In this post, we’re breaking down our 100 favourite easter eggs in season 2 of The Mandalorian.
- Right from the beginning, the season was filled to the brim with cool little details and early on Grogu and Mando walk past a wall filled with Grafitti. This displays C-3po and some Snowtroopers.
- A couple of Jawas at the bottom right.
- and a Rebellion symbol along with some text that translates to Alderaan.
- This lets us know early on there’s gonna be a whole host of easter eggs to be found and it’s not too long before we see some Gamoreans in a fighting arena battling it out with stun axes.
- It’s not too long before Mando is making his way to Tatooine and one of the first things Peli Motto says is “so he likes droids now.” This is a reference to the first season in which the character famously hated and distrusted them.
- In episode one he shot IG-11 before he could make a move on Grogu but by the end of the season, he’d come to find a new appreciation for them and even removed his helmet in front of it which in turn allowed it to save his life.
- I think that the engine Peli stands in front of might actually be Sebulba’s podracer one dismantled and in episode two we see that this is used to cook some krayt dragon steak. That reminds me I must remember to buy some steak and eggs for tea
- The pit droids return from the phantom menace and the first season however we also see quite a big character back with the arrival of R5 who you may remember from a New Hope. R5 was actually bought by Luke instead of R2 but after his motivator busts, he was swapped for everyone’s favourite astromech droid.
- I love how you can actually see oil leaking out of one of the flaps on the top and this is the same one that busts all the way back in Episode 4 and changed the fate of the galaxy.
- Mando heads to Mos Pelgo and he’s on top of what looks like Anakin’s speeder from Attack of The Clones.
- Later in the episode, Cobb Vanth rides on top of Anakin’s pod so we have this nice moment in which we can see the vehicles that the character rode on Tattooine from the prequels.
- Now Cobb actually comes from the expanded universe book’s aftermath and similar to what we see in the show he wears Boba Fett’s armour.
- It’s pretty ill-fitting and suggests to us that it may look better on someone else which we’ll get into later in the video.
- Now the settlement is attacked by a Krayt Dragon and this sets up the Jaws motif of the entry.
- Later on, we see a Tusken Raider drop an exploding canister and this is similar to the scene in Jaws in which the tanks are pointed out as being very dangerous.
- Cobb goes into his backstory and we also see him pick up a case full of crystals in order to pay the Jawas later. This is not only featured in Battlefront 2 but the prop dates all the way back to The Empire Strikes back where it was actually an ice cream maker that has now gone on to become a container in the star wars universe.
- We see Mando and Cobb travel out to meet some Tusken raiders and they join their side. The Raiders are later seen riding in single file and as we learned in a New Hope, the creatures always did this to cover their tracks.
- Now they team up with the villagers to take down the Krayt Dragon and Mando actually knocks Vanths Jetpack to send him out of the area similar to what Han did to Boba in Return Of The Jedi.
- After being swallowed by the Dragon, Mando goes flying out of it’s mouth, surviving the acid it spewed and also potentially hinting to us how Boba managed to survive the Sarlacc.
- Now we see Boba at the end of the episode and by the end of the season we have it confirmed that he was the one who saved Fennec all the way back in Chapter 5.
- Skip to episode 2 and though this is pretty filler-y, there are still some cool little easter eggs in it. After being attacked by Bounty Hunters, Mando returns to The Cantina from the first season and a new hope.
- As mentioned in our earlier videos, this place used to have a strict no-droids policy but it looks like things have changed as they’re now more than happy to have them working behind the bar.
- This robot is actually K-99 which you may recognise from Jabba’s Palace but after things went to hell he obviously had to look for new employment.
- Mando meets Peli who’s playing sabaac against an Ant-Man. This is actually a little easter egg added by this entry’s director Peyton Reed who also directed the MCU’s Ant-Man movies.
- Sabaac is a card game that’s laced throughout the star wars universe and it’s what Han Solo actually played against Lando in order to win the Millenium Falcon.
- Now Peli gives Mando a job to transport Frog lady and her delicious…delicious tasting eggs during this journey two x-wing pilots appear to question him and one of these is Dave Filoni, aka the creator of the Clone Wars.
- Filoni actually directed the Jedi episode featuring Ahsoka so it’s nice that he makes a little cameo here.
- After trying to outrun them, Mando crashlands on an ice planet which is where Frog lady uses Z-Ro to communicate with Mando. This guy once again is voiced by Richard Ayoade who you may know from Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place.
- Frog Lady goes into a nearby cave to bathe and Grogu and Mando end up going in after her. This egg scene is very reminiscent of the one from Alien and similar to that we watch all horror unfolding after the eggs hatch.
- These are Krykna from Rebels but whereas they were immune to blaster bolts, here they can be taken out by them.
- Mando gets some help from the X-wing pilots and on the hull, we can see little Tie Fighter symbols showing how many each pilot has taken out.
- Mando makes his way to Trask and crash-lands on the planet. This episode was directed by Bryce Dallas Howard and the crash landing is actually a reference to her father’s work Apollo 13 in which a similar scene happened. We’ve placed the moments on top of one another on-screen right so you can see the similarities. Shoutout Lucia Briones for putting this together and it really shows the attention to detail that Bryce put into the entry.
- The ship sets on fire because of the damage to it from the last entry and this is meant to also mirror the crash landing at the start of Revenge of the Sith.
- Mando is fished out by a crane which looks like it’s built using the legs of an AT-AT. AT-ATs themselves were designed to look like cranes so this is a nice little easter egg in which everything has come back around.
- He comes face to face with a Mon Calamari Mechanic and we also see on the planet that there are several Quarren. The Quarren try and ambush Mando and double cross him whereas the Mon Calamari helps the character. Though the two species are actually from the planet Dac they have long chosen opposing sides throughout all the conflicts. The Quarren sided with the Separatists and later Empire whereas the Mon Calamari were on the side of the Rebels and Republic. So one helping Mando whilst the other betrays him is deeply rooted in Star Wars mythos.
- Mando goes to a diner for some help and a squid-like creature attaches itself to Grogu’s face which could be building on the Alien motif (show face hugger) from the prior entry.
- It’s not too long before we meet Bo Katan and the way she reaches in to pull mando out mirrors how a member of the death watch pulled him out of his hiding place as a child when the separatists attacked.
- Bo is played by Katee Sackhoff who also voiced her in the animated shows and Sasha Banks who hopefully gets more screen time in Season 3.
- Together they decide to attack an Imperial freighter and when doing so we can hear the alarm sound that was also present on the death star
- They take over the ship and Bo points Mando in the direction of Ahsoka which still gives me goosebumps.
- This takes Mando to Episode 4, namely Navarro where we join Cara Dune going to the covert which is the base that the Mandalorians used in the last season. Above the armorers door used to hang a Mythosaur skull symbol but it’s now missing.
- Cara takes down the Aqalish who you may know as being part of the same species as Ponda Baba.
- Navarro has gone through a big makeover since Moff Gideon left and we see the Market place is teeming with people which is the complete opposite of how it was in Season One.
- You can also spot a Statue dedicated to Ig-11 who was of course instrumental in freeing the area from the grip of the empire.
- The bounty hunter bar where Mando met Greef in Season One is now also a school and we can see a kid with the same haircut that Rey had in the last Jedi.
- Grogu steals some macarons…is it macarons…I dunno and they’re the same colour as Bantha milk, meaning that they were likely made from them.
- Mando meets Mythrol again from the first season and he says he can’t see out of his left eye. If you cast your mind back to Return Of the Jedi you may remember that when he was freed, Han Solo was blind so this is a nice little carry-over of that motif.
- They go to the reactor which just so happens to also look like the tractor beam control that Obi-Wan went to in a New Hope. Similar to that there’s no railing and Family Guy of course made fun of this in their Star Wars trilogy parody (google rail joke Blue Harvest)
- Now Mando and co discover a cloning lab and we can see a patch on the scientist’s arms that is the same as the Kamino cloner symbols.
- We discover what looks like it could be either a clone of Palpatine or Snoke and learn that the empire wants Grogu for his midichlorians so that they can put them into the body.
- The Mandalorian has slowly been bridging the gap between the original and sequel trilogy and I think this scene is very important in explaining certain things that happened in The Rise Of Skywalker.
- Originally clones in star wars were not able to be force sensitive however they have found a way to explain why Palps came back in Rise and was able to still be a sith lord.
- Now the jeans guy has since been removed by shoutouts my OGs who spotted him lurking in the background on day one…the force will be with you always.
- We get an amazing chase scene in which Cara drives her, Greef and Mythrol over the edge of the base in a troop transport. If you slow the scene down and see their reactions you’ll notice that Cara is actually smiling whilst doing this whilst the others look terrified.
- We watch as they’re chased by Tie Fighters which also have the same landing apparatus used by Moff Gideons showing that this is now the standardised design for them.
- We get a return of the X-wing pilot Carson Teeva and he asks Cara Dune if she lost anyone on Alderaan…like dude…the entire planet was blown up…like…what do you think?
- He says that something is going on in the outer rim and as we know from the sequel trilogy, both the first order and Palpatine’s forces worked away here to rebuild their power.
- Now cut to Moff Gideon’s ship which comes in at a similar angle to how the Star Destroyer did during the start of a New Hope. This symbolised the Empire’s reach and superiority through space it’s been echoed here for that specific reason.
- Jump to episode 5 directed by Dave Filoni and we open with Ahsoka tearing up the forces of The Magistrate. The last time we saw her in Rebels she was wearing a white cloak, however, it’s darker here and similar to Luke’s in Return Of The Jedi to perhaps show that she’s moved away from the idealism that she used to have.
- The Magistrate is played by Diana Lee Inosanto who is the goddaughter of Bruce Lee.
- Michael Beihn also pops up in the episode and you may remember him from both Terminator and Aliens.
- Those aren’t the only references to films either and several shots in the entry mirror the Japanese classic Yojimbo (https://preview.redd.it/eclhl9qzpu161.jpg?auto=webp&s=c07c57ce8dd89e59cd0a98518e0e8b024d9e69c9) with their composition and layout.
- InfactIn fact this entire episode pretty much shares the same plot as that and it’s clear that Filoni is riffing on it in several ways.
- After the intro, Mando lands on the planet and goes through the city which is where we see Torture devices that look very similar to what Thrawn used on Hera in Rebels.
- We learn that Thrawn and The Magistrate are connected so it may be possible that he actually gave her these.
- Mando meets the Magistrate outside her palace which looks very similar to Jabbas hinting that she may too be a gangster that rules over an area as he did.
- Mando goes out looking for Ahsoka and in the trees, we can see an owl who may or may not be Morai her companion.
- When discussing Grogu, Ahsoka mentions Yoda and also how she doesn’t want to train him as she’s seen what’s happened to the best of the Jedi.
- In the clone wars, Ahsoka was actually Anakin’s Padawan so the character has witnessed first-hand what can happen when a Jedi loses someone they’re close to.
- Ahsoka says she senses much fear in him which is also what Yoda said to a young Anakin at the Jedi temple in Attack Of The Clones.
- Now Ahsoka finds out where thrawn is and from the recently announced Ahsoka Disney plus series it’s clear she’s going to be heading out after him.
- Jump to episode six and Mando arrives on Tython to place Grogu on the seeing stone. We actually saw Luke using one of these in The Last Jedi to reach out so it could be possible that these are a staple of the Jedi religion.
- The blue writing on it that appears is also similar to what was placed on the Jedi temple spheres in Fallen Order tying things in with the greater lore.
- We can also see that Blue Butterflies are floating around the area and typically in Star Wars lore these are actually used to send messages. So, Grogu sending a message to a Jedi here is also laced in the environment.
- Slave One arrives and who absolutely fan-boyed out over this moment? Come on now…be honest…
- Fett says he’s a simple man making his way through the galaxy which his father also said to Obi-Wan when they first met in Attack Of The Clones.
- Stormtroopers arrive and you might recognise these ships from the start of The Force Awakens as they were also used as troop transports there.
- Stuff goes down and I loved actually seeing Fett be a badass once instead of someone who got taken out by a blind guy and kinda Mr Magooed his way through stuff.
- Mando returns to Cara to find the location of Mayfeld and the lineup of prisoners here actually looks very similar to the ones that tried to take Grogu all the way back at the start of episode 2.
- Cut to episode 7 and we pick up on a junkyard planet full of the cranes from earlier as well as wrecked tie fighters, x-wing engines and an AT-ST head.
- Cara escorts Mayfeld away and we see Boba sporting his brand new armour though the dent in the helmet still remains.
- Upon taking off we can see that the hull of the ship actually rotates and this is because Slave One spins on its axis in order to fly correctly.
- Now in this episode, they attempt to get the Imperial protocols to locate Moff Gideon and we watch as the pair disguise as imperial transport troopers. Throughout the saga, we have watched as the design of the helmets change and in the prequel trilogy, the clone troopers looked very similar to Jango’s. In the original trilogy, we saw as the Stormtrooper helmet changed to the most famous design. In the sequel trilogy, there was sort of just a slit to most of the helmet visors and here we see that appear to showing how the design has shifted.
- We discover that your face has to be scanned to get the information and that this could cause a lot of issues with the group.
- Cara is, of course, an ex-rebel with the face tat still on show and Boba of course has the same face as not only Jango but every other clone trooper so yeah that’s not gonna fly.
- There’s also a mention of the ISB which are basically the internal affairs of the Empire. Fennec says that she’s wanted by them and in the recently released Bad Batch trailer we see why she might indeed be on the run.
- Mando and Mayfeld manage to make it to the Imperial base and we also see some shore troopers who you may recognise from Rogue One.
- Inside the base, Mando is confronted by Valen Hess played by Richard Brake and though Mayfeld manages to keep him undercover they have to hang around in order to keep up the facade.
- However, Mayfeld does try and come up with the excuse of having to fill in some tps reports which is a nod to the pointless reports in office space.
- The trio sit down in an almost Inglorious Basterds-like exchange that sees Operation Cinder being brought up.
- Cinder was actually a big plot point in Battlefront 2 and it involved the empire firing on its own planets and people in order to destroy as much as they could after the fall of the emperor.
- Mayfeld loses it and shoots Hess first similar to how Han shot Greedo first during A New Hope. Yeah, I’ll never accept anything else.
- The pair escape in Slave One and blow the base by shooting the Ridonium. However, they’re pursued by Ties and Boba ends up dropping a seismic charge. You might remember that Jango used this on Obi-Wan in attack of the clones and it’s an awesome way to get rid of both the Ties.
- The episode ends with Mando sending a message to Moff Gideon and this actually plays upon the antagonist’s speech from the first season. However whereas the Moff called Grogu “it”, Mando calls him “he” so we can see that he actually has a personal connection to him instead of just viewing him like an object.
- ———
- Now episode 8 is arguably the best Star Wars we’ve had in the past ten years and it follows Mando as he leads a charge to get Grogu back. We join Slave One using Ion cannons to disable the Lambda shuttle that Dr Pershing is on, one of the pilots is the same actor that played Nathaniel Mallick in Agents of Shield and shoutouts to everyone who followed me on those breakdowns.
- Mando then returns to Bo Katan and Koska Reeves. When Slave One lands we can catch Bo’s Gauntlet Ship which you may remember from the animated series that she featured in.
- They meet the pair, both of whom throw some insults Boba’s way. One of these includes Koska saying that he’ll end up talking from a Bacta Tank and you may remember these from The Empire Strikes Back as they’re typically used to heal people. So it’s the star wars equivalent of saying you’ll be talking trash from a hospital bed.
- They eventually join together and storm the Moffs ship during which Mando comes across 3b6-RA-7 who you may remember from A New Hope in the Sandcrawler.
- Mando defeats the Moff and we discover that he has already perfected the technique of taking the blood of Grogu and placing it into a clone, thus how Palpatine returned has been set up by the series.
- That’s not the only connection to the main series either and Luke Skywalker of course returns wearing the same clothes and cloak that we saw him donning in Return Of The Jedi.
- His arrival echoes the ending of Rogue one in several ways and when he first appears we see him coming through a smoke-filled doorway. Darth Vader of course did this at the end of the movie and similar to that Luke wrecks the shop.
- What I loved is that Vader force choked one of the rebel forces and we also see Luke doing something similar to a dark trooper, making this an amazing father and son moment.
- Now, what makes this scene so emotional is not only Luke’s theme that is used in the music but also the return of R2D2 and how the scene mirrors the father and son moment shared by Luke and his dad.
- You may remember at the end of Return Of The Jedi that Luke removed Vaders helmet so that he could properly look upon his son. That moment is mirrored here with Mando taking his off so that he could properly say farewell to his boy.
- I promised I wouldn’t cry.
- We watch as Luke carries him over his shoulder and this of course was also done by Mando throughout the season. He stares like a sad dad watching his son go off to college and it’s a heartbreaking moment.
- Look, I’m just saying it’s lucky that Boba wasn’t here for this Luke moment as that would’ve been awkward. (show clip of them fighting in Return of the Jedi)
- Cut to the post-credits scene and we see the twin sons of Tattooine and return to Jabbas Palace. Bib Fortuna who was Jabba’s right hand in Return Of The Jedi has now taken over but it’s not too long before Boba ousts him.
- We end with the book of Mando closed and start a new chapter called The Book Of Boba Fett which is due to air in December 2021.