Monday, January 20, 2020

The Mandalorian - The Gunslinger


Forced to land on Tatooine after a space battle with a bounty hunter after the Child, the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) picks up so local work to pay for the repairs by partnering with inexperienced bounty hunter Toro Calican (Jake Cannavale) in tracking down the assassin Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen). Toro needs the credit for such a capture to earn his way into the Bounty Hunters' Guild and is less interested in the money tied to the bounty which the Mandalorian desperately needs. It seems like a good job, though there will be complications.

As with most episode's from the First Season, "Chapter 5" is a self-contained story with the common theme of others coming after the Child the Mandalorian is protecting. After learning from Fennec that the guild is much more interested in the Mandalorian and the cargo he is carrying, Toro, proving himself to be a complete sociopath, changes his plans killing the assassin and making the Mandalorian and the Child his primary targets.

Cannavale is well-cast as a duplicitous snake willing to change direction on the slightest whim, and I was surprised by his decision to kill Fennec rather than accept her offer to take down the Mandalorian together (which would have likely lead to several more double-crosses). I was saddened to see that the episode didn't make more use of Ming-Na Wen who is relegated to mostly a cameo here pushing the plot forward between the Mandalorian and the hungry young bounty hunter. Unfortunately for him, things don't end well for poor Toro whose delusions of grandeur led him to bite off far more than he could chew. With the repairs complete, the Mandalorian and the Child return to space aboard the Razor Crest in order to find more trouble to get into.

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