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MANDOVERSE MONDAY - The Mandalorian Chapter 2 (S1:E2)
33 Plays12 days ago
Today we're discussing THE MANDALORIAN Chapter 2: “The Child”, which focuses on Din Djarin’s first real adventure with Grogu after the shocking reveal at the end of the premiere. This episode, directed by Rick Famuyiwa, slows things down to emphasize atmosphere, character development, and the unlikely bond forming between the hardened bounty hunter and the mysterious Force-sensitive child.
Chapter 2 is a reminder of just how strong The Mandalorian was in its earliest days. Before the MandoVerse expanded with The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and Season 3’s bigger storylines, this episode kept the focus small, grounded, and intimate. From the intense battle with the Mudhorn, to Grogu using the Force for the very first time, to the comedic yet surprisingly important role of the Jawas, “The Child” showed us that Star Wars on Disney+ could deliver a story that felt both epic and personal.
In this discussion, we’re going down memory lane to revisit why Chapter 2 worked so well, and why so many fans fell in love with the series before interconnected spinoffs and “universe building” began to dominate. This was a simpler, almost timeless slice of Star Wars storytelling that still holds up today.
MANDOVERSE MONDAY E2
This is the Wayseekers is a Star Wars podcast, with new episodes every Thursday on YouTube and audio platforms. Join your hosts Austin SWE and Scotty Holiday SW as they navigate their ways through the Star Wars galaxy.
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Transcript
Introduction of Mando and Grogu
00:00:00
Speaker
The Mandalorian didn't just give us a mysterious bounty hunter, it also introduced a tiny green bundle of chaos who upended everything. Chapter 2 is where things started to shift. This wasn't going to be a simple job, and Mando's hesitation says a lot.
00:00:14
Speaker
This is the episode where we all fell in love with Grogu. Not just because he's cute, but for a much more important reason that speaks to the human experience. It's the first crack in the armor.
00:00:25
Speaker
Mando doesn't understand it yet, but something's changing. And if you ask us, this was the moment that made Mondays worth showing up
00:00:38
Speaker
This episode of The Mandalorian does something that I appreciate a lot from the very early episodes of The Mandalorian, which is exploring something that we haven't really seen much
Exploration of Jawas and Star Wars Lore
00:00:49
Speaker
of before.
00:00:49
Speaker
In this episode, we get to see the Jawas, and we get to see more actually from them, more lore, more... explanations about who these characters actually are.
00:01:00
Speaker
In fact, we even see Quill stand up for them. He says they're thieves. They don't destroy. So it was very interesting to start to see these characters that we see so much of in the other Star Wars projects actually get to come to the forefront here, learn something more about them.
00:01:17
Speaker
And Mando is not having any of it. He disintegrates three of them in the episode. was like, oh, my God. Like, yeah I only remember one, three. You're watching this back. And I was like, Jesus Christ, and you do not care. He's pissed.
00:01:36
Speaker
But I get it Because like going back and rewatching these so far, I'm like, damn, I kind of missed the razor crest. So I also would have been pissed if I came back after rescuing the baby then see my ship is basically a shell.
00:01:49
Speaker
And poor Din tries so hard. He's flicking the buttons. And we all know ain't getting nowhere with that. They got all the stuff Yeah, but the Jawas are absolutely ruthless. Monsters. It's hilarious because, like you said, they get disintegrated and then they're like still willing to work with the guy who disintegrated them because they want that egg so bad.
00:02:11
Speaker
It's like just Tuesday for them or a Monday. It's just Monday for them. ah so true. And they thought it was a good Monday, too, because, I mean, they stripped that ship to nothing.
00:02:24
Speaker
They're about to have a good old payday. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, this episode had a lot to enjoy here. And for those that need a little refresher, chapter two kicks off with Din and Grogu trying to make it back to their ship.
Bounty Hunters and the Mudhorn Egg
00:02:37
Speaker
But it's not that easy. Other bounty hunters are already coming after them. And once Din fights them off, he finds out the Jawas have completely stripped his ship. So now he's got no ride and no choice but to negotiate.
00:02:49
Speaker
The Jawas want an egg. Turns out it's guarded by a giant angry mudhorn. Din gets absolutely tossed around, and just when it looks like he's done for, it Grogu steps in and lifts the thing with the force, showing us for the first time that this kid is something truly special.
Din and Grogu's Relationship Begins
00:03:05
Speaker
This episode of The Mandalorian is one of the most important ones because it's where we start to see this relationship between Din and Grogu form. And it's a very innocent relationship, especially from Grogu's side of things, because he doesn't know anything about d jarring he doesn't know that he's a bounty he sees dinjarin as someone who protected him someone who got him out of there he doesn't know that he's just being protected so that dinjarin will get a nice payout in the end and it's kind of sad because you start to wonder what has happened to this baby to the point where he sees basically his kidnapper as a savior
00:03:44
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's so interesting because even even though Din doesn't recognize it necessarily yet, he's definitely protecting Greg.
00:03:55
Speaker
Not just and you know taking him from where he was held captive, but he fought off the people in the trenches. like He was standing up for Greg. I don't think Din necessarily even realizes that it's not because it's like, this is my bounty and I want to get paid for it.
00:04:11
Speaker
I think it's more of like a fight or flight thing, like, oh, I have to protect this child. And I think it's subconscious, but he doesn't necessarily notice it either. And with Grogu, like you mentioned, this is the episode where we learn that there's a lot more that meets the eye when it comes to him as a character.
00:04:28
Speaker
i know that you said you didn't you didn't expect him to be able to use the force. I didn't necessarily know if he could use the force. And looking back, he was struggling. And we know that like he kind of shut himself up from the Force.
00:04:39
Speaker
And just that part of his mind, he wasn't using up until this point, whether it was from the trauma or just out of protection. So the fact that he reveals like Grogu reveals himself and does this amazing Force feat to actually then save Din, this guy he just met.
00:04:57
Speaker
like Yeah, it's a pivotal part of their relationship. And that literally happens in the second episode. yeah 100 and we see it from the very beginning he's trying to force heal um the man yeah and it's very cute and you know it's funny because at the time force healing i don't think the rise of skywalker had came out yet and that was the most prominent project we saw force healing in so i don't think in that moment i actually knew what he was trying to do don't think any of us did is he just trying to reach out to to fix the wound but like i said it's that innocent nature of grogu where
00:05:29
Speaker
He doesn't even question helping the Mandalorian. He's like, you're hurt and I need to help you because this is this is my life now. where're This is us. and This is how it is.
00:05:40
Speaker
Yeah. And i wonder I wonder if there was maybe more of the force at work from Grogu's side of it all. Like Din shows up as this knight in shining armor almost, or there's some, there's an aura from the force radiating off of Din and Grogu's like, I can trust that guy. Like now we're ride or die.
00:05:59
Speaker
And we don't know. Cause Grogu can't say any of that or express it, but yeah, it's, it's really interesting the way they naturally just kind of connect with one another.
Adventure of the Week Format
00:06:10
Speaker
And once again, it's not with dialogue. It's a puppet and this guy in a mask. Yeah, it's truly beautiful storytelling. That moment when he lifts up the mudhorn, it was so shocking because for some reason, I did not know that he was Force-sensitive. And looking back, it's like all the signs were there.
00:06:29
Speaker
i mean Of course, a member of Yoda's species is going to be Force-sensitive because every other member we've seen of the species is Force-sensitive. So tour is there that there's not?
00:06:42
Speaker
No, I forgot you were talking about Master Vandar from Knights the Old Republic. And it's like, that's technically, I don't know if he's technically in canon. but there's also Well, he's not in canon. And there's also, like i believe the character's name is Minch. I forget where he's from. Some sort of book.
00:06:58
Speaker
But they're all Force-sensitive. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, mentioning the Mudhorn, we're also getting another giant creature. Two giant creatures back-to-back.
00:07:10
Speaker
They had a budget. Yeah. Well, that's what that's what I love about The Mandalorian, at least season one, is it does like there's obviously this connected story, this character arc that The Mandalorian and Grogu go on.
00:07:23
Speaker
But it is also an adventure of the week type show. Yes. They kind of found that happy balance where I feel like some of the later Star Wars shows are very much one or the other. This one found this perfect balance that I feel like the animated series also have that balance where it's like they can have standalone episodes. But at the end of the day, each standalone episode served a purpose, whether it was furthering the story of Anakin and Ahsoka furthering the story of the ghost crew.
00:07:50
Speaker
And that's exactly what this was here. Furthering the story of the Mandalorian and Grogu while also getting to see some really cool monster fights. Yeah, and that was very rare for this time in TV series, because that was more of the like 90s, 2000s series where we did like this episode of the week.
00:08:10
Speaker
And then maybe it all kind of led to one climax at the end of it. um But we'd kind strayed away from that where we're getting one full narrative slowly building. up into and i mean the best example is game of thrones like that was the big hot like and not the streaming show but like the big hot show that everybody's watching there's that walking dead all that kind of stuff that was going on so this going back to that kind of monster of the week and maybe that's because dave filoni was working on it as well maybe that's why it feels like you know kind of like you said with the animation
00:08:41
Speaker
But it's it's so funny how they went back to a formula that, you know, we've kind of moved away from on top of, you know, the fact that this was a first time thing. This is the big new show in streaming and it's first Star Wars live action series.
00:08:55
Speaker
Yeah. Looking back, I'm glad that they formatted it that way because feel like with the Marvel shows and even some of the Star Wars shows like Obi-Wan Kenobi, those aren't shows. They're just yeah cut up movies, six part movies that are extremely long. And some of them probably shouldn't have been over two hours because they're trying to bullshit and find things to include.
00:09:16
Speaker
The Mandalorian being an actual TV show is actually really big for the Disney Plus era, honestly. It's just, I will say one thing that irritated me is the change in the episode lengths because of that.
00:09:30
Speaker
Cause this episode is definitely shorter than the first episode. And that was kind of our first time where we like, are all the episodes going to be a little bit around the 30 minute mark now? And the first one was you know the premiere. So it was a little bit longer. And then, you know, we just started zigzagging and stuff. So I didn't love that. And I mean, that's still an issue for me, like with these plus series is I'm like, please just stick to a singular runtime.
00:09:54
Speaker
But this one did pack in a lot of good stuff because I mean, not only, you know, we already mentioned the Jawas, but Din has to fight his way back, has to get Quill to help him. yeah And then even once you know, there's the whole action scene.
00:10:09
Speaker
where din before he even goes and gets quills help he's climbing up the sand crawler yeah like and trying to get to the jaw was and that was all really good there was a lot of great action there it was very fun to see then i especially loved this scene after they you know decided to work with the jaw was and they're taking everyone too close to the mudhorn i guess of didn't cramped inside of like the where they drive the sand crawler or whatever i thought to myself how the hell did didn't get all the way up there you know what i mean because i'm like if that's that small like how small were the hallways for didn't to try to get into there that kind of goes to the lore like you said with just learning more about the jawas and these are red-eyed jawas instead of like the yellow that we were used to so that was cool too
00:10:58
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting seeing the way that some of these sand planets also have similar elements. Like they also have Jawas, but these Jawas are different. I'm sure that Tatooine has a lot of the same creatures that we're seeing on this planet.
00:11:09
Speaker
um So that's really cool to see. There's a lot of world building, which is really cool with a show like this that was able to have these like monster of the week moments because we're getting to learn so much more about the Star Wars galaxy, being able to spend more time here.
00:11:24
Speaker
So I feel like Star Wars is very made for TV. Like, yeah, the movies are great and I'm excited, very excited for Star Wars to return to the theaters. But at the same time, Star Wars is so lore intensive that having these moments to slow down is very important. And that's why I think that A show like the Clone Wars that's able to have like 20 plus episodes per season is such a pillar to Star Wars because you get so much more. You get so much lore. You get so much world building. And on top of it, you get these really cool stories with fantastic character
Character Exploration and Emotional Connections
00:11:58
Speaker
arcs. And that's what the Mandalorian was. I think that that's why this really spoke to people.
00:12:03
Speaker
On top of the fact that it's a very emotional thing with Din Djarin and Grogu. I agree with that for the simple fact that that's one thing we've complained about is how the Mandalorian, at least season one, slowed things down.
00:12:17
Speaker
It was able to really dig into these characters and outside of Andor, which hadn't even come out yet. Yeah. all the other shows that they've come out with. I feel like we've all complained that they are too quick. We don't get to spend a lot of time with our characters. And I mean, the live action series, I'm not talking animation.
00:12:34
Speaker
And that was the thing with the Mandalorian season one. Not only did they give us something that could still be episodic, like episode of the week, still have like a climax at the end and slow down. We get to spend time with these characters.
00:12:47
Speaker
And that's something that I really liked in this episode too. Something I wanted to bring up that I feel like has not aged well is when when they get to the jawas and quills like oh like they don't want you to have your blast or whatever and he's like i'm a mandalorian weapons are my religion i'm like oh god that is aged horribly because now i'm like i'm triggered well why why do you say that why why is it aged horribly Because I think of gun violence and people in America being like, oh, I need my guns because that's my right.
00:13:21
Speaker
I'm just like, in God. who So that's why I was like, that was that was an ugly line that did not age well for me. I see. I thought you were saying something like, it was later disproven or something with the Mandalorians, but no, that makes sense.
00:13:35
Speaker
But to be fair, that was also a thing back then. They were not, I know, I know. I just really, and it's probably cause everything political and like has just gotten so worse, like so much more worse, so much more horrible since then.
00:13:48
Speaker
So I just like cringed when he said that I'm like, ah gross right yeah I still think it was a cool moment because it showed you that Din Djarin was following this religious you know thing that he was not very willing to give up but then he did give it up so it also shows that there was some type of leeway here that he was going to bend the rules at some point because he needs to out of necessity so so some little subtle foreshadowing moments yeah I definitely get what you mean Well, it's also, it goes back to like, we were talking about the world building, which is why I wanted to bring it up because we're also learning more about the Mandalorian culture. And it's like, Oh, these people, they don't take up their helmets.
00:14:28
Speaker
You know, there you have been known for stories and fables and stuff around the galaxy. You know, they're very big into their armor and their weapons. The, you know the show has been kind of building this up already. And like I mentioned in the previous episode,
00:14:44
Speaker
we're learning about the mandalorians and for people who haven't watched animation this is all like a great it's not like a lord dump like we're building to it and i think it was done really well 100 and something i said last episode was that i feel like the first episode is the episode where we really get to learn about who dinjarin was before grogu But I still feel like there's moments within this episode, even post Grogu, that we still get to see who Din Djarin really is.
00:15:12
Speaker
Like, for example, he's a very unlucky person, to be honest. Like the fact that he goes out there and his ship is stripped, it's just like, fuck, like he has to fight to get his own ship back. But that's just like who he is.
00:15:26
Speaker
That's what he faces in this galaxy being a Mandalorian when the entire galaxy is basically built against him. This is what he has to deal with. This is what he faces.
00:15:37
Speaker
And it can you blame him for being so ruthless? Can you blame him for being so cold when this is the galaxy that he's being given? and Well, you know, it's funny about that. So many people i've seen calling Din like a himbo.
00:15:52
Speaker
And like, I never necessarily saw that so much. But like looking back this episode, like, yeah, he has bad luck. And then he gets beaten by a bunch of Jawas who like outsmart him to get him off of the sand crawler and send him flying onto his back.
00:16:08
Speaker
Like, it's like, oh, my God, poor Dan. Like, he just he just wants to go turn in Grogu, get his money like he just wants to be done with this whole endeavor. And then he's getting trash thrown at him from Jawas.
00:16:22
Speaker
Right. A hundred percent. But I mean, that absolutely changes once Grogu saves him.
Unconditional Love and Bonding
00:16:28
Speaker
You can see that he's very much starting to question what this relationship is. It's like, holy fuck.
00:16:34
Speaker
In my opinion, this was the first time that he actually received unconditional love. I mean, I guess you could say his parents loved him unconditionally. we can assume. But they died very early on. And then he was brought into this covert, this Mandalorian cult, basically, that tells him, if you take off your helmet, you're no longer allowed here. You're no longer a part of this family.
00:16:57
Speaker
So can you really call that unconditional love if he has to follow this religion? So that was some really cool commentary. But then Grogu doesn't even question who Din Djarin is.
00:17:08
Speaker
He just helps him. And that's why I feel like we started to really connect with this relationship because I feel like as humans, we kind of yearn for that unconditional love. Someone who loves us despite our flaws and and things like that. It's it's a really human story here.
00:17:25
Speaker
Even though it's about a puppet and this faceless character. And once again, do i need to point out that the fact that we're able to get this much emotion from a character that has no facial features or emotions is incredible.
00:17:40
Speaker
You can tell with no dialogue or anything like that, that Injaren is absolutely starting to question whether or not he should actually give Grogu up or if this is his son now. And this is where that all started. And I'm pretty sure we get into that next episode, if I'm not mistaken.
00:17:55
Speaker
i kind of touched on this previously, but I do want to bring it back up specifically. So while we got the introduction of the Ambin sniper rifle in live action in chapter one, chapter two was the episode that we saw the iconic disintegration feature, which...
00:18:14
Speaker
As I touched on, Din disintegrates three Jawas and a Trandoshan. And I was not expecting to see like he obliterated this person. They turned into nothing.
00:18:26
Speaker
And he does it four times. But it's funny because, you know, this harkens back to Darth Vader's line to Boba Fett and Empire Strikes Back. No disintegrations. And even better is the rifle itself was introduced 40 years prior in the animated segment of the holiday special, the story of the faithful Wookiee, where we see Boba Fett carrying the iconic design.
00:18:49
Speaker
So it was just really cool to see it not only in live action, but in this episode specifically finally seeing that disintegration feature. Right. So in the holiday special, do we see the disintegration feature or not?
00:19:03
Speaker
I've watched it once hu and i am pretty sure the only thing that we see is the kind of like debilitating zapping it does with the, I'll call them prongs on the end of, of the rifle. And we see that too in this episode, but when I kind of did some research on the rifle, basically with the different settings when used at the highest level, which is the disintegration feature it would ah tear a target to shreds, which is exactly what we saw, where all that's really left is maybe a couple scraps of clothing because it literally disintegrates them.
00:19:38
Speaker
And i I can't remember if we see this weapon a ton more in the series or at least doing the these disintegration. But like I was like, damn, not four people. like The kill count so far is insane. And we're only two episodes in.
00:19:53
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Going back to the question I asked, the reason I asked is because i that's actually cool. If we didn't see the disintegration in the holiday special, but then the weapon actually ends up being the thing that disintegrates that Boba Fett uses, because as you said, Vader mentions it. It's kind of like that cool connectivity. If it wasn't already there in the first place, I really like that.
00:20:16
Speaker
You actually didn't know that. Two fun facts in a row that I didn't know. Wow. Getting off to a really good start here with these Mandoverse Mondays. Well, we'll see what happens from chapter three. We'll see what I come up with for that one.
00:20:29
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. Well, until we're able to talk about chapter three, I think that this was a very good episode to discuss the jumping off point of the Mandalorian and Grogu.
00:20:41
Speaker
But Scotty, if there's nothing left, why don't you send us out of here? Well, we'll see you next Monday for our discussion of Mando season one, chapter three, the s sin, and make sure you stick around for our regular podcast episode on Thursday.
00:20:54
Speaker
Thank you all so much for watching. And remember, this is the way.