Article contributed by Kate Rhoton
This recap contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 1 “Chapter 9: The Marshal”.
It’s finally time. After almost a year of no new Mando and Baby Yoda adventures, our favourite surrogate father/son duo are back. Last season of The Mandalorian left off with Mando vowing to traverse the galaxy in order to return Baby Yoda (aka “the Child”, but who really calls him that outside of the characters in the show?) to his kind. There was also a nice little cliffhanger where Moff Gideon, seemingly the biggest threat to Mando and Baby Yoda who was thought to be dead after he was involved in a nasty TIE fighter crash, escaped from said TIE fighter very much alive and wielding the Darksaber, a legendary Mandalorian weapon. This sets us up for season two, where it’s expected that we’ll follow Mando in his attempts to return Baby Yoda to his kind while also avoiding the wrath of Moff Gideon and hopefully meeting some new, yet perhaps familiar, characters along the way.
So What Happened in This Episode?
Episode one of Season 2, aka “Chapter 9: The Marshal”, opens with Mando (Pedro Pascal) and Baby Yoda venturing out into the Outer Rim in search of more Mandalorians who may be able to help return Baby Yoda to his kind. Mando ends up at a ring fight where he confronts Gor Koresh (John Leguizamo), a criminal who Mando thinks can tell him where to find another Mandalorian. After a failed attempt by Gor and his henchmen to kill Mando and still his Beskar armour, Mando gets a hint from Gor that there may be a Mandalorian operating on Tatooine, in a town called Mos Pelgo.
Next stop for Mando and Baby Yoda is, naturally, Tatooine. Here the duo are reunited with mechanic Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris) who has a wholly relatable reaction to seeing Baby Yoda again, including an I’m-joking-but-not-really attempt to buy the Child from Mando. Peli then lends Mando a speeder so he can head to Mos Pelgo in search of the Mandalorian. He (rather quickly) locates the man Gor Koresh was referring to, although the man Mando finds isn’t really a Mandalorian, but a man wearing stolen Mandalorian armour. This man is named Cobb Vanth (Timothy Olphant), and he’s the titular Marshal who looks out for the citizens of Mos Pelgo. Mando is clearly incensed at the sight of a non-Mandalorian wearing this armour, but before things can come to blows between the two, an intense rumbling interrupts their standoff.
The two then run outside and we get a glimpse at what’s causing the pseudo-earthquake: a giant Dune-esque sandworm-looking thing, which we learn is actually a krayt dragon, is plowing through the town. We then get a flashback where Cobb explains how Mos Pelgo was attacked by a group called the Mining Collective directly after the destruction of the second Death Star and most of the citizens were killed. Cobb escaped with his life and a box of lucrative crystals that he eventually used to buy the Mandalorian armour from a group of Jawas. He then returned to Mos Pelgo, killed the Mining Collective members and took up the post of the Marshal, protecting those left in the town.
Cobb then tells Mando he’ll return the armour to him if Mando helps him rid the town of the destructive krayt dragon. On their way to the dragon’s cave, the men encounter a group of Tusken Raiders who Cobb clearly distrusts as the Tuskens have raided Mos Pelgo on more than one occasion. Mando, however, is able to act as an interpreter and form a tenuous alliance between the two, who both want to see the dragon gone. Things start off rocky, and Mando at one point has to break up a fight between Cobb and the Raiders using fire. However, with the help of the residents of Mos Pelgo, the joint forces are able to come up with a plan to take down the dragon.
They decide that the best course of action will be to blast the dragon’s belly, as this is its known weak spot. Things don’t go to plan initially, and the irritated dragon spews fluorescent bile over many of its attackers, causing them to disintegrate into dust. Mando then steps up to the plate and decides to try a different plan in which he and an explosive-laden Bantha get swallowed by the dragon. Ultimately, his plan works and the dragon is finally defeated. The Tuskens then take their prize (the carcass of the dragon) and the citizens of Mos Pelgo return home peacefully.
Cobb then returns the Mandalorian armour to Mando, as promised, and the two part on good terms. Mando and Baby Yoda then head out on their way again. However, there’s a mysterious figure watching them depart. He turns around, and we get our first look at a heavily scarred, armourless Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison), looking less than happy about the fact that Mando just flew off with his armour.
This episode was a fun return to the story that’s captured the attention of so many Star Wars and, thanks in no small part to Baby Yoda, non-Star War fans. It had that same gritty, western feel that made season one feel so unique compared to other Star Wars stories and this made it easy to slip back into this world that Jon Favreau has created. There wasn’t much Baby Yoda content here, which will probably disappoint some fans, but there’s no question he’ll have plenty to do as the season progresses. While there are still many things left up in the air (any reference to or appearance from Moff Gideon was absent from this episode), it will be interesting to see how old threats and new (Boba Fett) come together to cause trouble for Mando and Baby Yoda as we continue to follow their journey.
