The Mandalorian review: “Chapter 10: The Passenger”

The newest episode of The Mandalorian serves up plenty of action, humor and majesty, but the overall story isn’t moving forward and it’s starting to wear.

The Mandalorian must ferry a passenger with precious cargo on a risky journey

RECAP

“The Passenger” opens in typical Mando style, with our titular hero and his little green buddy escaping a bushwack-style predicament. Mando is still looking for his brethren, and Pelle Motto (the always-welcome Amy Sedaris) finds him an egg-bearing alien “Frog Lady” who says her hubby has seen his fellows on her nearby home planet of Trask. In return, the Frog Lady wants Mando to taxi her home.

A run-in with New Republic X-Wings leaves Mando and company stranded on the ice planet of Maldo Kreis. Trapped in their spaceship by the angry brood of giant ice spiders, Mando is unexpectedly saved in the nick of time by the returning X-Wing pilots, who—having reviewed their records—consider Mando something of an ally. Mando repairs the Razor Crest and heads for Trask.

REVIEW

“The Passenger” gives Baby Yoda more screen time than the premiere, and his innocent egg-eating sweetness flows across the screen and the soul like liquid candy. The ice canyon chase sequence harkens back to the original, classic Star Wars movie (A New Hope), while the spider monsters in the ice cave echo Luke’s similar snowy trial on Hoth (The Empire Strikes Back). What’s old is new. What not to like?

Well, I gotta admit that the constant throwbacks to the original movie series are quite prevalent and starting to get borderline cloying. It isn’t a problem — yet — but I don’t want to end up getting sick of too many homages. And while “The Passenger” plays all the right thematic notes—and we get solid but unspectacular action with some thoughtful twists — the plotting feels somewhat contrived. The episode does little to advance the overall narrative (Mando’s quest to find Mandalorians to help him find Baby Yoda’s relatives), which leaves its ice monster centerpiece feeling a little bit flat.

So, with plenty of money and time to play with in season 2, the producers of The Mandalorian are luxuriating in the show’s expanded cinematic sandbox; there’s a relaxed pace to the new episodes that wasn’t there in the shorter season 1 installments, providing viewers with extra time to enjoy every exotic environment, CGI creation and predicament along the way. It feels great, but it also feels borderline overindulgent. Storytellers, serve us more krayt meat and less candy, please.

EPISODE GRADE: B+

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