‘The Mandalorian’ Recap – ‘Chapter 5: The Gunslinger’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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​Over the course of the past four weeks, The Mandalorian has done a phenomenal job of providing its audience with a fresh and inventive story that for the most part, has stayed away from making heavy use of throwbacks and fan service when it comes to other stories featured in the Star Wars franchise. Which honestly is a surprise to me, since modern entries in the saga are big on nostalgia and prior events in this galaxy, far, far away. Which by no means is an insult to the franchise as a whole, it’s just wonderful and awesome to dive into a story that features its own path. But I suppose I should have known that escaping something as powerful as the rich legacy that this series provides was downright impossible, especially since the latest chapter in Mando’s tale took us right down memory lane.
 
For ‘Chapter 5: The Gunslinger’ found our intrepid hero dealing with more fallout from his decision to turn his back upon the Guild since the story opened with an epic firefight in the depths of space, one that saw Mando in quite the precarious place. That is until opportunity provided him with the chance to win this ugly battle and with the firefight complete, he needed to repair his vessel and fast, and that prompted him to set down on the nearest habitable planet, and wouldn’t you know it? That safe haven just so happened to be the legendary Tatooine. Which is fan service and nostalgia enough in its own right, but the series had plenty more to provide the audience with than the mere cameo of this world. Take for instance the fact that the hanger he landed within in had that familiar, New Hope feel.
 
But his first major stop in Mos Eisley, took the nostalgia to a whole new level. Because Mando quickly found himself standing in the very cantina where a young kid named Luke Skywalker and a Jedi named Obi-Wan Kenobi met with a smuggler named Han Solo and his buddy Chewbacca, and it was quite wild to see how this cantina has changed after all these years and it was equally as neat to see someone sitting in Han’s old chair. Granted, I know it was never ‘his’ per se, but this was the spot he was chilling in back in the day, and the person in question, a man named Toro Calican, even struck a Solo-esque pose before offering up a unique opportunity for Mando. For Calican was a rookie bounty hunter, and he came here to bring down a renowned assassin known as Fennec Shand, all in the hope of making a name for himself in the Guild and well, who better to show him the ropes and reap all the riches than a Mandalorian?
 
Of course, the agreement these two came to, should have signaled the end of the nostalgia factor in this tale, but a little visit from Tusken Raiders kept it going for a touch longer before the story made Fennec the focus and my goodness, what a worthy opponent she turned out to be. Because she was ready for their arrival and did everything, she could to maintain her freedom. But Mando is wise in combat and found a way to outsmart her and capture her. But he was ill prepared for the fact Calican was all about the glory, and when presented with an opportunity to bring Mando and the child in, he seemingly killed Shand and made the mistake of trying to go toe to toe with a Mandalorian, a lesson that cost him his brash and foolish life.
 
But while Mando and Baby Yoda’s exit from Tatooine should have signaled the end of this tale and the throwbacks, this episode still had one last surprise in store for us. For the closing minutes of this tale implied heavily that a Mandalorian we are familiar with, might be alive and well after all these years, since those jingling spurs were reminiscent of the one and only Boba Fett. But for now, however, all we can do is speculate that it might be him and bask in the glory of one fun tale. Because this really was a grandiose love letter to Episode IV and while some may lament the nostalgia here, I enjoyed it, simply because it featured tidbits and not direct tie-ins and I wonder if we will see more throwbacks in this manner, as the remainder of season one rolls on. Until next time. 

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