2x01 Chapter 9: The Marshal

[8.2/10] The thing I love about The Mandalorian is that so much of it would work entirely divorced from Star Wars. If you wanted to do a space western about a gunslinger with a code, helping two communities band together to fight a common enemy on the edge of civilization, it would work no matter what universe you set it in. The rhythms, the scenery, the score, the direction, the performances, the imagery, and the major set pieces each fire on all cylinders, separate and apart from connections to the wider galaxy.

And yet, it’s also so much richer because of those connections. Seeing this mining town scrape out a precarious existence after having been enslaved by local guilds and warlords adds dimension to how the defeat of the Empire didn’t necessarily lead to peace and security for everyone. Watching Cobb Vanth saunter around in Boba Fett’s armor has power not just because of the association, but because it hints toward the aftermath of events we’ve already seen, showing that life went on in the various outposts of Tatooine even when the Skywalker adventures ended.

We already know about the testy relationship between the human locals on the planet and the Tusken Raiders, which provides more depth to when they have to set aside their cultural differences and long-held grudges to take out a threat that jeopardizes the existence and tranquility of both communities. And having only seen the skeleton of a krayt dragon in the past, we know of its size and scale, adding intrigue to what it's capable of when it’s alive and liable to chomp down on your loved one.

In short, this type of story would work anywhere, at least with this level of craft and talent on display. But it works especially well not only building on what we know about the state of play in the Star Wars Galaxy, but also adding to our understanding of it as well.

Plus hey, as a fan of Deadwood, it’s tons of fun to see Timothy Olyphant out there, playing a marshal stationed in a mining town once more, and flanked by W. Earl Brown for good measure. Cobb Vanth is a great partner for Mando here, having the sort of wry humor to match Mando’s badass deadpan and seeming believable as a cowboy protecting this windswept town. His story of escaping from guilds and slavers, stumbling into a trade for Boba Fett’s armor after a rescue by Jawas, and using it to come back to save the town is a compelling one.

That said, Vanth is also a man of prejudice, deriding the Tusken Raiders as animals with smelly beverages who’ve threatened his people. The Tuskens, for their part, see the settlers as stealing their water and killing their people. It’s a good opportunity for Mando to make peace, stopping violence before it starts, communicating with both sides of the divide, and ultimately showing why both of these communities need each other, especially with a krayt dragging attacking both of them, regardless of their cultural differences.

It’s a nice move to make Mando serious and deadly, but also compassionate and understanding. He knows how to get out of a life-threatening situation, as the cold open with the beskar-hunting gangster indicates, but he also doesn’t use violence as a first resort, especially if communication is possible.
What follows is something like...well...Blazing Saddles of all things, as the locals from different sects come together against their common enemy. Separate and apart from all of that intriguing subtext and allegory, the fight with the krayt dragon is just damn cool. There’s great tension as the plan starts to work as they lure the beast out of the cave, goes awry when it starts to retreat, and then the shit truly hits the fan when it starts emerging from hidden corners and spewing acid on its attackers.

There’s a dynamism to these sequences, with some particularly nice shots that emphasize how small our would-be heroes are in the face of this tremendous beast. There’s a good ebb and flow of things going well and things going poorly. The sheer coolness of Mando getting swallowed as bait alongside an explosive-laden bantha, only to shoot out of the beast’s mouth and detonate the load, is fantastic.

And hey, I can’t believe we’ve made it this far without mentioning Baby Yoda! Frankly, he doesn’t do much here beyond hide in a spitoon, react to the proceedings, and otherwise coo, but it’s more than enough! We also get a nice return appearance from Amy Sedaris as Peli Motto, still finding the little green tyke adorable and helping Mando out of his jam.

There’s also a good sense of cause and effect here. Mando has a quest -- to return The Child to his people. To do that, he needs to find other Mandalorians so that he can make use of their covert network. So he runs into a gangster at a Gamorrean fight who claims to have info on where to find one. The info leads him to Tatooine, where he just finds a pretender with Boba Fett’s armor, but a situation that leaves him honor-bound to retrieve that armor, drawing him into the local conflict in order to obtain it without having to kill the titular marshal. It’s strong storytelling at both a macro and micro level, which bodes well for the rest of the season.

Oh yeah, and freaking Boba Fett is there! I’ll confess, I don’t love the fact that the show brought him back from the dead. I mean seriously, can anyone in this damn universe ever actually stay deceased? But the other side of the coin is that there’s definitely something cool to see Temura Morrison in the role like this, and additional details we’ve gotten about Boba in the animated shows have deepened his character a little. Hopefully The Mandalorian can do for Boba what The Clone Wars did for Maul -- revive someone who probably should have stayed dead, but justify the resurrection based on what they do with the character.

On the whole though, “The Marshal” is a kickass start to the new season, resetting Mando’s mission at a high level, while giving him a great standalone adventure that both works as a great Western tale of communities coming together on its own and also deepens our understanding of the world that exists apart from Empires and Jedi.

THE WACPINE OF ‘THE MANDALORIAN: S2E1’

WRITING: 6
ATMOSPHERE: 8
CHARACTERS: 7
PRODUCTION: 9
INTRIGUE: 6
NOVELTY: 7
ENJOYMENT: 8

The Good:

The opening episode picks up where the season one finale ended, setting the sights on a new mission for Mando. I also love the return to a Western vibe, closer to the early episodes if the first season.

Great to see a return of Tatooine with its sandy and rough landscapes. The Sand People also show up and we get a good look at their culture, which is always welcome.

The longer runtime allows for longer scenes and more fleshes out conversations. It also allows for some backstory that effectively ties into the original trilogy and gives the show even more context. It also takes the chance to mirror some real-world social issues (racism, prejudice) from a Tatooineian perspective without being too in your face.

The Marshal seems like an interesting character, and it's great to have a proper backstory to him from the very beginning. That helps to understand him better going forward.

Based on this first episode alone, the score seems to have a different majestic energy to it, which I like. The overall production values are great, with probably the best CGI so far, and plenty of practical effects.

The sequence with the Leviathan is the finest example of just how big and cool action sequences on this show can be.

The Bad:

The longer runtime means we get more lengthy filler scenes that don't serve another purpose than to fill out the time.

Despite a promising beginning, this episode quickly side rails into another lengthy side mission before turning its focus back to the matter at hand.

Overall, Episode 1 feels like a rehash of Episode 4 in Season 1, just on another planet.

A general lack of action and actual story content makes the middle 20 minutes or so feel empty and dull.

The Ugly:

THAT CLIFFHANGER?!

CAWPINE RATING: 7.29 / 10 = 3.5 stars

The beginning of the episode is quite atmospheric, when Mandalorian walks with the baby in his cot through a strange city and we don't know what danger may await them there (I am not sure what the red-eyed creatures are but certainly some kind of a predator). Mandalorian wants to find out about other Mandalorians because apparently they would know more about the baby's tribe (I don't know why not look for the tribe directly, maybe the Mandalorians are the equivalent of the Internet in SW universe?) and is told that there is one on Tatooine (why do we always have to end there? because it was the only set they had made? it is not that it is a particularly pretty place), there is turns out it is not a real Mandalorian but some guy (the eponymous Marshal) who got the armour from the Jawas. However, from his backstory he tells Mando it looks like he is quite courageous as he returned to defeat the bandits who took over his village after he got the armour. The boys are going to fight over the armour when there is an earthquake caused by a local sand dragon. So the Marshal offers Mandalorian that he'd give him the armour back if he helps him defeat the said dragon. The whole dragon fight was a bit silly since the best way to kill it would be to make it eat poisoned food or explosives, what Mando does at the end, as it is done in the Polish legend of the Wawel dragon. It would be a much simpler and faster solution than the whole expedition, the only good point of which was peace between the village people and the Tuskans. A lot of people died though, who could have been saved had they used the Wawel dragon method. I like the re-appearance of the mechanic lady and her friendly droids at the beginning of the episode, though I believe it was completely irresponsible of Mandalorian to take the baby for the search expedition, and even more so, for the dragon hunting.