THE MANDALORIAN Season 2 Episode 1 Breakdown

It’s been a long time coming in a galaxy far far away and if you want a quick catch up before we get into it then make sure you watch our season one recap which will be linked in the description.

Anyway I think we can safely say that this is the best episode in the shows history and and we start with Mando making going to meet an Abyssins known as Gor Karesh.

After the creed on Nevarro was wiped out by Moff Gideon’s forces, Mando has been attempting to track down other Mandalorians in the Galaxy and through Gor he learns of one on Tattooine who lives as a Marshal in the village of Mos Pelgo.

Mando wants to reunite with his kind in order to use them to chart a path through the network of Coverts and this will allow him to reunite Baby Yoda with the Jedi.

Now this introduction and well, the episode itself is packed with easter eggs and amazing reveals.

We see the pair wandering through the streets and notice grafitti on the wall that looks like C-3po as well as a stormtropper that has been crossed out. To the right also appears a rebel symbol as well as what could be Darth Vader’s breathing aparatus and some Jawas.

The bouncer at the fight club is a Twil’ek and we also see that the two fighters are Gamorreans using electrified stun axes. Karesh actually shoots the big, more intimidating one, basically cheating in order to win and this thematically sets up the overall arc of the entry in which Mando must use his smarts to take down a giant Crete dragon.

Is that a reach? It is now!

Mando’s Mission

Anyway Gor wants nothing more than Mando’s Beskar armor and we later see this mirrored in Mando when he tries to take back the armor of Boba Fett from the Marshal of Mos Pelgo. We learn that since the Mandalorian’s have started to die out that Beskar has become infinitely more valuable and thus Gor has been harvesting it from the Mandalorian hives that are pocketed throughout the Galaxy.

Kor and his crew turn his their guns on Mando but using the whistling birds that he gained in Season 1, he takes them out easily.

Mando strings up the character and promises not to kill him if he hands over the info but he leaves him hanging for the wild dogs in the area and it’s the perfect way to start the entry.

Cut to Tattooine and Mando revisits the hanger from Episode 5 of Season one. Here he reunites with Peli Motto and her pit droids and we also see the return of a big Star Wars Character.

That is R5.

If you cast your mind back to a New Hope, R5 was actually the droid that Luke bought but due to it’s bad motivator he settled on R2 D2 instead.

There actually exists a fan theory that R5 is the true saviour of the galaxy and that he was aware of just how valuable R2 D2 really was and self sabotaged in order to fulfil his destiny.

I’m not joking.

Mos Pelgo

Either way it’s great to see it back and Peli gives Mando a speeder bike as he heads out to Mos Pelgo. Mando camps with some Tuskan Raiders and also comes across some Womp Rats as he enters the village. I think they’re Womp rats anyway, the design changes every three minutes so who knows.

Now we learn that Mos Pelgo was a mining settlement that dated back before the Empire took over. After the destruction of the second death star the village was raided by the Mining Collective and Kyle played by Timothy Oliphant only managed to barely escape.

When wandering in the deset he was found by some Jawas and using one of the Microtransactions from Battlefront two he bought Boba Fetts armor and returned to the village to take out the Collective. Since then he’s taken care of the village and become it’s Marshal.

Now your first question probably is?

How did the Jawas get the armor. Well we learn at the end of the episode that Boba Fett is actually alive and he was likley the boots that we saw approaching Fennec Shand at the end of Epsiode 5 in Season 1.

As for how he survived in every version of the characters resurrection he went out the same way, however for this breakdown we will be focusing on The Tale Of Boba Fett by J.D. Montgomery.

This book was published in 1996 and it pretty much centres around how Fett managed to escape.

Upon landing in the Sarlacc, Fett awakened the consciouness within it which we learn was one of it’s first victims, a Choi known as Susejo. Because he was one of the first the creature ever ate his mind melded with the pit and it was as much him as he was it.

The Choi had pretty much become the pit and over millenia it had existed by injecting it’s prey with neurotoxins and then it slowly digested them with it’s stomach acids.

Fett was able to communincate with it telepathically and during this time he learned of it’s past. Fett knew if he was able to fool Susejo he would be able to escape.

Fett tricked the creature into wrapping itself around his jetpack which then exploded hurtling him free of the monsters tentacles. Using a concussion grenade he was able to escape through a wall in the creature.

Now whether they go this route or not we don’t know but it’s been in the lore for so long I think they will stick to it.

The Boba Fett Armor

Now Olyiphant pretty much looks like a Cosplayer version of the character but for a good minute I was hoping that he was actually the real Boba. This Marshal storyline sort of plays on some of the expanded universe and in that others did adopt the armor, even a sheriff at one point that Fett had to beat in order to get it back.

We get our first hint that he isn’t a real Mandalorian when he removes his helmet and he and Mando almost go head to head until their fight is broken up by the arrival of a Krayte Dragon which we learn has been terrorising the village.

Feasting on Bantha’s it’s caused havoc in the area and Krayte Dragons are actually big parts of the Star Wars Mythos.

You’ve probably seen their skeltons dotted about Tattooine and these large, carnivorous reptiles have been hunted for millenia due to the valuable pearls that exist within their bodies.

The Mandalorians themselves have a long and rich history and Kyle and Dynjarring make a deal to team up in order to take it down.

I love how Baby Yoda pretty much spends the episode hiding in pots and it’s crib and yeah, still as cute as ever even when it’s one year older.

Now they head out to where it lives and Kyle actually rides ontop of what looks like Anakin’s podracer engine from The Phantom Menace. It’s seen better days and Kyle has modified this into a speeder which hints to his scavenging capabilities.

Whilst traversing they wander into Tuskan Territory and are almost attacked by their dogs but as we know Mando can talk to them and thus they instead settle for the night. Their camp looks just like how it did in Attack Of The Clones and I love how we got to truly see another side to them. Tuskan raiders are often portrayed by the fake news media as vicious savages, however, put your prejudices to the side, have some of their crap drink and let the good times roll.

See, he’s not throwing a weapon up, he’s partying.

The Tuskan Raiders too want to take down the Dragon and the group decide to team up in order to take it out.

Jaws Easter Eggs

Now this is where the Jaws similarities come thick and fast I feel. Not only does the Dragon swim below the sand, only popping up to get it’s prey, we also have a scene in which a Tuskan Raider almost drops an explosive tank.

You might remember in Jaws that the main character Martin Brody almost dropped on and Quint snapped at him telling him how explosive it was.

This was of course setting up how they would kill the great white by shoving the tank in it’s mouth before detonating it. I thought it was very obvious that this was gonna play into the end as they pointed it out so much but you know what yeah, I was loving the episode so much I didn’t even mind.

They also attach ropes to the beast in order to try and pin it but these prove to be pretty futile as they did in the film.

Now the squads head out and the episode actually switches to Imax for the confrontation.

If you have a 4k tv with Dolby vision then you know how good this looked and I was absolutely blown away by just how phenomenal it was.

Mando gets thrown into his own fighting pitt in order to take it out and it sort of mirrors the arena at the beginning.

Look I’ll stop reaching.

Mando kills the beast by letting it eat him and a Banther strapped with Explosives and he blasts his way out of it’s body with his electrified rifle before blowing it up from the inside out.

The village is free, The Sandpeople get their Pearl and Mando heads back to the ship with Fett’s armor.

Boba Fett Returns?

It’s at this point…and I knew they were gonna do it, I knew it soon as I seen that double sunset, that Fett would appear looking over it. He obviously wants his armor back more than anyting and I think the reason he hasn’t gone after the Marshall is because he might not be equipped to deal with him from what we see of his weapons.

Now Binary sunsets are of course synonymous with star wars and I think this moment is very much calling back to Luke doing it in a New Hope.

Either way I was so glad to see Fett back and it’s amazing that we now officially have it confirmed he survived.

However, this could also be a misdirect and the character may not be fett, instead it could be Captain Rex. We know that Jango was cloned and that they all look the same, however, due to the age, I am leaning more towards Fett especially with the way the armor plays such a big part.

Obviously he was a massive character in the Star Wars saga and going forward I think that there is a lot that they can do with him.

I actually wanna see him and Mando team up but he may well want to fight the character in order to claim the bounty that is on Baby Yoda’s head.

It’s gonna be interesting to see what route they go but what an incredible episode that was and it’s got me so hyped for the rest of the season.