– Spoiler Review –
In The Mandalorian “Chapter 2: The Child,” the titular gunslinger has his target, but getting off the planet, especially alive, might be much harder than he realized. Full spoilers ahead, so if you’ve been trying to avoid the big secret from “Chapter 1,” turn back now!
Has Star Wars ever been this cute? “Chapter 1” was seeped in Westerns, but “Chapter 2: The Child” might be the cutest half-hour…ever. It’s all thanks to the big spoiler from the premiere: the 50 year-old baby of Yoda/Yaddle’s species! Without a blurrg to return to his ship, the Mandalorian makes the trek on foot, the damn cute baby floating along besides him, silent but curious about the world around him, big cute eyes looking cutely at all the world around him…or the violence the Mandalorian has no qualms perpetrating in front of the child. And then there are the moments where he gets out of the floating cradle, like reaching out to try to heal the Mandalorian’s injuries or eating a little frog in a single gulp, which are so damn adorable it’s hard to not say “aww” for the majority of the episode; and the fact it’s mainly a little puppet only adds to the cuteness level. Have I said it’s cute yet? Beyond him being cute, we did learn the little bugger is Force-sensitive, so does this tie into the Empire’s continued search for Force-sensitive younglings, as seen in The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, and Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith #19, potentially as part of the Emperor’s Contingency plan? If he’s 50, then he was born roughly a decade prior to The Phantom Menace, so maybe this was who the Emperor was searching for all this time, beyond just turning them to the dark for his own nefarious purposes. The Remnant we’ve met so far has a specific purpose in mind for child and doesn’t care who brings him back, hence the Trandoshans who attack the Mandalorian and are disintegrated for their efforts; I imagine the Mandalorian will have something to say, or say with a blaster anyways, to The Client when he returns. The little Yoda/Yaddle baby uses the Force to help the Mandalorian battling the muddy, horned monster at the end, but the effort knocks the little guy out cold for a nice little nap. This raises even more questions: was the child trained? Does the Yoda/Yaddle species have an innate understanding of the Force? Who/why was he being hidden and when was he taken from his home? Uncovering these answers, and more, will keep me waking up early before work every Friday morning to keep up with this show.
I had some issues with the length of the opening episode, and while “Chapter 2: The Child” was even shorter, it felt more fitting of its length, bringing movie-level production, action, effects, and laughs to the small screen, Star Wars-style. From the slow, quiet opening, to the big chase scene with the Mandalorian climbing a Jawa sandcrawler, and the monster battle at the end, the episode felt like one long action sequence and an extremely fun one at that. My favorite part is the sandcrawler attack, as I didn’t always wonder how one could attack/scale one or what the Jawas would do defensively, but the moment I realized the show was really doing it, I was enthralled with the scale and scope of the whole scene and the few good laughs included, especially how the Mandalorian fails at the end. The battle with the beast, and the Mandalorian’s near failure against it, did recall Jango Fett’s problems in the Geonosis arena with a similar beast, but there were Jedi, clone troopers, battle droids to contend with too; thank goodness for the little tyke, otherwise the Mandalorian would’ve been toast by episode 2! I didn’t quite expect as much humor as we got this episode, but I enjoyed all of it, including the return of Kuiil and his wonderful catchphrase, “I have spoken,” plus the negotiation scene with the Jawas (The Egg!!). I wonder if we’ll see Nolte’s Kuiil again (performed by Misty Rosas, who deserves just as much credit here), but if not, it was a fine send-off to a hit character.
While there was even less talking from Din Jarrin, the Mandalorian, I felt like his actions, be it looking after the child or being gracious of Kuiil’s help, this episode allowed viewers to connect with him, in a very minor way, though more so than the opening episode. I’ll be very curious to see what he plans to do with the child, as he seems rather fond of the thing already, even before it saved his butt and knocked itself out doing so. How the show handles his nanny-ship of the Yoda/Yaddle Baby will be paramount to my interest in the character. Of concern however was how there wasn’t a single female character in the episode, and while I know this was basically a bottle episode, relegated to a story of the Mando finding his way off planet, and early in the season, it’s still rather jarring considering the show was already lacking in this department in the first episode. However, there is something diversity-wise to celebrate: this was the first ever Star Wars material to be directed by a black man, Rick Famuyiwa! The next episode will be the first to be directed by a woman, and since we’re likely heading back to the planet The Client was on, maybe we’ll get a chance to expand the female characters again.
Here are a few other things:
- Lucasfilm was Marvel-like with their trailers for this show, as the child was conveniently edited out of a lot of the footage, making me wonder what else they did or didn’t want us to see in the trailers.
- The official site has a great overview of canon Mandalorian history, worth a read for sure, especially if you’re curious/haven’t been watching the animated shows prior to this!
- Don’t forget, we’re on Friday releases going forward, minus the week of The Rise of Skywalker‘s opening, as that episode will air December 18, a Wednesday, instead!
- If you’ve been wondering where episode guides are, like the animated shows have had these past several years, it looks like they are working on it!
- Don’t forget to head over to Spotify for The Mandalorian‘s soundtrack. I’m really digging it two episodes in, with the character’s theme being the standout track at the moment!
The Mandalorian “Chapter 2: The Child” ups the cuteness and humor, finding itself a bit in a better episode than its solid premiere.
+ Yoda/Yaddle Baby can’t help it was born so damn cute
+ Non-stop action fun
+ Plenty of good humor
– Leaving the female characters behind
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
THE MANDALORIAN REVIEWS
Season One: Chapter 1 | Chapter 3 – The Sin | Chapter 4 – The Sanctuary | Chapter 5 – The Gunslinger | Chapter 6 – The Prisoner | Chapter 7 – The Reckoning | Chapter 8 – Redemption