The Marshal and The Mandalorian
Written and directed by Jon Favreau
Release date: October 30, 2020
The Mandalorian goes back to Tatooine, looking for a fellow Mandalorian that may help lead him to the Child's people.
Tropes:
- Acid Attack: It's not enough that the Krayt Dragon is a giant beast the size of a capital ship, it also spits acid as a long-range weapon.
- Actor Allusion: Thanks to BoJack Horseman, Peli's offer to buy the Child's spawn doesn't mark the first time Amy Sedaris demonstrated an interest in Interspecies Adoption.
- All Animals Are Dogs: The massiffs tamed by the Tuskens behave like dogs when the Mandalorian calms them using Tusken language.note
- Always a Bigger Fish: Alluded to. The Tusken Raiders tell the Mandolorian that the Krayt Dragon lives in an abandoned Sarlacc pit, a notion which Cobb questions since Sarlaccs are sessile organisms which never forsake the spot from which they are anchored and live for many millennia.Cobb: Lived on Tatooine my whole life. There's no such thing as an abandoned Sarlacc pit.
Mandalorian: There is if you eat the Sarlacc. - Aspect Ratio Switch: The aspect ratio widens to fullscreen during the fight with the Krayt Dragon, then returns to normal as the Mandalorian drives away at the end.
- Attack Its Weak Point: The first attempt to kill the Krayt Dragon involves setting off charges under its belly, its weakest point. It fails because the charges are simply too weak to breach its hide even when used optimally, forcing the Mandalorian to improvise.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- It seems the Mandalorian is about to meet up with Boba Fett, only to discover that it's instead a man who took Boba's armor for himself after the bounty hunter fell in a Sarlacc pit. Just when it looks like we won't see Boba... the last scene shows us the real Boba Fett as a final Wham Shot.
- A Tusken Raider is shown leading a bantha out to the Krayt Dragon as a sacrifice so it won't attack their camp for a little longer. However, once the dragon charges out, it eats the Tusken and leaves the bantha alone.The Mandalorian: They may be open to some fresh ideas.
- Bedouin Rescue Service: In his backstory, Cobb explains that he got picked up by Jawas after the Mining Guild ran him out of town and he passed out from dehydration. Apparently they show better hospitality to humans than droids, giving him water and buying his crystals instead of just leaving him to die and stealing them.
- Bullying a Dragon: A Mandalorian has to earn his Beskar. And this Mandalorian is famous for fighting off half the scum in the Outer Rim, to boot.
- Call-Back:
- Given the Mandalorians' past with the Jedi as the Armorer told him in the Season 1 finale, the Mandalorian's best bet to reunite the Child with his people is to find other Mandalorians to get more clues on where and how to find the Jedi.
- Mando lands his ship at Peli's docking bay, and she's delighted to see The Child again. This time around, he allows her crew of pit droids to fix the Razor Crest, and she remarks that his attitude on droids has softened since the last time she saw him, no doubt thanks to IG-11's Heroic Sacrifice in the previous episode.
- Cobb explains how Mos Pelgo's problems began after the second Death Star exploded. In a flashback, the residents are watching holographic footage of the explosion.
- The Cameo:
- Gor Koresh, the Cyclops-like Abyssin seen in the Cold Open is portrayed by none other than John Leguizamo. The same introductory sequence also features two Gamorrean Guards fighting in a ring, as well as multiple species seen in recent entries of the franchise.
- Temuera Morrison makes an appearance in the last few seconds of the episode as Boba Fett, marking the first time he played the character in live-action.note
- Captain Obvious: A pissed-off sand dragon the size of a star cruiser emerges roaring from the dunes. Both villagers and Tuskens turn, horrified, to look at the monster. Mando's reaction? "There he is."
- Chain of Deals: Mando wants Fett's armor from Cobb. To get the armor peacefully, he has to kill the Krayt Dragon. To kill the Krayt Dragon, he needs to secure the help of the Tusken Raiders. To get the Tusken Raiders to help, he needs to convince the townspeople of Mos Pelgo to help as well.
- Character Overlap: The titular marshal is Cobb Vanth from The Aftermath Trilogy.
- Children Are Innocent: When Mando is about to throw down with Cobb over Fett's armor, Cobb doesn't want to fight in front of The Child. Mando simply responds that "he's seen worse."
- Conflict Killer: Cobb and Mando are about to draw on each other over Cobb using Mandalorian armor. Then the Krayt Dragon rolls through town, and Cobb realizes he can barter his way out of this without having to fight a Mandalorian.
- Continuity Nod:
- Cobb's speeder is an engine that resembles one from Anakin Skywalker's podracer with a seat mounted to it. Mos Espa is also named on the map of Tatooine.
- Just like in Return of the Jedi, Boba Fett's jetpack malfunctions from a good strike to the back. It even makes the same whining sound.
- When the Sand people travel to meet the villagers, they ride in single file, as Obi-Wan Kenobi noted in A New Hope.
- The Krayt Dragon's roar is a combination of Obi-Wan's roars from the 1977 theatrical edition of A New Hope and the 2011 Blu-ray edition.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Mando versus Gor Koresh and his goons at the beginning of the episode. Mando drops every last one of them and doesn't break a sweat.
- Once he gets Boba Fett's armor, Cobb kills the Mining Collective members in Mos Pelgo with ease.
- A Day in the Limelight: Tusken raiders have copious amounts of screentime (the most they've ever had in any Star Wars media to date) and the viewer gets immersed a bit more into their culture thanks to Mando perfectly understanding it, speaking their language and translating.
- Disproportionate Retribution: While camping out with some Tuskens, they try to make Cobb drink from a black melon, a disgusting but totally harmless fruit sacred to their culture. According to the Mandalorian, this is their way of making Cobb amend for previous transgressions against their people. Cobb is incensed by this, throws the fruit away, and threatens to blow a hole in the Tusken that offered him it.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Believing that finding other Mandalorians is his best bet at learning more about the whereabouts of the Jedi, Mando is led to Tatooine to find another Mandalorian bounty hunter, who does happen to have history with the Jedi.
- Even if the Mandalorian met up with Boba, it's doubtful Boba would know anything of value to the Mandalorian. Boba was alive during the Clone Wars, sure, but all he knows about the Jedi is how to fight them, and his only encounter with Jedi after they were driven to near-extinction was fighting Luke a couple of times in the comics and Return of the Jedi.
- And to a less important matter, Boba may have been "born" of Mandalorian heritage, but he was never reared in its culture. Unknown to Mando, Boba's armor was also scavenged from elsewhere, so technically, Boba is also a pretender.
- And his search for the Jedi brings him to Tatooine, birthplace of the last Jedi Knight. Which Mando doesn't seem to know, and no-one else brings up either.
- Dramatic Unmask: "Boba" unmasks himself after meeting up with Mando... revealing that he is neither Boba nor a Mandalorian.
- Enemy Mine: Lacking the numbers to beat the Krayt Dragon with just the Tuskens, the Mandalorian enlists the aid of the residents of Mos Pelgo, who have suffered from repeated Tusken attacks over their perceived theft of Tatooine's water. The Tuskens agree to refrain from attacking the town as long as they get to keep the Dragon's corpse.
- Every One Calls Him Barkeep: The Weequay barkeeper of the small town's cantina is only called "Weequay" in the episode, despite his friendship with Marshal Cobb.
- Evil Power Vacuum: As soon as the Empire retreated, the Mining Collective saw an opportunity to take over Mos Pelgo. Cobb even says "power hates a vacuum."
- Exact Words:
- Gor Koresh tries to lure the Mandalorian into betting his armor on the current fight in the pit. "Well, I'll bet you the information you seek that this Gamorrean's going to die within the next minute and a half." Din refuses, which is for the best since Gor Koresh demonstrates how he intended to win the bet, by killing the Gamorrean himself with his blaster.
- Fittingly, the Mandalorian returns the favor when he promises Gor Koresh that he won't die "by [his] hand". Instead, once he's got the information he needs, the Mandalorian leaves him strung up from a light post and shoots the light so the night critters will eat him.
- Face-Revealing Turn: Boba Fett shows up at the end of the episode, looking to recover his armor.
- Fantastic Racism: The Tuskens and residents of Mos Pelgo have a really difficult time working together.
- Feed It a Bomb: When setting off mining charges under its belly fails to kill the Krayt Dragon, the Mandalorian lures it into eating a bantha carrying the rest of the charges, and himself along with it. After shocking it so he can fly free, the Mandalorian blasts it apart from the inside.
- Fire-Forged Friends:
- Mando and Cobb become this over the course of the episode. During their first meeting, they're fully willing to shoot it out over Cobb's scavenged armor. By the end of the episode, they shake hands and express a desire to cross paths with one another again, with Cobb turning over the armor graciously as a reward for Mando's help.
- The townsfolk of Mos Pelgo and the Tusken Raiders have a tenuous peace, perhaps even understanding, after slaying the Krayt Dragon together.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: If you're not familiar with the Aftermath books, it seems that the episode is building up to the Mandalorian meeting Boba Fett, a Mandalorian bounty hunter last seen on Tatooine... then "Boba"'s arrival is marked by him speaking with a voice that isn't Daniel Logan, Dee Bradley Baker, or Temuera Morrison, and that he's wearing an unfamiliar red bodysuit (along with being too tall for the armor). Then the figure does a Dramatic Unmasking to reveal an unfamiliar face.
- Flashback: We get to see a full flashback as Cobb Vanth tells his story: how the Mining Guild took over Mos Pelgo after the second Death Star was destroyed; Cobb Vanth fleeing with some loot from them; being rescued by Jawas in a sandcrawler, with whom he exchanged the precious crystals against Boba Fett's armor; and finally Cobb returning to town and going full gunslinger on the Mining Guild goons, thus settling into his role as marshal.
- Foreign Queasine: The Tuskens drink from a strange black fruit that smokes when it's broken open. Cobb is so disgusted that he nearly ruins their alliance over the idea of having to drink it. He swallows his pride and drinks it down later after the Mandalorian cools things down.
- Foreshadowing: When Cobb Vanth asks Din whether they're gonna shoot it out over Boba Fett's armor in front of Grogu, Din replies that Grogu's "seen worse". Then we find out that Grogu's been at the Jedi Temple when Order 66 was carried out; "seen worse" likely doesn't even begin to cover it.
- Funny Background Event: The Child sees Mando prime the Whistling Birds, then leans forward and hits the switch to close the dome of his pod.
- Giant Equals Invincible: The Krayt Dragon's hide is so tough that mining explosives can't penetrate even at the weakest point, and blaster fire — even the Mandalorian's deadly disintegration rifle — doesn't even scratch it. It takes shoving dozens of rock-blasting charges down the thing's gullet and blowing it apart from the inside to finally kill it.
- Hand Signals: Mando communicates with the Tuskens partly in sign language.
- Harmful to Minors: Cobb points out the presence of the Child when the Mandalorian threatens violence if Cobb doesn't remove his armor. The Mandalorian simply responds that the Child's seen worse and sticks to his threat.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Averted as usual with Mando, but played mostly straight with Cobb. After the Dramatic Unmask, he leaves it sitting on the table when he's about to duel an actual Mandalorian, and he stays bareheaded right up until the moment it's time to take on the dragon.
- I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: W. Earl Brown previously performed with Pedro Pascal in a failed pilot for a The Sixth Gun Live-Action Adaptation. After "The Marshal" dropped, Brown confirmed
that when Lucasfilm shot Mando first meeting Cobb and Taanti, Pascal wore Mando's suit himself, as opposed to dubbing over a stand-in. - Indy Ploy: Mando is forced to improvise after the plan falls apart.Cobb: What are you going to do?
Mando: I don't know, but wish me luck! - Interface Spoiler: If you have closed captions on, you know "Fett" is named Cobb Vanth from his first line.
- It Can Think: The Krayt Dragon shows a surprising amount of intelligence, like going for the bait handler instead of the bait, retreating into its tunnel instead of coming all the way out when the townspeople and Tusken mount their assault, tunneling to attack from multiple angles, raining acid spit to attack from a distance, and using high ground to increase the effectiveness of its acid spit (and avoid further explosive attacks). It's also mentioned that it can recognize the sound of a starship and knows to avoid it.
- Monster of the Week: The Krayt Dragon terrorizing Mos Pelgo and a local tribe of Tusken Raiders, forcing them to join forces with the Mandalorian to defeat it.
- Mundane Utility: Though often seen as a primitive and brutal weapon, the gaffi stick is also a utilitarian tool for the Sand People, useful for... bantha dental upkeep.
- Mysterious Watcher: The final shot seems to be of the Mandalorian driving away with the twin suns overhead, but then pans over to Boba Fett overlooking him on a nearby cliffside.
- Mythology Gag:
- Massiffs, the preferred attack pets of the Tusken Raiders, are seen at the village.
- We see the return of the black melons, a Tatooine fruit introduced in Star Wars (Marvel 2015). And likewise, it's undesirable by humans.
- Greater Krayt Dragons, already established for years as the top links of the food chain in Tatooine's ecosystem, finally make their physical on-screen debut in this episode.
- The initial method of killing the Greater Krayt Dragon is basically what the protagonists of Knights of the Old Republic had to do when they encountered a Canyon Krayt Dragon in order to proceed. Afterward, the Tusken Raiders extract a pearl from its corpse, which was a reward for killing it in-game. The final method to slay the beast also reflects how the protagonists killed a Rancor earlier in the game as well.
- It was also established in Star Wars Legends that the Greater Krayt Dragon could eat a Sarlacc.
- Cobb being mistaken as Boba and a Mandalorian due to taking his armor, with the ending implying that the very much alive Boba is not happy that his armor's been taken brings to mind bounty hunter Jodo Kast, who wore similar Mandalorian armor to Boba to impersonate him after his supposed death, which earned him the deadly ire of the man himself when he turned up alive.
- The missile launcher on Boba's jetpack is taken directly from the character's first official action figure, which was infamously recalled when the spring-loaded launcher caused many injuries to kids who used it improperly.
- When Cobb escapes from the Mining Guild in the flashback, he carries another of the infamous ice-cream-maker props (this one full of gems).
- Nerves of Steel: Mando doesn't even flinch when Gor Koresh and his mooks draw blasters on him. He's even perfectly calm later on when he has to get eaten by a gigantic Krayt Dragon.
- No-Sell: A fighter punches Din in his beskar helmet-clad head, only for it to basically turn into Din headbutting the Twi'lek grappling him from behind. He then tries again and just hurts his fist. And the dude just keeps swinging! Buy a clue!
- Nothing Is Scarier: We never get a good look at the red-eyed creatures that eventually tear Koresh apart, and it makes them more terrifying.
- Not Quite Dead: Cobb mentions that he found the Mandalorian armor in a Jawa sandcrawler, and at the end, the owner of said armor is revealed to the audience to be alive. It's also implied the R5 unit at the spaceport is the very same one that blew its motivator in the beginning of A New Hope, making him a (very) long term example.
- Oh, Crap!: Cobb has two in quick succession: first when he's told the model the Tuskens use to illustrate the size of dragon compared to them is to scale, and then when Mando tells him he volunteered Cobb's townsfolk to help killing the beast.
- Out-of-Character Alert:
- For audience members not familiar with the Aftermath novels, you'd be tipped off that "Boba" isn't who he seems when he speaks in a voice not provided by one of Boba's usual actors and wants to share a drink with Mando, things that you wouldn't expect from the reserved Boba.
- For Mando, he realizes that "Boba" isn't a Mandalorian (or at least not his kind of Mandalorian) when he offers him a drink — something that would require taking off their helmets. Then, a few seconds later, "Boba" unmasks himself and says that he's never met a Mandalorian before. Of course, the real Boba Fett was not raised Mandalorian and doesn't have the same creed about unmasking. Which, granted, is not something Mando would know, but EU-savvy audience members would, so that part's mostly Five-Second Foreshadowing In-Universe.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Din leaving Koresh dangling like meat on a rope for the prowling predators in the dark after pumping the crook for info and promising not to harm him may seem pretty malevolent... except Koresh openly admitted to robbing and murdering Mandalorians for their beskar armor to Din's face.
- Planning with Props: The Tuskens set up a small model of themselves, Cobb, and the Mandalorian fighting the Krayt Dragon using small rocks and animal bones. Cobb is disheartened to learn that, despite the crude model, it is in fact to scale and the thing is a lot bigger than he thought.
- Pocket Rocket Launcher: Boba uses his backpack-mounted mini-missile to distract a kraytt dragon.
- P.O.V. Cam: We get to see through Gor Koresh's one eye after Mando hangs him upside-down to interrogate, meaning the viewpoint is inverted.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Mando gets a nice one just before wiping the floor with Gor Koresh's goons.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The shadow-dwelling creatures that eat Koresh have glowing red eyes.
- Rent-a-Zilla: The Greater Krayt Dragon. It's large enough to swallow an entire Bantha whole, and as massive as it appears on-screen, that's only a fraction of it since most of its body is still submerged under the sand.
- Retcon:
- Cobb Vanth's story about how he got the armor differs from the version in Chuck Wendig's Aftermath novel. Specifically, it leaves out the gunfight Vanth gets into with a rival bidder before getting the armor. It may be possible that Vanth is just an Unreliable Expositor and left that part out to sound a bit more heroic, or just to save time.
- In Aftermath Trilogy, Cobb still has his Mandalorian armor well after making peace with the Tusken Raiders.
- Mos Pelgo is instead called Freetown in the Aftermath Trilogy (it is later shown to have been renamed as such in The Book of Boba Fett), and Jabba's rancor keeper Malakili, a Hutt infant, and a Twi'lek deputy are notable residents of the settlement.
- Sand Worm: Subverted, despite using the spirit of the trope. The Greater Krayt is a massive, Nigh-Invulnerable monster that burrows through sand and rock with ease, but the worm-like head we see is only a fraction of the beast. It's able to burrow as it does using its ten massive legs.
- Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: Upon being told there's a Mandalorian on Tatooine, Mando scoffs that he never saw one there, on the entire planet. To be fair, the vast majority of Tatooine is a desert wasteland uninhabited by sentient creatures, other than a couple of small cities, Tusken tribes and scattered farmstead. And he'd expect to hear about other people in Mandalorian armor from the locals.
- The Sheriff: Cobb, as indicated by the episode title, appears to be Mos Pelago's town marshal, a more localized version of county sheriffs once common in towns too small for a full police force.
- Shooting Superman:
- One of Gor Koresh's guards attempts to punch Mando in his Beskar-helmet-protected head three times. All it does is hurt the guard's hand.
- In Cobb's backstory, one of the Mining Collective guards shoots him in the chest, which bounces off the Beskar armor plating.
- Shout-Out: Tatooine was heavily inspired by Arrakis right from the start, and this episode takes that even further with a titanic sandworm-like beast, plus the Tusken Raiders describing the villagers killing them as "stealing their water". The idea of a giant, underground monster bringing terror to a small desert town that has to band together to kill it also brings Tremors to mind.
- Simple Solution Won't Work: The Mandalorian offers to fly over in his ship and blast the Krayt Dragon, only to be told by Cobb that it would sense his ship coming and burrow underground to protect itself.
- Swallowed Whole: The Greater Krayt Dragon is so gargantuan that it can swallow a bantha in one bite. This comes in handy later when Mando needs to get some explosives inside of it, letting it swallow him and a bomb-laden bantha whole. Since it doesn't chew, Mando is able to shock his way free before blowing it up.
- Take Care of the Kids: After working out that he needs to get the Krayt to eat him, Mando tells Cobb Vanth to take care of the Child for him before activating Vanth's jetpack to get him out of the way. Luckily Mando's able to escape the beast's throat before the explosion can kill him so the request ends up being unnecessary.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The Sand People and the villagers of Mos Pelgo aren't very enthusiastic about joining forces, but they recognize that they need each other's help to take down the Greater Krayt.
- Tranquil Fury: Despite his usual stoicism, it's obvious that Mando is beyond enraged when he sees Cobb wearing another Mandalorian's armor and makes it clear that he wants it back now.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Mando explains the plan to kill the krayt dragon during a Lock-and-Load Montage. It naturally goes south when the explosives fail to kill it, forcing him to improvise so he can blow it up from the inside.
- Visual Pun: When Koresh and his goons have Din surrounded at gunpoint and Din refuses to surrender his armor, Koresh states he thought Din said he wasn't a gambling man. Din says he's not, and covertly readies his Whistling Bird launcher... which are conveniently close to the spot one hides a playing card up their sleeve.
- Wham Shot:
- After years of only being mentioned in multiple materials of the franchise with their spine-chilling reputation being acknowledged, the Greater Krayt Dragon, the definite apex predator of Tatooine, finally makes its physical debut in an installment of the saga (its head does, anyway) and hoo boy, does it live up to the hype.
- It was already implied in the Aftermath books that the Mandalorian armor that Cobb found belonged to Boba Fett, but now we have visual confirmation.
- The final shot of the episode is of the real Boba Fett observing the Mandalorian driving off with his armor.
- Wormsign: The arrival of the krayt dragon is signified by a very prominent sand disturbance.
- Wrestler in All of Us: One of the Gamorrean fighters, in the beginning, attempts to hit the ropes and rebound onto Din. The Mando simply moves out of the way and allows him to crash into the bleachers.
