The Mandalorian: Season 2, Episode 2 'The Passenger' Recap and Review
Episode 2 improves on the season by providing a tasty start to the larger story-arc
My main criticism with Episode 1 was that there was very little connection to the greater overarching story built in season one. Episode 2 manages to be more of the same but offers more than just the one-off, the flavor of the week, vibe. Directed by Peyton Reed of Marvel’s Ant-Man, this episode gives absolutely no connection to the greater story, even Episode 1 managed to pull a rather large teaser out of its back pocket at the last second. Instead, Reed gives us part one of a multi-episode arc involving a mysterious Passenger and her precious and most likely delicious cargo as well as a trigger for any viewers with arachnophobia.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
Picking up exactly where we left off, Din and the Child are speeding through the desert of Tatooine, fresh off the slaying of a Krayt Dragon. They are ambushed by a group of non-specific scavengers who, like most others, are no match for the Mandalorian. But the ambush leaves the two without a speeder bike, and after a short trek through the desert, he returns to Peli Motto, (Amy Sedaris). Peli immediately and suspiciously has another lead on a Mandalorian through a new contact, but in exchange for the lead, Din must transport the contact and their cargo to the nearby system of Trask. The Passenger is an alien with a striking resemblance to an Earth Gecko and the cargo is a clutch of her eggs which the Child finds rather tasty. After filling their bellies with dragon meat, they head out. The simple task is complicated by the caveat that they cannot use hyper-speed and is further complicated by the arrival of two New Republic X-Wings. Out of sheer mistrust of authority, Din flees from the X-Wings which chase him into a crash landing on a nearby ice planet. Din, the Child, and the Passenger are now stranded in an ice cave, but they are not alone. The Child, after being told not to eat the precious Gecko eggs, finds a new group of eggs to munch on. In fact, the Child finds a whole cave full of these new foreboding eggs, what could go wrong? Alien spiders, that’s what can go wrong. In a chase sequence reminiscent of the movie ‘Eight Legged Freaks’, the group runs for their lives from a hoard of alien spiders and their massive queen. Pinned down in the ship, Din and company are saved by ‘Deus Ex-Wings’, when the two pilots cut down the hoard with blaster fire. After saving them, the pilots merely fly away, their reasoning being that they heard of Din’s past heroics and have better stuff to do. With a little elbow-grease, Din manages to fix the ship just enough to leave the nondescript ice planet and continue their journey to Trask.
If Episode 1 was a side-quest, then Episode 2 is a pit-stop. The problem with Episode 1 was that Din and the Child were in the exact same situation they were in at the end of the episode as the beginning. Episode 2 manages to escape that by only giving us half of the story. But there is more to the episode than meets the eye. Even though the first Mandalorian lead was just to a town Marshal wearing Boba Fett’s old armor, it was still a semi-accurate lead. The Passenger promised that her husband has seen a Mandalorian and truly there is no reason to not believe her. And among the famous Mandalorians that could appear in this season, there are two that could lead directly to Rosario Dawson’s Ashoka Tano. One being Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan Kryze from the Star Wars: Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels series’ and the other being Sabine Wren, who is not confirmed by the show but is who I believe WWE superstar Sasha Banks will be playing once she appears on the show. So while this episode doesn’t seem to be leading to more of the series’ story, this could be the very beginning of the season arc for our hero Din Djarin.
Episode 2 did more for me than Episode 1 because it felt at least a little different. The alien spider cave was a nice creepy-crawly addition to the normal kill a big thing formula and the story felt more like the beginning of something rather than a one-off. But even though this episode could be the first push towards the larger story it did have some drawbacks. The weight of the Passenger’s journey was her needing to transport her eggs to another planet so they can be fertilized and her bloodline can continue on. A very powerful and important purpose that was undercut by the Child’s constant snacking on the all-important eggs. While the Child’s antics are cute, they make the journey feel less important and cause the stakes of the episode and journey to feel almost trivial. So while ‘The Passenger’ is an improvement on the season, we are still waiting on that big story changing moment that we were given so early on in season one with the reveal of ‘The Child’.