The ??? ??Mandalorianmight be Star Wars canon, but for at least the first season it was Star Wars lite. It was an anthology and a space western and very much a world in which people use droids and fight storm troopers, but it was the most accessible part of a wider universe that some people could never get into otherwise.
That all changes with Chapter 9, the first installment in Season 2 that premiered Oct. 30 on Disney+.
Now tasked with the custody and return of The Child, our Mandalorian is on the hunt for any clues about the Jedi, and he's certain that other Mandalorians can help. The first he hears of is on a very familiar planet indeed: Tatooine.
"Tatooine" is uttered at the eight-minute mark of "The Marshal," and it's the first in a series of plot points during the hour that Mashable's Chris Taylor dubbed fan service (not a bad thing).
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In the desolate town of Mos Pelgo, Mando asks for the one who looks like him, and he’s pointed toward the Marshal. In walks...Boba Fett?!
Not quite.
Enter a different kind of fan service, one for people who hear the word “marshal” and immediately autocorrect it to the phrase “U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens,” and it is with this cheeky word association that Timothy Olyphant swaggers into the cantina and the Star Wars universe, always a cowboy, but now a cowboy wearing Boba Fett's familiar Mandalorian armor from the original trilogy.
After a moment of unbridled sexual tension when he invites Mando to have a drink, Cobb Vanth does the unthinkable and removes his helmet in public. He can’t register the shock on Mando’s face because OUR boy isn’t down with blasphemy that way — but Vanth is quick to clarify that he isn’t a real Mandalorian. The Boba Fett armor gave this away immediately to Star Wars fans, since Fett was ostensibly eaten by a sarlacc in Return of the Jedi. This is a fraught moment because appropriating Mandalorian culture is wrong but putting Timothy Olyphant’s face on TV is very, very right.
In a SECOND moment of unbridled sexual tension, Mando tells Vanth to “take it off or I will.” Before they can kissfight, the ground starts to quake like freakin' Jumanji as a gigantic creature roils beneath the sand and passes through Mos Pelgo: A Krayt dragon that promptly devours a comparatively tiny bantha and then disappears. The armored boys team up to destroy the dragon.
Bebé really didn't do much this episode except attack us with cuteness, and that's okay! Credit: Lucasfilm Ltd. Vanth explains that the Mining Collective took over Mos Pelgo literally the night of the second Death Star’s destruction, roughly five years ago. This is the first and most overt connection between The Mandalorianand the original Star Wars films, and for a moment hearing the words “Death Star” from someone on a show with a literal miniature Yoda that stole all our hearts is actually jarring. It took me out of it for a moment before diving back in, much like the krayt dragon.
By the way, the dragon looks fabulous. It's massive enough that Mando suggests this thing ate the sarlacc, and looks like an angry, grizzled sand dinosaur. This is likely the thing that left that giant skeleton on Tatooine which C-3PO and R2-D2 passed in A New Hope. Andrew L. Jones and Doug Chiang's production design spares no detail, from the heavy coats of sand to the rows of teeth and the weaponized vomit.
Tatooine means Tusken Raiders a.k.a. Sand People a.k.a. never anything good. Mando and Vanth track down a group who also want to kill the krayt dragon. That's cool and all, but we've seen Sand People attack Luke Skywalker and murder Anakin's mother. Mando, ever the morally gray hero, speaks Tusken and negotiates a deal.
Vanth exhibits similar bias at the raiders’ encampment, when he rejects their hospitality and would rather just fight those he's used to fighting. Mando talks down both sides so they can stick together to fight the dragon.
The episode does create a nice mini-arc with Vanth in this regard; just a few scenes later he's shown making peace between one of his villagers and the Sand People, and before they battle the dragon he takes an enthusiastic sip of their water like it's the best coffee in the Outer Rim.
"Take me to Timothy Olyphant so we can GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT." Credit: Lucasfilm Ltd. No matter where it falls in the spectrum of canon density, one thing The Mandalorianis not is a Star Wars movie. As the first live-action TV show in the universe, it still has to follow the structure of the genre, which means that the entire conflict between the Raiders and people of Mos Pelgo is escalated and resolved within the hour. It's much more reminiscent of another Dave Filoni joint: Avatar: The Last Airbender, a show with dozens of self-contained adventure episodes that chip away at its overarching heroic quest.
Many viewers will be disappointed that "The Marshal" gave us no updates on Moff Gideon and no Force use from The Child, things we've been thinking about all year, but if you thought that was how things work here you've been watching the wrong show. Self-contained time pass episodes full of Star Wars nuggets are exactly what we're here for, and "The Marshal" delivered on every front. For an episode otherwise light on The Child, it gives our lil green baby lots of opportunity to coo and hide and just be cute as heck while looking scared of all the dangerous situations daddy puts him in.
And while we may not get an update from Moff Gideon, the episode doesn't leave us without a big reveal. As Mando flies off along the horizon, he's observed from a distance by a shadowy figure with weapons and scars. The figure turns around to reveal the face of New Zealand actor Temuerra Morrison — Jango Fett from Attack of the Clones, a.k.a. the prototype for clone Boba Fett.
In other words...that's an older Boba Fett, y'all. It could also be one of the many identical clones in the galaxy, but Boba alone could provide invaluable help to the Mandalorian in finding others and tracking down the living Jedi. But will he be a friend or foe — or as is the case with Mando, a mix of both?
We'll find out soon enough.
The Mandalorianis now streaming on Disney+.
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Topics Disney+ Star Wars