The Passenger (The Mandalorian - S02E02) - Live Action Series

"That is not food! Don't do that again!" SPOILERS.

You don't hold a knife to Baby Yoda's neck without dire consequences....

Chapter 10 of The Mandalorian may once again not be an episode you would necessarily expect to see, especially in the age of tv shows and streaming series that tell one long story over the course of a season. Instead, The Mandalorian continues to offer fun stand-alone adventures. So The Passenger does not really advance the overall plot all that much, instead you get a somewhat quirky mix of humor and creature horror this week. If there's one thing that's becoming a trademark for the show then that the Mandalorian really gets to know the local fauna in great detail. And the local fauna usually wants to eat him.

Jawa raiders are a thing now

The episode picks up where last week's episode left us. The Mandalorian is riding his speeder bike back to Mos Eisley, but three raiders prepare a trap for Din Djarin in the desert. The trap works, the Mandalorian is thrown off his bike and we are treated to a short but entertaining action sequence where we once again witness what a formidable fighter he is. A Jawa raider gets a hold of Baby Yoda but things reach an impasse, so eventually the Mandalorian readily agrees to trade his jetpack for Baby Yoda. Only to activate the remote control once the Jawa picks up the jetpack, catapulting him into the air... and then Din simply deactivates the jetpack, so the Jawa plummets to his death. Mandalorian 3 - Raiders 0. This scene underlines that Din is smart and doesn't always resort to fighting to resolve a tricky situation.

Meet "Frog Lady"

Back in Mos Eisley Peli Motto informs Din Djarin that she has a new clue about Mandalorians, actually it's not really her that has the clue, but an alien that in return for the information wants passage on the Razor Crest. Here we meet "Frog Lady". Once more we find out that people in the Star Wars universe are linguistic geniuses, because while Din Djarin does not understand the Frog Lady's language, Peli can speak it with ease. And through Peli's interpreter skills we learn that the Frog Lady needs to transport her eggs to another planet called Trask, where her mate will fertilize them, but it comes with a catch: they cannot enter hyperspace or her eggs will die, so they need to travel to the nearby planet at sublight speeds.

Baby Yoda, the nemesis of all frogs in the galaxy

Din Djarin agrees, even if somewhat reluctantly, and so the Razor Crest is making its way to the nearby system. We eventually find out that Frog Lady has laid the last eggs of her life cycle, so they are quite precious to her. Too bad then that Baby Yoda really loves anything frog related and finds the egg canister in the cargo hold. And yes, he opens the canister and eats an egg before Din Djarin can stop him.

Just a routine traffic control

The journey is interrupted when two New Republic X-Wings encounter the Razor Crest and basically tell Din Djarin his tail lights are broken, only in the Star Wars galaxy it's more about identifying beacons (or the lack thereof) and the episode is still really rather lighthearted and humorous with some funny dialogue between Din and the X-Wing Pilots Carson and Wolf (who we meet once again and is once more portrayed by Dave Filoni).

It is certainly only a matter of time before we get a Trapper Wolf action figure

The encounter takes a turn for the much worse however once the two New Republic pilots run a background check on the vehicle and find out that Din Djarin is wanted for his involvement in the prison transport incident (from season 1). It is then that Din Djarin decides to make a run for it and steps on the accelerator, so to speak, with the X-Wings in pursuit.

Another happy landing

If you have seen the trailers you already know the next scene, the Razor Crest tries to escape the X-Wings and Din Djarin decides to land the ship on some ice planet at a very high speed, the Razor Crest skids across the ice and comes to a rest, seemingly having escaped the X-Wings. But then the ground beneath the ship crumbles and the Razor Crest falls down a hole, seriously damaging the ship.

The Razor Crest has looked better

The Frog Lady is less than pleased when she learns that Din wants to rest first and repair the ship much later, she manages to hack into the remains of the droid Zero (from the prison transport episode in season 1) and uses him to translate her language. She tells the Mandalorian how important it is to get her eggs to Trask in time, eventually Din Djarin agrees to get to work immediately.

This spa gets a 0 star rating

It is now that the episode shifts in mood, until now the tone was quite humorous, with several funny Baby Yoda scenes, some fun banter between characters and the general feeling that the episode is probably about repairing the ship. But things take a turn for the much worse once the Frog Lady goes missing with Din Djarin and Baby Yoda following her trail to a hot spring in an ice cave.

Baby Yoda likes eating the most disgusting things

It is in this cave that Baby Yoda disovers mysterious eggs. And sure enough, he opens an egg, removes a tiny spider creature and eats it with gusto. Too bad that mommy spider is nearby and really doesn't take kindly to someone eating her offspring.

This episode is not recommended for people who suffer from arachnophobia

The spider creatures are actually not new. We have seen them before in Rebels and they date back to a very old concept art sketch from Ralph McQuarrie for "The Empire Strikes Back", they are called "Krykna". It's always nice when new Star Wars entertainment uses Ralph McQuarrie concepts, linking the new entertainment back to the origins of Star Wars in the 1970s.

Krykna are an unused concept from Empire Strikes Back, later used in Rebels

And now the episode is all about trying to escape the huge mother Krykna and her myriad of offspring who pursue Din Djarin, Baby Yoda and the Frog Lady all the way back to the ship. And since the Razor Crest has about as many holes in its hull as a good Swiss cheese the spiders manage to infiltrate the ship, with the mother spider trying to crack open the cockpit.

Canned humanoids, a delicacy for space spiders

Things don't look too good as the mother spider pierces the cockpit, making it impossible for the Razor Crest to lift off. But just when things look really bad we see blaster fire, disposing of all the spiders. The New Republic X-Wings have found the Razor Crest.

The New Republic, your friend in need

Once the spiders have been disposed of Din Djarin has another chat with the two X-Wing pilots. Once more the show turns to lighthearted banter now. We learn that the New Republic has an outstanding warrant for Din Djarin for his involvement in the prison transport incident from season 1. However, as it turns out, the security cameras on the transport also showed that Din not only tried to save the life of the poor New Republic guard, but also apprehended three wanted criminals. In the end the X-Wing pilots ignore the warrant, but they refuse to help Din Djarin patch up his ship, instead basically telling him to fix his tail lights (the emitter beacon, to be more precise).

Baby Yoda, incorrigible

Din Djarin patches up the cockpit and the Razor Crest limps back into space. But not before Baby Yoda eats yet another stolen egg. He really is the nemesis of all frog creatures! And the episode ends with yet another scene from the trailers, the battered Razor Crest limping through space.

It's a tough little ship that can take a serious beating

And that concludes chapter 10. It was certainly a somewhat weird episode, not in a bad sense, but it certainly was something you might not have expected. Anyone who thought that the show would become much more serialized in season 2 got yet another fun (and somewhat quirky) stand-alone adventure. It seems Jon Favreau loves confronting Din Djarin with all kinds of critters, he now had to battle a huge Mudhorn, an even bigger Krayt dragon and now huge creepy spiders.

The episode had a quirky mix of humor and horror, and maybe not all will like that, especially fans who would love for the show to be more serious. But it's becoming evident that while the show does get serious every now and then that Jon Favreau overall favors a more lighthearted and fun approach, which is very much in the Star Wars tradition. This episode even showed that Din Djarin has a sense of humor, he even cracks jokes every now and then. Also, Din Djarin sighing over events or people that exhaust his patience is quickly evolving into a character trademark. Someone needs to make a super-cut of all Din Djarin sighs, I bet it would be a few minutes long already after 10 episodes.

So while not much actually happened in the episode, it was still a fun ride and the twists and turns in the episode mostly came completely unexpected. At first you might have thought it's all about Frog Lady and how she may have some secret agenda, then you might have thought it's about repairing the ship, but then it evolves into classic creature horror. If you are fine with the idea that The Mandalorian is (for the most part) not a serialized show and mostly about fun stand-alone adventures, you will certainly enjoy this episode - unless you cannot bear the sight of giant spiders.

It was also nice seeing the New Republic in this episode, even if it was something as mundane as what boils down to "traffic control in space". I suppose we haven't seen Trapper Wolf for the last time.

So, in the end, I think this was a very solid, very entertaining episode, maybe not as exciting as last week's chapter, instead it ventured into creepy crawler territory in the second half. The episode featured Baby Yoda much more prominently this time and he wasn't just someone who reacted to the shenanigans, he played a much more active role. Also, seeing him running towards Din Djarin on Tatooine after the failed raid showed what a deep connection Din and the Child have developed, Din really is his surrogate father, which is quite endearing. But Din really needs to address Baby Yoda's eating habits!