Before The Mandalorian season 2, let's rank every episode of season 1

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• Before The Mandalorian season 2, let's rank every episode of season 1

It's not just about Baby Yoda, you know. While The Little Green Child has grabbed most of the headlines, The Mandalorian is arguably the best thing to come out of this famous galaxy far, far away since Disney bought Star Wars from George Lucas. Beginning with the story of an enigmatic bounty hunter making his way across the universe, the show is set in the kind of morally ambiguous backcountry where shooting first is often the best option. But when a fateful job introduces the eponymous Mando to "the child" (aka Baby Yoda), he becomes an unlikely guardian, protecting the boy from various mercenaries and remnants of the Empire. Over the course of its very brief eight-episode run, The Mandalorian season 1 channels westerns, heist movies, and more into the story of a lone gunman reevaluating his own moral code. More importantly, it's a brilliant journey into Star Wars mythology, exploring the backstory of the mysterious Mandalorians, picking things up with the Imperial Remnant, and daring to claim one of the franchise's biggest mysteries, thus Is Yoda Coming? ? Here, we rank every episode of The Mandalorian so far, from best to last. The best Disney + deals of the day

1. Chapter 8: Redemption

(Image credit: Future) With an explosive ending and the perfect setup for The Mandalorian season 2, it's hard to imagine how "Redemption" could have been better. With the forces of Moff Gideon laying siege to the Mandalorian, Cara Dune and Greef Karga, the episode channels John Carpenter's classic Assault on the 13th Precinct as the trio do what they can to fend off the might of the Old Empire. The unexpected hero, however, is the reprogrammed bounty hunting droid IG-11: from his new role as Baby Yoda's unlikely guardian of all action to his noble act of self-sacrifice, IG is one of the greatest heroes in the series to date. date. This season taps into the Star Wars story, with the Mandalorian getting his hands on a jetpack and setting off in search of the Children's People, a race of "enemy wizards" better known as the Jedi. Gideon is also revealed to be a charismatic and creepy villain, who just happens to wield the Darksaber, a Mandalorian holy weapon.

2. Chapter 7: Calculus

With the main Baby Yoda/Client arc sidelined in the previous three chapters, The Mandalorian season 1 penultimate episode begins to tie together key threads — and characters. Realizing that the mercenaries will never stop attacking the boy, Mando answers the call of his master, Greef Karga, to use Baby Yoda as bait to take down the Imperial forces in the city and then make peace. with the Bounty Hunters Guild. Former choco-rebels Cara Dune and Ugnaught Kuiil respond to Mando's call, and even Karga denies his initial plan to betray the Mandalorian, his mind changed when the Child uses his Force powers to save the life of him Unfortunately, the Client—and the "four Stormtroopers"—of his turn out to be the least of his worries, as they turn out to be little more than a front for Moff Gideon and his battalion of troops. The episode also ends in tragedy, as Kuiil's blurry steed isn't fast enough to bring him back to Razor Crest in one piece, leaving the boy captured by a pair of Scout Troopers.

The Mandalorian with the real star of the show, Baby Yoda. (Image credit: Disney)

3. Chapter 3: Sin

(Image credit: Disney/Lucasfilm) By the time the Mandalorian returns to Nevarro to collect the Bounty for the Child, he's gone through quite a change from the cold, calculating mercenary we first meet at the beginning of the series. During their brief stint together, Baby Yoda made such an impact that Mando breaks his profession's code of silence to ask questions about the client's plans; it is becoming increasingly clear that there is more to this. mercenary that armor (very cool)... With Mando's Beskar Steel payout enough to pay for a shiny upgrade to his iconic outfit, it's the perfect excuse to delve into the history of the Mandalorian people. Forced to live in hiding after the Great Purge of the Empire, they are skeptical of Mando's involvement with a former Imperial as the Client. This doesn't stop them from coming to his aid when he breaks ranks to save the boy, while we've seen armies of Mandalorians in action in The Clone Wars, it's exciting to see them in full flight in live action. .

4. Chapter 1: The Mandalorian

(Image credit: Lucasfilm) Considering what a foolproof meme machine Baby Yoda has become, it's remarkable that no one knew anything about his existence until The Mandalorian debuted. Instead, Disney Plus opted to sell the show on the back of a masked, far-from-spoken anti-hero who operates out of various wretched hives of foam and villainy. This opening episode is the perfect introduction to Mando and his world. With a penchant for freezing his targets in carbonite (I wonder where he got the idea...), a ruthless approach to getting the job done ("I can bring you heat... Or I can bring you cold), and a memorable ship (the Razor Crest), will become a memorable addition to the Rebel's Star Wars gallery.Then he accepts the lucrative job that lands him in The Child, engaging in a major firefight and skirmish with the assassin droid IG-11 along the way. The rest, as they say, is history.

5. Chapter 4: Sanctuary

Omera tries to find the man under the mask in The Mandalorian Chapter 4: 'Sanctuary'. (Image credit: Disney/Lucasfilm) Return of the Jedi pitted the Ewoks against technologically superior opposition, and this episode follows a similar plan, with a Magnificent Seven twist thrown in for good measure. The Mandalorian and Cara Dune agree to protect a group of farmers from a gang of criminals who used an Imperial AT-ST to terrorize them. While there's no doubt about the end result of the skirmish, director Bryce Dallas Howard's clever use of light and dark ensures that the so-called "Chicken Walker" has never been more intimidating. what .. here. However, the way the episode goes under the Mandalorian's helmet (figuratively, if not literally) is much more important in revealing more of the human side of him. He is clearly tempted by the villager Omera's offer to hang up the armor and move in permanently, and is even willing to leave Baby Yoda in charge of him until a bounty hunter shows up and changes his place. 'warning. A welcome change of pace.

6. Chapter 6: The Prisoner

(Image credit: Lucasfilm/Disney Plus) Mandalorian Season 1 weaves its way across many Hollywood genres, and in ``The Prisoner,'' it's the heist movie's turn. With the Guild no longer giving him work, Mando takes on the job of one of his old "friends" to break an inmate off a New Republic prison ship; he probably shouldn't have cared... The episode's beats border on cliché, with Mando forced to work with a motley crew of criminals and facing the inevitable double cross. Still, it's a stylish cliché. The way he fights his way out of an extremely difficult place, locked in a jail cell, shows why you would always want him by your side in a fight. And the end result, where the Mandalorian cleverly uses a trio of New Republic X-Wings to ensure he gets the last word, is quite satisfying.

7. Chapter 5: The Gunslinger

Fennec Shand in The Mandalorian Chapter 5: 'The Gunslinger' (Image Credit: Lucasfilm/Vanity Fair) The original 1977 Star Wars made a big deal of its "space Western" influences, but the franchise left them behind largely until The Mandalorian first walked into a bar. No episode of Season 1 plays with the one-hit-heavy gunslinger theme quite like Episode 5, as Mando, trapped on Tatooine, agrees to help a budding bounty hunter bring in rogue assassin Fennec Shand. While the cowboy-style shootouts are fun, the dune sea backdrop is spectacular, and the return to Mos Eisley is welcome, you can't escape the feeling that little of what happens is a result of the arc. overall history. The boy melts the heart of smooth mechanic Peli Motto, and there may be a brief cameo from Boba Fett. But otherwise, it's an inessential deviation into an iconic world.

Kuiil and the Mandalorian in Mandalorian Chapter 2: "The Child". (Image credit: Disney/Lucasfilm)

8. Chapter 2: The Boy

The shortest episode of The Mandalorian season 1 is also the lightest in terms of plot. With the child safely recovered, Mando returns to Razor Crest to find that Jawas has stripped it of parts. One failed, the Indiana Jones-inspired assault on a Sandcrawler later, he went on a mission to retrieve the Mudhorn Egg that the Jawas want as payment before returning his stuff. While the episode deserves extra points for being bold enough to tell much of its story without dialogue, "The Child" isn't particularly memorable otherwise. The fight with the rhino-like Mudhorn is tense, and Baby Yoda using the Force to save Mando is a great moment, but ultimately feels like filler, filling in the time until the Mandalorian hands the child over to the client. .