The Mandalorian The Marshal Review

Disney+‘s The Mandalorian: Season 2, Episode 1: The Marshal TV Show Review. “If there’s a bright center to the universe, you’re on the planet that it’s farthest from.” This is the description that Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) gives to C-3PO and R2-D2  of the planet Tatooine, where they are hiding from the Empire. Ironic then, that despite initially being seen as the most backwater of planets in the original Star Wars, Tatooine has been the most featured location in Star Wars media, featuring in six of the films, video games, comic books, and television shows, such as Star Wars Rebels, and last season’s episode The Gunslinger. On the other hand, at its heart, The Mandalorian is a space Western, so it seems appropriate that creator Jon Favreau (who also directed this episode) would decide to revisit the desert world for a fun, breezy monster hunt of a tale.

Having been instructed by the Armorer (Emily Swallow) to return the Child back to its own kind by trying to find fellow Mandalorians in the season one finale , the cold open sees Mando (voiced by Pedro Pascal), entering a slum to see an old friend, gangster Gor Koresh (John Leguizamo). Having the dialogue take place during a prize fight evokes a noir-ish atmosphere, and it’s appropriate that after Koresh tells Mando that one of his kind has been seen on the Tatooine settlement of Mos Pelgo, he inevitably tries to betray him. The fight sequence that follows, an echo of the bar brawl in the series premiere is intense, thrilling, and brutal, with Mando quickly dispatching Koresh and his goons with whistling bird darts, punches, ending with Koresh tied up on a lamp post, begging Mando not to kill him. He doesn’t shoot him, but, instead leaves him at the mercy of strange rat-like creatures, establishing that although his morality is shifting,  Mando can still be a stone cold killer.

After landing on the familiar planet with two suns, Mando reunites with mechanic Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris), and in a noticeable change of heart,  allows the pit droids to inspect his ship, no doubt touched by IG-11’s sacrifice in the previous episode, and thus softening his attitude on droids instead of sheer antagonism. Sedaris provides a nice touch of comic relief, but mostly serves as exposition, believing that Mos Pelgo is ruined, until R5-D4 (so that’s where he ended up after blowing up in front of Uncle Owen’s moisture farm!) reveals that the settlement is still there, and Mando takes off on the speeder bike. Ludwig Göransson‘s twangy guitar score during the montage of Mando traveling to the desolate town, while communicating with the Tusken Raiders, emphasizes the Western homage  the episode is going for.

And sure enough, upon entering the cantina, after Mando asks about one of his people, a figure steps into the door, bearing the helmet and armor of Boba Fett. Alas, it is not the fan favorite bounty hunter, but instead the titular Marshal Cobb Vanth (Timothy Olyphant), a character from the Aftermath novels by Chuck Wendig. Olyphant has now played a sheriff in the Old West (Deadwood), a sheriff in modern times (Justified), and now a space sheriff, so he easily fits this role like a glove. After a sequence in which the pair witness a krayt dragon emerge from the dunes and ravage the livestock, they agree to team up to kill the monster, and upon completion Mando will receive Varth’s armor. As they cross the Dune Sea to the dragon’s lair, they meet some Tusken Raiders, and Vanth, angry that they have frequently raided Mos Pelgo, draws his weapon to fire. But using sign language, Mando convinces them to stand down, opting instead for communication instead of violence.

This is a new, radically different angle on the Tusken Raiders that Favreau decides to take in this episode, as typical Star Wars media have portrayed them as aggressive, unintelligible savages: the startling menaces that threaten to prematurely end Luke’s journey in the original film, the disruptors taking pot shots at the pod racers in The Phantom Menace, and most critically, the kidnappers and murderers of Shmi Skywalker in Attack of The Clones, the catalyst that starts Anakin Skywalker’s journey towards the Dark Side. Favreau asks us to consider that maybe their actions have some merit, as they are the original natives of Tatooine. The moisture farmers, smugglers, and other aliens are the invaders of their home, the ones that took their land, much like the Native Americans against the white man.

And yet, despite this obvious explicit parallel, the theme of reconciliation between the settlers of Mos Pelgo and the Tusken Raiders works, as after Mando and Vanth’s initial attack fails, Vanth asks what can be done, and Mando replies with “I volunteered your village.” Despite a few misunderstandings, the sight of the villagers and Tusken Raiders working together to fight the bigger menace is nice, as they build explosives underground to lure out the dragon. The sequence that follows is pretty grand, filled with the dragon pulling people under the sand,  Mando and Vanth both deploying their jetpacks, and the dragon unleashing its acidic bile over townsfolk and Tusken alike, instantly dissolving them. Mando figures out that with the dragon’s  belly closely guarded, he lures it into swallowing himself and a bantha, exploding it from within. As the townsfolk and natives celebrate, cutting the carcass up for meat and uncovering a precious pearl, Mando takes off with the armor. But in the distance, a heavily scarred man looks out, and as he’s played by Temuera Morrison, its not hard to guess who he is.

Though the tropes and ideas are for the most part familiar, The Marshal  is a strong premiere for The Mandalorian. Its a fun Western adventure story about people coming together to overcome a bigger adversity, much like the Rebel Alliance against The Empire, and Mando acting as the lone gunslinger that unites them together. Tattooine does get a little tiresome, but if Olyphant reprises his role, maybe it won’t be such a drag.

Leave your thoughts on this The Mandalorian The Marshal Review and this episode below in the comments section. Readers seeking more TV show reviews can visit our TV Show Review Page, our TV Show Review Twitter Page, and our TV Show Review Facebook Page. Want up-to-the-minute notification? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Reddit, and Flipboard.