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S02E57: Rapidly Rewatching Mando S2E3
24 Plays21 days ago
We're back to the rewatch and chatting about "The Heiress" and... what the frack, is that Starbuck? Join us as we dive into another quality episode of The Mandalorian!
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Setup
00:00:00
Speaker
We're catching up with the heiress and we're doing it real quick. Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short for a star trooper?
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome back to Shore for a Stormtrooper, where I am joined by my friends, my forever friends and former teammates, Ben Dyer and Phil Salmo, um which I am also bringing up because I am in Chicago now. I have relocated to Chicago and I have most of the important things with me. But one of the things that didn't make it here yet is my podcasting microphone. So If my tones don't sound quite as dulcet as normal, it's because I'm using AirPods. um So forgive me in advance, but I think you'll make out what I am saying.
Discussion on Mandalorian Chapter 11
00:00:48
Speaker
We are here to return to our Mandalorian watch slash rewatch. And we are talking about chapter 11, the heiress. And here is the
00:01:04
Speaker
Summary of it provided by my new best AI friend, Claude. Now my wife is referring to him as my boyfriend before he was oh no well you know she was referring She was referring to Gemini or ChatGPT as my girlfriend.
00:01:21
Speaker
Now this is my boyfriend. Not unfair. ah Chapter 11, The Heiress, is the third episode of season two directed by Bryce Dallas Howard and written by Jon Favreau.
00:01:34
Speaker
Mando crash lands on the ocean moon of Trask, gets double-crossed by fishy locals, and then finally meets other Mandalorians. But they're not what he expected. They take their helmets off.
00:01:47
Speaker
Enter Bo-Katan Kryze, live and in the flesh. The episode ends with a breadcrumb that changes everything. Find Ahsoka Tano. Now, there is a lot to unpack for Star Wars nerds just in that statement and, you know, in these characters that we're seeing. But this is why I want to ah particularly start with Phil, who has not seen The Clone Wars.
00:02:18
Speaker
Phil, what did you think of this episode? What did you think of Bo-Katan Kree's? Yeah. So, you know, we, last time we talked, we talked about episode two and I think in general, if I, if I remember correctly, our vibe on that one was not super strong. I mean we liked certain parts of there's, yeah, not our favorite of the bunch. I really liked the way that we came into this episode and it had been, you know, a few weeks since I'd watched any, and it was a great opening. You know, I was really locked in. I really loved the crash landing. Um,
00:02:49
Speaker
And I feel like it was a great way to kind of kick off the episode. I felt like it was action packed. I feel like there was a lot in here. It was a really, even for somebody who doesn't maybe know all the lores you alluded to, Bob, it seems like a really rich episode with a lot baked in. It doesn't feel like there's a lot of filler. feels like they really use every moment. Um, I love the twists and turns.
00:03:10
Speaker
Um, I feel like we see Mando and the child in a bunch of different precarious situations. Um, And, you know, I really, i liked it. A couple couple things as well. Just, you know, obviously and knowing that Favreau is a big movie guy. i feel like there's a lot of allusions to Alien in this episode in particular with those face hugger adjacent aliens that we see a couple times. And it just, you know, I just see that felt like a little Easter egg from Favreau.
00:03:39
Speaker
One thing that I will say about the episode, again, overall, I really liked it, especially in comparison episode two. And this is more picking nit. and to use you know the Bill Simmons ringer term, um that it feels like for Mando, somebody who is very intelligent and intuitive,
00:03:58
Speaker
feel I feel like he trusts too easily and I feel like he finds himself in these really precarious situations. Maybe that's the world they live in, but it just feels like he doesn't, you know, just he thinks that everything's going to go well. It seems like he has to trust these people innately and then inevitably they double cross him or something goes wrong. And it just feels like it's a recurring theme and I'm getting, you know, maybe just a little bit.
00:04:22
Speaker
um It just feels a little bit repetitive, I
Episode Direction and Character Development
00:04:25
Speaker
think. So that's the one thing, interesting you know, I just sort of come in as a, but overall, I really liked it. Good. Yeah. I'm glad you liked it because this is one of my favorites, but a lot of that has to do with my history with Bo-Katan Krize and the Ahsoka reference and everything. Ben, what's your reaction to this episode?
00:04:41
Speaker
um As you know, i have not gotten deeply into Rebels or the Clone Wars animated series. ah So I didn't know a whole lot about Bo-Katan before going through this stuff and and future episodes in which more Mandalorian stuff happens. But um As a kind of first impression, first of all, who doesn't love Katie Sackhoff? I mean, she is fantastic. I've loved her since Battlestar Galactica. Great, great role. And I guess she was also the voice of that same character in Clone Wars. So a neat way to carry that through. ah
00:05:17
Speaker
Bryce Dallas Howard's direction here in this episode, I think is so much more confident, so much more action. Great camera shots, all kinds of stuff. I remember the first time I saw it, it really seemed like a ah great episode because when we we get all those kind of exterior shots, the ships is there in this yeah space.
00:05:36
Speaker
You get this kind of wonderful shot of the Mandalorian in the foreground and the the three other Mandalorians that he's just met kind of flying off the ship as it gets ah blown up. That seemed like a kind of Spielberg kind of economy. When she kind of pulls back, we see our main character in the foreground after we've seen other things happening. It's just one shot and it gives you all this information. So I think i think Howard has really you know got some great direction in this episode. um huge fan of how they kind of developed the Mandalorian lore here, right? Yeah. There's so much going on because everything we knew about the Mandalorians, we're kind of expecting is, well, this is what the main character, our protagonist, the Mandalorian, that's what he's, that that's what defines what that means. Yeah. Right.
00:06:26
Speaker
And now we don't have that. We're we're kind of like, wait, what? this is he's Are they some kind of weirdo you know fringe sect or something? What's going on? It's really interesting. And you know when it first came out in the whole, we don't take off our helmets and this is the way with the Mandalorians, we had never seen any of that in the Clone Wars or Rebels or anything. So it was kind of a surprise as to what's going on. And now we get a little bit of an explanation of why that's true. And I think that we are starting an arc of why does Mando, why does Din Djarin believe what he believes?
00:07:05
Speaker
Is that like a fringy culty thing or is that really the way? um I think it's it's interesting what happens through the rest of season two.
00:07:16
Speaker
And then it's also interesting in season three, but you can gauge by my tone of voice. I didn't really like where that storyline went in three. but one But yes, I thought, again, it's one of my favorite episodes, just some great stuff.
00:07:34
Speaker
Katie Sackhoff, Phil, I don't know if you ever watched the new Battlestar Galactica, but she played... Starbuck and she was wonderful in it. And as Ben said, yeah, she did the voice of the character. She created the character in animated form.
00:07:49
Speaker
I think that this was the first time that an animated character ah came to live action but played by the actual, the same actor, which
Music, Action, and Directing Homage
00:08:01
Speaker
is cool. And there's some interesting story you can look up about how, what a struggle it actually was for her to find the physicality of Bo-Katan after just doing the voice for a while.
00:08:13
Speaker
Right. Something interesting behind the scenes, right? i you It's interesting, you know, and I really enjoyed, you know, I think it's a good segue, Probably my favorite part, you know, is sort of that hijacking sequence into kind of the climax of the episode. And I just think it's it's great. I mean, i I particularly love kind of the initial entry and i s the music, the musical choices, I think is really good. It's something that I feel like it's a twist kind of on the Mandalorian themes we've been hearing musically throughout the episodes as far, but it feels a little bit different, like more synthy and it feels like it's a little bit of like hip hop influence as well in some ways. um
00:08:50
Speaker
I really liked that. And obviously it's a really action-packed sequence. The entire hijacking sequence up to them taking control of the ship. I don't know the name of the Imperial commander of the ship, but he's a great actor. He's one of those, like, that guy. Titus Williver. Titus Williver, right.
00:09:09
Speaker
Okay, yeah there we go. um Really liked that. You know, when he, like... And when ju we see a you know brief Giancarlo Esposito appearance, long live the empire, and he knows exactly what to do. And then his electric cyanide pill in his mouth. Oh, so good. Brutal. yeah Yeah. So really liked that in particular from this. And I agree with you, Ben. I felt like this was really confidently directed and plotted. And it it just felt like a really strong entry overall.
00:09:38
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So there's some more some more behind the scenes and some more Easter eggs that are worth talking about with this episode. The opening sequence, which you mentioned you mentioned earlier, Phil, I think, of the Razorcrest coming into the atmosphere and burning up and the ah whole, are they going to make it?
00:09:58
Speaker
Somebody right after the episode was released put it side by side with Apollo 13, which of course was directed by Bryce Dallas Howard's dad with the Apollo 13 coming back in the atmosphere. And it's a shot for shot remake.
00:10:12
Speaker
And they called it out and she responded. She's like 100% accurate. It was an homage to her dad, which I just love. And she tells a story about how she basically like grew up. She was 12 going on 13 when they filmed Apollo 13.
00:10:29
Speaker
She was on the set every day, just basically acting as a production assistant. And that's where she really started learning the craft of directing. from watching her dad direct. And so that's just a lovely story. That's really fun.
00:10:43
Speaker
um The other Mandalorians, Casca Reeves, the the other woman Mandalorian, is played by Mercedes Varnado. If you look in the in the credits, it says Mercedes Varnado.
00:10:56
Speaker
But Mercedes Barnado is better known by her wrestling name, Sasha Banks. She is a professional wrestler. She was with the WWE and now I think she's with AEW or somebody else. I'm not sure. I think she got hurt.
00:11:13
Speaker
I thought she looked very familiar. That makes a lot more sense now. was like, I can't place where I've seen before. You can't place her, Yeah. Okay, I'm actually, I'm looking at the Wikipedia page for her right now, and I've just discovered something that is life-altering. She's actually got Snoop Dogg as her cousin.
00:11:29
Speaker
I did not know that. Wow. I mean, does this mean someday we could get Snoop in the Star Wars universe? I don't know, friends, but I hope so. i mean But he's helped it into the Olympics, so that's good. that That's right.
00:11:41
Speaker
So, yeah, and of course, the Long Beach connection. You know, my my friend Haiti actually went to high school with Snoop Dogg. So i don't know, maybe she can hook us up. So if he ever, you know, does get into Star Wars, maybe Haiti can, I don't think so. We don't really know each other in school very well. The other, the the gentleman Mandalorian, Axe Woves, was played by Simon Cassianides, who is known for genre stuff as he was in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,
00:12:10
Speaker
which a Marvel TV show, I have to admit, I watched the first season of it and then I just dropped off of it. So I don't remember him being on that. So, um but that was some interesting things. Yeah, this whole like children of the watch it is a fringe culty thing.
00:12:28
Speaker
That's very, very interesting. Yeah.
Mandalorian Lore and Future Developments
00:12:32
Speaker
And again, like I said, we're going to play with that a little bit more. Another big drop of lore is the importance of the Darksaber.
00:12:41
Speaker
starts to really come out in this. so we see we see Gideon wielding the Darksaber in the tag at the end of of season one as he breaks his way out of the TIE Fighter, but you don't really know what it means. Now you're starting to understand. I think they don't call it out, but they hint at it.
00:13:00
Speaker
i Bo-Katan is looking for something that Gideon needs and Gideon has, and what that is is the Darksaber. So... Yeah, I'm actually really interested in this because as I was watching this episode and I'm like, cool, we're going to meet some more Mandalorians. I mean, I'd seen this before, of course, so I've kind of got a vague sense of how it's going. But I'm sitting here watching this and I know there's all this extra lore, there's all this surrounding stuff. And I want to actually put this to Phil, as you're watching this, Phil, obviously you're not bringing all that into this. How well or poorly do you think that the episode is done on just kind of giving you that stuff in a standalone way? I mean, does it feel like you're for news? Yeah. Yeah. Does it feel like it's kind of doing a good job of standing on its own or do you feel like these are ah kind of member berries and things like that?
00:13:50
Speaker
And so you're saying in terms of do do i feel like the episode stands on its own regardless of the fan service? Well, I guess I'm asking if you feel like the fan service, there's two ways you could do this, right? Like you could do this in a way that was bad, where you you kind of just made references to a lot of stuff without explaining things. And then you'd be like, oh, well, okay, I guess I have to do a bunch of homework. And then there's other versions of this that would do it better, I think, where you know you're getting enough to kind of understand the stakes and the needs and that there's this other lore there and you're starting to see that lore. But you don't need to necessarily go do all the homework.
00:14:24
Speaker
Honestly, i felt, you know, and I, I recognize that this was an episode that had a lot of fan service in it, but you know, overall I really liked it. I think the interesting thing about fan service is that, especially for me kind of coming into this is I don't really, i don't even have the context for it. Therefore i't I'm sort of, if there's are, there are these references, like it sort of passes over my head. And by that measure, I can just enjoy the episode for what it is. And it didn't feel,
00:14:50
Speaker
very winking to me in that way.
Closing Remarks and Next Week's Teaser
00:14:53
Speaker
It didn't feel like there was a lot of really explicit nods just for like, oh, see, you're the fan. Like, we're doing this for you. It didn't feel that way. It felt really weaved in nicely and really kind of smooth in terms of the storytelling and the references. So, I mean, for me, you know, someone who doesn't have that context, I feel like it stands on its own.
00:15:11
Speaker
Good. That's the way it should be. And frankly, as much as I liked it, I felt like the Ahsoka series kind of failed at that. Ahsoka was really, i think, hard to process and understand if you didn't have all the background. But we'll see if we ever do Ahsoka...
00:15:29
Speaker
rewatch. I don't know. We'll get through that. Boys, we're out of time, so we will wrap it up for now. In the meantime, thanks for listening, friends. Make sure you tell your friends about us. We'll see you back here next week for the next episode.
00:15:41
Speaker
In the meantime, the force be with you. Bye-bye. Use that line with stories to do. Podcasts, hope you see them through. Star Wars is your favorite event. Let's chat for 15 minutes.
00:15:52
Speaker
Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short for a sporn trooper? Aren't you a little short for sporn trooper?