Mando and the soon-to-be Dwindling Party
Written by Christopher Yost
Directed by Rick Famuyiwa
Release date: December 13th, 2019
The Mandalorian takes a job from an old acquaintance to bust someone out of prison.
Tropes:
- Ace Pilot: Zero, because Robots Are Just Better. Mando has to hand over the Razor Crest to him, and isn't happy. Not that Zero is impressed with the Crest either, but he's able to pull a very difficult maneuver into the prison ship's blind spot that even Mando couldn't pull off.
- Armor Is Useless: Averted once again, with the Mandalorian's beskar plate tanking multiple blaster shots from New Republic security droids, knocking him around but not actually hurting him. Xi'an's vibroknives also bounce right off of it — the one she does get him with pierces an unarmored section. The security droids shrug off a few blaster bolts themselves, but whatever they're armored with doesn't stand up to a Boom, Headshot! at point-blank range.
- Ascetic Aesthetic: The pristine white corridors of the New Republic prison ship are the cleanest and shiniest location that has ever been seen in The Mandalorian.
- Asshole Victim: Nearly everyone of Ran's crew seems to be bonafide jackasses (with no respect for the Mandalorian at all)—with their rescue target Qin being the worst of them all. They even throw Mando into the prison cell after everything he's done to help them. It does somewhat help us cheer on for their inevitable comeuppance when Mando unleashes vengeance on them. There's also Ran himself, who meets a similar fate.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- After some hide-and-seek in the Razor Crest, Zero finds the Child and prepares to shoot him. The Child seems to use the Force to make the gun misfire and scrap Zero, instead. Then Zero collapses and it's revealed the Mandalorian shot the droid from behind.
- The Mandalorian takes down the other members of the crew in ways that look like they should have been fatal or were leading to that, only for the end to reveal he just knocked them all out and dumped them in a cell. Burg's horns do appear to have been sliced off from the blast door though.Qin: You killed the others.
Mando: They got what they deserved.
- Big "NO!": Mayfeld just barely has time to get one out as he spins to find the Mandalorian behind him.
- Big Red Devil: Burg has all the trappings, red skin, horns, fangs right down to being Immune to Fire.
- Borrowed Biometric Bypass: After being tossed into Qin's cell, the Mandalorian uses his grapple to grab a passing security droid and rip its arm off, which he then uses to unlock his cell from the inside.
- Breather Episode: The Mandalorian ends up not having to face any challenge from the Guild or from the Imperial Remnants in this episode, and is instead working with a band of petty thieves on what seems to be an ordinary job.
- The Brute: Burg is a massive Devaronian, a sadist with superhuman strength and endurance but obviously not the brightest of bulbs. After the betrayal, Mando's hardest fight is against him.
- Bullying a Dragon:
- The other members of the heist crew antagonize the Mandalorian while they're en route to the prison ship, going so far as to try and take his helmet off. They drop the attitude after the Mandalorian singlehandedly dismantles a group of Mecha-Mooks.
- Prior to the heist itself, Mando does a more subtle version of this by pointing out that they're attempting to take on the New Republic, which is a galactic power with a standing military, which is a much bigger opponent to contend with than a rival gang or a crime syndicate. The other heist crew claim that they'll be gone before the New Republic notices... and sure enough, by the end of the episode, the New Republic has taken notice and an X-Wing squadron comes in and easily tears apart Ran's crime hideout.
- Call-Forward: Upon seeing it, Mayfeld disparagingly likens the Razor Crest to a Canto Bight slot machine.
- The Cameo: The unfortunate New Republic warden, Davan, is played by Matt Lanter of The Clone Wars.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: When cornered by the Mandalorian, Qin points out that the Mandalorian was hired to do a job, and killing Qin would cause him to break his contract. The Mandalorian thus delivers him safely, but makes sure that karma will catch up in the form of three New Republic X-wings.
- Captain Obvious:Zero: It seems comms are no longer functioning, therefore you cannot hear me.
- Chekhov's Gun: The Mandalorian pockets the distress transmitter before leaving the control room. After delivering Qin, it's revealed he left the transmitter on Qin so the New Republic would eliminate him and Ran.
- Correlation/Causation Gag: When Zero prepares to shoot the Child, the Child holds up a hand in defense. When the unseen Mando shoots Zero dead from behind, the Child looks at said hand in wonder.
- Creator Cameo: The New Republic X-wing pilots are played by the series' episode directors: Dave Filoni, Rick Famuyiwa and Deborah Chow.
- Cut Phone Lines: After escaping from his cell, Mando locks down the ship and somehow jams the comms with Zero, so they can't make use of his skills.
- Dead Man's Trigger Finger: In the spirit of the trope, Xi'an kills the warden to stop him from activating a distress beacon, but he activates it in the moments of his death anyway.
- Distress Call: The warden on the prison ship has a distress beacon which summons a flight of X-wings to the user's location inside of thirty minutes. Though the crew tries to talk him out of triggering it, Xi'an botches the effort by killing him with a knife in the middle of their talk, causing him to activate it before he goes down.
- Double Subversion: The pilot showed how badass the Mandalorian is by having him cut a dude in half with a mechanical door. Here he fights a Devaronian and shuts a door on the dude's head, only for the Devaronian to stand up, laughing, with the door on his shoulders. Then the Mandalorian nonchalantly shuts the other door.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Xi'an is genuinely happy when the team breaks her brother out of his cell. Subverted, however, with Qin, who then abandons her on the transport.
- Even Evil Has Standards: While on board with the plan to betray the Mandalorian, and just generally being an unpleasant fellow, Mayfeld is briefly taken aback when Qin readily abandons his own sister.Mayfeld: What about your sister?
Qin: What about her?
Mayfeld: Nice family. - Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: When the heist crew first see the Child, they ask if it's the Mandalorian's pet or something. Mayfeld even takes the Child in his arms only to jokingly pretend to drop it, just to rile up Mando.
- Exact Words:
- Qin assumes that Mando killed all of the others; Mando simply replies "they got what they deserved." The Stinger shows that he actually shoved them all into an empty cell on the prison ship to be brought in for their crimes.
- Mando agrees to take Qin back alive as his honor dictates, but no-one ever said that he must protect him once the mission is done.
- Expecting Someone Taller: Burg says this almost word for word when he's introduced to the Mandalorian.Burg: So this is a Mandalorian? I thought they'd be bigger.
- Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: Even compared to the Mando's two previous jobs, this one sucks. He's constantly disrespected and dismissed by old criminal partners who should really know better, takes on a job that threatens to bring down far more heat than he desires, and has to deal with No Honor Among Thieves.
- Fangs Are Evil: Xi'an's got little prosthetics on her canines, making them far more prominent.
- Fatal Flaw: Qin tries to manipulate the Mandalorian's honor in order to have his life spared. Too bad for him that this is rendered moot since Mando is avenging the dead New Republic warden and is playing along in order to leave him and Ran in flames.
- Five-Man Band: The heist crew fits the five-person archetype.
- The Leader: Mayfeld, who runs point.
- The Lancer: The Mandalorian takes this role as the outsider whose personality and work style differs from the others, causing tension.
- The Smart Guy: Q9-0 a.k.a. Zero, the droid member of the team who stays aboard the Razor Crest and guides the others through the prison ship. He insists that he is smarter than all organics.
- The Big Guy: Burg, The Brute who Mayfeld explicitly calls the muscle of the group.
- The Heart: Xi'an, the resident Dark Action Girl with the most salient relationships (implicitly a New Old Flame of Mando, and the mission is the rescue her brother who ends up being the Sixth Ranger).
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: On the way back to Ran's space station, we get a quick shot of the Razor Crest's scanning display; along with an icon for the station, there is a red symbol which most likely indicates the incoming New Republic X-wings.
- Flipping the Bird: Zero raises a finger and his data probe to the Mandalorian while bragging that Robots Are Just Better than organics.
- Foreshadowing:
- When taking out the team, the Mandalorian noticeably avoids several obvious lethal options, choosing to leave his blaster holstered and close to melee range instead. It makes more sense following the reveal at the end that he was planning on locking them in a cell alive.
- Mayfield is the most curious of the bunch about what's under Mando's helmet. Come Season 2, Mayfield becomes one of the first organic beings to see Din's face since his childhood.
- Get a Room!: Xi'an compliments the Mandalorian's new armor, saying he wears it well and uses a rather seductive tone upon greeting him.Mayfeld: Do we need to leave the room or something?
- Grievous Harm with a Body: Burg throws one robot at another.
- Guns Akimbo: Mayfeld, plus another pistol fired with a robotic arm.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Ran tries to launch a gunship to destroy the Razor Crest after the Mandalorian leaves. When the New Republic X-wings show up moments later, they detect the gunship and assume the station is hostile, blasting it to bits.
- Hypocrite: Qin happily leaves the Mandalorian locked in his cell for getting him thrown in there in the first place, but minutes later has no qualms about leaving his own sister to the same fate.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Lampshaded when the Mandalorian is unimpressed at hearing Mayfeld was a marksman for the Empire.Ran: Mayfeld, he's one of the best trigger men I've ever seen. Former Imperial sharpshooter.
Mandalorian: That's not saying much.
Mayfeld: I wasn't a stormtrooper, wiseass! - Informed Ability: At the same time, though, Mayfeld's "marksmanship" tends to involve More Dakka than anything, triple-wielding with a folding robotic arm.
- Ironic Echo:
- When the other mercenaries trap the Mandalorian in Qin's cell, Xi'an tells him that he deserves it for leaving Qin behind on a former job. When the Mandalorian catches up to Qin and Qin asks about the others, the Mandalorian's only reply is "They got what they deserved."
- Ran establishes early on that the extraction will be a "no questions asked" type of job. When the Mandalorian returns with Qin alone and Ran asks what happened to the others, the Mandalorian responds: "No questions asked, that was the deal."
- Jump Scare: In the second half of the episode, after the team has betrayed him and he's turned the tables on him, Din is essentially the horror movie monster, showing up out of nowhere and killing off the villains.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- The heist team rescues Qin, and it turns out he was originally captured by Mando, whom they immediately throw in Qin's cell as payback.
- Ran tries to launch a gunship after the Mandalorian once Qin has been returned. The New Republic X-Wings, already tracking the distress beacon the Mandalorian hid on Qin, take this as a sign of hostility and open fire on the station before the gunship can even take off.
- At the end of the episode Mayfeld, Xi'an, and Burg end up locked in a cell on the prison ship, just like they tried to do to the Mandalorian.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: Thanks to the Lock Down, but even those on the same side of a door make this mistake when hunting Mando.
- Lightflicker Teleportation: Mando does this while sneaking up on Mayfeld towards the end of the episode.
- Master of Unlocking: Mando's first demonstration of his skills is cracking the lock on the prison's barge's docking hatch. He later breaks off a security droid's arm and uses it to open the lock on his cell.
- Mecha-Mooks: The New Republic has taken to using battle droids to guard their prisoner transports, if of a higher quality than those used by the Trade Federation and Separatists several decades earlier.
- Mexican Standoff: One breaks out in the ship's control room between Warden Davan, Mando (who's trying to get him to surrender without triggering a distress beacon) and the rest of the team who want to kill Davan and Leave No Witnesses. Xi'an, the only person without a gun pointed at her, defuses it by killing Davan herself.
- Mook Horror Show: The episode's whole second half is the Mandalorian stalking the rest of the team through the prison ship after their betrayal, using the blast doors to herd them like rats in a maze before sneaking up from behind and taking them out.
- Mugging the Monster: After the crew shows Mando their true colors, he stalks and recaptures three of them, blows away the droid in the crew, and then leaves the jailbreak target to die at the hands of the Republic with the organizer of the whole heist when he expects the organizer will backstab him. None of them would be in their incarcerated predicament or have met their final fate if they didn't try to screw Mando over.
- Mythology Gag: It's not the first time we've seen a Mandalorian involved with a Twi'lek. Boba Fett can be seen flirting with a couple of dancing girls in Jabba's palace, one of whom is a Twi'lek. The Expanded Universe later turned her into the character of Lyn Me.
- Never Found the Body: We never actually see Qin and Ran die, and don't see Ran's station completely destroyed, so they could technically still be alive to cause trouble for the Mandalorian in future episodes (although Qin at least was very close to an exploding gunship).
- No Honor Among Thieves:
- Qin is willing to abandon his own sister along with the rest of the crew if it means he can personally escape.
- Played with regarding Mando's "old friend" Ran, who was apparently in on the plan to double-cross the Mandalorian from the start, but pays him the agreed amount when he brings Qin back to the station as promised, presumably not willing to cross the man who took out the entire crew by himself. However, as soon as the Razor Crest departs his space station, Ran orders a gunship to follow and blow Mando out of space.
- Noodle Incident: The job that Xi'an and Mando pulled on Alzoc III. Mando implies he doesn't want to talk about it and only comments that he he did what he had to do to get out alive. However, Xi'an taunts him that he enjoyed what he did and, because of it, "knows who he really is."
- No-Sell:
- As is usual, Mando's beskar armor can shrug off much of the blaster fire of the security droids — which is quite visibly more powerful when used on other targets. Vibroweapons don't seem to trouble him, either, as he simply shrugs Xi'an's knife-throwing off. She does manage to tag him at one of the armor's joints, but he overpowers her moments later.
- Burg has the honor of managing to neutralize a lot of the weapons in the Mandalorian's arsenal. He is fast and strong enough that a) he can surprise and manhandle two big security droids; b) he can endure being strangled by Mando's grappler; c) he can avoid the whistling birds in a confined space and d) when Mando tries his flamethrower on Burg, he isn't even singed by the flame. Mando has to trap him in two automatic doors just to disable him.
- Obviously Evil: A sinister-looking character with Fangs Are Evil, a Blood Knight with Horns of Villainy, a Cold Sniper with Bald of Evil, and a Smug Snake Smart Guy, all overseen by a Fat Bastard with Messy Hair... Yeah. Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal indeed.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Mayfeld and Burg realize how foolish their previous taunting of the Mandalorian was when they see what he's capable of.
- Mando's reaction when he sees the prisoner they've come to break out.Mandalorian: Qin!
- Ran's satisfied expression turns to horror after discovering that Mando sneakily placed a New Republic tracking beacon on Qin. Cue three X-wings that blast his station to pieces.
- Older Is Better: The job needs the Razor Crest because it's old enough that neither Imperial nor New Republic registries have it on file.
- Old Flame: Xi'an usually addresses the Mandalorian in a sultry tone while he has a noticeably uncomfortable expression upon seeing her that indicates a history. Her sensual tone and remark on how she "missed" him implies there was something between them in the past. Ran even mentions that she was "heartbroken" after the Mandalorian left their group. Mando doesn't seem to share the sentiment. Given how much the crew enjoys harassing the Mandalorian, and that he is implied to have something to do with her brother being imprisoned, she may simply be needling him for fun, or referring to being "heartbroken" at the loss of her sibling.
- Only Sane Man: When it turns out that the New Republic Prison ship has sophonts on board, not just droids, Din is the only one who tries to reason with the Republic guards and spare their lives.
- Out-Gambitted: Ran put the entire thing together as a way to apparently kill or otherwise get rid of the Mandalorian, only for the Mandalorian to not only survive but ensure Ran's own death by leading a flight of X-wings right to his space station.
- Pædo Hunt: When Grogu is revealed, Mayfeld initially asks if Mando "Get[s] lonely up here, fella?", before referring to him as a pet for the rest of the interaction.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: In a Fantastic Racism sense. Mayfeld and the crew make fun of Mandalorians and Gungans, and, if Mayfeld's comment about Xi'an being a "crazy Twi" is any indication, he's also racist against Twi'leks. They're all jerks who sell out the Mandalorian.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Mando objects to attacking a New Republic prison ship, not on moral grounds, but because he doesn't want the New Republic gunning for him on top of the Imperial Remnant and the Bounty Hunters' Guild.
- Prison Ship: The crew have to break into a New Republic prison ship and free a prisoner before the ship jumps into hyperspace.
- Red Herring: Zero discovers Greef Karga's transmission from "The Sin" while fiddling around the Razor Crest's cockpit, setting up a possible betrayal by the heist crew when they learn about the Child's value to the Empire. As it turns out, they intended to betray the Mandalorian all along and the footage never comes into play.
- Rewatch Bonus: One might think that Xi'an's grins, giggling, and significant glances with Burg and Mayfeld as they're preparing to board the prison ship are jumpiness to get into action. But once you've seen the episode, it's clear that her eagerness is twofold: first because she's about to see her brother again after a very long time, and second because she can barely contain her glee over their secret plan to betray Mando (who is responsible for Qin being in prison).
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After their betrayal, Mando quickly turns the tables on the rest of the crew, first by locking down the ship to separate them and then by defeating each of them.
- Running Gag: The Mandalorian unscrews the knob from a lever and hands it to the Child to play with, as he did in "The Sin". This time the baby doesn't even have to reach for the knob first.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- When his comms are shut down, Zero decides quite logically that as he can't help them anymore, he's taking off and leaving them to their fate. Fortunately, he's distracted by the Child, whose value he knows from Greef Karga's message.
- Ran decides to run on seeing three X-Wings on an attack run to his space station. It doesn't do any good.
- Shout-Out: Chapter 6: The Prisoner
- Sixth Ranger Traitor: Qin, whose escape is the focus of the mission, re-joins the group after being sprung from his cell. He also immediately throws Mando in what used to be his cell, and later happily is willing to sacrifice his own sister.
- Smug Snake: The rest of the group is this, being entirely unimpressed with the Mandalorian and constantly mocking him and trying to rile him up when it's all thanks to him that they get as far as they do. By the time they betray him and he turns the tables, they realize how badly they've fucked up.
- Spider-Sense: Xi'an senses Mando has appeared behind her, and spins to throw a knife which knocks the blaster out of his hand.
- Stop Motion Lighting: Mando sneaks up behind Mayfeld down a long corridor with flickering lights, and with each flicker he gets closer... and closer...
- Summon Bigger Fish: The Mando, having already been betrayed once, slips the prison warden's tracking beacon onto Qin just before leaving him on Ran's station. He gets out of dodge right before New Republic X-Wings show up and blow the hanger, since they can detect the gunship Ran is in the process of launching.
- Super-Toughness: Burg shrugs off everything that Mando can throw at him, even a door coming down on his head. Fortunately there's a second blast door that shuts on his face just as he's lifting up the first one.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- The last time the Mandalorian used his whistling birds, he was in a fairly spacious room that gave them space to fly around and track their targets. When he tries them again on Burg in the tiny control room, they impact on the walls before they can change course.
- Ran's crew may be very well equipped for a criminal outfit, but it is no match for actual New Republic military forces. Three X-Wings are more than enough to deal with anything Ran has available.
- Token Good Teammate: Mando is the only one that tries to reason with the warden, even defending him from his trigger-happy partners. He's later disgusted when Xi'an murders him. It's even subtly implied that Mando has always been this back when he was in the group.
- Tuckerization: According to one tie-in reference book, the New Republic soldier's first name is "Lant", a nod to the surname of his actor Matt Lantner.
- Underestimating Badassery: For most of the episode, the crew continually mock the Mandalorian's skills and question if he's even worth bringing along for the job. Burg in particular almost comes to blows with him when he tries to forcefully yank off Mando's helmet. Then they see what he's capable of when he single-handedly takes down a squad of battle droids aboard the prison ship and later again when he takes them all out one by one after betraying him.Burg: Somebody tell me why we even need a Mandalorian?
Mayfeld: Well apparently, they're the greatest warriors in the galaxy. So they say.
Burg: Then why are they all dead? [laughs] - Vibro Weapon: Xi'an loves her vibroknives, and has excellent aim when throwing them.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The crew double-cross the Mandalorian and lock him in a cell once Qin is rescued. When Mando leaves the crew in a cell and returns with only Qin, Ran tries to have his ship shot down. The Mandalorian anticipated this second betrayal, however, and led the New Republic to the station to take Ran out.
