A conversation about The Mandalorian – Chapter 2: The Child

The following discussion includes MAJOR SPOILERS for the first two chapters of Disney+’s The Mandalorian. If you missed our conversation on the first episode you can view it here.

DAN: Alright, let’s jump right into this one. Chapter 2: The Child was released on Disney+ this past Friday. Before even pressing play, I was met with excruciating disappointment. Turns out, Chapter 1 was not short, but extended. We will have to live with half-hour-long episodes going forward and I’m bummed.

MARK: Admit that you were wrong.

DAN: Excuse me?

MARK: The action.

DAN: Okay, okay. Chapter 2 made me a liar. I may or may not have bitched just a tad about Star Wars’ action scenes. Possibly, I may have stated that they have no weight to them and lack a deep sense of realism. This episode kicked me in the gut and asked me if I were happy now. The answer is yes. The opening scene provided us with a clean, well-choreographed fight scene. Mando (Yeah, I’m going to call him that now) tangles with a group of ambushing mercenaries in a manner that reels you in and leaves you worrying about our lead character.

MARK: That whole first action sequence I was just thinking of you. Bang. Dan was wrong. Clash! This is awesome. I did have my worries after the first episode but not as vociferously as you.

I do like the direction that Rick Famuyiwa chose with this episode. The cinematography was outstanding, and we are definitely glimpsing what 10 million dollars an episode can look like. We see some progression with tone in this episode as well. By the end, we are left with a sense of what some might call hopefulness. But Famuyiwa manifests a darker feel before we see the light.

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DAN: Right, and even the slight comedic feel of Mando chasing after the Jawa’s Sandcrawler remained intertwined with a very compromising scenario for the bounty hunter. I kept waiting for him to make his way into the ship and meticulously decimate the little scrap merchants. Yet, it never comes. Mando gets his ass handed to him spends a good amount of time unconscious on his back. I really liked how this scene played out.

MARK: So is Mando one of the best bounty hunters in the parsec or not? He apparently is labeled as so. We have evidence from the first episode that he is capable at his job, but is he the best? I’m not sure if he took the correct course of action against the Sandcrawler. Maybe I’m being too hard on him but I expected him to handle those Jawas with ease.

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DAN: I think he acted in haste. He seems like a man who plans ahead and this wasn’t a situation that allowed that. No plan, no success. And as a result, he needed to find a new way to solve the problem.

In classic RPG fashion, we have our first sidequest. One of the most efficient bounty hunter badasses in the galaxy has his shit stolen by the cloaked versions of the munchkins from the yellow brick road, and now he has to earn it back from them. This has Zelda or Dragon Quest written all over it.

MARK: Haha it reminded me of the first quest in Dragon Quest VIII. Retrieve the crystal ball from the waterfall cave for Kalderasha but it’s guarded by some Merman monster.

DAN: And then the viewer is picturing some artifact – maybe a giant gemstone, or even an egg-shaped vehicle of some sort. Nope. A literal fucking egg. These little dudes are willing to give back their enormous scrap haul, essentially a third of Mando’s ship, for that liquid gold. For the value they place on this egg, that yolky goodness must taste like heaven.

MARK: Maybe they thought this was an unattainable item that would ultimately result in a win-win situation for them. If Mando dies trying to obtain the egg, they keep the ship parts. If he somehow fetches it, they feast.

Which leads us to the showdown with the beast. Famuyiwa excels at manipulating the camera to create a feeling of vulnerability. It felt very roman colosseum-esque. What did you think of it?

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DAN: The concept design of the beast was superbly executed. If you’re told to think of a scary beast that guards a cave with its life, whatever you come up with is probably less intimidating than a rhino crossed with a bear. This is the scene that force-fed me my words and made me its little bitch. Mando looked to be on the brink of death. The beast was pressing Mando into the ground, mangling all of the protective armor that remained intact, and it felt like time froze.

My mind zipped right back to the traumatizing death of Pedro Pascal’s beloved Game of Thrones character. Not again, say it isn’t so. At least this time he listened to some old advice and wore a helmet.

MARK: Ugh Oberyn. Bad memories.

DAN: The beast may have distracted some viewers from stepping back and relishing in the cinematography of this scene. The tight, close camera angles left us with a field of view forcing the claustrophobic atmosphere upon us. You feel trapped, just as Mando does. The beast is stampeding right over you and Famuyiwa won’t let you escape. Masterful directing and camera work here. Ultimately, it ends up being Mando’s backup that saves him in this week’s shocker.

MARK: WHAT A SAVE! WOW! WOW! WOW! (For my Rocket League fans). But yes, Baby Yoda uses the force and lifts the beast, dangling him in mid-air. Super impressive for a baby that just learned to walk. The beast collapses and Mando uses a knife to finish him off.

DAN: So by this point, Jess (my girlfriend) already coined the name Yodi for the little green guy. Pronounce that like Cody, but with Yoda… you get it. Anyway, Yodi is raising a lot of questions here. I feel like this character may be used to explain the gap between the fall of Palpatine and Vader with Luke ending his use of the force and where Episode VII starts. What happened to force users in this stretch of time?

His power is obviously potent enough to freeze a beast mid rampage and lift it into the air. There was also an earlier point in the episode that left me scratching my head. Yodi kept reaching out to Mando’s injured arm as if he intended to heal it somehow. Now, this could just be a child fascinated and upset at an injury his “friend” has incurred, but the determination in his gaze cannot be ignored. What would we have discovered had Mando not put Yodi to bed so abruptly?

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MARK: I also believe that we would have seen some sort of force-healing. But dude, how adorable is this little guy. I’d go to war for him. His little baby outfit. Tiny robes. If anything happens to him social media will burn to the ground.

DAN: Without a doubt. They created an untouchable in the eyes of the fans. The force inherently brings both good and evil to the forefront. We’ve seen three different bounties on little Yodi in just two episodes. Granted, the ambushing mercenaries may have been sent by the same group that sent the droid from episode one. But we are still left with Yodi serving as the central gravitational pull for this series. I think Mando will grow attached to his new friend, especially now that Yodi has saved his life. This attachment is going to lead him to cross his employer and bail on the main payday of this bounty.

MARK: I agree that he won’t be collecting that bounty. I was a little discouraged at the pace of this episode, which carries over to the season. With only 8 episodes averaging around 30 minutes, I’m not sure how much time should have been spent on what is in the end just a side quest. We discovered that Baby Yoda can use the force, but that’s basically it. I hope we are introduced to more main characters in the next episode, especially Cara Dune (portrayed by Gina Carano).

DAN: To be frank, I’m waiting to see what is balancing the force. Let’s assume Yodi is a good guy, don’t argue, just look at him. The cutest tyke within the parsec isn’t going to be a sith lord, don’t you dare! Who is the other side of the scale? Is this around the time Kylo Ren is turning to the dark side? Or is this well before that?

MARK: Well we do know that Palpatine is still alive in some fashion per the trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Could he be the one balancing the force? I’m hoping we are rewarded with some answers in the coming episodes. Let’s close out with our ratings for the episode.

DAN: 8.6

MARK: 8.5

So that concludes our conversation about Episode 2 The Child. Feel free to leave a comment in the section below if you have any interesting theories on The Mandalorian. Stop by next Saturday for our next conversation about Episode 3!