The Mandalorian Episode 5 Review

by Mike Lunsford, Editor-In-Chief of The Great Geek Refuge

Warning: There will be spoilers ahead!!!

We all knew that there would be a pretty fair amount of viewers for The Mandalorian no matter how good or bad the show was. I think it’s safe to say that NONE of us could have foreseen a supporting character that doesn’t have a name, doesn’t have a defined race, hasn’t said one line of dialog, becoming the next big thing on the internet. Disney knows how to sell cute and Star Wars has a long history of doing the same, so their pairing just shows that it was always meant to be. In fact, cute lil baby Okra could be a band-aid holding this failing show together…but The Mandalorian has been damn good thus far. Let’s dig in to Episode 5, titled “The Gunslinger.”

“The Gunslinger” starts out with a bang as Mando and Okra are taking heavy fire from an unidentified star fighter. The bounty hunter taking shots at the Razor Crest warns Mando to surrender, knocking out one of his engines in the space battle. Things look to be troublesome for our heroes. And there’s such a cool line here, too. The bounty hunter trying to take Mando down says “I can bring you in warm or I can bring you in cold,” as he’s trying to gun down the Razor Crest. Then, Mando hits the brakes, the fighter flies past the Razor Crest and as Mando gets his opponent in his sights he says “that’s my line,” then blows him to pieces. There’s also a super sweet, overdramatic “NOOOOOOOOOOO!” as the bounty hunter’s ship explodes. It was dope.

Such a cool scene!

Desperately in need of repairs, Mando sets for the nearest planet and port. It was exciting to hear the traffic controller identify himself as “Mos Eisley Spaceport.” While it has been fun seeing new planets and locales, it’s always nice to have a little something we’re familiar with. Everyone loves Tatooine! There are some dissenters…but we’ll get to that later. Mando lands and stores the sleeping Okra in a storage area that’s been converted into a bed for the young Yodling. As he exits the ship, he is immediately met by some pit droids that he shoos away and a surprise cameo by Amy Sedaris as Peli Motto, the resident mechanic for docking bay 35. Mando and Peli work out repair arrangements as he mentions he’ll be “finding some work” so he can pay her. He heads out to everyone’s favorite bar, whatever the hell that place is called from A New Hope.

While he’s in the cantina (the band wasn’t playing…which was kind of disappointing. I guess they had the night off), he meets a young scoundrel named Toro Calican (Jake Cannivale, Nurse Jackie) who hears Mando asking around for hunter work. Toro offers Mando the money on a huge bounty as he is only looking for the prestige of catching the prey, which is sure will gain him entry into the Guild. Mando scoffs at him as the puck shows the image of Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen,Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), an infamous assassin who the boy has no chance of bringing in alone.

As Mando returns to Docking Bay 35 to gather his gear, he finds that Peli has found Okra, who of course didn’t stay where he was left. Peli scolds him for leaving a child alone on the ship but agrees to watch Okra as Mando goes off to make those credits.

Mando and Toro go on their way across the Dune Sea to find Fennec. Along the way, we get some amazing shots of the two of them cruising across the desert on speeder bikes as they traverse towards their target. They stop along the way as they see something in the distance. Toro uses his binocs to see banthas gathered, but no riders. This is where the familiarity with the Star Wars universe becomes a benefit for the viewer. Those of us who are long-time fans feel like we’ve been to Tatooine. We know what they’re about to come across and can’t wait to see how Mando and Toro will deal with it.

As an inexperienced,…well…anything if we’re being honest, Toro is unprepared for the Tusken Raiders that show up right behind him. Mando, however, is prepared. Speaking their form of sign language, he is able to barter a deal that allows them safe passage across the Dune Sea. There’s an interesting bit of character building as we see that the Mandalorian is not just an uncaring bounty hunter: Toro mentions that the locals call the Tusken Raiders filth but Mando counters that the Sand People consider themselves the locals, and everyone else just trespassers. He is not just an indiscriminate killer out for the money. He is well versed in local customs, he knows how things work and how to find the best solutions to problems. Mando's level of respect for indigenous people allows him to garner their respect as well. You’ll notice the normally aggressive Tusken Raiders didn’t attack first. That was either a sign of respect or fear, but either way they know that Mandalorians are no joke.

As Mando and Toro now have access to travel across the Dune Sea, they make their way closer to Fennec’s position. They come across another bounty hunter, dangling from a dewback. As Mando goes to investigate, he is nailed with a sniper bolt in the back, fortunately his Beskar armor protects him. They realize that Fennec must be on the ridge nearby and wait for nightfall to launch an assault. Mando has flares that will blind Fennec temporarily, giving them a fighting chance to get to the ridge and bring her in.

This scene is awesome to watch, a visually stunning action set piece. Toro misfires one of his flares (of course he does, he sucks at everything) and Mando’s speeder takes a sniper bolt, knocking him to the ground. As Fennec lines up her shot at the Mandalorian, Toro manages to get the drop on her, making her turn attention towards him. In line with the level of care taken with action scenes thus far in the series, the choreography is outstanding. The fight between Toro and Fennec is great, with Fennec taking it to the wanna-be bounty hunter. Mando shows up just in time to capture the assassin.

As Toro and Mando try to figure out how to get Fennec back with only one speeder bike, they realize the only solution is the dewback they saw before. Toro is afraid to leave Mando alone with Fennec so Mando makes the trek to retrieve his new ride. While he’s gone, Fennec informs Toro of the better play for him: the Mandalorian’s armor is worth far more than she is, something the Guild will definitely pay for and garner him the esteem he so desperately craves. On top of that, she lays out the story of a Mandalorian who shot up the Guild and took off with a prized package, rumored to be a small child. Toro starts to put 2 and 2 together as the two begin to hatch a plan.

Toro and Fennec plotting.

Any potential for a partnership is shot to pieces as Toro guns down Fennec, telling her that he knew she would kill him as soon as he took off her cuffs.

When Mando returns to the location, he sees only the dead body of Fennec and hightails it back to the docking bay where he knows Toro has gone. The two have a standoff as Toro has both Okra and Peli held hostage, demanding that Mando drop his blaster and put up his hands. Since the kid never seems to learn his lessons and Mando is the much more experienced fighter, the Mandalorian palms his last flare and distracts Toro long enough to flank him and blast him off the gang plank of the Razor Crest. Mando takes all of Toro’s money and pays Peli handsomely for her repair work and babysitting duties.

Peli says her goodbyes.

The two blast off for parts unknown and the next episode of The Mandalorian. BUT WAIT! A mysterious stranger shows up after Mando takes off and hovers over the body of Fennec Shand! OH SNAP!!

Of all of the episodes thus far, this one was probably the weakest. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was still good and I still enjoyed it. The other episodes have just been better. The fight scenes were great, Okra was adorable as always and the cinematography was exemplary. This episode seemed kind of like a throwaway after the emotionally charged Episode 4. When you compare my critique, and that isn’t much of one to be honest, to what the rest of the geeky internet is saying, you’d think we saw different shows.

Some people have called the decision to have this episode take place on Tatooine fan service. Some call it pandering…but is it really such a bad thing to make your fans happy? Like I said in last week’s episode, let’s just chill and enjoy the ride. That being said, I am not blind nor do I forgive things that could have been done better. There were parts of this particular story that bugged me. First though, we’ll tackle the Tatooine critiques, which are flimsy at best.

There has been a lot of chatter about how exciting it was to see new worlds that had never been discussed in the Star Wars universe up to this point. I totally agree. It’s been a ton of fun seeing new alien races, new planets, different terrains and a variety of bad-ass ships, armor and weapons to boot. However, as I mentioned above, I found Mando landing on Tatooine, exciting. It was like visiting your hometown and seeing locales and people you knew from your childhood. A perfect example is when Toro pulled out his binocs to see the banthas. I knew that the Tusken Raiders were gonna just show up behind him. That’s their thing! And it was slightly comical as I shook my head. “You crazy Sand People…always sneaking up on dudes after they see your banthas. You rascally dessert dwellers, you.” It really was like seeing an old friend when you’re visiting your hometown and they’re up to their same old shenanigans. Same with the cantina in Mos Eisley. It was nice to see the old place but you wonder where the old bartender is, why droids are now allowed to be employed when they were explicitly banned back in New Hope…I liked it. That trends with my mindset on all of this new Star Wars stuff: it’s not worth getting upset over when there’s so much good about it.

I did have issues with a few things, though. When Mando arrives on Tatooine and leaves Okra in his makeshift crib, he knows that this Yodling never stays put, even if he is asleep. I will give the story the benefit of the doubt as many of us who are parents have left a sleeping toddler to go take care of something only to come back and find out the little rascal has gotten into trouble, but it just seemed lazy. And then Peli just takes care of Okra? No questions asked? It just seemed…odd for the Mandalorian to put such implicit trust in a stranger who for all we know, could very easily turn this child into any other bounty hunter for the huge prize that is surely on his cute, fuzzy little green head. On top of that, what was his hope? That Okra would sleep the whole time he was out making bounty hunting money? That’s unrealistic and foolish as the Yodling is quite possibly one of the most valuable lifeforms in the galaxy. He’s never raised a kid before, so there is a certain amount that can be excused but this is also a dude who is well-versed in tracking, knowing local customs, and battle tactics. One would think he has some common sense when it comes to what a precocious Yodling toddler will and won’t do. WTF Mando?

This isn’t the 80s, Mando. TV can’t be your babysitter and for that matter, you don’t even have a TV on the Razor Crest!

Another critique that I saw that made me roll my eyes was that badass space battle that kicked off the episode. Some were highly critical that the bounty hunter chasing Mando scored like 5 or 6 hits on the Razor Crest and the ship was still in the air and it only took 2 blasts from the Mandalorian to finish the fight. They called it “plot armor.” I call it not recognizing the difference between a gunship, which is what the Razor Crest is, and a fighter, which is what that dude trying to chase down Mando was flying. Gunships by nature are more heavily armored and can take a punishing whereas fighters aren’t as durable. Just ask Biggs, Porkins, Gold Leader, Red Leader, Green Leader and pretty much every TIE fighter pilot ever.

Much like the biggest criticism of Last Jedi being that it didn’t move the story forward much, “The Gunslinger” suffers the same fate. With only 3 episodes left in season 1, it seems a bit odd to have this one be so very useless when all is said and done. None of this is inexcusable as long as it serves a purpose. Favreau/Filoni have not lead us astray yet. Their grasp on the source material is strong which is evident in the countless callbacks to other movies/series mentioned in this episode. Not all of them can be jaw-droppers I suppose. Like I said on the podcast this week, The Mandalorian is like pizza; if you’re unfamiliar with all the Star Wars media and this a new series for you, it’s like your basic cheese pizza. It’s still delicious, but having those “toppings” of knowledge of the movies, the games, and the TV series just adds some depth, nuance, and flavor to the delicious intergalactic pizza pie. This episode was a cheese pizza that was a bit underdone. It was tasty…but you’ve had better. It wasn’t so bad that you’ll stop coming to this particular pizza parlor, but you sure hope the next pie you get is better.