Ryan Shoots First: The Mandalorian (S1 Ep5) “Chapter 5: The Gunslinger”
Welcome back to what is quickly becoming my favorite day of the week as we get ready for Chapter 5 of The Mandalorian. Let’s see what our “merc with a heart of gold” has going on this week!
This week’s episode starts with the most action we have seen to start an episode as Mando is in a dog fight with a bounty hunter. He of course comes out on top but the ship is leaking fuel. In need of repairs he lands in the same dust bowl everyone lands…. Mos Eisley. He pays the lady at the port to fix his ship but will need to make some money while in this hive of scum and villainy. While taking some downtime the pit droids and the fixer come across Baby Yodes who is walking off the ship after his nap. Her plan is to watch him then charge Mando when he gets back.
Mando enters a local Cantina and finds out the guild no longer operates on Tatooine. He meets a young guy named Toro who has a bounty on an assassin Mando knows. She’s heading out beyond the Dune Sea and Mando, knowing her rep, wants no part of it. Toro informs Mando he needs this job to get into the guild. They set off on some speeders across the Tatooine desert. They run into some Tusken Raiders that Mando negotiates with to gain passage across their land. They later come up on a Dewback dragging what appears to be a passed out rider. Mando sneaks up on him and discovers it is the pilot he shot down earlier. As he is checking it out he begins taking sniper fire from their target. They decide to wait her out until night and head towards her position.
After Mando is knocked off his speeder and taken out Toro takes her on and buys enough time for Mando to capture her. Without enough speeders Mando has to leave them to try and get that Dewback they encountered earlier. While gone Fennec talks Toro into betraying Mando because of the possibility of getting the Mando that is on the run from the guild with a child. Instead of letting her go he shoots her right in the gut with his blaster. He decides he can take on the Mando by himself. Mando returns to find Fennec’s body and heads back to town where he finds the speeder bike outside his hanger. Toro has the child and the dock lady. With some help from the dock lady he takes him out and they retrieve Yodes. Mando pays the lady and heads out on his way, but before the credits roll we see some figure walking up on Fennec’s body.
Little bit of a filler episode this week but with only 4 episodes left this seemed like the calm before the storm. Some great shots on Tatooine and seeing the familiar sights and sounds along with an excellent score as they crossed the Dune Sea made the episode enjoyable but there wasn’t much to push along the greater story at hand. Still not a bad hour of television and can’t wait till next week. Till then keep your fobs close and remember This is the way.
Also its complete bull crap that the adorable 12” Baby Yoda doll on pre-order won’t be out until MAY. Unacceptable!
Observations
- Thought the other Bounty Hunter was a Naboo Fighter for a bit.
- Yoda all strapped in his seat is hilarious.
- Line of the episode came early with the “That’s my line”.
- When is the Mando in full armor figure coming out?
- Tatooine!!! It was only a matter of time.
- Mando hates droids.
- Trooper helmets on a pike was nice touch.
- Love the aliens in the diner. The kinda cheesy insect types reminds me of that first time Obi-Wan and Luke entered the Cantina in A New Hope.
- Mando’s armor is slowly starting to wear as the show goes on. Cool detail.
- The music on Tatooine is similar to the music in A New Hope.
- Mando the bounty coach.
- Finally we get Ming-Na Wen in the series!
- First time I think we saw the first person view through the visor.
- “No good to us dead” line
- Well not much for Na Wen’s character.
- We got Dune Sea, Beggars Canyon, Mos Eisley, Dewbacks and Sand People. Easter egg heavy episode.
- Maybe not all for Na Wen’s character.
Predictions
- Not a ton of new info to go off of but doesn’t seem like last we will see of Fennec and I’m gonna assume that was Carl Weathers character walking up on her.
- This episode was a bit of a breather before we head into the final stretch. The penultimate episode coming up is being moved to Wednesday to tie in with The Rise of Skywalker so next week will set up that episode and pick things up to the finale.
