
The Mandalorian retrieves all the parts he needs for his ship and Kuiil assist him putting the vessel back together again.
Before leaving the Mandalorian asks if his new friend would like to join him on his journey while being paid a handsome wage for his services. Kuiil politely declines telling the Mandalorian that he fought to gain his freedom and he no longer wants to serve anybody even as an employee.
He also refuses payment for his services becuaase Kuiil is just happy that the Mandalorian brought peace back to his valley by taking this valuable asset away so the rest of the bounty hunters will stop looking for it.
The Mandalorian thanks him for his help as he fires up the engines to begin his trek back across the galaxy to deliver this bounty to his benefactor. Then again as the bounty hunter stares down as this child, it’s easy to tell that he’s having reservations already about handing over a baby to a client who almost certainly wants to do it harm.
“The Mandalorian” returns for episode 3 next Friday on Disney+
