TV

‘The Mandalorian’ E1&2 Recap: Droids, Bounty Hunters, And Baby Yoda

When is the Baby Yoda merch coming?

by Cameron Williams  20 November 2019
The Mandalorian episode 1 and 2 recap

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Welcome to our recap of the Disney+ original, The Mandalorian.

*Spoilers ahead*

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In the first two episodes of the Disney+ live-action Star Wars TV series, the titular Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) never takes off his helmet. He’s like me at 13 when I discovered a KFC bucket fit perfectly on my head. Amour is a big deal for Mandalorians, a tribal civilisation of warriors known for making lightsaber-resistant garments, and having the worst hat hair in the galaxy.

Set after the defeat of the Empire in Return of the Jedi, we meet the Mandalorian on an ice planet in the outer rim. Chapter one gets straight to the point by showing us what the Mandalorian is all about: results.

The bounty hunter’s armour looks awesome and director Dave Filoni (Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Wars: The Clone Wars) understands the impact of his silhouette as he takes down an outlaw, Mythrol (Horatio Sanz blue himself).

The Mandalorian takes his time and uses the helmet to intimidate goons. His strategy is to trap outlaws by letting them make their own mistakes and it’s on quicker than you can say, “influenced by westerns”. The Mandalorian also mistrusts droids, which means he’s a little bit old school; the analogue bounty hunter.

Once on-board the Mandalorian’s ship, The Razor Crest (edgy), there’s a creepy moment where Mythrol thinks he’s going to escape but the Mandalorian sidles up and throws him into the carbon-freezer.

Again, this guy gets results.

What Happens In Chapter 1

A bulk of the series opener is dedicated to showing us that the Mandalorian is good at his job. A necessity because the other famous guy who wore Mandalorian armour, Boba Fett, only lasted 5 minutes in a real fight before he fell into a Sarlacc pit.

Yet for all the action-packed moments of the opener, its dedication to keeping Pascal hidden and letting the helmet do all the work is clunky. The Mandalorian faces the same challenge as Sam Rami’s Spider-Man films with its hero’s disembodied voice behind a mask for most of the time.

Once the Mandalorian returns to claim his fee from the leader of the bounty hunter guild, Greef Karga (Carl Weathers), it gets interesting. The galaxy is being de-colonised after the fall of the Empire, and everyone is taking full advantage of the lack of law and order.

Karga offers the Mandalorian Empire credits as payment but he rejects the offer because they no longer have any value. It’s exciting to see the aftermath of the Rebellion and it’s a refreshing change to not have to deal with any Skywalker family drama.

The Mandalorian has the same feel as Star Wars video games like Dark Forces, Rebel Assault and Shadow of the Empire; stories set in a galaxy far, far away but not beholden to the saga. Star Wars stories always make an expansive galaxy feel tiny when the plot is tied up in the same repetitive loops.

The opening episodes of The Mandalorian hint at a show keen to keep to itself with the occasional nod to fans, reoccurring creatures and familiar alien races.

It’s All About The Space Benjamins, Baby

The Mandalorian wants a bigger pay day but he doesn’t want to get rich.

We learn that precious metals are offered as payment for risker jobs. The Mandalorian meets with a mysterious client, Werner Herzog as Werner Herzog, who offers beskar steel as payment. The metal is sacred in Mandalorian culture.

The gig is to find a life-form and bring it back dead or alive (I pointed at the screen and said ‘westerns’ out loud). The Mandalorian accepts. Before heading off, our helmet-loving bounty hunter visits a forge where the beskar is melted down and turned into a piece of armour. In this moment the series blends its western overtones with Spartan culture, ye olde knights and it’s metal as hell.

Studying the Mandalorian’s kit you’ll notice it’s scrappy and incomplete. In Star Wars canon there have been several non-Mandalorian characters who have co-opted the armour because of its durability and the fear it strikes in enemies.

We only learn about the Mandalorian’s past via brief flashbacks that hint at a war, and parents hiding a child. We don’t know who the Mandalorian is in these memories yet, but it sets the stage for his personal quest because he’s salvaging what’s left of his culture in the wake of the Empire’s dominance.

He could also be an imposter, but time will tell. The colonisation of the galaxy by the Empire has been explored in the animated series Star Wars Rebels, and The Mandalorian takes steps toward exploring the impact of the emperor’s reign over ancient cultures. It’s going to be a thrill to see the Mandalorian complete his armour set and how that’s tied to the vengeance being hinted in flashbacks.

Bounty Hunter Code

Bounty hunter code is a big part of The Mandalorian, and a rival appears, IG-11 (Taika Waititi). The Mandalorian reluctantly teams up with IG-11 to take down a criminal encampment and the firefight is where we get our pew pew pew fix.

In the battle we see why the Mandalorian can’t stand droids, especially bounty hunter ones due to their suicidal tendencies. The bounty hunters reach their mark and it’s a Baby Yoda. Oh my heart! I am going to refer to the cutest thing I have ever seen as Baby Yoda because the mystery around the infant is the series big secret, which is tied up in the fact that Yoda’s species and home planet has never been made official.

Baby Yoda is where The Mandalorian could make a major contribution to the Star Wars canon by giving Yoda’s species a backstory. The design of baby Yoda is borrowing heavily from the Gremlins playbook, but I don’t care. I love my green son.

The cuteness goes into overdrive in episode two as the Mandalorian paternal instincts kick in. The Dad-alorian, if you will. The urge to protect baby Yoda may be teasing at who the Mandalorian is in the flashback, the child or the parent?

Jawas show up and put The Razor Crest on space bricks, which sets the Mandalorian off on a fetch quest for the missing parts. We get to see the Mandalorian fail during a battle onboard a sandcrawler, which confirms Jawas are absolute bastards. A friendship is struck up with vapor farmer, Kuiil (Nick Nolte), who we met in the previous episode, but he never says anything profound in these opening episodes to justify wanting to see these guys hang out more.

More Fighting

The Mandalorian continues to get his arse kicked, this time by a horned beast while trying to get an egg for those arsehole Jawas, but baby Yoda, my beautiful green son, uses the force.

One of the best parts of episode two is hearing Ludwig Göransson score slowly reveal itself and it hits an epic high when the force is unleashed. Baby Yoda is 50 years old so that’s enough time to learn a bit about the force, but it brings into question whether Yoda’s species are predestined force users.

Like the Mandalorians, baby Yoda seems to come from an ancient culture nearing extinction. No doubt, this was part of the Emperor’s plan. But reincarnation could be in play and pesky clone fan theories are sure to dominate the internet for the first season.

The themes of re-claiming ancient cultures decimated by war and colonisation are where The Mandalorian excels in these opening episodes. The Mandalorian is also a test to see if a cool character design can launch a series. The helmet does its job but towards the end of episode two the bounty hunter comes across as a dull boy.

The Mandalorian is off to a fine start and hopefully there’s room for it to let its guard down.

Under The Helmet

  • Almost outshining both episodes was the stunning hand-drawn art work that accompanies the closing credits. I would like several of these framed and hung in my house, please.
  • The show’s mix of practical and digital effects makes a BIG difference. All the creatures and droids look great and IG-11’s swivelling gunplay is so damn cool.
  • The Kowakian monkey-lizard on the spit is evidence this show is going to a little more playful with its references.
  • The thugs in the bar in the opening scene are speaking Huttese, which means the infamous Hutts may appear in the series.
  • You know something truly feels like Star Wars with the use of wipes to transition between each scene. Feels like home.
  • Getting a giant alien creature of the week vibe from each episode, which is more of a monster mash than I was expecting.
  • When is the baby Yoda merch coming?!?!?!?!?!?

The Mandalorian episodes 1 and 2 are currently on Disney+.

Cameron Williams is a writer and film critic based in Melbourne who occasionally blabs about movies on ABC radio. He has a slight Twitter addiction: @MrCamW.