‘The Mandalorian’: Spiders Are Terrifying, No Matter What Galaxy You’re From (RECAP)
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This Is the Way
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[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 2, “The Passenger.”]
There’s not much plot progression in this week’s The Mandalorian, but there is plenty of Baby Yoda antics—and a claustrophobic scene involving spider-aliens called Krykna. If you’re not a fan of the crawly creatures, perhaps it’s best to watch with the lights on.
A mysterious, frog-looking creature claims to be the last of its kind—and it also claims it can get Mando (Pedro Pascal) to other Mandalorians. That’s his whole goal, so he accepts the deal Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris) proposes. But of course, the journey is far from smooth, and Mando meets a monster even he can’t defeat.
Let’s Make a Deal!
Mando and Baby Yoda are ambushed on their way back to town; their speeder bike is destroyed, meaning they have to walk all the way back (bummer).
The real meat of the episode, though, deals with Mando’s transportation of a frog-looking creature to a system where it says there are Mandalorians. Of course, the journey is far from smooth. He doesn’t speak the creature’s language, which makes communication impossible. On the way, Mando encounters a couple of New Republic officers, who eventually realize he was part of the Balkan-5 attempted prison break.
In their X-Wings, they go after him in an attempt to bring him in. He manages to evade them with some smart flying through a canyon, but he couldn’t have predicted the thinness of the layer on which they landed. They crash through, and the Razor Crest is severely damaged. (Oh, and Baby Yoda has consumed several of the creature’s eggs, which, obviously, doesn’t sit well with her).
Stories For Children
The creature manages to rig the droid from the Balkan-5 mission so that she can talk to Mando. She begs him to hold to his word, saying that that’s part of the Mandalorian code. “Or were those just stories for children?” she asks. Clearly feeling guilty, Mando sets to work on the Razor Crest… only to find, thanks to Baby Yoda, that the creature has wandered off into the frosty canyon.
She’s found a hot spring and settled down inside, but what she doesn’t know is that there’s a whole bunch of Krykna (terrifying spider alien) eggs laid all around it. Those eggs start to hatch, and of course, mama’s not far away. Pursued by the giant monster and its hundreds of newly hatched babies, Mando, Baby Yoda and the creature have to run back to the Razor Crest as the cavern collapses around them.
Thanks, X-Wing Pilots
This results in a nightmare-worthy, claustrophobic sequence in which the Krykna babies are scuttling through every inch of the ship, aside from the cockpit. They think they’re okay and start to take off, only to be slammed back to the ground by the parent Krykna. No one quite knows what to do, but then they’re saved by the two X-Wing pilots from earlier in the episode, who kill the monster and its babies scuttling outside the ship.
They tell Mando he should be under arrest, but they also recognize he apprehended three risked his life for Lt. Daven (remember the officer from the prison ship episode?). Mando asks if they’re going to bring him in, and one says, “Technically, you should be. But these are trying times.” They let him go, and Mando and his team get off the planet, the worse-for-the-wear Razor Crest still holding together to get them where they need to go.
Other Observations
- Okay, I’ll say it. This episode was stunning visually (and I’m going to have nightmares about those spider monsters), but overall, it felt a bit like filler. The plot didn’t move forward much here, and as far as I could tell, there weren’t any nods to the story for the rest of the series unless those X-Wing pilots come back. I’d really like to know what’s going on with Cara (Gina Carano), Greef (Carl Weathers) or even Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito).
- I have to wonder if this creature is leading Mando into a trap. It seems odd that the deal came through a gambling alien rather than the creature herself, and Motto did admit she only met the gal ten minutes earlier. I hope Mando gets to reunite with more of his kind (Bo-Katan, maybe?!), but I could also see this being a trick.
- At first, I was thinking that might’ve been a wampa cave, but this was so much worse. So, so much worse. I was worried about Baby Yoda eating that egg, but it seems I fretted for nothing; the little womp rat is just fine, and he’s continuing to eat the frog-creature’s eggs at the end of the episode.
- Assuming this creature’s story checks out, I can appreciate the poetry in Mando transporting another creature who seems to be one of the last of an incredibly rare species.
- Rating: 4/5. The visual effects here are incredible, and as always, the music is stellar. I just wish there was more movement in the plot, since last week’s episode (as awesome as it was) was largely stagnant on that front, too. Here’s hoping episode 3 kicks things into gear.
The Mandalorian, Fridays, Disney+
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