After the disappointment that was Chapter 5, Chapter 6 pulled me right back onboard The Mandalorian train. 

Things I Loved

Mando ambushing his team after he escapes from the cell they locked him in. I’m a big horror fan, and I adored the use of tried and true slasher visuals, especially because this time, the audience gets to root for the hunter. The scene with the strobe light where Mando sneaks up on Mayfield was especially exciting and satisfying.

Will Mando ever…

Get locks on ANY of his cabinets? Again, a complete stranger opened his weapons storage by pressing random buttons. Even worse, Yoddle was put in danger because her cabinet wasn’t locked. Mayfield had his dirty hands on her, and she fell on the floor! 

Things I Could Do With Less Of

Once again, this was a very man/male heavy episode. There were two women, Xi’an and Deborah Chow’s brief cameo as an X-wing pilot, and only one of them had more than one line. Every other character was a man and had at least two lines. I know they’re putting in a lot of cameos with people like the directors and other Star Wars employees like Matt Lanter (who voices Anakin Skywalker on The Clone Wars), but it still feels hollow. There’s no reason Deborah Chow couldn’t have been the X-wing flight leader. There’s no reason why Zero had to be voiced by a man and use he/him pronouns. These are really small changes that would make a difference in representation.

Wait, I’m Confused

Star Wars as a whole has been incredibly inconsistent with twi’leks (especially the women). In the trilogies, they have largely been portrayed by people of color and have been given “othering” characteristics and situations such as having them largely be used as slaves or subordinates in unsavory groups. In the animated shows like The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, the twi’leks have native French-ish accents but still align mostly with African American/Black characteristics and stereotypes (what’s up, space colonialism!).

However, Xi’an and Qin are Chinese in origin, although there seems not to be an agreement on how the characters are pronouncing them. Xi’an is played by a white European woman, and Qin played by a Puerto Rican man. Although I respect that Star Wars naming can go from a bunch of letters and apostrophes slapped together to Luke, it feels like it’s more than just the naming. They really just need to figure out what they’re doing with the twi’leks and make it less race/ethnicity related. 

Most Relatable Moment

Whenever someone smacks Mayfield. Bill Burr looks a lot like my ex-husband, and his character had similar mannerisms, too. Yes, it’s petty, but I did enjoy him losing. It was very cathartic. 

Also, when the mission is over and Mando tells Yoddle, “I told you that was a bad idea,” even though I have the feeling she never said anything to him. I live alone, so I am often talking to things that don’t really say anything back (at least Yoddle is alive, though). 

Please stop.

Dave Filoni of course named himself “Trapper Wolf.” We get it, you love wolves.

Did You Notice?

Qin looks like Handsome Squidward.

After discussing this episode on Rogue Podron, I agree with the fact that this mission hopefully showed Mando that he cannot do all these things alone. It was also a great chance for us to see how badass he really is. The last five episodes we’ve seen him fight well enough, but there’s still a fair amount of him getting beat up. It’s nice to see why he has the reputation in the Bounty Hunter’s Guild that he does.