The Mandalorian: S2 Chapter 9–The Passenger

Mandalorian Season 2 Spoilers Ahead!

If you’re a parent, the second episode of Season 2 of the Mandalorian might have struck a chord with you.

First you’ve got Din Djarin, trying his best to parent the Child, who clearly is in his terrible two’s stage despite being 50 years old. Din keeps telling the little devil to stop eating Frog Lady’s eggs, and guess what? He doesn’t listen. Sound familiar, Mom and Dad? Clearly Mando isn’t feeding his little one enough to get him through his growth spurt. Lots to learn.

Then you’ve got Frog Lady herself, who is trying to get her eggs back to her husband on the planet Trask to be fertilized. They’re not quite children yet, but they’re the potential of her future pollywogs, and so she’ll trust this Mandalorian she doesn’t even know to get her where she needs to go. She figures out the little green rascal is eating them, and so clutches them protectively at the end of the episode.

And then we have the big spider mama herself, coming out in full force to protect her horrible little creepy crawlies, because, once again, the Child is eating other creatures’ babies. But because we hate spiders, we don’t care if those babies get disintegrated or squashed; in fact, we feel a deep need for them to be destroyed.

Anyway, as a Mom I just kind of noticed these parent/children dilemmas and parallels in this episode, and thought it was interesting.

I’ve heard a lot of people complaining that this episode disappointed them, was “boring,” or was just filler, compared to the first episode. And maybe that’s true–from a certain point of view, of course. We’ve gotten so used to extraordinarily good content that we expect it all the time. Or we were just so pysched about Boba Fett, we wanted them to follow up with him immediately. I get it. I do, too. And I’m chomping at the bit to see Jedi. Any Jedi. And who knows if we’ll even see them this season at all? As any Jedi master will tell you, we need to utilize patience, young Padawans.

Personally, I thought The Passenger was anything but boring. The fight with the scavengers/bounty hunters at the beginning, the chase with the X-Wings, and the frantic escape from the spiders–how can any of that be boring? I was on the edge of my seat with the spider thing, I can tell you, because for me, spiders are the stuff of nightmares. Anyway, I thought it was quite entertaining, and the humor–a big part of Star Wars–was abundant and wonderful in this episode. Seeing Dave Filoni as Trapper Wolf again was a nice touch, and a good reminder that the New Republic is out there doing its thing, and don’t you forget it! Also, I think my favorite new alien is Dr. Mandible.

So I’m just going to file this one under “creature-feature” fun and move on, anxiously awaiting next week’s episode. Maybe then we’ll get the answers we’re hoping for.

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