‘The Mandalorian’ Recap – ‘Chapter 9: The Marshal’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the season two premiere of ‘The Mandalorian’.
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At this point in time, it is outright safe to say that The Mandalorian is a series that took the world by storm. Thanks to the fact that it offered up quite the unique Star Wars experience in its inaugural season. A feat that it accomplished, by showing us a side of the galaxy that we never got to explore in the Skywalker Saga, along with providing the audience with some quality and gritty storytelling and some wonderfully dynamic characters that were new to this universe and of course… it gave us The Child. Which is perhaps one of the cutest creatures to ever grace the Star Wars Universe and really in the end, the wonder of this series drew all of us in and left us hungry for more when season one came to a close, simply because we needed more of Din Djarin’s wild adventures through the outer rim.

But thankfully our long and painful wait for new episodes from this show, has finally come to an end. For yesterday saw the season two premiere of this dynamic series drop on Disney+ and thankfully, ‘Chapter 9: The Marshal’ wasted no time in picking up exactly where we left off in ‘Chapter 8’, by plunging us right back in the middle of Din’s search for The Child’s home planet and its people. And in order to accomplish that… he needed to find more Mandalorians, so they could hopefully teach him about the mysterious Jedi and how they relate to that sweet little baby, and that quest for knowledge put him and the Child in some precarious situations, the kind that eventually brought them to Tattooine. For a Mandalorian was apparently roaming the remote segments of the desert and that eventually led Din to an out of the way place known as Mos Pelgo. 

Wherein he came face to face with a man wearing some oddly familiar Mandalorian armor, Boba Fett’s in fact. But alas, this was not the legendary Fett. Just a man named Cobb Vanth who used the wonder of Beskar Steel to keep the people of Mos Pelgo safe. But once Din learned that Vanth was not a Mandalorian, he was politely asked to relinquish the armor since it didn’t belong to him. Something he was willing to do, provided of course Din helped him out with a little conundrum. For a Krayt Dragon was terrorizing this small town, and some Tusken Raiders, and if Mando helped everyone rid their land of this hungry scourge, he could have the amor back, and well… that led to one action packed sequence for certain. One that rivaled any sequence on the silver screen in scope and in the end, Mando was successful in helping these people, and he of course got that iconic armor back before returning to the mission at hand.

But while that plot was quite delightful and engaging, we would be foolish to not talk about the surprising amount of world building that went into this episode. After all, Cobb Vanth was kind enough to inform us as to how the fall of the Galactic Empire caused some serious chaos in the galaxy. Since Mos Pelgo was immediately under siege a few hours after the Rebel Alliance claimed victory at the Battle of Endor and this was just awesome to see. Because we really don’t get enough moments like this from the SWU and it is wonderful to know this series is willing to explore moments like that. Plus, it was also nice to discover that this episode harbored some epic Easter Eggs. Because it was quite delightful to learn that Boba Fett’s jet pack still has that the same flaw in it that Luke Skywalker exploited back in the day, and speaking of the Fett, how incredible was it to see him roaming the Dune Sea?

If anything, that is likely the biggest cameo we’ve seen on this series to date, and hopefully he and Din cross paths down the line and we can learn exactly why he was willing to take off his mask and walk away from everything. In the end however, this was just a delightful and fun and outright epic premiere. One that offered up everything we know and love about this show in the first place, all while taking the time to up the ante since that battle with the dragon was just outright incredible. Which leaves one to wonder what kind of other giant moments, and unexpected cameos, await us in the remainder of season two, and sadly, we will have to wait to find out. Which means that once again, we’re back in that tough place, where we are eagerly counting down the minutes until the next episode, and that’s good thing. Because when a show makes its audience this hungry for more, it’s doing something right. Until next time.   

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