2020, Disney+
Chapter 10: The Passenger
directed by: Peyton Reed (Ant-Man)
After recovering Boba Fett's armor last episode, Mando and the child get snared by a trio of stick-up artists. Mando escapes with ease. He finds space Amy Sedaris playing Sabacc with "Dr. Mandibles" (a man-sized mantisant-like creature) who has information on another sighting of Mandalorians. Turns out there's a frog-lady who has the information and is only willing to give it up in exchange for transport to her husband, who she needs to fertilize her eggs (currently residing in a jar).
The voyage it tumultuous as they must travel at sublight speeds lest her eggs get damaged. They encounter, then run from a New Republic checkpoint, and in the process of hiding on an ice planet, the ship is damaged and then they encounter the spider-things (hints of Alien/s abound). So many spider-things, of various sizes. It goes pretty bad until they are rescued.
The Good
New aliens are always good, so Dr. Mandibles and Frog Lady are both curious creatures to be added.
I like using Western story tropes, where here it'd be like one of the Bonanza gang escorting a pregnant lady from one town to the next where her husband is, but then having to flee bandits and encountering coyotes that they have to fend off overnight. Something along those lines anyway. Seems bog standard. There's even a hot spring to get cleaned up at along the way (which would be the other "escort the beautiful woman to the next town, but try not to let your primal urges overtake you along the way") and Mando reacting to naked Frog Lady is fun.
The Child (Baby Yoda) is really drawn to the eggs the lady carries in a jar of seemingly temperature-controlled liquid. At first you're not sure if the child has some Force-fuelled attraction to the Frog Lady's eggs, like some spiritual connection... but no, he's just hungry and he slurps those suckers down. There's sort of a sitcom-like low-stakes threat of the Frog Lady finding out the cute green baby is eating her unborn offspring (which thankfully doesn't come to pass).
The "traffic stop" the New Republic X-Wings pull on the Razor Crest is kind of hilarious. It's tantamount to "your tail light is out" but Mando is freaked out and runs for it. I think the running put him even more under the microscope, which in the end is what saved his butt.
The spider-things, but we'll get to that.
The Bad
I found this episode a little lackluster, in that it doesn't really do much but slow down Mando's journey in finding other Mandalorians. It's also pretty slow.
I also found the conceits in this episode (the need to travel under light speed because of the preciousness of the eggs, the validity of putting resources into "Space Highway Patrols" when most ship seem to travel at lightspeed, the spider-things' gestation period) a little hard to track. I know it's space opera sci-fi so it's just supposed to be fun, but it's hard not to overthink these things sometimes.
If Frog Lady has the skills to splice a droid for its translation services, then why wasn't she helping Mando fix the ship. She must be capable of doing something?
Baby Yoda' really taking a back seat this season, which is a good move to limit overexposure.
Unreal Problems
Oh, man, there was some sort of shitstorm in the internets about Baby Yoda eating that Frog Lady's eggs. People were calling it a genocide and starting to turn on the hungry little moppet. I don't think it was ever meant to indicate that Frog Lady and her husband were the last of her species and that her eggs were the salvation of her race. And I think the perception was that all of the eggs would get fertilized and become babies but the subsequent episode shows us only one really takes. Maybe frog-ladies produce a swath of eggs and frog-men only produce one massive sperm.
Galaxy Building
Trapper Wolf (Dave Filoni's X-Wing pilot from Episode 6) is back. With him is Carson Teva played by Canadian actor Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, best known for starring in the sitcom Kim's Convenience (just started watching it, it's pretty fun). When they rescue Mando in the end, they mention the events of Episode 6, and both acknowledge what Mando did right, and what he did wrong. They were willing to save him, but they're not helping him with his ship. Lee's story of making it into Star Wars is great nerd wish fulfillment.
Also from Episode 6, the husk of the droid Q9-0 (voiced by Richard Ayoade) appears to be on Mando's ship still, and the Frog Lady hacks it to use as a voice interpreter. It would have been more fun if she, say, carried its head around so they could talk a little more.
The "Krykna" spiders were originally designed for Empire Strikes Back and have previously appeared in Star Wars: Rebels. This is their first live action appearance. They're really gross.
Looking Forward
This leaves the show with the Razor Crest limping away on its journey to Frog Lady's destination. It's not doing too good. I thought this may be it for Mando's #1 ship. Will he be getting a new one next episode?
And where exactly are they heading?
Who is there for Mando to meet?
Will Mando be experiencing any further troubles from the New Republic?
Yes, Toys of that Please
Spider Aliens. In different sizes.
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