Fan service is a tricky thing, and The Mandalorian is walking on the razor’s edge. While some fans are certain to be delighted at what the latest episode offered in terms of nods to Star Wars’ origins, others might be wondering if The Mandalorian knows when enough is enough. Because oh boy, was there a whole lot of Tatooine in Chapter 5’s “The Gunslinger.” (Possible episode spoilers will be included.)
A wretched hive of scum and villainy!
After barely surviving a dogfight with one of the many other bounty hunters on his tail for rescuing Baby Yoda, the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) stops in for repairs on the nearest planet—which just happens to be Tatooine. There, our hero wanders into the local cantina—no familiar band, unfortunately, so I hope the Modal Nodes haven’t broken up in this timeline—where he meets a cocky guy with a blaster. Instead of a rascal smuggler, this fellow is Toro Calican (Jake Cannavale), a rookie would-be bounty hunter who asks to team up with the Mandalorian to capture a dangerous quarry, assassin Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen). The cantina feels weirdly underpopulated, but a focus on the place rather than what’s going on there suggests that maybe it’s a distraction.
Name-dropping the local geography and fauna!
The most entertaining stuff in the episode comes thanks to Peli (Amy Sedaris), the local Tatooine mechanic who works on the Mandalorian’s ship. Sedaris has lots of fun playing the character with an attitude and swagger, which makes it all the more delightful when she becomes enthusiastic about her impromptu role as Baby Yoda’s babysitter. Yet she also finds time to throw in “womp rat” as an insult, and refer to “Beggar’s Canyon.” Okay, we get it: We’re on Tatooine.
Dewbacks and Tusken Raiders and pit droids, oh my!
Yes, Peli employs some of the flat-headed pit droids introduced in The Phantom Menace. Yes, the Mandalorian and Toro encounter sandpeople on their journey. Yes, they spot another bounty hunter dead and dangling from the saddle of his drawback. We know episode writer/director/series producer Dave Filoni is deeply immersed in the Star Wars universe, so once he decided to set a story on Tatooine, I guess he wanted to commit to the bit.
The bigger concern is that, other than making it very clear that the Mandalorian has a very high price on his head, it’s not clear where this episode is taking the narrative. Maybe the show would be better served as a series of stand-alone adventures for a wandering mercenary, locking firmly into the formula that drove last week’s Chapter 4. Or maybe it should go all-in on generating Baby Yoda memes. It’s just that, whatever else The Mandalorian had been in its first four episodes, it seemed to be its own thing. Now, for the first time, it felt like one of those spin-offs shows that spends an episode bringing on the cast of the original show for a cameo. Now that we’ve been to Tatooine, maybe The Mandalorian can feel confident enough to keep taking us to new places.
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Let’s Hear From You
Have you been watching The Mandalorian? Do you think that Chapter 5’s nods to prior Star Wars films were too heavyhanded or just right? Can you see this format repeated for future chapters? Let us know in the comments below.
If you’re looking for previous reviews of The Mandalorian or more reviews of Disney+ content, be sure to read about the hit Disney+ shows and movies HERE!