The Mandalorian 1×2 Review: Chapter Two

At this point it’s hard to talk about anything related to The Mandalorian without touching on major spoilers, so hurry and catch up! Chapter two was incredible and you don’t want to fall behind.

Chapter two continued to take us down the surprising and unexpected path that chapter one left for us.  I expected a series about a Mandalorian to be action-packed, and brutal, but perhaps lacking the emotional impact due to the warrior nature of Mandalorians in general. What we’re getting instead is a Lone Wolf and Cub style adventure featuring lots of adorably soft moments that leaves us in an emotional puddle on the floor.

I did not see this coming.

We now dub the protagonist as the “Dadalorian.” He’s a papa now whether he likes it or not. We can already see that he’s developing an emotional attachment to this baby Yoda creature (yes, he’s not actually Yoda, but we don’t know the name of his species yet), so he’s likely going to have a difficult time handing the child over for the bounty. It’s basically a countdown until he absconds with the kid. It’s going to happen.

We don’t know anything about this species, but it’s clear at this point that being force sensitive is a genetic trait. With most species, it seems that force sensitivity is somewhat rare, but we are two-for-two here (or three-for-three if you remember Yaddle at all, but unfortunately she’s fairly easy to forget). We may end up getting some new lore about the species out of this series, and perhaps even a name. Right now we are simply calling them ‘baby Yoda,’ but that’s clearly inaccurate.

I’m continually impressed with how much Pedro Pascal is able to emote from underneath that helmet. This series is a true test of his acting prowess. We get to see how much of our enjoyment of him is due to his aesthetically pleasing face or his acting talent. The good news is that he’s incredibly talented, so even while his face is hidden away we’re able to glean a great deal about his character. I’m so incredibly happy he’s moved up from being an extra on Buffy that gets staked in one episode to the leading man of a Star Wars series. You deserve the world, Pedro. Good job!

My only complaint about this series so far is the episode length. With Chapter One at just 39 minutes and Chapter Two at 32, they feel incredibly short. These first two episodes could have been combined into one slightly long episode. 

On the flip side, the first episode ended on an incredibly dramatic note, and both of these episodes have been tightly paced with little filler, so perhaps Disney knows what they’re doing here. Having the series be set up for streaming instead of broadcast means they don’t necessarily have to stick to traditional episode lengths, so they can tell us exactly what they want to tell us without restriction.

My frustration with short episodes basically boils down to the fact that I’m enjoying The Mandalorian so much and want more. Like right now.

Author: Angel Wilson

Angel is the admin of The Geekiary and a geek culture commentator. They earned a BA in Film & Digital Media from UC Santa Cruz. They have contributed to various podcasts and webcasts including An Englishman in San Diego, Free to Be Radio, and Genre TV for All. They identify as queer.

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