Warning: major spoilers ahead for the fifth episode of The Mandalorian Season 1 on Disney+. Be sure to catch up on the latest live-action Star Wars TV action before you proceed!
After a three episode arc that could have been a movie, episode four of The Mandalorian was the first self contained adventure. We began, and completed, a chapter of our hero's life, and then we moved on. Episode 5 of The Mandalorian largely follows this same pattern, giving a story with a real beginning and a real end. Which is not to say what happened here won't be important to the bigger picture.
We're now into the second half of the first season of The Mandalorian and while most of our previous questions have yet to find any answers, we now have a few more to add to this list. Let's jump in.
How Do Spaceship Physics Work Exactly?
Our episode opens with the Mandalorian already being pursued by another bounty hunter who has tracked him down, through those magical fobs we assume, and is trying to take The Child from him. He loses an engine in the fight but he's able to overcome this hunter by pulling a Tom Cruise.
Like Maverick in Top Gun, Mando hits the brakes, lets the attacking ship blow past him, and then opens fire, taking out the other hunter. It's a pretty sweet move except...that's not how space works. I haven't studied physics since college, but with that whole lack of gravity or atmosphere thing, stopping on a dime, as Mando seems to do, is basically impossible. Your ship is going to move in relation to whatever directional force was last placed on it. At the very least, this move is way more complex in space than it would be on earth. Mando is one hell of a pilot.
Seriously, What’s The Issue With Droids?
When Mando arrives back in our favorite retched hive of scum and villainy, Mos Eisley spaceport, he take pot shots at the droids who run out to start checking out his ship. It's not that he doesn't want anybody touching the craft, he knows it needs work, but he just doesn't want the droids to be the ones to do it.
This calls back to the first episode of the series when Mando refused to take a speeder that was being driven by a droid. He seems to have an issue with the entire concept of droids. Except, at the end of the previous episode, we see Baby Yoda and Mando (in the image above) get onto a cart that seems to be clearly being pulled by a droid. So what's going on?
Why Does Mando Leave the Door Open?
My favorite part of this episode of The Mandalorian had to be when Mando takes the brunt of the mechanic's anger when she admonishes him for not knowing anything about kids. That is clearly true. Any parent would never do what he does here.
First, he leaves the kid sleeping in the ship and goes off to the cantina. Then, he proceeds to just leave the door open on the ship, allowing Baby Yoda to just walk down the ramp for the world to see. As the parent of a 2-year-old, I know that it doesn't matter how soundly your kid is sleeping, that could change any minute. This kid seems like it can take care of itself. If he had just left the ramp up, it probably would have been fine until Mando got back.So why leave the ramp down like that.
Why Was The Mos Eisley Cantina So Empty?
As somebody who has grown up with the original trilogy and can still remember the first time I saw it, when I think of Star Wars at all, the first image in my head is of the Mos Eisley Cantina. All those interesting and weird creatures. Some of them a bit scary, others simply fascinating. Even before the Special Edition filled it with even more life, it was our first glimpse into the larger world of Star Wars.
And yet, when the Mandalorian walks into the exact same place, it's kinda dead. There are a few creatures there, to be sure, but if this were an actual western a tumbleweed would have blown in with Mando. It's a far cry from the place we saw in Star Wars: A New Hope. Did Obi-Wan and Luke just happen to show up during happy hour? Has Tatooine fallen on hard times since the Empire fell?
Are Tuskan Raiders Ninjas?
In another callback to Star Wars: A New Hope Mando and his new "partner" Toro, run into some Tuskan Raiders and, while Toro is looking at some of them threw a pair of binocs, another pair show up standing right next to him. A hilarious reference to the way Luke Skywalker got jumped in Episode IV.
At the time, most of us probably chalked up Luke's error to the fact that he was a dumb kid who just wasn't paying attention. However, now it looks like that's not entirely the case. This pair of Sand People shows up silently and they apparently do it right in front of The Mandalorian. He must watch them approach. It seems they're just capable of moving without any evidence when they need to. Perhaps we should give Tuskan Raiders a bit more credit.
Who’s Our Mystery Man (or Woman)?
One thing that The Mandalorian has largely steered clear of so far is anything resembling a cliffhanger ending. Most major conflicts resolves themselves and while we're certainly curious what happens next, there's been no last minute stinger to get us really worked up and getting crazy for the next episode, until now.
The final moments of "The Gunslinger" shows us somebody approaching the body Fennec Shand, the assassin that Mando had been hunting. She still appears to be dead, but whoever it is walks all the way up to her and kneels down before the episode cuts to black. Who is this mystery person? Another bounty hunter who has been denied a prize? Were they after Fennec or Mando?Are we lucky enough that maybe Fennec isn't dead, because Ming-Na Wen wasn't in nearly enough of this show.
This last question we will almost certainly find an answer to before too long, it will end up being relevant somehow. The rest of the questions we've asked about The Mandalorian, who knows?
