In Chapter 4: Sanctuary (quite superbly directed by Bryce Dallas-Howard), our Mandalorian and his Yoda Baby seek out a nice calm place to hide out for awhile. He settles for the remote planet of Sorgan, which should be quiet and safe, right? Right?
By now, we’re at a place where the writing is at a critical tipping point, and while the series is visually fantastic and filled with fun moments, I do get the sense that the plot is a little bit like its hero: meandering and ignoring important clues.
Let’s dive in. Spoiler warning for season 1 episode 4:
The Mandalorian, DIsney+
In the cold open, a little farming village is attacked by orcs Klatoonian raiders with an unseen but probable Imperial walker. The Klatoonians plunder and kill before withdrawing back into the forest while a mother uses quick thinking to hide herself and her daughter during the attack.
Back in his Razor Crest, our Mandalorian is chatting it up with the Yoda Baby and now I can’t wait to call someone’s baby a little womp rat. CUTE. He lands near a little village and buys the baby some bone broth before encountering Cara Dune, played by Gina Carano.
She’ll cut a b****.
The Mandalorian, Disney+
Mutually suspicious of each other, they start out with a brawl. I had some reactions. Now, Carano is a former mixed martial artist who competed in Muay Thai and MMA from 2006-2009. Not knowing this, I was just glad to see a chick who actually looked like she could take on a dude in a fist-fight (per societal decree, traditional actresses must be dainty and petite whilst men must be engorged at all times — but no more). That being said, though, I don’t know what kind of gauntlets she’s wearing but…who would punch a steel helmet? A beskar steel helmet at that?
Their fight ended in a draw and they quickly bonded over their backstories, I guess. Cara Dune was a rebel soldier who’s just been laying low since the Battle of Endor. She wants to continue to keep a low profile so he’s gotta get off her rock.
Enter the cold-opening farmers, who approach our Mandalorian at his ship and offer him payment in exchange for protection from the raiders. Hearing that they live in the “middle of nowhere” he accepts their credits and recruits Dune to help.
That’s, like, really personal, lady…
Tha Mandalorian, Disney+
After some more helmet talk, we learn that once that helmet comes off (and it will come off — no one is going to hire Pedro Pascal and then keep him hidden for long) it can’t go on again. I predict that he’ll ditch it in a symbolic sacrifice in the season one finale and then we’ll actually get to see Pascal’s face for the rest of the series.
Our Mandalorian and Dune also do some recon and discover an AT-ST walker with the raiders (the episode doesn’t answer the question of where it came from).
So here’s where they come up with their plan. Is it a good plan? I mean, I don’t think so? But it is a plan.
I mean, it *looks* cool but still….
The Mandalorian, Disney+
They decide to train these farmers to fight (with no indication of how long they train…), then cluster the farmers close to each other (a questionable technique when facing an opponent armed with weapons with a large blast radius, you know, like an AT-ST walker), in the dark (even though the only combatant here with an advantage in the dark is the AT-ST walker and its flood light), in their own village (which, by their own accounts, has farming pods that were planted generations ago and are therefore difficult to replicate).
Why didn’t they ambush the raiders in the woods or something? Why didn’t Dune and Mando our Mandalorian just blast the AT-ST in the raider’s village? Why did they let the rest of the Klatoonians retreat — do they think they won’t ever attack again? They live, like, right next door…
“Do that thing where you eat a live frog again, ya little scamp!”
The Mandalorian, Disney+
For some reason, our Mandalorian is now convinced that the Klatoonians won’t attack again and none of the bounty hunters will find the baby all the way out here so the child is totally safe with these farmers who can now stab someone with a stick because of all that training so he’s thinking he’ll just take off if that’s cool.
And then, of course, a bounty hunter attacks. He aims a long-range rifle at the baby and for a second I thought we were gonna get another cool blaster Force-freeze à la Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens, but instead Dune gets the jump on the guy and shoots him in the back.
Our Mandalorian remembers that, oh yeah, all of the bounty hunters have tracking fobs for the baby and he’s still stuck being a single dad.
He and the Yoda Baby take off alone again, but I have a feeling we’ll be seeing marksman Omera and Cara Dune again soon.
Ewoks, some of the most despised inhabitants of the Star Wars universe, are the only ones who use multi-domain operations in any of the movies: indirect fire, offensive obstacles, close air support, ground attack, psyop, and information operations. https://twitter.com/4kshatra/status/1199989704030117888 …
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Discuss.