The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 2 Recap & Review

The Passenger

We begin episode 2 of The Mandalorian Season 2 right where we left off. Mando drives on his speeder bike but comes across opportunistic bandits who knock him down and blindside him. With the men desperate to grab The Child, Mando eventually kills them all but finds The Child captured and at knifepoint.

Forced to drop his weapons, Mando outsmarts the bandit with his own jetpack, dropping him to his doom.

With all the gear on his back, Mando heads back to see Peli, who’s sitting with a creature called Dr Mandible. He has details on another contact that could lead him to the location of the Mandalorians. It turns out there’s a covert operator close – in this sector in fact – and the contact needs to be given safe passage there.

With hyperspace out the question, Mando’s latest side-quest is to help a Frog Lady carrying the last of her race in a glass jar. Mando is initially apprehensive, given he hasn’t been traveling slowly all this time, but eventually agrees.

In space, he’s stopped by New Republic ships either side of him who ask for a Ping to confirm he’s not Imperial. It’s dicey for a while as the two X-wings question him, and he’s eventually forced to try and evade both pilots. Mando crash-lands down on an ice planet and the subsequent fall causes the ship to suffer from serious damage.

Using the droid’s vocabulator to translate, the Frog Lady convinces Mando not to give up hope and do his best to try and fix the ship. However, the Frog Lady goes for a bit of a walk about in the cave.

Mando finds her eventually in a steaming pool and helps gather up the eggs. The Child however, heads out to a whole swarm of eggs dotted around and eats one of them. The rest stir, eventually opening up as the group find themselves surrounded by ice spiders and forced to flee.

Back at the ship, the group try and protect themselves as Mando uses his flamethrower to shut the doors and thwart the spiders. At least for now.

These creatures swarm all over the ship and everything looks hopeless… until the two X-Wing pilots save Mando and the gang. It turns out they have all the history on Mando and despite his dicey meetings over the first season, allow him to live for now.

With the threat gone, Mando sets to work fixing the ship so they can at least limp to a nearby system. As they get moving again, the episode comes to a close.

The Episode Review

After a strong opener, The Mandalorian slips back into old ways with an episode relying on deus ex machina and doing little to move the plot forward. Don’t get me wrong, the production design and practical effects are outstanding and the ice spiders are a nice touch too. However, it comes at the expense of the writing which feels stretched out and does absolutely nothing for any of the characters.

Although The Child is supposed to be used as comic effect, seeing it getting them in trouble by eating an offspring of the spider and nonchalantly gobbling down the eggs of the Frog Lady – even after she mentioned this is the last of her kind – shows a cruelty to this creature not seen before.

If this is supposed to be a narrative stepping stone to it flirting with the dark side though, that could add a nice dimension to this season.

Still, Star Wars fans will inevitably flock to this one and love what’s been presented but the writing just feels so bland and formulaic. Under any other name other than Star Wars, this wouldn’t be receiving the acclaim it currently has. Still, hopefully episode 3 will pull things back again.