Spoiler alert: this blog is published after The Mandalorian airs on Disney+. Do not read unless you have watched season two, episode four
We did it! … I may have been premature – Mythrol
Let’s hear it (briefly) for Mythrol. I’m not sure there’s a technical term for his type of character in a drama, but I know one when I see one. Joe Pesci’s Leo in Lethal Weapon, Sallah in Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Last Crusade, any character in a western played by George “Gabby” Hayes. If you want something contemporary, try Kevin Hart’s Franklin “Mouse” Finbar in Jumanji, too.
This sidekick, played for laughs but with just the teensiest bit of heroism stuffed away inside (and perhaps also the potential for betrayal) is a great add to the mix of an action adventure. A bit of levity is a good thing. Despite Mando’s occasional dry sense of humour, he can’t be seen to be mucking around too often – he’s the hero. And his most trusted assistants, Greef Karga and Cara Dune, are a bounty hunter union rep and a former shock trooper respectively, so they’re pretty serious as well.
So, when the gang is reunited for this week’s mission inside Navarro, it’s good to have Mythrol along. He’s an amphibious sort and wears a humidity suit whenever he’s on dry land, which gives off a gust of steam at inappropriate moments. He’s reluctant to get involved, a bit scared and prone to hubris, but in the end he’s brave when required. It’s his shuffle around a control tower with no safety rail that enables the gang to bring down an Imperial forward operating base. Or should that be “secret genetic experiment lab”?
Karga asks Mando to help deactivate the base in order to complete Navarro’s transition from lawless cesspit to the Denmark of the outer rim. He chucks in a full set of repairs as an incentive but Mando, as ever, is intrigued by the prospect of battle. He jet packs his way into the base and discovers it to be very much active. After Mythrol has deactivated the cooling lines and unleashed a torrent of lava (I’ve just finished Chernobyl, I got flashbacks), the gang start shooting their way out of the base only for things to quickly get weird.
As the gang approach their exit they stumble on a series of tanks containing what appear to be disfigured torsos. A hologram of a sinister medic from season one, Dr Pershing, appears and describes a situation whereby “there were promising results … then sadly the donor rejected the blood”, adding that he had been only been able to extract a “small amount of blood” from “the child”. We all know who Pershing is talking about and the man for whom the message is intended, Moff Gideon.
What follows is five minutes of exhilarating fare, as first Dune and Karga in a transporter then Mando in the Razor Crest engage in action-packed chases with Imperial foes. Karga takes out a stormtrooper on the roof of the transporter, who gets a big shock when he sees a cannon spin 180 degrees to find him. Din Djarin cuts his engines mid flight to confuse a Tie fighter before blowing them to kingdom come. It’s a great pair of sequences, my favourite part being watching the troopers descend a vertical rock face on their landspeeders.
Our heroes survive and soon Marshal Dune is able to get back to protecting her new home, while Greef can put his feet up on his desk. Mando, meanwhile, has a fully working ship and jets off once more in search of Ahsoka Tano. Except there’s just one thing, the Razor Crest has been fitted with a tracking device and it’s sending a signal straight to Moff Gideon.
The moral of the story
Never let your guard down. Navarro is a much nicer place since we last visited. Everyone’s in flowing gowns and the local spit and sawdust hostelry has been turned into a school. Greef Karga has gone from double-crossing man of the Guild to white-bearded Magistrate and even Mando’s first collar, Mythrol, is on the way to proving himself respectable (until his debt is paid off, that is). Perhaps Din Djarin got complacent among friends or Karga doesn’t really know his “best men”, but after succeeding in so many fraught challenges this week, it’s the guy they leave to fix the ship who turns out to have the most villainous impact.
Featured creatures
A gang of bandits with hairy faces and two squat tusks are taken to pieces by Cara Dune. I am unable to identify them. She takes a very much meerkat-looking creature that had been intended as a snack and makes it her pet. And that is her right. Otherwise, it’s a big week for the Mythrol.
Cameo corner
The appearance of a former Blue Squadron fighter, now an investigator for the New Republic, is a reminder of the battles of the past – Alderaan in particular– and a shared history with Cara Dune. Meanwhile, Moff Fring is back in action, and Mando knows it, too.
Baby Yoda watch
Boy, do they grow up fast. Not only is the “asset” trusted to do small-scale electrical fixes on the Razor Crest nowadays, he is capable of sitting in a school lesson, making a friend, and then stealing that friend’s electric blue macaroons by using the force. What’s more, Baby Yoda appears to have learned the skill of delayed gratification. Come the end of the episode, and he’s still got some macaroons left (and one he’s regurgitated on his tunic). Shame every remaining remnant of the Empire is about to start chasing him.
