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The Mandalorian S02E02 The Passenger Review: Adventures in Eggsitting
The latest episode of The Mandalorian is probably one of the most subtle examples of why the series is one of the best on television, even with how it can do so much with so little. The mission Din Djarin is tasked with is escorting an amphibious humanoid safely with her eggs in a safe passage. As a reward, she'll take him to a planet where there are other Mandalorians. While the episode is simple on its premise, an entanglement with a couple of New Republic X-Wings forces the Razorcrest crashing down into the icy planet.
Directed by Ant-Man's Peyton Reed and written by Jon Favreau, "The Passenger" heavily relies on star Pedro Pascal trying to make sense of what he's doing with little or no direction. A language barrier with his passenger doesn't help matters along with a hungry The Child to keep at bay from eating her eggs. Obviously, most can't resist the indelible charm of The Child (Baby Yoda) even if it's subtle as the act of genocide. Yeah, a puppet character eating alien babies doesn't make it sound any less horrible than it actually is. I'll admit I'm a terrible person for laughing at it.
Perhaps it was designed this way, but the lighting on the icy planet and the circumstances many times makes it similar to Lord of the Rings if that provides any foreshadowing for you. We get to know the "Frog Lady" (Misty Rosas) a little, but not really enough to care. Perhaps it's by design so we wouldn't feel so bad when Baby Yoda keeps eating her young. The others make up for her lack of presence. Aside from the Baby Yoda moments and Din driving himself a little bonkers trying to keep everything from falling apart, there are stronger episodes of the series and the CG work in the episode was enough where it didn't overwhelm. The Mandalorian streams Fridays on Disney+.