THE MANDALORIAN - SEASON TWO, EPISODE ONE (Patreon)

CHAPTER NINE - THE MARSHALL

Let’s make absolutely no mistake… We just had an season premiere where Timothy Olyphant from Justified played a local western Marshall on Tatooine, all while wearing Boba Fett’s armor and rode around on a speeder made from one of Anakin Skywalker’s former podracer engines as they basically all engaged with a giant Star Wars version of Tremors crossed with the giant sand worms Dune!? All before you know who shows up?!?! Hahahahahahhahahahahahhahaha, oh man these are WILD choices.

Was it all a little absurd? Yes. What it also a hilariously silly thing that I enjoyed anyway? Also yes. But I realize this the sort of storytelling that usually cuts two ways. Either super fans go nuts over the easter-eggy-ness of it and then start questioning what it could mean. Or people are like THAT’S STUPID AND A BETRAYAL OF THIS SHOW ABOUT A HELMET MAN AND A FORCE BABY THAT I TAKE VERY SERIOUSLY. This is just my way of saying I fall between the two, which I guess means I dig into the sillier side of this show and enjoy it on that level. Meaning I like it when:

1) It’s not taking it’s tough posturing too seriously, but…

2) Still taking it’s functional beat to beat storytelling seriously. Which brings us to whether or not the episode succeed on that front…

Overall, I’d say the episode more or less works. It’s Mando’s teaming up with a local Marshall and then navigating the difficulties of two competing local groups having to come together to accomplish X goal. It sort of reminded me of a bit more functional version of last season’s Sanctuary, but that comparative betterment is mostly because it actually digs enough into our Marshall figure. Particularly his wants and needs w/r/t the town, which gives it some specificity. Now, would I still would like if the tuscan / local conflict was played out with actual secondary characters instead of rando with rando stereotypical lines? Of course. But this show continually seems to not tap into that kind of larger opportunity, much to its detriment (the big counter example would be last season’s The Prisoner, which succeeded wildly on the ensemble front). But as a result, the tension between the groups feels more hollow and place-holder-y instead of specific and character-based. Thus their final accomplishment feels less meaningful.

But really the biggest conversation with this one is in the “why?” of it all. Because the whole damn episode I’m sitting there wondering where this is going and why the dude clearly has Boba’s Fett’s armor they’re not talking about it and I’m like this HAS to be addressed, right? Lo and behold, a mask-less Temuera Morrison shows up at the end and we are just straight up going to have a Boba Fett plot going forward, aren’t we? The questions race in your mind: What’s he still doing there?! How did he survive!? How is this going play out?

In terms of referential Star Wars lore, this is just one of those things where people are like “oh shit!” and it gets people talking and making conjecture. Meaning it’s absolutely going to pull everyone into the TV-ness of all of this. Which in terms of pure spectacle? I am here for! But the real matter is whether or not his inclusion ends up being really any good or not. It’s all about whether the continuation of Boba Fett’s story will lend weight both to the events of what happened in the movies, and also whether or not it can lend weight to this particular show / Mando’s journey. Ideally, in order to uphold the standard of expectation, the “more or less works” definitely won’t be enough. It’s going to have to as good as their best couple of episodes from last season.

Which means they got their work cut out for them.

RANDOM THOUGHTS!

-You’ll note that now that “Baby Yoda as McGuffin” has taken a backseat in the story, he’s sort of just… there. Yes, we like him there. But storytelling is defined by purpose. And I feel like they’re really, really going to have to figure this particular one out. Also because he’s just there, I’m beginning to feel like Mando needs a slightly bigger crew? Anyone else? Eh, we’ll see.

-Somewhat concerning is this episode’s 50+ minute run-time. To be clear, it’s not the length that’s the problem, it’s that started falling into that un-pruned Netflix-ian story pacing where we are just given a lot of dead air and people standing around because it’s not turning into any real established conflicts. Yeah, the mid-point of this one SAGS, y’all and it makes me worry about the rest of the season.

-Re: FX stage work. We got more non-parallel landscape shots like I was hoping! We saw depth of location and angles! I want more of this!

-The opening Gammoroean guard battle was fun and I totally spotted weirdo / artist David Choe in the audience Man, Favreau’s friends gonna show up in this one a lot, huh? I’m generally for this.

-Also in the opening fight scene you’ll see they’re finally playing with frame rate on contact, which I appreciate.

-When this one started, I was like, really, we’re going back to Tatooine? AGAIN!?!? But hey, it had plans in store for us.

-They allso let Amy Sedaris go more full AMY, which I sincerely appreciated. The line “I don’t even know who to complain to” is a gem.

-They’ve played with Western imagery before, but Mando riding into town on the speeder was the MOST Westerny they’ve gone yet. Again, I like silly and thus I am here for it.

-Chapter Nine even though it's season two premiere? I hate when number conventions do this! I get confused! Anyone else?

-The second Olyphant showed up in mask I was like, I KNOW THAT VOICE like i know freaking anything.

-Dumb logic question: Where’d he get that extra rocket for his Mando jetpack? Are those, like, around? Did he order it from Space Amazon? These are the things I wonder aloud to myself that totally don’t matter and I don’t actually worry about. They’re just fun.

-More purposeful: I also like that they’re examining the fallout of the Empire collapse again. Though I do worry the overall narrative will fall into the “was the revolution worth it?” question, which is just some stupid false equivalence that always bothers me. Of course throwing over an enslaving regime was necessary. But this will hopefully just keep examining the difficult work of rebuilding and those who try to stop it / usurp power. Not question it’s central point.

-Written in my notes: “Barf snake is a good enemy.”

-Final note: Whatever I write, I acknowledge that this episode is ultimately a “buck passer.” In that the ending makes it easy to not think about the episode itself and wonder where all of this will go now? But I really don’t fall into that trap with weekly analysis. I don’t like writing about constant conjecture (and I feel like Lost-ian recap culture has gotten burned by this before). Just as I don’t like mining through every little detail of Star Wars lore to unearth nuggets for you. Not because I don’t think those sort of things aren’t fun, it’s just other people are better at them. What I hope to do with these recaps is just keep tapping into the little functional beats that drive the core engine of the story. That’s it. Especially when I know it’s easy to get caught up in the bells and whistles and tangible details of what we most cling to. So whatever these recaps become, I am just going to keep testing that crucial foundation.

Hope you enjoy it.

<3HULK