That’s right, gang. This week we got two episodes of THE MANDALORIAN and boy oh boy was Friday’s episode a doozy and yes, it is just as cute as everyone has been saying. Again, this is going to be a SPOILER-FILLED recap of the episode so if you haven’t seen it, go watch it and then meet me back here.
The Episode:
Titled “THE CHILD”, episode 2 of THE MANDALORIAN follows Mando as he travels with his newly acquired Yoda baby. We don’t have a name for it yet so I’ll be calling it the Yoda baby for the time being. In the opening sequence, we see our Mando attacked by a gang of Trandoshans seemingly after the same Yoda baby. Once Mando defeats them, they drop a tracking fob similar to the one previously seen with IG-11 in the first episode and the one handed to Mando when he begins looking for the Yoda baby in the first place.
A run-in with Trandoshans isn’t the only trouble Mando has to face in this episode however, as he encounters Jawas ransacking his ship upon his return. They’ve taken his guns, and parts of his ship leaving him to chase their sandcrawler in what can only be described as a very Indiana Jones chase sequence. Climbing up the side of the ship in a very batman-esque way, Mando manages to disintegrate a few Jawas before being flung to the ground in defeat.
It’s worth mentioning that up until this point in the episode (approximately 8 minutes in), there is absolutely no dialogue other than some baby coos and Jawa. This leaves room for Ludwig Göransson’s score to shine and it truly does. This week’s tracks were definitely more on the western side with the exception of the sweeping fanfare we hear in the episode’s closing scene.
Upon his return, Mando enlists the help of Kuiil the Ugnaught (remember him?) in order to try and make a deal with the Jawas to recover the missing scrap from his ship and his guns. This requires Mando to enter a spooky cave and retrieve an egg of some sort. Sounds simple enough, except for the fact that the egg is being guarded by an angry mother who is not going to give it up that easy. This leads Mando to have quite a scuffle with the angry horned beast who ends up battering his chest armor quite a bit before Mando manages to stab it in the jugular. He received some help though, in the form of YODA BABY USING THE FORCE. This small burst of force ability tires the sweet baby out though, as he naps forever after this scene.
Victorious and dirty, Mando returns with the egg and the Jawas immediately feast upon the gooey yolk, which is a really horrifying sight to see. Mando gets his stuff back, thanks Kuill for his help, and sets off with the sweet Yoda baby.
If you thought the ending of last week’s episode with Mando reaching out a finger to Yoda baby was cute, this episode is that times a million. I never thought I would want to see a Mandalorian and a baby interact but it has made for some of the cutest most aww-inducing shit I’ve ever seen. If you don’t make some serious aww noises during this episode then, dear reader, I just don’t know what to do with you.
The Lore:
Although this was a short episode (a mere 32 minutes long), there are a few things to unpack in terms of the overall Star Wars universe.
Where are we? We still don’t really know but, if the Jawas are any indication, we might be on Tattoine. Jawas are native to the planet but some have been known to go off-world and spread out to other parts of the galaxy.
Yoda baby has the force! But also, the Yoda baby seems to have some sort of force healing powers, which I don’t really remember seeing much of in any of the other Star Wars productions. We can see a bit of it in the scene where Mando is sitting by the fire wounded, and the Yoda baby repeatedly gets out of its crib extending one tiny adorable hand to try and heal the gash in Mando’s arm.
Also, I remember thinking that maybe the Yoda baby was controlling the floating crib as it is seen in several scenes following closely behind Mando. But we see throughout the episode that Mando has some sort of device in his arm gear that controls the crib with a wave of his hand.
Horn Mother? The beast Mando fights for the egg looks similar to the Reek, which we see in the coliseum scene in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. They could be related, but that’s really all of the information I could find on it. It lays hairy eggs and it’s kind of gross.
Who is the Yoda baby? We still don’t know. A clone perhaps? What we do know is that the clan that hired Mando to find Yoda baby in the first place includes Doctor Pershing who is played by Omid Abtahi. Through some speculation online and some eagle-eyed fans who are very into “Who is this baby?” theories, we’ve discovered that the patch on the Doctor’s sleeve is that of the Kaminoan Clone insignia from Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. Could this mean the Yoda baby is a clone? Or maybe they want Mando to snatch him up to make Yoda baby clones? Who knows, but it’s fun to speculate.
At the end of the episode, we see Mando and the Yoda baby finally leave the planet. So, next week we’ll hopefully get a new world and new friends. But, most likely, we’ll probably get mostly more enemies. For more on THE MANDALORIAN, check out our coverage of the press junket here. Each episode of THE MANDALORIAN will be released weekly each Friday on Disney+.
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