This episode picks up from “The Marshall” on Tatooine, it seems like the base setting of the show from Nevarro which was the setting of season one. Could there be a Battle of Tatooine at the finale? There was such a battle in the video games having Rebels battling stormtroopers in Mos Eisley, but that took place in the gaps of the film. The episode is directed by Peyton Reed who also directed Ant Man and the Wasp (2018) and Bring It On (2000). The episode opens with a sand flat and some mountains under the twin suns of Tatooine. Mando is riding the speeder bike with the Fett armor on one side and Baby Yoda in a sack on the other. A Nikto is hammering a trap with other mercenaries. The speeder bike sound effect is right out of Return of the Jedi (1983), not the growling motorbike sound from last episode, but it is going full speed. They set the rope trap in a narrow canyon of rock, it tosses Baby Yoda, and Mando uses his rocket pack to land. The speeder bike tumbles and explodes.
He gets into hand to hand combat while a small alien with a mechanical jaw and binocular eyes runs, I think he’s an alien that we saw on Jakku in Force Awakens (2015). He goes to unwrap a long rifle. Mando takes down the mercenaries. Then, the alien has a knife to Baby Yoda. Mando tries to negotiate and takes off his rocket pack. The alien sets down Baby Yoda and then runs off with the rocket pack. You should know that Mando would never let his rocket pack go. He uses his wrist control to send the rocket pack into the sky. Then, we have some perfect Western music by Ludwig Göransson as Mando walks through the desert heat with a metal bar carrying Fett armor, rocket packs, his rifle on his back, and Baby Yoda in a sack on his torso. He enters the cantina, the same one visited by Han Solo and Chewbacca, to see Peli Motto playing sabaac with a massive insectoid creature called Dr. Mandible. It looks like a slimy, brown ant with jaws and glowing orange eyes. Mando explains how he got the armor, Dr. Mandible chitters, and Peli explains that he knows a contact if Mando covers his bet.
He hands over the credits and Peli slams down her cards and says it’s an Idiot’s Array. It looks like the droid from Return of the Jedi, EV-9D9, is working at the bar. Peli says that the contact will be at the hangar and knows where there is Mandalorians. Mando has a hunk of Krayt Dragon meat that sizzles in front of Baby Yoda at the hangar. It is being cooked by a Podracer engine like in Ronto Roasters in Galaxy’s Edge and watched over by a WED-15 Treadwell droid that we saw in Star Wars (1977). We probably get the most of Star Wars culture from Peli Motto. She explains that a Mandalorian covert is in the sector, Arkanis which includes a number of systems, one of which is Geonosis, but most likely the Mandalorians won’t be there. Peli says the cost of the information is taking on a passenger to the next sector. He has to travel without hyperdrive. Then we have the arrival of the alien mother, named Frog Lady, is played by Misty Rosas who also played Kuiil in the first season of The Mandalorian. She is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, a well known voice actor, who voiced the clone troopers in Star Wars: Clone Wars. Frogs are usually bright pink, her black globe eyes look more like a pink iguana.
She carries on her back a container of blue liquid and what Peli says is her “spawn”, very cool to see a human Star Wars character speak in an alien language, kudos to Amy Sedaris. I think CGI is used for the alien’s eye blinks and mouth movement when speaking. Peli goes on to say that hyperspace will destroy the eggs and that they have to reach her husband on the moon of Trask. She vouches for the alien and admits she only met her ten minutes ago! Peli is quickly becoming a favorite character. On the flight, Mando tries to communicate with the alien, but she only speaks in croaks. In the hold, Baby Yoda spots the canister of alien spawn, I’m not exactly certain why the mother would leave the canister out of her sight. Mando tells Frog Lady that he has set coordinates and goes to the hold only to see Baby Yoda reaches in the canister for the spawn to snack on it! Mando takes Baby Yoda to his bunk and later is wakened by an alarm! Two X-Wings flank the Razor Crest, the pilots including Captain Carson Teva (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) and Trapper Wolf played by Dave Filoni. Lee is in the comedy show, Kim’s Convenience, and was in the Robocop (2014) reboot. Filoni played Wolf in “Chapter 6: The Prisoner” (2019). They check on Razor Crest since there is no transponder, the New Republic requires a beacon from ships.
The S-foils on the X-Wings start to deploy! Captain Treva asks if the ship was at the incident with the prison ship, Bothan-Five, and Mando sets the ship plunging to the planet! He starts weaving through the icy canyons which makes me think of Star Tours. Mando slides the Razorcrest into a icy overhang and the X-Wings pass them by, but the ice floor collapses! He goes to the hold and finds a breach in the hull. Mando finds Baby Yoda eating the eggs! Mando is startled awake by the voice of Zero, the head of the protocol droid from the sixth episode. He was voiced again by Richard Ayoade. Frog Lady uses the droid to translate. Clever. Wires spark and the ship looks heavily damaged, but Mando begins repairs. Baby Yoda tries to get Mando’s attention and points out the Frog Lady’s path. They find her in a hot springs pool with her eggs. Mando and Frog Lady start to gather up the eggs for the canister. Baby Yoda cracks a pod-like egg and starts snacking on the beastie inside. When others start to break from their eggs, I recognized that they were Krykna, spiders that were designed by Ralph McQuarrie for a creature on Dagobah. They are recognizable from their pod-like abdomen. In canon, they are actually native to Atollon and first appeared in the Star Wars: Rebels episode, “The Mystery of Chopper Base” (2016). The snowy white spider coming out of the egg and swarming is something out of Aliens (1986). “The Passenger” is primarily a horror story with the threat of the Krykna and Baby Yoda snacking on the mother’s eggs.
Four Bars of Beskar Steel out of Five!
#TheMandalorian, #ThePassenger, #MistyRosas, #PaulSunHuungLee, #DaveFiloni
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