SPOILER REVIEW: Season 2 Chapter 10 - The Mandalorian - The Passenger

The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 10 Review

I'M WARNING YOU RIGHT NOW, SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON 2 PREMIER OF THE MANDALORIAN ARE BELOW. I SHIELD YOU FROM NOTHING! 

OK, YOU'RE WARNED!

IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE EPISODE YET, STOP HERE, GO WATCH IT AND COME BACK FOR MY REVIEW.

WE GOOD?

OK, those are the formalities officially out of the way. Each week, I'll be posting a quick recap/review of each new episode of The Mandalorian. I'll give a basic play-by-play with some thoughts and speculation about how each episode could figure into the larger picture of this season, and Star Wars as a whole.

So let's get after it.

SEASON 2: CHAPTER 10: "THE PASSENGER" 

EPISODE PREMIERS ON NOVEMBER 6, 2020

DIRECTOR: PEYTON REED 

EPISODE LENGTH: 43 MINUTES

OVERVIEW:

This was a very different episode from last week's season premier. Peyton Reed of Ant Man fame made his Mandalorian directorial debut, and he infused this episode with his exact type of wry humor while mixing in elements of horror. It was a real mixed bag of cinematic styles and genres all blended together in this season's second episode.

We open around where the first episode left off, on Tatooine, as Din Djarin is wrapping up his job of securing Boba Fett's armor and continuing his search for fellow Mandalorians. He returns to the hangar where the Razor Crest is waiting. He discovers mechanic Peli Motto engaged in a game of sabacc with a human-sized ant, no doubt a nod to Reed's previous work for Disney. 

After winning her card game, Motto points Djarin to a guide that can lead him to those he's looking for. The elegantly named Frog Lady, who is carrying eggs that represent the last of her kind. Djarin reluctantly agrees to fly Frog Lady to a planet where her husband is, the same husband who can identify the whereabouts of other Mandalorians.

The trip is far from smooth, of course. There's a language barrier between the two, and there's The Child's apparent unending hunger for any kind of food. The Child is seen sneak-eating a couple of Frog Lady's eggs in some humorous scenes. Hey, everyone needs the protein, right?

The Razor Crest is then apprehended by a pair of X-Wing fighters, one of them piloted by Dave Filoni, who made a cameo appearance in Season 1, Chapter 5. They harass Djarin over technicalities until Djarin decides to make a run for it. He is chased into a canyon on a snowy planet, where he has to engineer a controlled crash to get out of sight of the fighters. But his troubles have just begun.

The Razor Crest crashes through thin ice, causing considerable damage to the hull. As he's working on his repairs, he discovers Frog Lady has left the crash site. An exasperated Djarin sets off to locate Frog Lady, who he discovers is swimming in a grotto.

The Child, still hungry apparently, notices eggs growing out of the snowy ground. He investigates, and in a tension-filled scene, opens one up and appears to eat a spider-like creature. But that quick snack is a prelude to another disaster for our heroes.

The ground starts to rumble, and dozens of eggs start to hatch, spawning creatures known as the Krykna, the white spider-like creatures seen in a handful of episodes of Star Wars: Rebels. These creatures were inspired by Ralph McQuarrie concept paining of similar beings inhabiting Dagobah in Empire Strikes Back. The Krykna quickly hatch, and larger Krykna, including apparently, a queen Krykna that's the size of a small fighter, start chasing our heroes through the ice tunnels.

Here, we get the horror movie element of this episode, as Djarin, The Child and Frog Lady desperately evade the hoarde of Krykna chasing them. The finally find refuge in the Razor Crest, and thanks to a late assist from the X-Wing pilots Carson and Wolf (Filoni), escape the ice gorge and return to space.

The Child takes much more center stage in this episode. In last week's debut, he didn't really do very much, and was there for quick cut-aways more than anything else. He was a much more active participant in this week's episode, providing his quiet, quirky humor while also moving the plot along with the Krykna egg. 

I wondered, coming into this second season, how big of a presence The Child would be. He was clearly a sensation throughout the first season and has been a merchandising juggernaut in the summer and fall. Would his presence be increased or will the less-is-more approach be taken? I feel in these two episodes, he's had a nice balance between a smaller presence in the first episode to a larger one in this one. 

I feel this was more of a transitional episode. The mission on which Djarin started out on in the beginning of this episode was not resolved. It appears it will be more closely connected to next week's third episode than this was to last week's premier.

Brad Monastiere

I live in Michigan and worked in athletics. Been an unconditional fan of Star Wars and Indiana Jones for decades. Follow me on twitter @bmonastiere