THE MANDALORIAN Season 2 Episode 2 Breakdown

Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show, I’m your host Paul aka the guy with a Boba Fetish that felt a bit let down by the lack of the Macho Mandalorian in this episode.

After last weeks cliffhanger, it did seem like he was gonna be a bit part of this episode but unfortunately, it looks like we’re gonna have to wait longer than the Sarlacc’s digestion period to see him again.

Anyway, there’s still a lot to unpack and episode centres around Mando basically doing an escort mission through Hogwarts Forbidden forest with Moes Pickled Eggs.

It feels very fillery and in the grand scheme I dont think much happens however break it down we must.

We pick up immediately after last weeks entry with Mando racing across Tattooine on his speeder. Now we didn’t mention it last week but I believe that this is actually Anakin’s speeder from Attack of the clones and if our theories about Cobb Vanths being his podracer are true, then this is a nice little nod to both the rides that the character had on the planet.

Some raiders in the desert set a trap for the character in order to try and capture the child, however Mando uses his wits to defeat them and after tricking one of them into taking his jetpack, he sends the character flying through the air. Now when the used a rope to bring down the speeder I was a little bit worried about Baby Yoda, however, seeing what the guy does this episode, I’m pretty mad at him you know.

Mos Eisley Easter Eggs

After the title scene we cut to Mando arriving at Mos Eisley, namely the cantina. You may remember that when it first appeared in a New Hope that there was a strict no droids policy, however last season we saw that it had been lifted as one was serving behind the bar and it looks like it retained it’s job as it still remains here.

Peli Motto is playing Sabaac with an Insectoid who she refers to as Dr Mandible and this famous card game has appeared at multiple points throughout the saga.

Han Solo actually won The Millenium Falcon from Lando Calrissian whilst playing this game after the former stole the latters card which stopped him from cheating.

From Ant-Man Mando learns of a contact that will apparently take him to Mandalorians and he returns to the hanger from last week with Peli to meet our female frog contact who pretty much becomes central to the episode.

Now I’m not 100% on the species here but I believe it’s the female version of one of the lizard-like aliens that we saw in the Cantina during a New Hope. She sort of becomes the MacGuffin of the episode and this Children Of Men Esque entry sees Mando escorting her and her children across the galaxy.

She wants to reach the estuary moon of Trask which will be hospitable for her children. Here, with her husband, their species will rise again and this must be completed before the equinox in order to stop her line from ending.

What Is An Equinox

Now an Equinox is actually the instant of time when the plane of our Earth’s equator passes through the geometric centre of the Sun’s disk. This occurs twice each year, around 20 March and 23 September but who knows how it differs in the star wars galaxy.

She apparently has seen Mandalorians on the planet and whether this will turn out to be related to Sabine Wren who appeared in the teasers.

I kinda wish that this was a longer entry and like I said it didn’t feel like it advanced the plot that much.

It did however make me wanna have some medium rare dragon steak….and eggs. I love how they basically have a droid cooking it in front of a podracer engine and I think that it may actually be Sebulba’s, however it is difficult to make out.

Mando is unable to jump to hyperspace because of the eggs and thus he must carefully navigate to the system avoiding a nest of giant spiders and Baby Yoda who also seems determined to end the species.

X-Wing Arrival

To make matters worse, when the group enter the sector, they are swarmed by a pair of X-wings that are patrolling the area, looking for imperial holdouts.

We learn that all craft must run beacons since the fall of the empire and you really get the idea that the rebels may be as controlling as the imperials were, however, they simply don’t really have the manpower to run the galaxy properly.

There were several theories that they relied to heavily on droids which we saw as part of the prison vehicle last season and this pretty much caused a lot of instability across the galaxy. Thus the first order was able to rise and lead us to the events of The Force Awakens.

Through the subtitles I learned that the names of these pilots were Carson and Wolf. Unfortunately, this isn’t Commander Wollfe who you may know from Clone Wars, but the white beard could be a little nod towards him.

They try and verify who Mando is but due to him being on the run because of the events of Chapter 6, he refuses to hand over his PIN and then tries to outrun them.

This leads to a chase through the skies and the group crash on an Ice Planet which leaves them stranded there for pretty much the rest of the episode.

The Ice Planet

Now when this first appeared in the trailers for the show, many believed it was actually Ilum. However, if the theories about it becoming Starkiller Base are true then that would mean construction was well underway at this point and thus it probably isn’t. The ship gets busted up badly and with Baby Yoda eating eggs like they’re going out of fashion, they’re on a pretty tight clock.

Due to a language barrier, Mando and the Frog female are unable to communicate with one another however, they manage to talk after she activates Zero who too appeared in The Prisoner episode.

This episode becomes integral to this entry and after Mando saved the Lieutenant Davan he pretty much gets a get out of jail free card which we’ll get into in just a bit. The actor who played Davan has also played Anakin Skywalker several times, so it’s nice that this is brought up again once more.

Anyway, Zero, voiced by Richard Ayode helps the female to talk and she pretty much guilt trips Mando into honouring his word. She ends up leaving the craft in order to take a hot bath with her eggs and Mando follows her using the detective esque vision that he also put in place to follow Cara Dune.

Upon arriving at the hot baths, all hell breaks loose as Baby Yoda unwittingly awakens a swarm of spiders.

The Krykna Explained

Now we don’t know who this species is for definite but I think that it’s a Krykna. Typically these creatures are natives of Atollon, however that planet doesn’t really look like the one we see in the entry so I’m not sure that they’re the same.

Krykna are actually resistant to blaster bolts and this invulnerability ranges from rifles all the way up to ship blasters. That isn’t really the case here which is why I have some doubts, however, they are very similar in design. Due to their sensitivity to their environment, they’re actually very difficult to control or tame with the force and even the most accomplished Jedi have difficulty combatting them.

After capturing their prey they tend to cocoon them in their underground hives and using their fangs they feast on whoever is unlucky enough to get caught in their web.

Their weakness is primarily the signals emitted by sensor beacons and damaging their eyes also pains them to great effect.

The creatures have also appeared on Dagobah and they’re pretty much an arachnophobes worst nightmare.

Now whilst Mando and Co manage to escape their lair, the Razor’s Quest is swarmed by the creatures. It’s only upon the arrival of Carson and Wolf that the group are saved and we discover that they have decided to let Mando go because of the good deeds that he did during the prisoner episode.

His mission of course led to the capture of several highly wanted criminals as well as the death of Ran who we know was running the organisation.

Rescued By Rebels

Thus they chalk this up as even and allow Mando to get away scot-free. I also love how we can see little Tie Fighter symbols on their craft which showcases how many ships they’ve taken down.

Mando fixes up the ship and together contines his journey to Trask and hopefully more Mandalorians. We learn that they won’t be able to leave the cockpit as that’s the only place Mando can pressurise and the ship has seen better days.

Now going forward I do think that we will be seeing Sabine Wren sooner rather than later. The episode she appears in seems like it’s taking place on a ferry and if Mando is still escorting this female and her eggs then he likely will have to go across this.

The Razor’s Edge is pretty bust-up at this point so I can imagine that he will have to arrange alternate transport in order to get her to her goal. There’s also the fact that Boba Fett is out there in the galaxy, aware that Mando has his armor. I can’t really see him returning until they go back to Tattooine, however with his armor being taken off-planet, he could indeed be heading after them.

I really hoped we would just jump straight into that story so it was a bit frustrating to not have the tease last time really go anywhere but then The Mandalorian has always been like that.

As I said I felt this episode was a bit fillery and hopefully next time we’re in for a bit more plot progression than what we got here.