The Mandalorian - "The Prisoner" - Chapter 6 Review
Thank the maker it's Mando Day! The continuing adventures of the space cowboy and his youthful charge are once again upon us. Settle in, get your popcorn, and prepare your fragile little minds for more Star Wars action. Yippee Kay Yaaaayy and a Pew Pew Pew!!!!
The Razorcrest lands in a docking bay. The Mandalorian walks out of it and meets up with an old friend of his named Ran. Hey it's Detective Bullock and guy from SOA, Mark Boone Junior! Mando reached out to him looking for work and Ran just happened to be a man down on an upcoming job. Ran has to execute a rescue mission and he needs the off the grid capability of the Razorcrest. He questions Mando on his relationship with the Guild but the bounty hunter tells him he'll be fine. Ran welcomes him back with no more questions asked. Ran brings him down on the deck and introduces him to comedian Bill Burr, I mean a former Imperial smartass sharpshooter named Mayfeld and he was definitely not a Stormtrooper suggesting that he really can shoot straight. Mando and the guy size each other up. Ran reminisces and tells Mando that Mayfeld is in charge. They make their way back over to the Razorcrest and meet the rest of the crew. The muscle of the group is a Devaronian named Burg, played by genre legend Clancy Brown. He sizes up the Mandalorian and delivers a sweet Snake Plissken line in thinking he'd be bigger. Q9-0 will be the pilot and the remaining member is the Mandalorian's old girlfriend, a dangerous looking Twilek named Xi'an. She's portrayed by the amazing Natalia Tena known to geekdom as Tonks from Harry Potter and Osha in Game of Thrones. She likes knives.
The pilot droid taps into the spaceship to set it up and sees an old message from the leader of the bounty hunters guild. Mayfeld goes over the plan to rescue their quarry. Mando sees that it's a New Republic prisoner transport ship and realizes he's signed up for a jailbreak. He's told it's all droids manning the ship and that he should chill out and just not get caught. The pilot droid emerges and they discuss how stealthy the Razorcrest is and that's whey they're using it. Mando is informed the droid will be piloting his ship and he is not pleased. But a jobs a job so they all get on board and head off into space.
The mercenaries stir and explore the Mandalorian's ship as they rocket through hyperspace. They bicker and discuss being a Mandalorian, with the group picking on Mando and challenging him. They wonder what he looks like and Mayfeld does a gungan impersonation questioning if he's one. Eventually they tussle and Baby Yoda is revealed. They all wonder what he is, so even the people in the Star Wars universe don't even know what he is. With little warning the droid piloting the ship drops out of hyperspace and begins his maneuvers. In the drastic turns BABY YODA FALLS ON THE GROUND! Thankfully he's OK and Mando is instantly there to pick him up and put him back in his little space. Whew. The ship couples with the prison ship and Mando goes to work breaking them through the hull and into the jailing vessel. The squad enters the ship and goes to work.
They make their way through the hallways, eying the different species of prisoners that inhabit the ship. They encounter a little mouse droid but Burg shoots it and draws the attention of some security droids with laser rifles. They immediately pin the group down with their laser fire. Mando sneaks up behind them and in a sweet action sequence takes them all out. He takes some fire but his fancy armor saves him as he dispatches the robotic jail squad. The group makes its way to the central hub hoping to find the prison cell of their compatriot but instead find a human worker there. Kudos to Matt Lanter, veteran voice actor of Anakin Skywalker on the Clone Wars, in his fun but brief appearance. Mando doesn't want to kill him and he gets into a Reservoir Dogs Mexican Standoff with Mayfeld over his life. Xi'an takes him out, much to the dismay of the Mandalorian. Unfortunately the officer got off a help signal before he died and now the squad has a ticking clock over their heads. In a little while a New Republic squad will hone in on its signal and arrive to deal with them. They run into some droids along the way to the cell and the Devaronian awesomely takes them out with his great strength, smashing them like they were tin cans. They find their prisoners cell and it's revealed that their prize is their old Twilek partner who Mando had left behind to be captured. Burg punches Mando into the cell as Mayfeld closes the door behind him. Captured! Betrayal! Ooohhh they're gonna get it! Turns out the captured Twilek is Qin, Xi'an's brother.
The Mandalorian stews in the jail cell until a security robot passes by. Mando lasso's him over to the jail cell and breaks off its arm. He shoots it in its robot head and uses its arm to unlock the cell from the inside. Just after the pilot droid found some more information about Mando and Baby Yoda on the recording, he notices that the bounty hunter has escaped from his cell. Mando makes his way to the central security hub and locks the place down. Closing doors and turning on the red lighting. Q9-0 loses communications with his group but hears Baby Yoda adorably cooing behind him. He picks up his rifle and when he turns back Baby Yoda is gone! Quick little sucker when he wants to be.
Qin demands Mayfeld get him off the ship, family be damnded, and takes one of his guns. Mando finds the signal device as Qin and Mayfeld hunt for him. Xi'an and Burg split up and look for Mando. Q9-0 looks for Baby Yoda on the ship. The youngster hides amongst the crates in the back. Burg finds the master control room and searches for Mando. He finds a lasso instead around his neck from the hiding bounty hunter. Burg yanks him down through the grating and they go to war on each other. Mando's missles miss. Burg beats on him and tosses him around like a rag doll. Mando gets to fire off his flamethrower and bakes Burg, but it has no effect! Davaronian's must be fireproof! Mando gets tossed around some more but eventually tosses his larger attacker into the doorway. He knife throws the door closed and it slams down on him from above. Awesomely Burg is tough enough to take the door drop and stands back up with it resting on his shoulders. Mando reaches out and hits another button and watches as another set of doors slams shut on Burg's face. Xi'an screams in rage as she just missed getting there.
On the Razorcrest the droid continues to look for Baby Yoda. They play cat and mouse just as Mando does with Xi'an. He tracks her to a hallway and she lets him have it with a steady stream of throwing knives. He bides his time, uses his armor, and gets in close to take her out. He stalks Mayfeld in a cool little camera/lighting sequence until he's right up on him and it's too late for the ex-Empire sharp shooter. Qin tries to escape but Mando catches up to him just before he can. Qin convinces him to do his job and take him back alive. Aboard the Razorcrest the pilot droid finds Baby Yoda's hiding spot and moves to shoot him. How mean! Baby Yoda starts to use the Force on him but instead Mando shows up and puts a blast right through the robots chest.
Back on Ran's ship Mando delivers Qin, no questions asked, and gets his payment. Mando leaves and Ran gives the order to blow him outta the sky. But uh oh, Mando put the New Republic tracker on Qin and some X-Wings show up. Special shout out here to those pilots who were played by Dave Feloni, Rick Famuyiwa, and Deborah Chow. All three have directed episodes of The Mandalorian and what a thrill it must have been to pilot those X-Wings on camera. The X-Wings blow up the gunship and hangar as Mando slips away. Aboard the Razorcrest he unscrews Baby Yoda's plaything and gives it to him. In a final moment, we see that Mando kept all of the other mercenaries alive, but imprisoned in a cell on the jail ship. Boy will they want some revenge.
Great episode here. We got some fun backstory on the Mandalorian and got to see him in action in a group setting. I really enjoyed the casting and the costumes and the effects and the gunplay and the action and the drama and the sets and the music and the lighting in this one. The show is still firing on all cylinders and I can't wait to see where they are going to go with this crazy sci-fi western.
