The Mandalorian Episode Five Will Have You Excited for What’s Next [REVIEW]

Disney’s “The Mandalorian” has been an eventful season thus far, but episode four was a little less eventful (although it did provide us with some incredible “baby Yoda” meme’s and gifs). Episode five, “The Gunslinger, however, was a better overall experience, but didn’t move the story enough.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

             The episode starts with the Mandalorian being chased down in his starfighter by another bounty hunter looking for baby Yoda. And yes, I will continue to refer to the kid as baby Yoda until Disney produces a name for the species, which is currently unknown. After sustaining damage to his ship, the Mandalorian is forced to land on a nearby planet for repairs. The planet just happens to be Tatooine. When he lands he meets Peli Motto, played by actress Amy Sedaris, who offers to fix the ship for a fee. Unfortunately, the Mandalorian doesn’t have enough credits and goes out into Mos Eisley to find work. He runs into a young wannabe bounty hunter named Toro Calican, played by actor Jake Cannavale. It’s a bit of a nostalgia trip here as the Mandalorian goes to the same cantina feature in “A New Hope” and Calican is sitting in the same booth in which Han Solo took out the bounty hunter Greedo. Calican offers the Mandalorian a deal. He’ll give him all the reward money for helping him bring in a target. All Calican wants is to get into the guild and become a bounty hunter. The Mandalorian obliges and they embark across the desert to bring in the target.

            At this point in the episode nothing new has been introduced except one thing that I noticed. Both Mott and Calican didn’t recognize the species of baby Yoda. I found this to be subtle, but significant. It’s been the experience thus far though. It seems that no one really understands the significance of the species that is baby Yoda. There is so little known about the species from a lore perspective, but I’d think at this point perhaps one person would have recognized the species and told the Mandalorian. Hopefully this is addressed very soon, as we only have three more episodes left in season one.

            After an incredible sequence of riding on speeder bikes in the dark, firing flares in the air to keep the target from shooting them, the Mandalorian and Calican capture the target, Fennec Shand played by actress Ming-Na Wen. One of the speeders was destroyed trying to capture Shand and the Mandalorian embarks out to retrieve a dewback that they had spotted at the initial discovery of the location of Shand. While the Mandalorian is away, Shand tells Calican that the bounty on the Mandalorian is higher than hers and tells him about the child or baby Yoda. Calican kills Shand and heads back to the hanger with the Mandalorian’s ship. It ends with the Mandalorian killing Calican and leaving Tatooine.

            So, the Mandalorian is still on the run as bounty hunters from all over have heard word of the child and what he did to the guild. The episode had exciting elements with the opening sequence and the speeder raid on Shand. The cinematography once again was nothing short of spectacular, but that’s been consistent throughout the show. Despite being an entertaining episode there are still several questions going unanswered. We still do not know anything about baby Yoda and why the remnants of the empire were after him in the first place. Aside from a few brief flashbacks and a couple of sentences from the Mandalorian, we don’t know much of anything about the Mandalorian himself. There is also the question with the last scene in episode five that showed someone with a cape standing over the body of Shand on Tatooine. There’s already swirling rumors on the internet of who it could be with people going as far to think that the person is Boba Fett. I have no idea how the showrunners are going to answer questions in three episodes, but I can tell you that my excitement is as high as ever to find out.

            I give “The Mandalorian” episode five, four baby Yoda’s out of five. It was a nostalgia filled thrill ride with a great appearance from Sedaris. The episode felt like it was pushing the story forward in a very subtle way, but the impact of this episode will be felt going forward with the three remaining episodes.