Coming off of last week’s excellent standalone episode, The Mandalorian Chapter 11 ‘The Heiress’ brought us back to the main storyline of the season. We open on the Razor Crest limping to Trask, and with several tense moments coming back through the atmosphere, the Crest makes a … non-traditional landing.
This episode has great balance between small character moments and big action pieces, while managing to squeeze quite a bit into its sub-hour runtime. Mando quickly establishes his presence and purpose, and is introduced to the right characters to continue his mission of returning The Child. There are some happy moments, as the Frog Lady is reunited with her frog partner, with most of her eggs intact. This scene, while merely a loose end, gives the props department their time to shine. The physical acting, combined with the expressions and sounds of the frog people, inject quite a bit of humanity into the action. The music in this episode was also incredible, and felt huge in a Pirates of the Caribbean way.
Booking passage, Mando finds himself betrayed almost immediately, which allows for the introduction of a group of blue-tinted Mandalorians led by Bo Kataan (Katee Sackhoff, Battlestar Galactica) and for the inclusion of some larger bits of Star Wars lore. It seems Mandalore has multiple sects and beliefs with regards to armor and its traditions, and resolves the plothole created by Mando’s refusal to take his helmet off.
The final set-piece of the episode is absolutely its highlight as well. Riding the perfect line between realistic combat with video game sensibilities, the group of Mandalorians find themselves attempting to steal weapons from an Imperial freighter while facing ever stronger waves of Stormtroopers as they move towards the cockpit. I won’t spoil much in this, because the ending is worth a re-watch for fans of action films and Star Wars video games, as well as people who love to watch a little bit of Imperial buffoonery.
This episode, along with most others, is bursting open with easter eggs. Imperial control panels, ANH style personal communicators, and the retro-future equipment scattered across the universe. Fans of Apollo 13 will also notice episode director Bryce Dallas Howard’s nod to her father, director of Apollo 13 Ron Howard, during the Razor Crest’s re-entry scene. Seemingly, Season 2 of The Madalorian can succeed whether it does a standalone or plot heavy episode, and this week’s installment shows how the series is at its best when it leans into the theme of the episode.
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