The Mandalorian Season 2, Episode 2 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 2, titled "Chapter 10 - The Passenger." To remind yourself where we left off, check out our Mandalorian Season 2, episode 1 review. [poilib element="accentDivider"] It's becoming clear that The Mandalorian Season 2 is purposefully differentiating itself from the structure of its first season, which kicked off with a three-episode arc that played very much like a self-contained movie before venturing into standalone episodic territory. So far in Season 2, we've had a premiere that was essentially a remix of two other Season 1 side quests with a dash of Boba Fett mythology thrown in, and what is essentially a survival horror story that does nothing to further the ongoing storyline, but at least attempts something new for the series in terms of genre inspiration and tone. How you feel about each episode likely depends on what you enjoy most about the series: if you're in it primarily for the nostalgic joy of how The Mandalorian fits into the larger Star Wars universe and the way it's able to explore parts of the galaxy that the movies just don't have time for, you were probably willing to forgive "The Marshal" for being a bit repetitive and heavy-handed with the easter eggs, whereas I was itching for the show to give us something we hadn't already seen before (although the worldbuilding was admittedly awesome). In that way, I found "The Passenger" a bit more interesting in terms of the new shades it brings out in Mando as a character, although both episodes fall into the same trap of failing to advance the plot in any substantive way. 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"] In theory, there's nothing wrong with an episodic format that blends "case/monster/quest of the week" procedural elements with larger overarching mythology - The X-Files and Supernatural are two long-running examples - but the difference is that those shows had 20 or more episodes per season to balance the plot with the "filler" (which is an imperfect term anyway, because no episode is ever completely fluff, the way the word implies). But the fact that The Mandalorian is sticking to a svelte eight-episode season makes that balance between worldbuilding and narrative momentum all the more important, and right now it kind of feels like the executive producers are stalling just to torture us and build anticipation for the next Moff Gideon encounter. It's probable that episode 3 will address the lack of plot development and will be a total joyride, but you can't help but think the season might've been better served by coming out of the gate hot. "The Passenger" can best be summed up by its focus on parental instinct. Mando has spent the series thus far (rightly) prioritizing the safety of The Child above all else, but that blind devotion is complicated when he encounters another parent who is equally dedicated to securing a future for her offspring. He - and the audience - is forced to reckon with the question of why he considers his quest any more vital, or his preferences any more important, than this nameless mother's, aside from the fact that she's not a fighter so has to rely on the kindness of strangers to secure safety for her family. We've known since the series premiere that Mando has empathy, so it's no surprise that he would help this woman even when it's deeply inconvenient for him, although once again, there's a transactional element to the deal - he's ultimately helping her because he wants information on the location of other Mandalorians. Watch the video below for our theories on Boba Fett's return and what it might mean for The Mandalorian Season 2: [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/31/the-mandalorian-season-2-what-the-big-cameo-really-means"] Episode director Peyton Reed (already in the Disney family thanks to Ant-Man) does a nice job of subtly framing Mando and Baby Yoda's dynamic with the Frog Lady (seriously, they couldn't have given her a name when she took over Zero's vocabulator?) and her spawn's throughout the episode. When she challenges Mando about honoring the Mandalorian Code, the look he gives The Child is telling - he knows he needs to lead by example, and think about the kind of legacy he's leaving for his own Foundling. The Mandalorians who rescued him as a child obviously did so at great personal risk to themselves, so why should he behave any differently when it comes to the future of this desperate family? This is probably exacerbated by the fact that Baby Yoda is acting like... well, a child - or, more accurately, an infuriating toddler. He has no sense of right and wrong yet, as evidenced by his (kind of horrifying, despite it being played for comedy) determination to eat the Frog Lady's eggs and, when he can't chow down on those, seeking out the eggs of the spider-like creatures he finds in the cave instead. While it could be a coincidence that all the eggs start hatching after The Child eats one, it's also easy to interpret the terrifying events that follow as punishment for Baby Yoda's lack of consideration when it comes to the child of another species - the consequences of one kid pushing another kid over on the playground writ large. The creatures attack only after one of their offspring is threatened, which evokes one of the franchise's central themes: respecting every species' right to life, and emphasizing that things tend to get thrown out of balance when one group prioritizes their own desires above those of all other living things. On a macro level, this is the episode where Mando has an opportunity to grow up and start to consider his place in a larger story, rather than blindly pursuing his own objective - and seemingly realizes that parenthood is about far more than just a child's physical safety (although that's certainly the immediate concern in this episode). And seeing Baby Yoda's evolution from cutesy troublemaker into a more overtly mischievous (and obliviously self-destructive) kid is a realistic progression that's probably only going to get worse for our hero. For those reasons, there's something quietly resonant about Chapter 10, which could otherwise be dismissed as just another throwaway quest. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-mandalorian-season-2&captions=true"] As for the nightmare-inducing spider creatures, they seem immediately reminiscent of the resilient krykna that the team encountered on Atollon in Star Wars Rebels, although there are some key differences: adult krykna had six legs while the giant versions of these spider monstrosities had eight (although the babies seemed to be six-legged), and the krykna were a lot harder to kill, since they were pretty much invulnerable to blasters. (Another fun easter egg, given the potential Rebels callback, is that Dee Bradley Baker, the voice of Rex, also voices the Frog Lady.) Both species, if they're not the same, probably draw inspiration from concept art created by Ralph McQuarrie for The Empire Strikes Back, which featured a "knobby white spider" that was native to Dagobah. Naturally, the horrifying creatures and their eerie eggs also have a healthy dollop of Alien DNA, especially when one tries to launch itself at Mando's face. Confidently directing the escalating action, Reed does an excellent job at ratcheting up the horror of the skittering creatures as they swarm Mando and his companions, making for the most skin-crawling sequence in the show so far. The odds seem truly insurmountable until Dave Filoni and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee's X-Wing pilots show up to save the day. Nice to know that even in the New Republic, some universal annoyances - like bureaucracy - will never change.

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