The second episode of The Mandalorian season two casts a different light on our favourite Star Wars duo. Continuing directly from the last instalment’s storyline, this episode includes remote control jetpacks, giant spiders and Baby Yoda’s terrible eating habits.
While not as exciting or groundbreaking as the previous episode, it’s still a solid chapter with darkness, fun and suspense in equal measure. We even get a look at a couple of the iconic Rebel Alliance/New Republic X-Wing (T-65B) Starfighters – the same squadron that we saw in the previous episode.
Episode overview
The opening has Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) speeding away from Mos Pelgo. On the way back they’re ambushed by bounty hunters. In a rare sight, Din struggles to deal with them as they close in and almost manage to restrain him until he breaks free by knocking both bounty hunters in the head with a rifle. Before he can recover and work his way back to his ship the final Bounty Hunter takes Baby Yoda hostage with a knife.
A jetpack with a mind of its own
After giving the bounty hunter a choice of taking anything of his that isn’t Baby Yoda, Din hands over his jetpack. He and Baby Yoda watch on as the jetpack launches the bounty hunter high into the sky and drops him with a soft thud, returning elegantly to Din.
When Din finally arrives back at his ship, he is tasked with transporting a frog lady to her home planet where she will be able to have a family with her husband, who knows where some Mandalorians are. On her back are a batch of unfertilized eggs being preserved in fluid which are her precious cargo. This task is complicated by the fact that the eggs will die if they go through hyperspace, so Din Djarin will have to transport her at “sub-light” speeds.
Don’t eat that!!!
Reluctantly Din accepts as his friend Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris), vouching for the currently nameless Frog Lady. Having no leads to any other Mandalorians, he knows he doesn’t really have any other choice.
Everything is smooth flying at first, that is until Din goes below deck and finds Baby Yoda munching on the Frog Ladies’ eggs; a horrifying moment as the scene before had the child staring at the eggs somewhat lovingly. Fans were not too pleased by this scene as their adorable Star Wars mascot took on the role of hungry carnivore.
However, before you get too upset, remember that these eggs are unfertilized – meaning that it’s just the same as the eggs you eat at home! Fans also shouldn’t be surprised, as The Child has eaten frogs, insects and bones so far – he is clearly a growing lad with a taste for the meatier things in life.
Maybe it is a little gross that the Frog Lady who laid the eggs to continue her family had them eaten by a cute little alien, but Star Wars has done worse; from alien slugs using humans in bikinis for entertainment, to incestuous brother and sister moments, to the casual genocides of various planets and races. In comparison, what’s a little raw egg?
Found by an X-Wing patrol
After preventing Baby Yoda from feasting on her soon-to-be children, Din returns to the pilot seat where he is hailed by two X-Wings looking for “Imperial hold-outs”.
This has interesting implications, as even 5 years after Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, there are still Imperial threats in the galaxy. This hints at the fact that the Imperials are not truly gone and we know they return in the form of the First Order in the sequel trilogy. This could mean that in The Mandalorian’s future there may be better explanations as to how The First Order rises between Episodes 6 and 7.
They eventually convince him to “ping” them and from this they work out that The Razorcrest is a wanted ship after being involved in the prison break (with Bill Burr!) in Chapter 6. In response to this the X-Wings part their wings in their typical attack stance.
In order to avoid being pulverised by the best starfighter model in the galaxy, Din dives towards a nearby planet to try and lose them in the atmosphere. After a close chase he manages to evade them after crash-landing on the planet’s icy ground, but the ship crashes through the ice and is damaged by drop to a lower cave level.
Spiders, hot tubs and more eggy snacks
After crash landing, the first thing that Din does is go below deck to check on Baby Yoda, the eggs and the damage caused. Worried about a crack that is letting in snow and ice, Din desperately searches for the eggs and finds Baby Yoda once again leaning over the container and eating one after the other. As a cherry on top, the child stares at him while he pops one last egg into his mouth.
Fortunately Frog Lady hasn’t yet noticed that her eggs are disappearing at an alarming rate and takes them back. As Din works on fixing the ship, he becomes aware that his passenger and her precious cargo have disappeared into the caves. Following her tracks, Din and Baby Yoda find her in a geo-thermal pool wanting to heat up her eggs so they don’t freeze. As Din tries to explain to her that they shouldn’t wander into random caves, Baby Yoda is off trying to find more food.
Surrounding the chamber are odd looking rocks that turn out not to be rocks at all, but eggs. Of course our favourite child finds his favourite snack, opens it up and eats the strange insect creature inside… which in turn wakes the rest of the eggs.
In seconds the trio are fleeing from a horde of giant ice spiders back to their ship. Even when they battle their way into the cockpit and try to take off, a spider the size of a house leaps on top of them to prevent their escape.
Fortunately for Din, all the explosions and shooting must have gotten the X-Wings attention again as the pilots pursuing him began shooting at the spiders, saving Din and the Razorcrest from certain death. They mention how he should be arrested, but his actions in Chapter 6 means they were sympathetic and they let him go.
The final shot is of a heavily holed Razorcrest limping away from the treacherous ice planet.
What did we learn?
Compared with the first premiere episode this one felt more like a filler episode, with few things affecting the main story-arc or character development. However there were a few things to pick up:
Ice spiders were desert spiders in Star Wars: Rebels
The spiders shown in this episode were originally in the Rebels animated series, referred to as Krykna. However, on this show they were all approximately the same size and there were never any eggs shown.
It’s still up for debate whether these creatures are the same species or just related. Although, by the way they move, look and act they could well be exactly the same creature transferred from animation to live-action.
The X-Wing pilots were the same ones who destroyed the space station in Chapter 6
Maybe they recognised the Razorcrest, or maybe the Razorcrest had been reported as the ship involved, but these two pilots had seen Din’s ship before whether they knew it or not. It’s a nice hint at continuity as it would make sense that these pilots would stay in the same area of the galaxy.
Baby Yoda’s moral compass is… ambiguous
Even if you were one of the fans who couldn’t watch as Baby Yoda devoured a young woman’s potential children, don’t be too disappointed in our hero. While we view him as an adorable, innocent child who needs protecting, he is clearly a hungry carnivore who is determined to get what he wants. Remember that he’s been hanging around with mainly sketchy people his entire life, so he’s not had anyone to tell him how to behave.
While we can put this incident down to him being a naughty child, we have to remind ourselves that staying with Din for too long could impact the child’s behavior in the future. Seeing as he is already using powerful Force abilities, this could lead him down some dark paths.
The child’s future is as uncertain as child Anakin’s was on Tatooine and we can only hold onto our sofas and hope that Baby Yoda has a different fate in store.
Wrapping up
This wasn’t the most epic episode – it felt more like a character-based filler episode rather than adding anything to the current Mandalorian story-arc. What the episode did show is that live action Star Wars is really good at doing bugs – good enough that, even if you don’t fear insects, your skin will be crawling by the end of the episode!
Next week we will find out if Din Djarin’s quest to find more Mandalorians is a success. With rumours of Sabine Wren or Bo Katan featuring in the next episode, there’s a lot to be excited for.
