The Mandalorian: Episode 5 Review

All galactic roads, it seems, lead to Tatooine. The Mandalorian has, up until now, traded on nods and winks to the wider Star Wars universe, but shown restraint in letting that reference material take up too much of the limelight. This is very much presented as its own story, with showrunner Jon Favreau seemingly more keen on it creating new iconic characters, settings and images than simply reusing old ones. And then we got ‘The Gunslinger’.In the course of 36 minutes we were reintroduced to the home of Anakin and Luke Skywalker by way of Mos Eisley, its cantina, Tusken Raiders, even repurposed podracing pit droids. It’s as though Mando had John Wayne-walked his way into the old days, rather than take more steps into his future. As much as it might please some, I’m not sure it quite works for this show as a whole.This, presumably, has something to do with the episode’s director. Dave Filoni (of Clone Wars and Rebels fame) has made a career in tying disparate chunks of Star Wars ephemera together, and he doesn’t seem to want to stop now. Images and quotes from other Star Wars movies and TV shows appear in every other scene, a constant reminder that, yes, Mando is in the same place as someone else you once saw. It feels oddly unconfident when compared to other episodes – the meat of ‘The Gunslinger’s plot could have worked in any other setting (it’s not as if anything we see hinges on the Hutts, the Sarlacc Pit or some economic downturn in moisture farming) so to set it on Tatooine is seemingly just a way of scoring some extra reference points.

Of course, none of that focus on the past would matter all that much if that plot-meat was incredibly compelling, showed us where this escape from the Bounty Hunters’ Guild was headed, helped us understand Mando a bit better, or even showed us a new facet to Baby Yoda’s untapped power. But it didn’t. It was another bounty job, with a shockingly unshocking twist, and some quite nice mumsy bits with the always-pleasant Amy Sedaris. It was absolutely fine, and nothing more than that. Presumably, that final, mysterious shot of a crouching, black-booted menace will help make sense of exactly why any of this needed to happen in a plot sense, but I doubt it will retroactively make watching the episode any better.

The Mandalorian Concept Art

It’s proof, if we needed it, that the core to everything The Mandalorian succeeds in lies in that title character, his increasingly clear moral code, and his burgeoning understanding of frog fatherhood (speaking of which, why the hell would he leave his constantly escaping child in an open ship in the galaxy’s premier hive of scum and villainy? What a bizarre choice). It’s not a coincidence that, as soon as Mando and Baby Yoda aren’t onscreen, this doesn’t feel like anywhere near as exciting an adventure.

Jake Cannavale’s Toro is an absolutely transparent character – it’s clear from his opening scene what arc he’ll take and, as such, he’s never allowed to be more than someone who asks questions, smirks and occasionally adjusts his jacket a bit. His betrayal of Mando feels like an inevitability rather than an injustice, and his death is disposable, just an event to help the bounty hunter take off once again. I’m not sure this is Cannavale’s fault – the concept art behind the credits seems to show that they envisaged this role for Orlando Bloom, but I don’t know what anyone could have done elevate it, really.

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Ming-Na Wen’s Fennec Shand is treated similarly, a plot point in human form, gone before we can begin to care about her backstory or future. She does, at least, make for an excellent Dune Sea sniper, and allows for the episode’s best sequence. I’m a huge fan of how forensically The Mandalorian shows us the pragmatism of bounty hunting. Sniper got the high ground? You don’t charge her for a rote blaster shoot-out – you wait until nightfall, ride as fast as you can to the next bit of cover, blind her scope, and sneak up on her. This show continues to present us with very different kinds of Star Wars action scene, and I’m all for that continuing.

source: ign.com