The Mandalorian Episode 6 Review

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

Warning: There will be spoilers ahead!!!

What has now easily become the biggest show on any streaming service, The Mandalorian rolls into it’s 6th episode. We’ve only got 2 episodes left in season one and there are a TON of questions still to be answered. Why did the Imperial remnant want Okra the Yodling? Did the other Mandalorians end up finding another planet to keep their “covert?” Who was the dude in the cape at the end of episode 5? Will we see Gina Carano’s Cara Dune again? What about Omera, the hot mom that Mando had some flirty vibes going on with on Sorgan? Are those blue shrimp-looking things on Sorgan delicious? Where is Mando going to ultimately take the child? Will they end up being an adopted father/son crime-fighting duo who travels around the galaxy? Episode 6 answers absolutely none of these questions. However, the sixth installment gave us an awesome heist/horror flick mash up and some fun cameos. Let’s get into that recap/review of the episode called “The Prisoner.”

We start this week’s installment as the Razor Crest is landing on an unnamed space station. Mando is greeted by Ranzar Malk (Mark Boone Junior, Batman Begins) and the two talk about “old times,” as Mando used to be a part of Ranzar’s team. He is trying to put together a new crew for a heist, letting us know there will be another fun trope added to the Western/Samurai flavored episodes of season 1. We then get introduced to the rest of the heist crew. Mayfeld, the feisty, untrusting mercenary (Bill Burr, F is for Family, Breaking Bad). Burg, the giant devil-looking Devaronian “muscle” (Clancy Brown, SpongeBob Squarepants, Highlander). Xi’An, a Twilek knife-specialist assassin who had a romantic past with the Mandalorian (Natalie Tena, Black Mirror, Game of Thrones) and to fill out the crew, the murderous pilot droid Zero ( Richard Ayoade, The IT Crowd). Their task: rescue a prisoner from a New Republic prison ship.

Ranza and Mayfeld with Mando, Zero, Burk and Xi’An.

With Zero the snarky pilot-murder droid at the helm, the Razor Crest jumps to hyperspace on an intercept course for the prison ship. Along the way, we see the typical heist “feeling each other out” scene. Now, don’t take that statement as an indictment. This is a necessary piece of any good heist movie/episode. In fact, this part was much needed in the last episode. In the midst of a scuffle over Mayfeld feeling like Mando should remove his helmet to show the others he can be trusted, Baby Okra’s crib/playroom is revealed. They build some serious tension as Mayfeld taunts Mando by picking Okra up and teasing him that maybe he’ll change his mind about having a pet. He summarily drops the Yodling when the ship drops out of hyperspace (not on purpose) but you can tell this irks Mando. Because the Razor Crest lacks any of the markings or identification pieces the old Imperial or New Republic systems use to identify ships, it is chosen as the perfect vessel to pull off this prison break. They proceed to drop into the prison ship one by one and make their way to the command center as Zero hacks their computer systems.

Along the way they run into New Republic droids and we are privy to another “Mandalorians doing badass stuff” fight scene. I am blown away by the choreography in this show with every episode. Mando manages to take down four New Republic battle droids in awesome and impressive ways, even giving one a new optical port, so to speak.

“Ever have a headache this big?”

They continue on their way to the command center to find a way to release their target and run into the one thing they were told they wouldn’t encounter: a living person. A young, scared New Republic soldier is manning the control center and is caught off guard as Zero had masked their presence on the ship. The soldier changes the dynamic as he pulls out a tracking beacon: a way of hailing a squad of X-Wings to their location immediately to destroy any threat. Mando tries to be the voice of reason with the frightened soldier and tells him they’re only there for the prisoner, that he won’t die as long as he gets out of their way. Mayfeld disagrees and we get some amazing “Mandalorian Stand Off” action: Mayfeld points his blasters at the soldier and Mando, Mando pointing back at Mayfeld and his flamethrower at Burk who has a gun pointed at the soldier and Mando.

Xi’an kills the debate (pun intended) as she offs the soldier with a knife toss. As his body hits the floor, we see that his tracking beacon has been activated. Zero informs them that a New Republic X-Wing squadron is en route and will arrive in 15 minutes. They all run off to the cell of their target to get on their way.

As we get to the cell and the door opens revealing another Twilek, that turns out to be Xi’an’s brother Quinn, Mando realizes that he’s been betrayed. Before he can fight back, he’s knocked into the cell and left with the reminder “you deserved this,” hinting at something Mando did in the past to the crew. They run off to escape in the Razor Crest with 10 minutes remaining, asking Zero to find them a path out of there. It looks like things are pretty bleak for Mando…but he has a plan. In another awesome action piece, Mando uses his grappling line and snags one of the robot guards, dragging him over to his cell, then proceeds to disarm the droid (heh), blows its head off with its own blaster and then uses its dismembered appendage to escape.

Now that Mando has escaped, he makes his way to the control center and proceeds to lock everything down. He blocks comms between Zero and the rest of the crew, he begins closing blast doors, and turns the lights to lockdown mode, giving the prison ship an eerie red glow. The episode shifts from a heist movie to a horror movie as the Mandalorian hunts down each and every one of the crew.

The way the episode is shot shifts, with the camera angles taking on a more traditional horror movie look. The fight scene between Burk and Mando was fantastic as the red-devil behemoth was nearly unstoppable. Hell, Mando lit the dude ON FIRE and he kept coming! The only thing that stopped him was Mando dropping two sets of blast doors on him. The Mandalorian’s fight with Xi’an was a cool knife battle, but the best scene was Mando stalking Mayfeld through the prison ship. The red lighting was given a more frantic feel with an added strobe effect. Seeing Mando stalk Mayfeld through the flash of the strobe effect added to the intensity. Check out a few screen grabs I took of this amazing scene.

That leaves us with Mando stalking Quinn and Zero on the Razor Crest contending with the now mobile baby Okra. After seeing the curious Yodling pop into the cockpit, Zero begins searching for the child. Our daring little Okra manages to avoid capture. Mando catches Quinn who reminds him that if he wants that payday, he needs to be delivered to Ranzar alive.

We flash back to the Razor Crest as Zero has finally tracked down baby Okra and trains his blaster on him, having found the message about the “quarry” sent by Chubbs Peterson, the golf pro with the wooden hand…I mean Greef Carga. As he is set to finish off the most valuable bounty in the galaxy, Okra the Yodling raises his hand and closes his eyes, connecting to the Force again.

“too cute I am to resist. Buy all of my merchandise you will.”

Now, I’m not trying to start another “who shot first” controversy in the Star Wars universe, but you almost wonder if Okra blocked the shot with the Force or if Mando got the shot off before Zero pulled the trigger. Either way Zero dropped to the ground, giant blaster hole in his chest. Yodling did look at his hand momentarily almost as if he was thinking, “wow, did I do that?” As always: adorable.

The Razor Crest lands at the space station and Mando emerges with the now free Quinn. There’s some generic back and forth between Mando and Ranzar about “old times” and “no questions asked” about the whereabouts of the rest of the crew. Mando gets his pay, Ranzar gets his buddy Quinn and the Razor Crest takes off for more adventures. As Mando clears the force field, Ranzar orders that a gunship be launched to kill him. As the ship rises to the flight deck, Quinn notices a beeping sound that is getting faster and faster coming from him. Ranzar realizes that Mando beat him to the punch when it comes to being double crossed as the X-Wing squadron comes out of hyperspace to lay waste to the station.

The episode ends with Mando and Okra having a very cute moment as Mando removes the knob from one of the ship’s levers and gives it to the Yodling to play with. He even says to the child “see? I told you that was a bad idea,” like they discussed how Mando would make some money. ON TO EPISODE 7! But let’s talk about some of the takeaways from “The Prisoner.”

This particular episode was incredibly fun. The casting of the heist crew was nearly perfect. Each one was a well-worn trope but each actor brought exactly what was needed to make these characters fun. Bill Burr was essentially himself with some Star Wars jargon and some blasters. He was snarky, funny and when he yells “GET THAT BLASTER OUT OF MY FACE, MANDO!” I died as it sounded exactly like the voice he uses in his stand up routines. Clancy Brown was so much fun. His voice is iconic, and playing a giant, unstoppable monster fit him so well. I wasn’t super familiar with Natalia Tena or Richard Ayoade’s body of work, but they played their archetype perfectly. The fact that we were able to get some depth from a few of these characters in a 30 minute episode shows how good their performances were.

When it comes to the collective Star Wars fandom, the inclusion of the Yodling as a large portion of the show has irritated some. I think this is insanity. Okra’s inclusion gives this show a depth of emotion and heart that many shows today simply don’t grasp. Badasses can also have emotions, they can care about cute things and there is not a damn thing wrong with it.

Here is some more of that sweet sweet concept art from The Mandalorian. We only got 2 episodes left! I can’t wait to see where this show goes to close up its first season.