The Mandalorian came into Episode 6 with a stellar track record of amazing episodes, unfortunately, I think it missed the mark with this episode. That is not to say that the episode was terrible I just think that it wasn’t as good as the episode that came beforehand. This episode wasn’t all bad though it had an all-star cast and one of the best fight scenes to date. Let’s get into the episode.
We start with Mando landing his ship, the Razor Crest, in what looks like a proper spaceport. Here is where we get the bulk of our big star Cameos for the episode. We meet Ranzar Malk played by Mark Boone Junior, you probably know him from Batman Begins and Sons of Anarchy among other things, he runs a bounty hunter crew outside the purview of The Guild. The story hints that Mando got his start with Ran and his crew. Joining them for this mission are Mayfield played by Bill Burr, Burg played by Clancy Brown, Xi’an played by Natalia Tena and Zero, a droid voiced by Richard Ayoade. The mission is simple, use the Razor Crest to get to a Maximum Security Prison transport ship and bust someone out. Everyone boards the ship and away they go.
As is to be expected there’s some animosity between Mando and the crew since most of them do not know him. However, his reputation precedes him and Mayfield and Burg want to test him and see just how much of it is a myth and how much is the truth. Burg and Mando get into a shoving match and B.Y. (Baby Yoda) is revealed to the crew but he’s revealed as Mando’s “Pet” instead of as a child he’s protecting. Moving forward the ship arrives at the prison transport, our heroes board the ship and the episode kicks it up a notch. We see Mando take on 4 security droids on his own while Mayfield just sits back and watches, almost as though he’s looking to see if Mando is a tough as described. Not only does Mando hold his own but he does it with such style and grace that it’s hard to not be impressed. Not sure if I’ve said this in any of my other reviews but Pedro Pascal is freaking amazing!!!
Mando single-handedly disposes of the droids and the crew makes its way to the control center where they unexpectedly run into a New Republic Soldier and he threatens to send out a distress signal. This leads into a sort of Mexican Standoff between Mando, Burg, Mayfield and The Solider. Mando tries to talk him down but Xi’an hits The Soldier with a throwing knife, unfortunately, the tracking signal was sent before he was killed and now the crew is in a race against the clock. We find out that the prisoner they were releasing was Qin, the brother of Xi’an, who apparently doesn’t like Mando and shows it by shoving Mando into his cell.
Meanwhile back on the Razor Crest Baby Yoda leaves his “room” and goes to the cockpit where he is seen by Zero, who apparently has been searching the database for secrets and information on Mando. Zero, finding this curious, goes on a hunt through the ship tracking down Baby Yoda. Back on the prison ship Mando Macgyver’s a way to escape the cell and goes on a revenge binge taking down members of the crew one by one.
Mando ends up locking Mayfield, Burg, and Xi’an in the same cell, he faces off against Qin who makes a good point in saying that Mando is better off finishing the mission and getting paid. Mando gets on the ship just in time to catch Zero pointing a blaster at Baby Yoda. Mando kills Zero reaffirming his stance in not trusting droids. Mando returns to the spaceport, meets up with Ranzar, delivers Qin and gets paid. When Mando is questioned by Ranzar on the whereabouts of the rest of the crew Mando replies with the typical “No Questions asked right?” Mando gets paid and takes off. Ranzar double-crosses Mando and sends a ship to take him down, fortunately, Mando saw this betrayal coming and put the tracking beacon from the Prison ship onto Qin. The episode ends with three X-Wings showing up and destroying the spaceport.
This episode was riddled with plot holes. How did Mando takes down Burg, Xi’an and Mayfield in different parts of the ship and put them in the same cell? Why didn’t Qin question the beeping of the tracker before Mando took off? Just to name a few. All in all the episode didn’t advance the story at all, there were some pretty cool fight scenes and the takedown of the crew was pretty dope but that doesn’t make up for the lack of the story and the plot holes. This is a fun but missable episode of The Mandalorian.