The Mandalorian: Season 2, Episode 1 Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out This review contains spoilers for The Mandalorian Season 2, episode 1, titled "Chapter 9 - The Marshal." To remind yourself where we left off, check out our Mandalorian Season 1 review. [poilib element="accentDivider"] The Mandalorian has finally returned for Season 2, and while it's great to have new Star Wars to speculate over, it doesn't seem like our titular hero or the showrunners telling his story have learned much from Mando's first outing. While there's plenty of meaty worldbuilding to be found in "The Marshal," the episode still falls into many of the same Sarlacc pits traps as Season 1, namely an over-reliance on easter eggs and familiar storytelling beats in place of actual plot momentum. The episode's opening is a promising departure from what we've seen previously, with Mando swaggering into a fight club located in refreshingly urban surroundings - a stark contrast to Season 1's desolate deserts and lush forest landscapes. He's there to grill an Abyssin crime lord named Gor Koresh (John Leguizamo) for information on the whereabouts of other Mandalorians, but in typical Mando fashion, things go south fast. Jon Favreau, who wrote and directed the episode, confidently choreographs Koresh's double-cross and the ensuing fight, showcasing our hero's hand-to-hand prowess in a brief but brutal smackdown that emphasizes how deadly and inventive he can be - skills that we didn't get to see enough of in Season 1. Check out all the celebrity cameos and characters in The Mandalorian so far: [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-actor-and-character-in-the-mandalorian&captions=true"] From there, though, it's back to Tatooine and more well-worn Western tropes, as well as echoes of past episodes. The plot is very reminiscent of Season 1's fourth episode, "Sanctuary" - with Mando teaming up with another enigmatic warrior with a painful past (Timothy Olyphant's Cobb Vanth, a character first introduced in Chuck Wendig's Aftermath novels) to protect a helpless town against a seemingly insurmountable threat - with a dash of Mando's Mudhorn quest from episode 3 thrown in. Olyphant - no stranger to playing stoic Western characters thanks to his roles in Deadwood and Justified - is a perfect fit for The Mandalorian's tone (far more so than Amy Sedaris, whose Peli Motto always takes me out of the scene), imbuing Cobb with just the right combination of grit and wit to be a perfect foil for Mando; here's hoping we see more of him as the show goes on. What keeps "The Marshal" from being a complete retread is mostly down to the nostalgia factor - for die-hard fans, the episode is brimming with clever nods to Star Wars lore, from the return of R5-D4 in Peli Motto's workshop; to the involvement of the Tusken Raiders and their fixation on the legendary krayt dragon pearl; to Cobb Vanth using a podracer engine (maybe even Anakin Skywalker's?) to power his swoop-bike; to Mando utilizing Obi-Wan's krayt dragon cry from A New Hope; to the seeming return of Boba Fett in the form of a scarred Temuera Morrison. (Boba Fett would be in his late thirties by this point in the Star Wars timeline, while Morrison is 59, so there's reason to be skeptical, especially with other surviving clones still out there - but bounty hunting and being eaten by a Sarlacc probably ages you, right?) The episode even seeks to redeem Boba Fett's glitchy jetpack after Mando gives it a whack and sends Cobb flying, perhaps offering a canonical excuse for Boba's ignominious ending in Return of the Jedi the same way the Season 1 finale tried to explain the Stormtroopers' iconically shoddy aim.  [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/26/the-mandalorian-season-1-timeline-recap"] There's enough nerdy goodness here to forgive the relative lack of actual plot development, and at 49 minutes, "The Marshal" is one of the longest Mandalorian episodes yet - hopefully a sign that further installments will also be beefier, given how short many of Season 1's episode lengths were. Likewise, the visuals remain impressive; while we're making comparisons to episode 4, it's great to see so many elaborate and gripping action sequences rendered in broad daylight and at such a grand scale, compared to the murky action of the showdown on Sorgan. It's also admittedly thrilling just to get to luxuriate in the Star Wars universe and get deeper context on its planets and inhabitants (like the fascinating culture of the Tusken Raiders) in a way that the movies just don't have the real estate for. But given all the hype and secrecy surrounding Season 2, for a premiere, it can't help but feel a little anticlimactic. If you subtract all the easter eggs and Mando and Cobb's deliciously dry banter, you're left with a fairly rote monster-hunting mission that, like many of Season 1's episodes, feels like a pastiche of other movies and pop culture touchstones rather than trying anything new. Obviously, Star Wars has a long history of being inspired by other tales, but George Lucas always found ways to pay subtle homage without repeating the same beats, and it would've been nice to see The Mandalorian's Season 2 premiere explore some new territory rather than returning to the well of Tatooine so soon, even if it was all in service of introducing Boba Fett to the world of The Mandalorian. Baby Yoda also doesn't get much to do beyond sitting in a bag, although the shot of him hiding in a giant pot is arguably worth the price of admission.

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