Fresh off the excitement of Season 2 of The Mandalorian, we’re going back and reviewing / recapping all the episodes. In this post, we discuss the second episode of season one, Chapter 2: The Child.
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Review of The Mandalorian Chapter 2: The Child (you are here)
Chapter 2 Review / Recap
Since my last review, I’ve learned that the first few moments of the show are the “establishing shot”, so now I can say we’re going to start, as we hopefully always will, with the establishing shot.
Chapter 1’s establishing shot showed Mando from behind, alone on a cold world, marching toward a cantina to capture an asset. Chapter 2 starts with Mando now accompanied by The Child in a warmer-looking world:
The Mandalorian Chapter 2 Copyright Disney (Fair Use claimed)
The other notable difference in this shot vs. Chapter 1’s establishing shot is that Mando isn’t out in the open. Because of that, he perhaps is a little more on his toes, and he (and hopefully the audience) senses something coming.
Mando correctly senses an ambush, and dispatches of the attackers. One of the drops a tracking fob (like the ones we’ve seen Mando handle), suggesting that he and IG-11 weren’t the only ones pursuing The Child. With The Child in hand, Mando is himself now a target.
Mando and The Child continue their trek back to the Razor Crest. The Child notices Mando stitching up a wound and tries to walk over to him, but Mando twice places him back in his pod before shutting the lid, which gives us a POV shot from The Child:
The Mandalorian Chapter 2 Copyright Disney (Fair Use claimed)
The two continue their hike the next morning, and we’re treated to this great shot of the pair:
The Mandalorian Chapter 2 Copyright Disney (Fair Use claimed)
I’ve read that some of the shots in the show are from Death Valley, but I can’t say whether this is one of them. Either way, it’s a beautiful shot. I’ll discuss this more later, but the show persists in sort of an ongoing tension between the narrow and the broad, and the contrasting shots of the canyon and the desert reflect both sides of that.
Mando and The Child arrive at the Razor Crest to see it being dismantled by Jawas (the same creatures who, in Episode IV A New Hope capture C-3PO and R2D2 for later sale to Luke). Mando uses his gun to disintegrate three of them. He chooses his shots carefully, targeting two Jawas currently holding pieces of his ship and one who begins shooting from the couple dozen in the area.
Mando pursues the Jawas’ sandcrawler, but they’re able to fend him off, electrocuting him and leaving him on the desert floor. (Sometimes it seems like for every fight Mando wins the writers have to give him one to lose.)
Mando awakens and heads back to the Razor Crest, but finds it beyond repair.
I noted in the Chapter 1 review that in sci-fi, ships often act as characters, though Mando doesn’t give the Razor Crest much of a send off at this point. He takes a second to sit on his bunk and contemplate his trashed ship, but The Child quickly appears in the doorway, a reminder that the mission goes on without the Razor Crest. The two head to Kuiil’s home.
Kuiil’s line to Mando, “I thought you were dead” recalls the previous Chapter when he told Mando many had come for the asset (which we now know is The Child) and failed to retrieve it. It’s also the first line of the episode, besides some Jawa chatter, and happens over a third of the way into the episode (around 11min 11sec).
Mando explains that the Jawas destroyed his ship, but Kuiil corrects him:
Stripped. Not destroyed. The Jawas steal. They don't destroy.
It’s a good line because it reminds us of the trope that’s ongoing between these two—the traveler and the native guide. Mando says “stolen or destroyed” makes no difference to him, but Kuiil knows there’s a difference in the minds of the Jawas, and it’s the Jawas they’ll need to work with to get the parts back.
The trope continues as Mando and Kuiil have a sit down with the Jawas. Kuiil convinces Mando to leave his weapons behind. He translates and negotiates while Mando yells at the Jawas, refuses to trade for his own parts, and tries to set them on fire. Mando—the traveler—can speak some Jawa, but they laugh at his poor skills. Kuiil—the native—speaks fine Jawa and eventually helps Mando arrive at a deal. He has to acquire “the egg” for the Jawas. Kuiil is not enthused:
The Mandalorian Chapter 2 Copyright Disney (Fair Use claimed)
The introduction of “the egg” is significant…in its insignificance. Even some casual viewers immediately recognize “the egg” as a MacGuffin—an object that exists purely (and sometimes comically) to drive the plot forward.
In reviewing Chapter 1, I concluded with how well the episode showed the range of the show. There was action, horror, comedy, and adventure. There were three planets, a bunch of species, droids, the Empire, local ruffians, and even a creature bearing great resemblance to a famed Jedi.
This episode, and this scene, introduce us to the other side of The Mandalorian. In his epic quest, our hero will sometimes be diverted on extraneous quests—the pursuit of an egg, for instance—to remove obstacles from his main path (this structure has been in use for at least 2800 years).
The point is that not every episode gives the sense that Mando is playing a role in a larger fight. Some episodes, he’s just a bounty hunter who has to track down an egg.
This is pretty ambitious, and Jon Favreau (and his team) and Disney should get credit for this decision. I sometimes feel the drag of these “side” missions, but they make the “big” moments in the show that much more satisfying.
You could easily see Disney wanting to take an “easier” route with their first big Disney Plus Star Wars original and make it directly tied to the core nine films. Obi Wan Kenobi, for example, is getting his own show on Disney Plus. Everyone wants to know more about the Empire, the Rebellion, the First Order, the Resistance, the Jedi, the Sith, and so on.
Of course, the upside of telling a new story is that it’s yours to tell. The characters are yours. And, maybe more importantly, you actually don’t need to know or care much about the core films to get onboard.
Mando’s battle for the egg is the climax of the episode. We see Mando “suit up” for the battle before heading into the cave. The cave scene is shot like a horror film, with Mando’s flashlight the only source of light and then providing us with BAM:
The Mandalorian Chapter 2 Copyright Disney (Fair Use claimed)
It reminds me of the scene in Chapter 1 where the ice breaks toward the Razor Crest and the ravinak jumps out.
The battle with the mudhorn shows Mando once again incredibly outmatched. Basically none of his tricks—shooting, fire, grappling—really does much at all. Mando is down to his last hope, a knife, when this happens:
The Mandalorian Chapter 2 Copyright Disney (Fair Use claimed)
And the big reveal is that The Child can use the Force:
The Mandalorian Chapter 2 Copyright Disney (Fair Use claimed)
While the reveal is great, the end of the battle falls flat for me. The Child eventually tires of holding the mudhorn and drops it, giving Mando an opening to shove his knife into the throat of the mudhorn, killing it instantly.
With the mudhorn going down so quickly, it’s feasible that a good parry and stab to the neck would have gotten Mando the same result as the mudhorn charged him.
As for the Force, this takes us back to Chapter 1. Two themes we mentioned in the review of Chapter 1 were power and hands. You maybe knew where we were going, as this episode introduced the the most famous power in the galaxy—the Force—through Baby Yoda’s hand.
Mando brings the egg to the Jawas, who proceed to chop off the top of it and eat the insides. It earns a head shake from Mando and a laugh from me after he went through all that for a tasty snack.
As Mando and Kuiil head back to the Razor Crest—its parts in tow—they agree neither of them understands what The Child has done.
This is pretty significant. If you’re a casual Star Wars fan (like me), you’d be forgiven for assuming everyone in the Galaxy knows all about the Jedi and the Force. Particularly now, only a few years post-Empire, you’d think the stories of the Jedi toppling the Empire would be everywhere.
We know from Episode VII The Force Awakens that some years after the fall of the empire, the Jedi are treated more as myth or legend. The exchange in this Episode reflects that even closer to the fall of the Empire, the Jedi were mysterious.
Mando is well-traveled. Kuiil, as alluded to and later confirmed, was a slave to the Empire. And even these two can’t explain a pretty typical use of the Force. In an episode that has already sized the show down to “guy has to steal egg”, this is another reminder of the (heretofore) limited role our characters play in the larger Galaxy.
Mando and Kuiil put the Razor Crest back together. It reminded me of the scene from Chapter 1 where the armor is forged. Mando gives the ship a few love taps once it’s back together. After all is said and done, we get a great callback to earlier in the episode.
The sequence of Mando firing up the engines and looking out the cockpit window to check on them very closely mirrors earlier in the episode, when he tried this and the engines failed:
The Mandalorian Chapter 2 Copyright Disney (Fair Use claimed)
The Mandalorian Chapter 2 Copyright Disney (Fair Use claimed)
Mando and Kuiil part ways, thanking each other. Kuiil declines an offer to work for Mando, explaining that he spent a lifetime working to finally be free of servitude.
Kuiil bookends this episode, he gave the first line and now gives the last:
And good luck with The Child. May it survive and bring you a handsome reward. I have spoken.
I find it a little hard to read Kuiil’s lines in this episode. There’s that one, and the earilier:
It is better to deliver it alive [since it’s a child].
Does he think whoever hired Mando will take care of the child? He should know by now that Mando was authorized to kill The Child. Does he expect (as viewers do) that Mando won’t let harm come to such a cute creature? Or does he really just not care what happens to The Child? Kuiil is a nice dude, but the Galaxy is a rough place.
As Mando sets off the bring The Child to The Client, he checks the pod to make sure The Child is alive, a feeling I’m much more familiar with now that I have a baby of my own.
It’s possible Mando couldn’t safely encase The Child in carbonite, and that’s why he’s keeping The Child nearby and making sure it’s alive to maximize his bounty. But really, this moment speaks to his beginning to care for The Child.
Odds and Ends
This “odds and ends” section is a little more in depth than when we reviewed Chapter 1 because I couldn’t naturally fit some things into the above recap. Our conclusions about the episode follow this section.
Humor
One area I found this episode a big improvement on the first is the humor. While I thought the humor fit the first episode, it was just barely. It seemed to really scream “look we’re making Star Wars fun again!” This episode earned more sly grins and fewer eye rolls from me:
The Mando / Child dynamic is always funny.
Mando says as a Mandalorian weapons are part of his “religion”, and the way he says it sounds cheeky even if there’s truth in it.
“You speak terrible Jawa. You sound like a Wookiee.”
Mando is too tall for the cockpit of the Jawa fortress.
Not everyone will LOL, but for a second Mando clearly thinks “wow what a knife!” when staring down the floating mudhorn
After everything Mando goes through to get the egg, the Jawas just slice it open and eat it.
POVs
I mentioned one POV—The Child looking at Mando—earlier. There are two more I noticed in the episode. One is The Child watching Mando enter the cave:
The Mandalorian Chapter 2 Copyright Disney (Fair Use claimed)
And a few moments later we have a blurry POV from Mando as he’s getting destroyed by the mudhorn:
The Mandalorian Chapter 2 Copyright Disney (Fair Use claimed)
All three POVs have obstructed views. The Child’s views are obstructed by the pod, and Mando’s by his helmet (and the blurred vision).
Conclusions
As with many shows, The Mandalorian uses the second episode as a sort of reset. The first episode had the ambitious task of setting up the entire journey, but the second episode shows us what to really expect from the grind of the show. It’s sort of like syllabus day vs. the first real class day. Or training day vs. the first day on the job.
The episode tells a fun story and includes one huge payoff (The Force), but it’s a bit short and feels like it hits us a bit over the head with the whole “sometimes the hero has to almost die fighting a mudhorn to get the Jawas a tasty treat” bit. It trades a laugh for watching our hero get beat down.
Overall, it’s an above average episode of television, but short of what we got in Chapter 1.
3.5 / 5.