The Mandalorian recap: Mando touches down on an iconic Star Wars location
There’s no rest for the weary… and apparently Mandalorians on the run with a very valuable asset. Every bounty hunter in the galaxy seems to have the Baby Yoda fob and they’re all after Mando and his charge. One manages to corner them in space, viciously trying to take the pair down. However, he makes the mistake of using Mando’s tagline — ”I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold” — which means he’s gotta go, stat. After some quick maneuvering with the Razer Crest, Mando’s able to blast the opposing ship up, but having sustained heavy damage to his own ship, the bounty hunter is forced to land on the nearby planet of Tatooine — yep, that Tatooine — for repairs.
In desperate need of repair, Mando lands the Razer Crest at a repair shop and almost immediately comes to blows with the mechanic, Peli Motto (a surprise appearance from Amy Sedaris), after her pit droids get a little too close to the ship. After the testy exchange, in which Mando is painfully obvious about having something secret inside the ship, the bounty hunter takes off.
As Mando hasn’t found adequate childcare since leaving Winta on Sorgan, he tucks the sleeping Baby Yoda safely inside the ship. However, the child has repeatedly demonstrated an inability to stay put — and this time is no different. Baby Yoda waddles out of the ship, interrupting Peli and the pit droids’ game of space poker. The shocked mechanic decides to keep an eye on Baby Yoda while Mando’s away, planning to double Mando’s bill with an added babysitting fee. Are her methods a little dubious? Yes, but at least someone is finally looking out for Baby Yoda.
Meanwhile, Mando heads off in search of work — non-Guild, obviously — at the now-empty Mos Eisley Cantina, where the droid behind the bar tells him there’s no bounty work on Tatooine. However, another bounty hunter, Toro Callican (Jake Cannavale), calls Mando over, offering him a job. He reveals a puck containing a bounty on Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen), an elite mercenary. Mando is clearly aware of her reputation, flatly rejecting the proposal. Toro’s swaggering facade fades quickly and he reveals the Fennec Shand bounty is his first and is his key to getting into the Guild. As he only needs the credit, he offers Mando all of the reward money — and the bounty hunter, with a massive mechanic bill on the way, accepts.
Back at the ship, Mando panics when Baby Yoda isn’t in his hiding spot. Confronting the bounty hunter, Peli confronts Mando with some hard truths about his sub-par parenting skills. Mando seems somewhat grateful for her help with the repairs — which she is doing sans-droid, his per request — and babysitting before taking off with Toro.[/caption]
While Toro clearly fashions himself to be something of a swashbuckling hero, it doesn’t take Mando long to see how much of a foolish, green bounty hunter he actually is. Mando quickly takes charge, leading passage the negotiations with Tuskan Raiders and coordinating the plan to take on Fennec, who ambushes them as Mando investigates a dead hunter still attached to his dewback. The pair decide to attack at sundown, as the mercenary will be waiting for them to make the first move.
While Mando rests in anticipation, Toro keeps watch — also practicing drawing his blaster, channeling his inner (space) western movie star. After sundown, the pair set their plan in motion, taking off on their speedsters towards Fennec, racing as fast as they can and using flare blasters to disrupt visibility. One of the flares disengages poorly and Fennec shoots Mando off his speeder. She fires a second shot straight at his chest but his Beskar armor prevents certain death. Before she can fire her killshot at the him, Toro appears behind her, ready for a fight. Unfortunately, the young bounty hunter is no match for the experienced mercenary and she easily disarms him and they engage in combat. As she’s about to kill him, Mando swoops in and Fennec surrenders.
While Mando seeks to keep watch over their captive while Toro retrieves the dewback, Toro refuses — this is technically his mission. Relenting, Mando leaves the pair and Fennec immediately attempts to talk her way to freedom. First, she goads the young hunter, suggesting Mando’s the one actually calling the shots, which tricks him into admitting that he needs her capture to become a member of the Guild. Sensing an opening, she tells him he has something valuable in his grasp — he just doesn’t know it yet. She regales the events from Nevarro — a.k.a. Mando’s bounty hunter shootout — and claims if he turns in Mando, he’ll be a legend. She offers her assistance in taking Mando down but instead of uncuffing her, Toro shoots her, surmising she’d do the same to him if he’d freed her.
Mando returns on the dewback to found Fennec’s body. Realizing Toro has double-crossed him, the bounty hunter heads to the mechanic shop where Toro is holding Peli and Baby Yoda hostage. Mando appears to surrender but fires the last flare, distracting Toro long enough to retrieve his blaster and kill the foolish young bounty hunter. Mando steals Toro’s credits and gives them to Peli as payment for her services, interrupting her adorable comforting of Baby Yoda. It seems this is the last we’ll be seeing of Sedaris in Star Wars but at the very least, we hope Mando’s going to be a tiny bit more careful with his young charge from now on — especially given the number of people after them.
While Mando and Baby Yoda head back into the galaxy, back in the Tatooine desert, footsteps approach Fennec’s body. Is Fennec actually dead? Whose feet are those? My guess is Giancarlo Esposito’s Moff Gideon, who has still yet to make an appearance.
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