The Child that started it all.
Written by Jon Favreau
Directed by Rick Famuyiwa
Release date: November 15th, 2019
Target in-hand, the Mandalorian must now contend with scavengers and a baby from the same species as Yoda.
Tropes:
- Against My Religion: When asked to drop his weapon during parley, the Mandalorian objects. "I'm a Mandalorian. Weapons are part of my religion." He relents in the interest of smooth negotiations.
- Aggressive Negotiations: The Mandalorian tries to use his flamethrower to get the Jawas to see things his way after they mock his attempt at speaking Jawa.
- All for Nothing: At first. Mando goes through a long arduous trial to get to the top of the Jawa's sandcrawler, but when he pulls himself up, the Jawas on the roof electrocute him with their guns, causing him to tumble back down to the ground. This forces him to try a more diplomatic approach, which ultimately gets him the parts of his ship back.
- Base on Wheels: Jawa sandcrawlers were always implied to be such, but here we see it really is a fortress, complete with holes for them to stick their heads out of to shoot at invaders or drop junk on them. After an arduous one-man Storming the Castle scene, the Mandalorian gets stunned and thrown off the top, and he's forced to admit it's impregnable. (The one the Stormtroopers destroyed in A New Hope was probably thwarted by them having an army, as opposed to a One-Man Army.)
- Beware the Silly Ones: The episode shows that while Jawas are not the most dangerous or obvious threat in the galaxy, they are still not to be trifled with. Their sandcrawler functions like a mobile fortress and is difficult to assail alone even with beskar armour, and it's made worse when they drop things on Mando or snipe at him from windows. Even when he gets to the top, the Jawas on the roof all blast him with their stun guns, at which point he falls off.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Jawas don't just have a "finders keepers" approach to ownership, but apparently believe that a Mudhorn egg ("SOOKA!") is such an exceptional delicacy that it is worth a fortune in spaceship parts and granting forgiveness to the Mandalorian for killing some of their people when he found them scavenging his ship. Kuiil also claims that they may steal, but they don't destroy.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The two Trandoshans who ambush Mando in the beginning of this episode were seen briefly in the episode prior in the Bounty Hunter Guild headquarters, listening in on his conversation with Karga about this bounty from a distance.
- Continuity Nod: Remember when Vader specified "No disintegrations" to Boba Fett? Now you know what that looks like.
- Defiant to the End: The Mandalorian is battered over and over by the Mudhorn until he can barely stand. Seeing it about to charge him one last time, he puts everything he has into drawing his knife for a final attack. Lucky for him, the infant stops the Mudhorn with the Force.
- Disintegrator Ray: Anyone shot by the Mandalorian's disruptor rifle is instantly disintegrated, with nothing but a few scraps of clothing left behind. He has to reload it after every shot, which is one reason he didn't bust it out during the shootout with IG-11, but it's a hell of a sniper rifle.
- Facepalm: Kuiil actually facepalms with a groan when the Jawas start demanding "the egg" in exchange for the Mandalorian's ships parts.
- Foreshadowing: The Child keeps trying to touch the Mandalorian's wound on his arm. It comes across as child-like innocence now, but the true meaning behind this won't be revealed until the season finale.
- Hard-Work Montage: When he finally gets his parts back from the Jawas, the Mandalorian gripes that he still needs a full maintenance facility to repair the damage. Or they can just knuckle down and have a montage of Building Is Welding.
- Healing Hands: At one point, The Child appears to be trying to heal The Mandalorian's wounds with the Force. The Mando stops him and places him back in his crib before he can do anything.
- Hit-and-Run Tactics: The Mandalorian is ambushed by Trandoshans while returning to his ship — although they quickly lose the advantage of surprise to him. After killing some of them, he discovers they also have tracking fobs.
- Jabba Table Manners: When the Mandalorian brings them the egg the Jawas start eating it raw, smearing the yolk over their faces in the process.
- Jerkass: The Jawas not only strip the Mandalorian's ship to the bone for no reason other than that it's there, but also mock his attempts at speaking their language when he tries to get his stuff back.
- Killer Rabbit: You would be hard pressed to find anyone who would take a Jawa seriously, yet between their numbers and their heavily armored sandcrawler, they're the first antagonist in the series that the Mandalorian is simply incapable of beating in a straight-up fight.
- Made of Iron: The Mandalorian takes a lot of punishment over the course of the episode, starting with falling from the top of a rather tall sandcrawler, and ending with getting smacked around by the Mudhorn. He is wearing full beskar armor, but that isn't going to help with the blunt impact of falls.
- Mama Bear: The Mudhorn is not happy about the Mando attempting to steal her egg.
- Mind over Matter: The baby uses the Force to lift the Mudhorn the Mandalorian is fighting, keeping it airborne long enough for the Mandalorian to recover and stab it to death.
- Mythology Gag: The last time a Mandalorian got in a fight involving a Rhinoceros-like creature and a force user, it did not end as well...
- Negated Moment of Awesome: Played for laughs. Having successfully scaled the side of the Jawa sandcrawler with great effort and to epic music, dodging attacks and flung objects all the way, the Mandalorian reaches the top, pulls his blaster, promptly gets shot by half a dozen Jawa tasers, and falls backwards over the edge to slam hard into the dirt below.
- Power-Strain Blackout: The baby passes out and sleeps for several days after lifting the Mudhorn, long enough for the Mandalorian to rebuild his ship and lift off.
- Recovery Sequence: The end of the episode has a montage of the Mandalorian and Kuiil working to rebuild his ship after the Jawas ripped it to pieces.
- Self Stitching: The Mandalorian sustains a minor wound from one of the Trandoshans' vibro-axes. He shows he's Not So Stoic as he tries to Heal It With Fire.
- Shout-Out: The Jawas ramming their Sandcrawler against a rock to try to squeeze the Mandalorian is straight from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
- Silence Is Golden: The first ten minutes of the episode have virtually no dialogue, the only vocals are cooing from the Child and the Jawas' panicked screams during their encounter with the Mandalorian.
- Whale Egg: The Mudhorn, which resembles an enormous woolly rhinoceros, lays hairy eggs, which the Jawas consider a delicacy.
- Wham Shot:
- The dead Trandoshans who tried to ambush the Mandalorian and the baby are revealed to also have a tracking fob, implying there are multiple factions/people really interested in the baby.
- The baby using the Force to lift the Mudhorn.
- You No Take Candle: The Jawas hoot and holler at the Mandalorian when he tries to speak to them in their language, saying he sounds like a Wookiee. The subtitles show the sentence is more or less grammatically correct but it's pretty simple and he's obviously having to think hard about putting it together.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: The Mandalorian kills the Trandoshan bounty hunters and makes it back to his ship, only to find the Jawas have stripped half the ship for parts. This forces the Mandalorian to stick around on the planet long enough to discover just why so many parties are interested in the baby.
