THE MANDALORIAN - CHAPTER 11 - THE HEIRESS (Patreon)

So does Baby Yoda understand Mando or what?

I know that’s probably not the first question you have off the top of your head, but it’s one that feels like it matters at this point. Because I have no idea what the little guy groks or doesn’t grok, nor when they seem to be speaking or not speaking to each other. So far I feel like the show’s been playing willy nilly with the idea that Mando’s been getting through to him, but there were a couple moments in this show where it seemed like it actually went back and froth? I really want this part to be hammered out because I feel like there SHOULD be some sort of storifying of their ability to communicate, right? I mean, it’s only the central relationship in your entire ding dang show. We’re at the point where this shouldn’t be fudgy!

Anyway.

We get three guest star appearances that sort of take the headlines in this episode, especially because they dip us into the pools of other popular television! First up: Battlestar Galactica alum Katee Sackoff! Starbuck’s always gonna get a smile from me and here she is playing another Mandalorian character with her usual steely-yet-wide-smiled vigor! She’s made a career of tough characters with easy-going charisma (which is hard to do) and here she hits her usual marks. But also in her Mandolorian gang? Mercedes Varnado AKA Sasha Banks! Okay, I honestly don’t follow wrestling that much, but I follow a lot of people who do, so even *I* know who she is. To that, it’s fun to see her showing u and, probably even more so for fans. And lastly, there’s Mr. Titus Welliver AKA Silas from Deadwood and The Man In Black from LOST! (and hey, maybe there are Bosch fans too? I dunno I never watched that). Few people so effortlessly scream “Bad Guy Middle Managing Imperial Officer” so as far as his casting goes, it’ works. But really all three of these choices seem a coup… and yet….

Okay I can’t help but feel like it all still comes off a bit slight, nonetheless. It’s like the show is so good at the surface-level stuff. These actors come in and you understand so much from their design, postures, looks, glances. This is not easy, by the way! I really don’t want to undermine the show’s execution on this point. But almost every time we get a chance to dig a little deeper with a character or a relationship or ANYTHING else, the show glides over or runs away from it. It often just rushes by with a haze of action or people leaving on their separate ways (especially this season? Last year seemed a bit stronger on that front). But it really seeps into the core DNA of the show.

For instance, I know there’s the big overarching quest to train the baby or whatever, but every other story in this show is almost PURELY transactional. Again, I get the degree to which that’s the core construct: he’s a bounty hunter taking jobs. But if you go back to compare to shows like Serenity they all had this amazing way of taking a given job or mission and spilling out into a million directions and relationships or whatever else. But instead, like Mando, virtually *everything* stays cold and hidden and withdrawn as much as possible within the given episode.

Take the part of the story that clearly raises the most interest from the viewer, where it turns out our Mando might have grown up as part of a religious cult! And *GASP* this other gang of Mandalorians can totally take off their helmets and shit! This is clearly a huge thing that will play into the deeper story architecture of the show, but rather than engage that conflict in ANY meaningful way at that moment, Mando clearly just can’t handle this and just flies away. Then they hey proceed to never really mention it again within the episode.

This is, like, a super version of plot-blocking, folks. And I know there’s always this instinct in the excited viewer who is being teased to go “oh don’t worry, they’ll get to it later!” But I don’t care how exciting the word “dark saber” is — haven’t we had enough Abrams style TV at this point to know that don’t always get to it later? And even if they do, they’re usually just letting the air out of our sails and deflating our curiosity? Purely because they don’t have the sense to let it out with a beat by beat story? This is why I talk so much about handling pertinent story questions within the episode itself. As a viewer, it’s what makes you feel like you have a full meal every time you sit down with the weekly episode instead of going breadcrumb to breadcrumb. Because if you only do that? The audience will eventually starve.

At this point, I’m genuinely worried that Jon Favreau factor with the writing on these episodes. To be clear, I like Favreau (he’s hard to actively dislike), but given everything I know there’s not a lot of “bang your head on the wall to get the story function to work” going on his early process, and that’s honestly what this kind of show needs. And so it show constantly misses the mark on these little basic things that every other good show on the planet does. For example, the moment that comes right after the three other Mandalorians help him in the gun fight is clearly supposed to be a part of his turn in opinion. Because just a scene prior, Mando flew away in a huffy fit. But now after them saving him, the writing should show this change in temperament and directly engage the question of what’s happening in their trust. But instead it just sort of happens and then starts talking about something else, which means the basic conflict being introduced deflates and fumbles. This is the kind of stuff any writers room would sit and work out, but without that focus, we keep limping along. Which means these simple dramatic moments almost NEVER snap into focus in the show, nor do the critical turns and motivations.

We just follow along with the pastiche.

Admittedly, sometimes the pastiche is genuinely nice. The episode’s opening moment where the two frogs run toward each other is sweet and well-earned. It even makes good on Baby Yoda going from egg eating to wanting to keep the little hatchling as a pet (at least we think that’s what he’s communicating? Again, here’s where the legitimacy of their communication matters). But it also prompts two thoughts. The first is that I wonder how these feelings would effect the audience if they came at the end of last week (and also prevented a lot of brouhaha online it seems). And second is the way this provides a deeper understanding of how I think I like The Mandalorian, too. Because it all strikes me as the way one would love a cute stuffed animal. You can love it for its abject cuteness. You could love it earnestly so. And within the parameters of society, it’s totally okay that it’s mostly a one-sided projection built on our own online meta-narrative we frequently apply…

But in the end, it’s still a projection.

RANDOM THOUGHTS!

-Mon Calamari! Arguably the goofiest name in all of Star Wars Planetdom! But in the end I love the details of fish planet, mostly cause my dad lived in a fishing town so half my childhood / high school work live revolved around that aesthetic. It brings a lot of affinity on my end!

-Just once during a table scene when everyone else starts looking at each other because they know something and are keeping a secret, I want the main character to notice and be like “what, what’s the look? What are you doing?”

-The cargo control area gag is very good, but it leads to an even better gag from the young pilot guy of “Do… do you copy?” He thus becomes the episode’s real MVP.

-Did I miss something, but is Mando suddenly going to the Jedi an established thing? I just honestly don’t understand why it quickly went from 1) finding Mandalorians to 2) now finding the Jedi, like, all that Mcguffin and motive mixing totally just got scrambled. To the point I’d argue the writers have no idea themselves and this is just delay delay delay, rather than meaningful journey. Which sucks.

-So I don’t know if this apocryphal or not, but in the San Francisco harbor there are these giant cranes from the ship yards that look like they have four legs and I was told years ago that they inspired George Lucas to come up with the idea of the AT-AT walkers in Empire. And so, to see something like that here being used to actually lift ships at a seaport? It feels like a fun full circle.

-At the end of the episode I was left wondering, “Wait who is the titular Heiress? Did I miss something?” which caused me to do a quick google and realize this is a fan favorite character or something (and I don't actually want to know, I want to take the show as the show as much as possible, not a lore puzzle). But I never watched the cartoon shows so this is part of the problem with mega-sized canons. Those of you who watched may know something else about her, but from someone who had no idea who she is? Let’s just say it all comes off very slight and confusing and outside of just generally liking Katee Sackhoff, it doesn’t work on its own. For now at least. Because as I imagine…

tHeY’lL gEt tO iT lAtEr.

<3HULK