Let’s all be honest with ourselves for a moment — last week’s episode of The Mandalorian wasn’t good. Was it bad? No, not at all. The effects were wonderful. Pedro Pascal was as captivating as ever. Baby Yoda is still stinking cute. The action was fun. Yet, the episode felt like the tires were spinning. It felt like they were reaching to get Mando on Tatooine and make some deep cut Star Wars references. The supporting cast (Jake Cannavale, Ming Na Wen, Amy Sedaris) were wasted on characters not even remotely fleshed out. In short, ‘The Gunslinger’ was utterly forgettable.
The Mandalorian Episode 6, ‘The Prisoner’ not only absolved the sins of the previous week, but it might be the most fun episode of the series to date.
The premise plays on the Western archetype of our hero joining a motley crew of rogues, murderers, and thieves on a potential suicide mission with a big pay-out. The built-in suspense of this story is simple yet effective. Can our hero trust his team? Given how Mando is a wanted man, he’s carrying precious cargo (Baby Yoda), and he’s got long simmering beef with the team the man putting them together (Mark Boone Jr. of Sons of Anarchy fame) — the suspense is palpable.
The team surrounding Mando in the episode is just a staggering collection of talented actors — comedian Bill Burr as the gunslinger Mayfeld, Natalia Tena (best known as Tonks in Harry Potter and Osha in Game of Thrones) as Mando’s knife-wielding former flame Xi’an, comedian Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd) as the voice of Q9-10, and Clancy Brown (Shawkshank Redemption, Highlander) as the demon-like tank Burg.
The quality of the cast bolsters the rough outlines of the characters presented with at the beginning of the episode. Each cast members not only adds their own element of danger to Mando’s world, but they are combustible elements onto themselves. You question their motives at all times — in particular Mayfeld and Xi’an. Xi’an constantly walks the line of spurned murderous lover, and someone still holding a torch for a lost love. At any moment you could see her helping Mando, or cutting his throat. Mayfeld is a fast-talking Boston-accented gunslinger who, while coming off as mostly a piece of garbage, has this quality to him where you think that just maybe there’s some good in him.
The Mandalorian Episode 6 also brings out new shades of our two lead characters, something Episode 5 did not do in the least. For Baby Yoda, we learn that he is still in fact, well…a baby. Despite being able to use the force to stomp the beast in Episode 2, he’s not developed enough to stop Q9-10 from potentially being harming him. He still desperately needs Mando’s help.
As for our helmeted hero, we his duality as a warrior. When it comes to the droids on the prison ship, he destroys them with a brilliant, violent swagger. Yet, when it comes to the pilot of the ship, he refuses to let Mayfeld kill him. His loyalty to Baby Yoda, his respect for the innocent, and his willingness to lay his life down for a guy who is threatening to call the calvary on him, shows complexity to this character, and it makes you want to know more about it him, and continue to root harder for him.
‘The Prisoner’ is a tense, yet super fun chapter in The Mandalorian’s superb first season. The blend of an amazing cast, strong character development, dynamite action, and story that continues weaving the Star Wars Universe, and the Wild West together made for an absolute blast of an episode. Can’t wait for next Friday.
The Mandalorian Episode 6, ‘The Prisoner’ is now streaming on Disney Plus.
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