Well, that was quite the bait and switch with a classic Star Wars character – only to throw in a literal last second twist. But I’ll get to that later on in the review. Welcome back to our weekly reviews of The Mandalorian! While I didn’t love the first season, I have higher hopes for season two, now that the show has hopefully tipped its hand as to what its central arc will be. Which is why I found parts of “The Marshal” engaging and far more parts totally frustrating and disappointing.
When we last left Mando, he had managed to survive the shoot-out at the space corral, besting Moff Gideon and his Storm Trooper strike force, whisking away The Child to head off on a quest to bring him back to his people. But Moff Gideon is in possession of the Darksaber and isn’t the type of villain to just let Mando disappear into the mist. While our presumed Big Bad was AWOL during this episode (Giancarlo Esposito is a series regular on Better Call Saul, which means his availability for The Mandalorian is subject to the demands of his Saul shooting schedule), we once again got to watch Mando and The Child embark on a one-and-done mission to Tatooine.
Now, I certainly don’t mind a fun episodic diversion from a series arc. They introduce us to new and interesting characters, they give us a break from hitting some of the same narrative beats, and they, hopefully, give us a bit more to learn about our central characters. And “The Marshal” checked a couple of these boxes. First, we got to meet the delightful Cobb Vanth (Timothy Olyphant, Hollywood’s go-to cowboy of the 21st century who elevates everything he appears in because he’s just so damn good). In fact, Vanth was so delightful I found myself hoping against hope that we could ditch Mando and just follow Vanth around for the rest of the series. No such luck, I’m afraid. We’re stuck with dreary, boring Mando. As for avoiding the same narrative beats, well, we haven’t seen Mando hunt for a Krayt Dragon before! But we have seen him show up on a planet to do a specific thing, get enmeshed in a quest to help the inhabitants, and fail to achieve his initial goal. So, a mixed bag on that box. As for getting to know more about Mando? Yeah, still a two-dimensional character whose greatest strength is acting as the straight man while a more interesting guest star steals the show. Which is fine, but again, if the series wants us to invest in Mando as a character, he needs to be more than he currently is.
The failings in character development with Mando are all the more glaring when he’s paired up with a charismatic foil like Vanth. Yes, I know Mando is supposed to be measured and focused. I get that. And yes, I do think having Pedro Pascal providing the voice but rarely the physical presence of Mando hurts the character (it’s hard to create a coherent character when the voice is forced to match foreign movements and vice versa). But boy, were all the problems with Mando fully on display this episode. The rather paint-by-numbers storyline also didn’t help matters. We’ve all seen this tale before: a group bands together to kill a giant monster that is threatening their existence. And then the hero has to go into the belly of the beast to kill it? Yup, seen this one several times before. Combining a lack of continuity with the end of season one and Mando’s lack of character development, you end up with a pretty dull hour of television*.
*Unlike in season one, where most episodes clocked in at 30-40 minutes, “The Marshal” was nearly an hour long. And boy did it feel like it.
Now, for the fun bits that worked. I’ll admit to thinking, “Huh, so all the Boba Fett teases over the past year were just for the armor that Vanth wears. Cool, but still disappointing,” throughout most of the episode. And then came the final moments. Well, well, well, Jon Favreau. Look at you tucking in a twist like a pro. In case you didn’t recognize him, the man watching Mando ride away with the Boba Fett armor was actor Temuera Morrison, aka Jango Fett. Now, if you have suffered through the Star Wars prequels, you’ll know that Jango was the base for the Mandalorian clones (of which Boba was one as well). So, if you do the math, Boba would look just like Jango, which means that was most likely Boba Fett* watching Mando drive off with his Mandalorian armor.
*Could it be a different Mandalorian clone? Sure, but where’s the fun in that? Yeah, Boba Fett could have actually died in the Sarlacc Pitt and a clone could be on the planet just hanging out (Mando’s source did tell him that a Mandalorian was on Tatooine, which we now know was in fact the truth, no matter who the clone turns out to be), but I have a hard time believing Favreau would go to all of this trouble to pull another bait and switch. I continue to have issues with the show’s writing, but that would be such incredibly awful writing it might turn me off the series completely.
What does that mean for the future of The Mandalorian? Well, you can’t tease Boba Fett and then just drop him. But, on the other hand, the series already has Moff Gideon hunting Mando down. Does it really need another person trying to catch up to Mando? Ideally, Boba Fett would retrieve his armor and team up with Mando for a stretch, perhaps helping him find his way back to the Mandalorian underground network he’s looking for. An arc like that would get Mando back on track and allow Boba Fett to spin-off into his own story, should Disney wish it. But I hope against hope that this doesn’t just become a redux of season one, with folks trying to hunt Mando for a variety of reasons while he tries to keep The Child safe. We’ve already seen that show. Time to show us some new tricks in season two.
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