Welcome to The Heavy Spoilers show, I’m your host Deffinition and you’re now locked into the channel where we breakdown all the latest movies, new game releases, tv shows and comic books. With the release of Star Wars: The Mandalorian on Disney Plus, it’s time to go back to a long time ago in a galaxy far far away with our new series that will be breaking down everything that you need to know about the show.
Throughout this, we’ll be discussing the first entries overall plot, the easter eggs and it’s cliffhanger ending to let you know what could be happening in the future.
There will be heavy spoilers here so if you haven’t had a chance to watch the premiere yet and don’t want to know what happens then I highly suggest that you turn off now.
With that out the way I just wanna give a huge thank you for clicking this video, now let’s get into our breakdown of The Mandalorian.
The Mandalorian Episode One Recap
Ok so the first thing that you need to know about The Mandalorian is that it’s set five years after the events of Return Of The Jedi. The story on the surface is pretty straight forward with The Mandalorian played by Pedro Pascal being tasked with tracking down a mysterious bounty that we eventually come face to face to with the climax of the episode.
This contract has been taken out by a character known simply as the Client, played by Werner Herzog who seems to want the ‘asset’ terminated though this comes into conflict as the episode draws to a close.
We open with The Mandalorian on a snow planet that has many similar scanners to Tattooine and it also has one of the scummiest places in the Galaxy, a bar that we see our titular character taking a target from. It’s a great reprise on the original bar scene in a New Hope with two characters kinda ganging up on our protagonist but unlike Luke the Mandalorian isn’t here to apologise and he kills both characters, trapping one in a door as it’s closing. They really should put safety mechanisms on them, it seems like a pretty bad design flaw.
A New Hope?
There’s also a return of what could be the spy from a New Hope that snitches on Luke and Obi-Wan and I took this as the same character as in that film he too would have been connected to the underworld similar to how the character portrayed here is.
Now from the off, the series instantly recaptures the atmosphere of Star Wars and whether you love or hate what Disney have done to the franchise as a whole, you can’t deny that they nail the look and tone of the original films with this opening entry. This really knocks it out of the park and reminds us from the beginning just how dangerous these planets can be.
The introduction really keeps up the pace and watching The Mandalorian having to electrify a creature that has attached itself to his ship is an awesome way for the series to get it’s hooks into you.
Helmets On At All Times
We learn early on that The Mandalorians never take their helmets off and apparently this will be true for the entire series with Pascal apparently not showing his face once in the entire season. I guess Jango just liked the feel of Kamino on his face cos he seems to have dropped that but it also imbues the series with a sense of solidarity and gives our character a real mystique to him that feels akin to Dredd.
In the basement of The Mandalorians ship, we discover that he has a carbonite processing unit that he uses to transfer cargo and I’m guessing Bespin must have mass-produced this cos I’m sure it was mainly for moving minerals and not people but hey, it’s a nice callback.
Mando goes to meet his handler played by Carl Weathers who assigns him the task to hunt down the asset for The Client. It appears that after the collapse of The Empire that fuel, credits and so on are in short supply so when the handler offers him this high paying job, naturally, he takes it.
The Mandalorian Easter Eggs
We see a return of the door scanners that were in Return Of The Jedi and the same species as Salacious Crumb which is being used as a food source. The Mandalorian also comes face to face with Storm Troopers possessing dilapidated armor. It looks like they have become Mercenaries now in wake of the Empire’s destruction and are working freelance due to their state and the fact that their clothes are in disrepair.
Now we don’t learn too much about the asset and what exactly it is but I’ll give my thoughts on it later on as we get into the episode. Anyway, The Client seems to be ok with the target being terminated whereas Dr. Pershing, his ally wishes to have it brought in alive. It seems like he wishes to study it and this could be because of its unity with the force.
Our protagonist isn’t the only Mandalorian in the episode either and we witness a blacksmith with the symbol above their door. There’s also lip service paid to the Mandalorian Purge.
The Mandalorian Purge
Though we don’t have all the ins and outs of this it is clear that our hero lived through it and the Purge was a devastating war that vastly reduced the Mandalorian’s numbers. It involved the Zungti who at one point were allies with the tribe, turning on them and killing them, wiping out warriors, families, children and more.
It looks like our boy was hidden during this and this is how he survived it. After leveling up he sets off to the planet where the asset is held and runs across someone who says that many people over the years have set off in search of this bounty but all have failed. This kinda hammers home how dangerous the asset is and over the last fifty years, it has provided a lot of difficulty for those that have set out to get it.
IG-11
We do learn that the locals of the planet just want the bounty gone to stop bringing in the hunters and mercenaries to the area and we learn that this is why our guide has decided to help the Mandalorian.
After falling off the horse, pretty literally, Mando decides to get back on it and upon arriving at the compound finds a bounty hunter droid named IG-11 played by Taika Waititi. IG-11 is a clear play on IG-88 the Bounty Hunter from The Empire Strikes Back. He was defeated in Shadows Of The Empire by Dash Render but it’s great to see something similar to him popping up here.
IG-11 has too been commissioned to retrieve the asset. He’s probably the standout character of the episode and whilst he’s not as funny as Korg it’s awesome seeing him blast past people and work together with Mando. Star Wars was always good at putting together sidekicks and though his appearance is very shortlived, he definitely steals the scenes that he’s in. Watching him constantly go to initiate self destruct has a hilarious undertone to it but it also showcases just how good The Mandalorian is when he’s under pressure.
Together they manage to make it past the guards and get to the asset which is revealed to be a baby that is the same species as Yoda and Yaddle.
The Baby Yoda
Though it’s fifty years old, as we know from Yoda who lived to be 900, this species ages a lot slower than most of the creatures in Star Wars do. IG-11 goes to kill it because his orders have been to Terminate but Mando shoots the android before he can.
Now, this makes me think that IG-11 was commissioned by someone other than the Client and Dr. Pershing who would have preferred that it was kept alive. The Mandalorian stands over the baby and reaches out his finger which is when we cut to credits and the episode ends.
The Mandalorian Episode 1 Ending Explained
I actually have a theory that everyone who has tried to take the asset so far has tried to terminate it and this is why it has left a wave of bodies in its wake. As The Mandalorian does not he does not fall victim to the same fate that his predecessors did and therefore is ok in the end, especially since he demonstrated that he is there to protect it.
Though we don’t get any confirmation of this, due to things that have been hinted at in the series thus far I think we can assume that the creature is force sensitive and therefore, at this time in the galaxy, something that if trained properly, could become a powerful weapon. To me, this is why so many people have been after it.
As for Yoda’s species, George Lucas has never given them a name and it doesn’t exist in canon as the creator wanted to keep it all a mystery. The only other one of these that we have seen in Yaddle in the prequels but we still don’t know what their homeworld is and so on.
This makes it difficult to discern exactly what is going on but saying as the only other times we have seen these creatures, they have both been Jedi, there is potential here that the story of the show could be traveling the same route.
Now I may be completely wrong but it’s the only thing I can really assume at this point in the story from the age of the creature.
Going forward off the episode synopsis for the next two episodes we know that The Mandalorian next time runs into trouble with people trying to take the asset from him so once more we can take from this that it is a very valuable target.
For episode 3 The Mandalorian is said to make it back to the client and hopefully, from Dr. Pershing we will get a bit more clarity on exactly what is going on.
The Mandalorian Episode 1 Review
Now as for the episode itself I actually really enjoyed it and the high production values and engaging plot narrative really start the Disney Plus platform off with a bang. There is very little if anything to really fault here and most of the criticism that I’ve seen lobbied at the show is that its main character doesn’t remove his mask which therefore makes him difficult to relate to but I kinda disagree with this.
Boba Fett always had an air of mystery to him and that is one of the things that made him so engaging and no doubt this show is following a similar aesthetic for the exact same reason.
I am already hooked on the show and this has won back a lot of goodwill for Star Wars in me, making a really top-notch first episode that as far as premiere’s go really stands out as one of the best.
The Mandalorian is awesome and if you’re unsure about whether to join Disney Plus or not then this is a strong indicator of why it’s a good idea to sign up.
I really can’t fault the show and it was an amazing forty minutes that I’m desperate to see more of.
The Mandalorian episode one was great and that’s why it gets a…
9/10
Your Thoughts
Now obviously I’d love to hear your thoughts on The Mandalorian Episode One as well as what your theories for the future are. Make sure you leave them in the comments section below because I’d love to read them and if you enjoyed this video then please give it a thumbs up and make sure you stay locked to the channel for breakdowns of every episode as they’re released.
If you wanna watch us discuss more tv shows indepth then don’t forget to check out our breakdown of the new HBO series Watchmen which will be linked at the end.
We go over everything you need to know about the show so it’s definitely worth checking out if you wanna know more.
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