In “The Mandalorian” season 2 debut recap, Mando goes back to Tatooine as he searches for a way to send Baby Yoda home and a shocking surprise caps off the episode…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
The long way for the return of “The Mandalorian” is finally over.
The debut episode for season 2 dropped late Thursday night/early Friday morning on Disney+ as the “Star Wars” spinoff continues in the wake of a finale that saw Mando revealed as a man named Din Djarin, who has now been tasked with returning ‘the child’ aka Baby Yoda to its own people.
Of course last season ended with a rogue Imperial named Moff Gideon going after the child and nearly succeeding when Mando was injured and almost killed. Instead, Mando and his friends escaped and ultimately brought Moff Gideon’s TIE fighter crashing down to the ground.
It was only after Mando left the planet that Moff Gideon crawled out of the wreckage armed with the Darksaber — a mythical light saber with a black blade that once resided on the planet Mandalore.
When season 2 of “The Mandalorian” picks up, Moff Gideon is nowhere to be found yet but Mando has his own problems as he continues to search the galaxy to find the location where Baby Yoda and its people reside. In order to return the baby home, Mando needs help and that means finding more Mandalorians because he learned that the child may come from an ancient band of sorcerers known as the Jedi. The Mandalorians once waged war with the Jedi and it’s possible the remaining members of that order could tell him where the child is actually from.
That ultimately brings Mando back to Tattoine in the search for a Mandalorian but the biggest moment of the episode doesn’t take place until the closing seconds.
With that said, let’s recap “The Mandalorian” season 2 debut titled “Chapter 9: The Marshal”…
Return to Tatooine
In the wake of his encounter with Moff Gideon on Nevarro when the Mandalorian Armorer told Mando that he’s now been charged with returning Baby Yoda to its own people, he’s started searching the galaxy for help.
Because Baby Yoda possibly has ties to an ancient group of sorcerers known as Jedi, Mando believes that his own people — the Mandalorians — may be able to help him find whatever remnants remain of this order. Unfortunately, the last remaining Mandalorians are scattered across the galaxy so finding any of them will be no easy task.
Mando’s first stop is a planet where he seeks out an Abyssin named Gor Koresh, who runs a Gamorrean fight club and apparently knows where at least one Mandalorian resides. Mando is ready to pay for the information but Gor Koresh asks him to make a wager with him because he wants to get his hands on the Beskar that makes up his armor.
Mando refuses to put something so valuable up to a game of chance and Gor Koresh agrees — so he pulls a gun and demands the Beskar armor. Obviously, Mando isn’t giving up his armor so he quickly activates his heat-seeking missiles as the child ducks and covers while the weapons spring into action and take out all of the men pointing guns at him.
Mando is forced to dispatch a couple more thugs before finally catching up to Gor Koresh, who he promptly strings upside down to demand the information about the location of the Mandalorian. Gor Koresh tells him the mystery Mandolorian resides on Tatooine — Luke Skywalker’s adopted home planet — living in the city of Mos Pelgo.
Mando has been to Tatooine previously but heard no stories about another Mandalorian living there but he takes Gor Koresh at his word before knocking out all the street lights, which allows a group of creatures hiding in the shadows to feast on the gangster.
When the Razor Crest arrives on Tatooine, Mando returns to the repair shop where he previously stopped and allowed the owner to take care of Baby Yoda while he was out on a hunt of his own. She is glad to see Mando and the baby return and while her droids tend to the ship, she looks over a map of Tatooine from before the Galactic Empire fell.
She points out where Mos Pelgo once existed but she’s not so sure it’s even still there thanks to the power vacuum left in the wake of the Rebel Alliance’s victory. It seems many of these outer colonies have faced a lot of hardships after the Imperial forces were driven out.
Mando decides to look for himself while borrowing a speeder to make it out into the desert.
When he finally arrives at Mos Pelgo, the tiny mining community is immediately wary of his arrival. Mando goes into a local bar and asks about finding a Mandalorian.
The bartender points to the town’s marshal, who has just arrived and he’s wearing a partial suit of Mandalorian armor that once belonged to the bounty hunter, Boba Fett.
The marshal (played by Timothy Olyphan, who previously played U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens in “Justified”) promptly orders two drinks, sits down at a table and removes his helmet. That lets Mando know immediately that this man is not a real Mandalorian.
The marshal’s name is Cobb Vanth and he explains how he bought the Mandalorian armor from a group of Jawas. Mando demands that he hands it over — no one but a true Mandalorian is allowed to wear Mandalorian armor.
Just when it appears Mando and the marshal are about to have a quick draw contest to see who gets the armor, the entire mining colony begins to rumble. A few seconds later, a giant creature appears from underneath the sand as it searches for food and scares the crap out of the entire town that its terrorizing.
Cobb Vanth then makes the Mandalorian an offer — rather than shooting at each other, he will gladly hand over the armor as long as Mando helps him kill the krayt dragon that’s been eating people and destroying this town for years already.
Mando agrees and the two of them set off for the desert to find the creature.
Along the way, Cobb Vanth gives his origin story, which revolves around the end of the Galactic Empire and the rise of the Mining Collective.
It seems after the Death Star was destroyed, Mos Pelgo’s people celebrated but it was short lived after the Mining Collective arrived and enslaved everybody. Cobb Vanth managed to escape along with a container filled with Silicax crystals.
After days spent in the desert, Cobb Vanth was near death from dehydration when a group of Jawas found him, provided him with water and then discovered that he was carrying the Silicax crystals. They wanted the crystals so badly that they exchanged the Mandalorian armor along with weapons, which then allowed Cobb Vanth to return to Mos Pelgo, kill the Mining Collective and free the townspeople.
Ever since then, Cobb Vanth has been acting as the town marshal, protecting the people from different groups that show up every now and again as well as the Tusken Raiders, who also appear from time to time seeking to steal whatever they can get their hands on.
Back out in the desert, Mando and Cobb Vanth encounter the Sand People but it isn’t the deadly encounter most people have with the group. Instead it seems Mando speaks the language of the Tuskens and he’s able to communicate with them.
It seems they want to kill the krayt dragon just as much as the Mos Pelgo residents, which Mando then forges into a partnership in order to slay the great beast. Mando knows this will be no easy job, especially after finding that the krayt dragon lives in an abandoned Sarlacc pit.
The sarclacc pit is only abandoned because the krayt dragon ate the Sarlacc.
After returning to town, Cobb Vanth and Mando are able to convince the townspeople to team up with the Tuskens in order to slay the krayt dragon. It’s an uneasy partnership considering the Sand People have raided and killed people from Mos Pelgo previously but the two sides ultimately want the same thing.
The huge caravan arrives in the desert to do battle with the krayt dragon but the original plan fails to destroy the beast after a set of explosives only serve to irritate the creature rather than kill it.
Finally with options running low, Mando attempts to lure the beast to swallow the second set of explosives and he essentially sacrifices himself as bait. The krayt dragon swallows the explosives and Mando whole much to the horror of Cobb Vanth, the Tuskens and the residents from Mos Pelgo.
A few seconds later, Mando blasts his way free of the krayt dragon before setting off the detonation as the explosives blow the creature in half.
Everyone celebrates the victory as the mighty beast has been slayed and a peace has also been brokered between the people of Mos Pelgo and the Tuskens The two sides will no longer fight or kill each other so long as the peace remains in place.
The people of Mos Pelgo are happy because they no longer have to worry about this creature or the Tusken raiders. The Tuskens are equally pleased after they retrieve some kind of egg from the krayt dragon.
Cobb Vanth hands over the Mandalorian armor and wishes Mando well on his journeys to find more of his people in order to return the Baby Yoda to its own.
As Mando rides across desert plain on the speeder to return to the Razor Crest, a mysterious stranger watches from the distance.
The stranger sees Mando and the Mandalorian armor he retrieved from Cobb Vanth as he races back to his ship. When the stranger finally turns around we see scars covering his face and the revelation that this is Boba Fett!
Of course astute “Star Wars” fans will recognize the actor Temeura Morrison, who played Jango Fett in the prequel films. Jango allowed himself to serve as the mold for what eventually became the clone army but he made one request that a perfect replica was made that he could raise as a son. That son became Boba Fett.
Obviously the last time we saw Boba Fett was at Jabba’s palace in “Return of the Jedi” when his rocket pack was accidentally ignited and he crash landed into the Sarlacc pit where he would supposedly be digested over a thousand years. His return means that Boba Fett somehow survived but he lost his armor along the way.
How much Boba Fett will play a part in “The Mandalorian” season 2 remains to be seen but now we know he’s alive and he has seen Mando escaping with his armor.
The next episode of “The Mandalorian” arrives on Disney+ on Friday!
