"I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold."
Written by Jon Favreau
Directed by Dave Filoni
Release date: November 12, 2019
"It is good to restore the natural order of things... after a period of such disarray, don't you agree?"
— The Client
A Mandalorian bounty hunter tracks a target for a well-paying client.
Tropes:
- The Alleged Car: The Mandolarian's hatred of droids gets him saddled with a rattling rustbucket speeder as the only one with an organic driver.
- All There in the Manual: The name of the planet where the episode's final fight takes place (Arvala-7) is never mentioned on-screen. It is only known from Kuiil's entry in the Databank
. - Bait-and-Switch: The climactic firefight has the Mandalorian and IG-11 slowly warm up to each other over the course of the battle, each getting used to the other's near opposite operating styles, even saving each other's lives more than once. They even agree to split the bounty, seemingly setting them up as hazy allies in the future, only for the Mandalorian to be forced to kill IG-11 when he insists on terminating the baby.
- Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: IG-11 insists on terminating the baby because that's what his contract specified. He aims, there's the sound and light of a blaster shot reflected off the Mandalorian's helmet, and then he falls to the ground dead, the Mandalorian having shot him in the head without even looking at him.
- Bar Brawl: One of these breaks out in the Cold Open when a trio of thugs decides it's a good idea to pick a fight with the Mandalorian.
- Batman Cold Open: The episode opens on one of the Mandalorian's typical bounty runs, before moving onto the actual first arc of the show, involving taking a job for an Imperial remnant.
- BFG: The thugs the Mandalorian faces use an E-WEB heavy cannon mounted on a hover platform. The Mandalorian manages to turn it on them.
- The Blacksmith: The Mandalorian takes the beskar ingot he got as an advance payment from the Imperials to a Mandalorian armorer, who forges part of it into a new pauldron for his armor.
- Bizarre Alien Biology:
- Yoda's species was already known to be extremely long-lived, and now we find out they're still in infancy at age 50.
- The Mandalorian's first bounty in the series is a Mythrol (a fish-guy) being bullied by a bunch of thugs who say that his musk glands will fetch a good price. He later tries to play the "I'm an alien with weird biological needs" card as an excuse to get to use the toilet on his ship ("It might take a while because I'm molting!"), but he's clearly making most of it up so he can stick his nose where it doesn't belong.
- Boom, Headshot!: The Mandalorian does this to IG-11 to keep the baby safe, as IG-11 was told to terminate the asset, while the Mandalorian will be paid better if he brings the baby back alive.
- Bullying a Dragon: The thugs in the Cold Open know enough about Mandalorians to recognize beskar on sight, but still think it is a good idea to antagonize the Mandalorian wearing said beskar. The fact that they immediately realize that most of his armor actually isn't beskar seems to contribute...
- Character Catchphrase: When Kuiil wishes to put an end to a discussion, he says, "I have spoken." And he says it a lot.
- The Dreaded: Ravinaks. Giant walrus like monsters swimming under the ice of the planet in the Cold Open. They are the reason people warn outsiders to stay off the ice.
- Determined Homesteader: Kuiil, the Ugnaught moisture farmer from Arvala-7 who doesn't like the way his world has been trespassed upon by criminals and mercenaries.
- Equipment Upgrade: The Mandalorian replaces the right pauldron on his armor with a brand new one made from the beskar he receives as advanced payment for the mission.
- Establishing Character Moment: The Mandalorian first appears saving a man from a group of bullies... to bring him in for his bounty.Mando: I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold.
- Failed a Spot Check: When the Mandalorian arrives at Arvala-7, he manages to miss a full-grown blurrg getting practically next to his face. It serves as a Mythology Gag to Luke being similarly ambushed by a Tusken Raider.
- False Cause: One of the thugs at the beginning of the episode gets in Mando's face for spilling his drink when he entered the building. However, the drink had already been spilled by the thug himself when he stood up and hit the table in the process.
- Family-Unfriendly Violence: During the bar brawl, the Mandalorian takes out a fleeing Quarren by activating a Dilating Door while the guy is sprawled halfway through it. The camera cuts to the bartender, but a sickening sound can be heard.
- Fantastic Racism: On the receiving end, the Mandalorian is subjected to some slurs (i.e. "Mando") by the bar patrons (admittedly, that doesn't end well for them). On the giving end, he makes no effort to hide his distaste for any and all droids he encounters — later revealed to be because his yet-unknown Doomed Hometown was massacred by Battle Droids during the Clone Wars.
- First-Episode Twist: The Mandalorian's bounty is a baby from the same species as Yoda.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: The speeder driver who brings Mando and his Mythrol bounty to his ship warns them to stay off the ice. Moments after the driver is paid and starts driving away, he is eaten by a huge Ravinak that bursts out from under the ice, and which then turns for Mando's ship.
- Forging Scene: For the first time, the audience is treated to the process for turning beskar into Mandalorian armor, when the Mandalorian gets a new pauldron for his armor forged.
- Gatling Good: The Nikto mercenaries at Arvala-7 decide that the best way to deal with the Mandalorian and IG-11 is to bring in a heavy repeater blaster capable of demolishing buildings and punching through armored doors.
- Gory Discretion Shot:
- At the beginning of the first episode, the camera angle changes just before an unfortunate Quarren mook is bisected by a closing door. All we see is the lower half of his body fall to the floor.
- Subverted at the end of the first episode. The blaster fire reflected on the Mandalorian's helmet seems like one of these for IG-11 killing the baby Yoda. In actuality, it's the Mandalorian shooting IG-11.
- Guns Akimbo: Justified with IG-11, who is built so it can both shoot and aim in two different directions at the same time. Mando does this when he has stormtroopers on both sides of him, but averts this normally.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: A Quarren mook at the opening scene has this happen, courtesy of the cantina's irising mechanical door the titular character shoots the controls of.
- Human Popsicle: While "looking for a bathroom" on the Razor Crest, the Mythrol finds a rack of carbonite slabs containing other bounties, and winds up joining them after the Mandalorian catches him snooping around. Making one wonder what he meant by "I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold."
- Ignored Expert: A bizarre case of him ignoring his own warning. The taxi driver tells Mando and the Mythrol, “I’d stay off the ice if I were you,” then promptly goes out on the ice and gets himself killed.
- I Like Those Odds: When Pershing interrupts at an inopportune moment, the Stormtroopers and the Mandalorian draw on each other, leading to this exchange:The Client: Please lower your blaster.
The Mandalorian: Have them lower theirs first.
Stormtrooper: We have you 4 to 1.
The Mandalorian: I like those odds. - Instant Sedation: Justified in the case of Kuiil's tranquilizer rifle in that the darts also deliver a taser-like electric shock upon impact.
- I Want Them Alive!: The Client would prefer that the Mandalorian bring in the target alive, but acknowledges how that's not always feasible and will pay a lower price for a dead target. Pershing, on the other hand, is insistent on the target being brought in alive.
- Jump Scare: The blurrg suddenly showing up on Mando's scope, way too close for comfort.
- Leeroy Jenkins: While the Mandalorian is scouting the compound to figure out the best way to proceed, IG-11 just walks up to the front door and demands that the goons turn over their target. The Mando has no choice but to join in the fight.
- More Dakka: The Weequay eventually roll out an E-WEB heavy cannon after they've surrounded IG-11 and the Mandalorian, since the former's armor stops normal blasters and the latter is behind cover. This works to their disadvantage when he turns it on them.
- Mythology Gag:
- This wouldn't be the first time in Star Wars that someone has been bisected by a door. Dave Filoni was also the director for this episode.
- The Mandalorian's Mythrol bounty mentions that he'd hoped to be home for Life Day.
- Kuiil reminds the Mandalorian that his people once rode the mythosaurs, a species of Kaiju-like reptiles from Mandalore in the Legends continuity.
- No OSHA Compliance: Iris doorways like the one seen in the first episode's cold open are apparently sharp enough and can close hard enough to bisect human-sized beings.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Played for Laughs with IG-11, whose reaction to being shot at is a deadpan "Alert. Alert. Alert."
- The Mandalorian has this reaction when the goons he and IG-11 are fighting bring out a repeating blaster big enough to be considered a field artillery piece.
- One-Man Army: Individually, the Mandalorian and IG-11 both qualify, and between them they are able to kill several dozen goons in the Arvala-7 compound.
- Pragmatic Villainy: The Client is well acquainted enough with the realities of bounty hunting to know that I Want Them Alive! may not always be a viable option, so he tells the Mandalorian that proof of death will be acceptable, but at a reduced fee.
- Professional Killer: The Bounty Hunters' Guild doesn't limit itself to capturing people. For the right fee, they'll terminate the target upon finding them.
- Proportional Aging: Yoda died of old age at around 900 years. Members of Yoda's species are still babies at age 50.
- Quizzical Tilt: The Mando looks at the Child this way after shooting IG-11.
- The Remnant: The Client, lurking away in a backwater guarded by stormtroopers whose once-pristine armor has clearly seen better days.
- Right Hand Versus Left Hand: The Mandalorian's contract calls for live recovery, with a reduced payment for proof of death. IG-11, working for the same Guild, is sent after the same target with a straightforward kill order.
- Sea Monster: While collecting his first bounty of the episode, the Mandalorian has to deal with a Ravinak, an aquatic creature large and strong enough to: a) smash its way through solid ice, b) eat a speeder whole and c) keep a starship from taking off by biting on its landing gear. Think a combination of a whale, a hippo, an alligator, and a walrus.
- Shoot Out the Lock: The bounty hunters use the repeater blaster to shoot multiple holes into the gate for it to fall over.
- Shout-Out: Mythrols (the species of Mando's first bounty) look quite a bit like Bolians.
- Sistine Steal: The closing shot of the episode is the Mandolarian touching his finger to the Child’s outstretched finger, evoking E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in particular.
- So Much for Stealth: Mando scopes out the village from a hidden location before deciding how to proceed — and then IG-11 marches in and demands that they produce the asset. Much shooting ensues.
- Suicide as Comedy: The IG-11 droid keeps trying to self-destruct the second things look bad because it's programmed to never be captured in case company secrets are discovered. The Mandalorian has to keep telling him to not self-destruct.
- Too Dumb to Live: The Quarren in the Cold Open. Instead of surrendering, he decides to escalate the situation by shooting the Mandalorian with a blaster. The Mandalorian promptly makes him Half the Man He Used to Be.
- Understatement: The warning about staying off the ice doesn't quite describe the danger from a lurking Ravinak.Mythrol: "Stay off the ice"! That's the understatement of the millennium!
- Used Future: Even more used than usual for the Star Wars universe, as the Storm Troopers the Mandalorian encounters are... not clean.
- Vehicular Turnabout: The goons bring out a massive repeating blaster to take out the Mandalorian and IG-11, but the Mandalorian takes control of it and uses to slaughter almost everyone left in the compound.
- We Need a Distraction: The Mandalorian has IG-11 draw the fire of the blaster cannon so he can shoot the gunner and hijack it.
- Wham Shot: The Mandalorian's bounty is a baby from the same species as Yoda.
- What a Piece of Junk: The Mandalorian's bounty from the Cold Open has a very low opinion of the Razor Crest, the Mandalorian's ship, repeatedly suggesting they hire a cruiser to come pick them up.
- Worthless Currency: Played with. The Mandalorian refuses payment for bounties in Imperial Credits, though since Greef Karga says "They spend," it's ambiguous whether this is because of the Empire being reduced to The Remnant, or the Mandalorian Tribe having a grudge against the Empire for The Purge of their home planet. He is told the only other option is half value in Calamari Flan, but he still chooses that over the Imperial credits. When he takes a job from the Remnant later, they offer to pay in beskar steel ingots.
- Would Hurt a Child: IG-11 has no problem murdering an infant, as his contract specified the asset was to be terminated. As the Mandalorian's employer wants the asset alive (and the last shot implies the Mandalorian might see a kindred spirit in it), this gets IG-11 a laser bolt through the cranium.
- Worm Sign: The advancing crack in the ice version as the Ravinak makes a beeline for the Razor Crest.
- You Are a Credit to Your Race: After they've fought side-by-side, Mando decides that IG-11 isn't so bad for a droid.
