11 minutes.
11 minutes and 11 seconds, to be exact.
That is how far the second episode of The Mandalorian ran without a single word of dialogue being spoken.
This is another example of showrunners Jon Favreau and Dave Feloni, along with S1:E2 director Rick Famuyiwa (DOPE, OUR FAMILY WEDDING, THE WOOD), leaning into the Spaghetti Western feel of this show HARD. When we finally DO get dialogue, the first line is spoken by Nick Nolte's Ugnaught moisture farmer, Kuiil, whom the Mandalorian returns to for assistance after his ship is stripped bare by Jawas.
We see a few times in this episode why Vader specified "No disintegrations," because WOW... it's crazy and awesome. The Mandalorian's disintegration of a few Jawas leads to some tension later, when he is forced to bargain with them to get his parts back.
The Mandalorian's exchange with the Jawas affords most of the humor in the episode, including a great line where the lead Jawa tells him that he "Speak(s) terrible Jawa. You sound like a Wookiee."
This episode weaves elements of the manga, "Lone Wolf And Cub", along with films like Akira Kurosawa's THE HIDDEN FORTRESS. in with the existing constant of the Western genre that defines the overall feel of the series, and does so to great effect.
Speaking of Lone Wolf and Cub, the "cub" in this series is the Yoda baby introduced in the closing scene of S1:E1, and it gets to really shine this time. We see that it can walk, is nimble enough to catch frogs (and can swallow them whole), and the reason it is so sought by Dr. Pershing (who is apparently a geneticist/cloner, since his right shoulder patch is the same worn by the clones and cloners on Kamino)... this thing is VERY strong with the Force. We see it try to heal The Mandalorian after he is injured in battle, then, later, SAVE him using Force levitation. The bond between The Mandalorian and "the child" is growing more apparent. I expect this will continue to grow, and to have a larger impact on both characters, as well as the developing story.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this episode, and can't WAIT for next week's installment.
That's it for now, so until next time,
Keep it geek, and MTFBWY.
Benny No-Good
