‘The Mandalorian’ S2E4 Recap: There’s A Storm Comin’
Mando and the Child reunite with Cara Dune and Greef Karga to destroy an Imperial base (and eat too many space cookies).
"The Mandalorian" season two is streaming now, only on Disney+
In possibly the least surprising news, last week’s ship ‘repair’ didn’t last long at all — turns out the Razor Crest needs more than a few ropes to pull it back together. Who would have thought?
While Mando finally knows where to go to find a Jedi who can help him return the Child to his kind, first his ship needs some serious TLC.
And look, while Mando is sometimes an excellent babysitter, he also sometimes over-estimates what the Child can and can’t do. This episode begins with our hero yelling instructions to Baby Yoda down a crawl space in the ship, seeing if he can swap around some wires. It, uh, doesn’t work out, and the duo make a pit stop on Nevarro to visit some old friends. Naturally, a lot of action awaits.
He’s a little young to play mechanic.
Old Friends, New Nevarro
We last saw Nevarro back in season 1 — it was where we left Mando’s friends, Cara Dune and Greef Karga, who have helped turn the once-dangerous planet into a bustling, peaceful metropolis, with Cara becoming its kickass Marshal. Well, mostly peaceful, but we’ll get to that in a sec.
Cara, aka The Marshal (Gina Carano), and Greef (Carl Weathers).
It’s a pleasure to see the duo, particularly Greef, who’s played by Carl Weathers, who you might know best as a fictionalised version of himself in Arrested Development. Turns out Weathers can do more than get a stew going — he directed this episode, a high-octane action trip with more than its fair share of laughs and adorable moments from the Child.
The duo show Mando around, but not before leaving his ship with some mechanics, including this shifty-looking Mimbanese.
This glance? Probably nothing!
They’re proud as punch to show off the new and improved Nevarro, but there are still some pockets of danger on the planet. At the beginning of the episode, we see the Marshal take out a bunch of violent scavengers who are picking through the debris left behind by the Mandalorians when they escaped the planet in season 1.
Later, we learn there’s an abandoned Imperial base outside the city, packed with weapons that could fall into the wrong hands. It’s this base that Cara and Greef ask Mando to help them destroy.
Cleaning Up The Planet
Unlike Mando, Greef is sensible and says the Child should stay in the city: they pop him in a classroom, where he’s surrounded by kids who whisper about the new arrival. But before he can be bullied, he proves his might by stealing some tasty blue macaroons from his neighbour, using the Force! Once again, nobody gets between the Child and some bright coloured food.
Using your powers purely to gain sweet treats? Only further evidence the Child is a Taurus.
Greef, Mando, and Cara head off to the base, driven by none other than the petty criminal who Mando froze in carbonite way back in The Mandalorian‘s first episode. Now working for Greef to pay off his debt, the Mythrol can handle a weapon, but he’s not exactly as bad-ass as the other three — his reluctance to follow them through the base is incredibly relatable.
The group find that the base isn’t unoccupied at all, but make light work of all the stormtroopers to reach its centre — a lava pit they plan to destabilise for an easy way to destroy everything. The Mythrol carefully makes his way out onto the control shelf, complaining about the lack of safety rails the whole time, and they make a run for it.
On their way out, though, they stumble upon something that makes it clear this isn’t a simple army base after all. We don’t know what the Imperials were really working on, but we can be pretty sure it wasn’t anything good. But with the lava about to explode, there’s no time to stick around to find out — Mando jetpacks back to the city and the other three grab a ship and floor it.
Unfortunately, some stormtroopers chase after them on speeder bikes and TIE fighters, and Greef struggles to make do with the slow turret gun — luckily, Mando swoops in with the newly repaired (for real) Razor Crest and blows up the enemy ships.
It’s an exhilarating scene, filled with barrel rolls and a lot of lasers: it’s no surprise the Child, strapped in the passenger seat, chucks up his blue macaroon.
It’s all fun and games until someone vomits.
After Mando says bye, we catch up with big baddie Moff Gideon, who had that Mimbanese put a tracking device on the Razor Crest. Mando can sometimes seem a little too cautious of people, but then something like this happens: it’s hard to trust anyone in a galaxy far, far away.
One of the X-wing pilots who helped Mando a few episodes back checks in with Greef and Cara, and says he fears that the Empire is planning a return. I think I see storm clouds on the horizon. Nah, it’s probably nothing, right?
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The Mandalorian streams every Friday night on Disney+ and Junkee will be recapping every episode.
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(Images courtesy of Disney+)