How could anyone not continue watching after seeing that precious baby at the end? Absolutely unfair. The second episode, directed by Rick Famuyiwa, was delightful from start to finish. This episode had a run time of only 33 minutes, but I personally do not mind the varied lengths of episodes because it tells exactly the story it needs to tell.

For the purposes of these reviews, I will be referring to The Asset/The Child as Yoddle, a combination of Yaddle and Yoda. I will also be using she/her/hers pronouns for Yoddle.

Things I Loved

• Everything about The Egg. How hairy it was, how desired it was, the size, the gooey yolk the jawas dipped their hands directly into. The Egg was everything.
• Yoddle’s egg carrier zipping around after Mando, especially during the sandcrawler chase scene. I was so worried about her! Was she going to get hit by debris? In every scene, I look for her carrier; it’s very distracting.
• How cute Mando is when he’s really bad at things like speaking Jawa or when he’s too tall for the sandcrawler spaces and has to be slumped over. It’s intensely relatable and helps us know the person behind the beskar.

Things I Could Do Without

The human baby noises Yoddle makes. She should not be making those. Please stop.

Things I’m Waiting For

More scenes of Yoddle eating. She’s a growing baby! And besides that frog, when was the last time she had a decent meal? Let her feed.

Silliest Discourse on Twitter

• That the presumed female mudhorn counts as representation for women. No. You’re wrong. That’s not how it works.
• Sometimes an egg is just an egg, and it is valuable because eggs are fresh food full of nutrients and proteins in a desert wasteland. Please learn more about what symbolism in fiction actually looks like before promoting your theories as fact (and acting like others are stupid for not understanding it).

Moment that Made Me Really Proud of Mando

Not only did he unabashedly ask for help when his ship was stripped by jawas, he offered fair payment of half of the VERY PRECIOUS beskar to his ugnaught friend for helping him put it back together.

Moment that Made Me Really Proud of Yoddle

• When she crawls out of her egg and tries to reach up and heal Mando’s wound. She doesn’t know him, but she knows he’s hurt and for now he’s protecting her, so she will do the same for him.
• Napping through all the physical labor and waking up only after they’re on their way. As someone who hates putting together furniture, Yoddle did exactly what I want to do.

Mudhorns, Explained*

As many creatures are in the desert, mudhorns are rare and can spend most of their lives without encountering many other of its species. That being the case, they have all the genitalia necessary to produce and fertilize their own eggs. In order to keep the eggs safe, they are buried in the mud far apart from each other in several different caves. The thick layer of hair protecting the egg keeps it warm without the body heat of its parent. Do not fear, that was not the only mudhorn egg!

The Biggest Mood

Mando telling Yoddle to spit the frog out and then just sighing and shaking his head when she doesn’t listen. I worked in a middle school and something like this exchange happened at least a dozen times a day. Sometimes it did involve a frog.

Questions Unanswered

How come Mando is never concerned with how easily and silently Yoddle can get out of her floating egg carrier?

Some Serious Talk

This relates more to seeing what the online fandom does rather than what’s in the show, but do not equate the ability to create life and being a caregiver solely to mothers and femininity. Calling Mando a “single mom” or assuming the mudhorn is a female comes from people’s implicit bias that only women can look after children. I grew up with a single father who never dated, much less remarried. He raised me and my older sister on his own, and he provided the love and care we needed. Gender and sex have nothing to do with someone’s capacity to lovingly take care of children.

Chapter 2 had so much of what I love – eggs, chase scenes, a tired protagonist who just wants to do their job, and a fair amount of subtitles. I don’t know a single person on Twitter who hasn’t fallen in love with Yoddle. Thank you, Star Wars, for providing us with one unproblematic fav.

*Not canon, just my own speculation to make me not mad at Mando for stealing eggs and killing parents.