RECAP:  The Mandalorian S1:E6:  The Prisoner

SOME SPOILERS FOLLOW. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.

The Mandalorian Chapter 6: The Prisoner

Still in need of funds, and unable to take Guild sanctioned jobs, Mando hooks up with a group of what seem to be criminals/unsanctioned bounty hunters/assassins (you never know for sure). Mando knows their leader (Mark Boone Jr.) from back in the day when he was trying to make a name for himself, presumably also in his pre-Guild days; or maybe they were all in the Guild then. I don’t know, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that they want him and his ship to help them break one of their members out of a New Republic prison transport. Mando doesn’t like the set up, especially the idea of starting trouble with the NR. He reluctantly agrees and allows Mayfeld (Bill Burr), the Devaronian Burg (Clancy Brown), Twi’lek Xi’an (Natalia Tena), and droid Q9-0 (Richard Ayoade) aboard his ship. Mando may be on the same team as these guys, but they are definitely not friends, and this episode has some of the tensest moments of the series. We know Mando is a bad mother, but these folks are all bad mothers too; and Mando is outnumbered in the small confines of his ship. Of course when you get a group like this together, there is going to be a lot of posturing and sizing up; but I for one got a sense of real danger here. At one point they discover Baby Yoda hiding in his little broom closet. Mando convinces them he is some sort of pet (should have said he was an emotional support animal), and their interactions with him are interrupted by their arrival at the prison transport. Mando has been assured that the ship is staffed only by droids, and he really gets a chance to rain destruction on them. These droids aren’t like the Trade Federation’s B-1 battle droids, though. They present a real threat and look cool. The group make their way to a control room where, much to their surprise, they find an actual person. A New Republic Fleet trooper, who threatens to activate a distress beacon that will summon a strike team to destroy the transport. Another tense stand-off that ends with Xi’an killing the guy.

Finally coming to the cell of the person they were there to rescue, Mando discovers that it is Xi’an’s brother Qin, another former associate of the Mandalorian and it also seems like he says that Mando is the reason he got captured in the first place? I think I heard that right. Anyway, what’s a good gang of lowlives story without the old double cross? And they double cross away by kicking Mando in Qin’s cell and leaving him locked up. Again, some real tension here; I was like, how’s he going to get out of this? He’s Mando, man. He lives for this kind of thing. It’s why he gets up in the morning. He gets out (and, bonus, mutilates a droid) and turns the table on those fools. He goes to the control room, starts closing off routes, and then gets started picking them off. I was reminded of Rorshach’s line from Watchmen “I’m not locked in here with you, you’re locked in here with me!”. The whole sequence, including the music, has a real horror vibe to it. Finally he gets to Qin, who surrenders and reminds Mando that if he doesn’t bring him back, he doesn’t get paid. I should also mention that, while all of this is going on, Q9-0 has remained on board the Razor Crest and his hunting Baby Yoda. He finds him, and it looks like BY is going to use the Force on him; but you don’t really need the Force when your Mando Daddy can just come up behind and blow his freakin’ head off. I’m telling you, our hero really gets his droid rage on for this episode. He returns Qin to the space station that whoever they are use for their base. The strict “no questions asked policy” means that...no questions are asked about what happened to the others. That said, you can just tell something else is about to happen. It’s palpable. Besides, what’s the point of putting Mark Boone in a role if you’re not going to let him be as skeezy as humanly possible. That’s wasted money right there! Sure enough, as soon as Mando backs out of the driveway, they prepare to launch a gunship to take him out. Remember the panic button that the NR trooper was threatening to push earlier (and actually did push)? Suddenly, 3 X-Wings come out of hyperspace and tear into them. The pilots are Dave Filoni, Rick Famuyiwa, and Deborah Chow in cameo roles. Man, they go in there with the oh so familiar sound of those X-Wing engines and blaster cannons, and MAN I LOVE STAR WARS!!

This episode turned out the be way better than I was expecting it to be when I read the description. I think a lot of that is due to the great supporting cast: Mark Boone Jr, who is always a delight; Bill Burr, or as you may know him: angry Boston Irish comedian #42358B, was better than I expected (I like his comedy, but the only acting I’ve seen him do has been comic roles on sitcoms); legendary crowd pleaser and genre fan favorite Clancy Brown; Natalia “Osha from GoT” Tena; Richard “The IT Crowd” Ayoade; and Ismael Cruz Cordova (who apparently, and I kid you not, used to play a character on Sesame Street named Mando) as Qin. This episode was also great for the precious glimpses it gave us into the now dearly departed New Republic. The sterile environment of the prison ship was a notable change to the dirty, well worn places we’re used to seeing on this show. Seeing an actual NR trooper was a great surprise; and those security droids were really quite awesome. There was a lot of great action figure potential in this one. A lot. Remember, the next episode will stream next Wednesday, December 18, 2019.

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