After slaying a krayt dragon and making off with Boba Fett’s armor in the season 2 opener of The Mandalorian, Din Djarin aka Mando picks up the trail of another Mandalorian enclave in “The Passenger.”
Recap of The Mandalorian, S2E2: “The Passenger”
The episode picks up right where the season opener left off: With Mando speeding back towards Mos Eisley with The Child and Boba Fett’s armor in tow. The speederbike is upended by a trip wire, and he’s assaulted by a handful of bounty hunters – most of whom he dispatches in close combat.
One manages to snag The Child and holds a knife to its throat menacingly. When Mando offers any of his possessions in exchange, the creature asks for the jetpack. He doesn’t get more than a few steps away before Mando uses the wrist controls to lift the villain into the air before tossing him unceremoniously and with a thud back onto the planet’s surface.
He reunites once again with Peli Motto who is playing sabacc with a giant ant she refers to as “Doctor Mandible.” After winning with an idiot’s array, she explains that she has a contact who knows where to find the Mandalorians Mando seeks.
The contact is a humanoid frog who wants Mando to transport her and her clutch of eggs to the planet Trask so her husband can fertilize them – the last batch of her lifecycle. But there’s a catch: No hyperdrive travel allowed, as it would endanger the eggs. Mando doesn’t like it as speed is the only way he’s managed to stay out of harm’s way of late, but he’s got no choice.
Once aboard the Razor Crest, he programs the nav for Trask and descends from the cockpit in the hopes of catching a little rest only to find The Child popping eggs from the clutch into his cute little mouth. The Child gets a word of reprimand before they both hit the bunk.
Alarms raise Mando from his sleep and he ascends to the cockpit to find two X-Wings flanking the Razor Crest. They’re looking for “Imperial holdouts,” and when Mando cannot provide they proof they seek, they order him to follow them to Adelphi.
One of the pilots asks the other to switch comm channels, and during the silence that follows the X-Wings’ S-foils extend to the shape that earns the starfighters their name. They ask Mando if his ship was anywhere near a New Republic Correctional Transport. It seems the events of Chapter Six have caught up with Mando!
He quickly pitches down towards the nearest planet and tries to shake the X-wings with some fancy maneuvers in the clouds before descending to a canyon. When he’s just out of their sights, he pulls a sharp turn and disappears down a narrow branch before banging to a stop under cover. The icy ground beneath the Razor Crest gives way and the ship is heavily damaged in the fall to the floor below.
The ship’s hull has a hole in its side large enough for Mando to walk through, so he’s got some repairs to do. The frog lady hacks the metallic carcass of the droid Zero, also of Chapter Six fame (and voiced by Richard Ayoade), to explain that these eggs have to make it to Trask ASAP. When Mando counters that the original deal is off, she hits him right in the Mandalorian Code – his most sensitive of spots that is not covered in beskar.
During his repairs, the frog lady wanders off and finds a hot spring. Mando tracks her down, and as they’re rounding her clutch back up The Child, denied another tasty frog egg treat, finds another egg to snack on. He gets one down before the others begin to hatch…and there are hundreds of them in the cavern.
These spider-like creatures give chase; including a massive momma spider that’s big enough to rival the Razor Crest in size!
Mando and company are nearly overwhelmed as they flee back to the ship and take refuge in the still-intact cockpit before the momma spider begins punching new holes in the hull.
Suddenly, blaster fire erupts from outside the ship. The X-Wing pilots have arrived just in time to save the day. They determine that while he was definitely involved in the escape of prisoner X6911 (presumably the Twi’lek Qin), he also put his life on the line for Lieutenant Davan, the lone New Republic human on the prison transport. They basically let him off with a warning as thanks.
Upon returning to space in an attempt to limp to Trask and complete the job, the frog lady holds her eggs closely after The Child glances back hungrily at them. He produces one from the folds of his robe and eats it as the credits roll.
Review of The Mandalorian S2E2: “The Passenger”
After the explosive action of this season’s premier episode, “The Passenger” definitely feels like a pumping of the brakes. But that’s not to say it is without its merits.
Family is the theme of Chapter 10. You’ve got three represented during the course of the episode:
- Mando and The Child
- The frog lady and her clutch of eggs
- The giant ice spider and her brood
Each has the interests of its children in mind and goes to great lengths to ensure their safety. In fact, I think it was less the Mandalorian Code that moved Mando to stick to the deal and more the growing empathy of a parent doing everything he or she can for their children. The relationship between Mando and The Child continues to deepen. Its a fun take on the “In Love with the Mark” trope, and I’m here for it.
The internet can calm back down after cries that the season opener didn’t feature near enough of The Child (but tell me his ears flapping in the wind on the speederbike wasn’t the most adorable thing ever). There’s plenty of Baby Yoda in Chapter 10; lots of babbling and egg-stealing and snackies. He remains wholly cute – even when he’s consuming the unborn children of Mando’s charge. (Even when I intentionally phrase it all controversially, watching him pop those eggs into his mouth remains adorable.)
“The Passenger” brings Mando yet another step closer to yet another rumored Mandalorian sighting. We don’t end the episode on Trask, but that’s still his best (and only) lead after Vanth proved to be a bust, so I’d imagine we get there eventually.
We still haven’t seen hide or hair of Moff Gideon; not even so much as a single Imperial in season 2 if memory serves. So we’ve still got that to look forward to. And as of the final shot of last episode, Boba Fett seems to be hot on Mando’s trail, too. Will this turn into an epic buddy-cop styled show?! This Nerd sure hopes so.
Some quick hits and notes from “The Passenger”:
- Baby Yoda’s first snow! Awwwwww…
- Executive producer Dave Filoni is credited as one of the X-Wing pilots – Trapper Wolf. This is his second appearance in The Mandalorian as Trapper, the first instance coming in Chapter Six.
- Peyton Reed directed this episode. He was also the director of Ant-Man, so it seemed appropriate that there was some bug action in “The Passenger”! Although easily the worst puppet of the show was, ironically, an ant.
- The sequence of the giant ice spider and her brood giving chase to Mando and company had some major Halo flood vibes for this gamer.
- The ice spiders have their origin in some concept art for The Empire Strikes Back which eventually became the krykna spotted in a couple episodes of Rebels.
- I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the fact that A) Mando never tells the frog lady that The Child ate some of her eggs and B) IF she notices at all, she doesn’t make a fuss about it.
- I wonder how quickly word will travel about the galaxy that so long as you claim you know where some Mandalorians are, this guy will do pretty much anything you want him to…
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