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Mandalorian, The Season 1

Chapter 1

Star Wars: The MandalorianYears after the Rebel victory at Endor leaves the Empire scattered and disorganized, a Mandalorian bounty hunter brings in his latest catch…but finds that he has a choice of being paid in full in near-useless Imperial credits, or being paid half in Mon Calamari currency. With the Empire’s fall and order returning slowly under the New Republic, there’s plenty of work for a bounty hunter, but most of it tends to be low-paying retrieval of bail jumpers. But the Mandalorian is offered one job of interest: the capture and return of an “asset” – preferably alive – of importance to a man working with a group of Imperial loyalists and holdovers. The pay is good, but the details of the “asset” – other than it being a fifty-year-old life form – are frustratingly sparse. The Mandalorian takes the job, only to fall afoul of the local fauna, and then discovers that a bounty droid, IG-11, has beaten him to the life form’s hiding place, artlessly doing away with any hope of using the element of surprise in the process. There’s little choice but to team up with the droid…until the true nature of the Mandalorian’s quarry is revealed.

The Mandalorianwritten by Jon Favreau
directed by Dave Filoni
music by Ludwig Goransson

Cast: Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Carl Weathers (Greef Karga), Werner Herzog (The Client), Omid Abtahi (Dr. Pershing), Nick Nolte (voice of Kuiil), Taika Waititi (voice of IG-11), John Beasley (Bartender), Horatio Sanz (Mythrol), Tait Fletcher (Alpha Trawler), Ryan Watson (Beta Trawler), Dmitrious Bistrevsky (Quarren Trawler), Christopher Bartlett (Ferryman), Brian Posehn (Speeder Pilot), Emily Swallow (Armorer), Misty Rosas (Kuiil performance artist), Rio Hackford (IG-11 performance artist)

The MandalorianNotes: Set seven years after the fall of the Empire in Return Of The Jedi (and well before the rise of the First Order sometime prior to either The Force Awakens or Star Wars: Resistance), The Mandalorian is the first live-action Star Wars television series to make it into production, and the first live-action Star Wars television of any kind since 1985’s Ewoks: The Battle For Endor. There’s a dialogue nod to the first-ever Star Wars TV special with the Mythrol’s passing mention of Life Day (1978’s Star Wars Holiday Special); apparently his captor is unconvinced of his desire to celebrate a Wookiee holiday. Unlike previous bounty hunters we’ve met in the movies, the Mandalorian has his own carbon freezing facility on board his ship, so no side trips to Cloud City are necessary.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Mandalorian, The Season 1

Chapter 2: The Child

Star Wars: The MandalorianThe “asset” proves to be a small green creature about the size of a child. When the Mandalorian discovers that IG-11’s commission involved terminating the creature, he destroys the droid and has to fight his way through other bounty hunters to secure his claim…only to discover that Jawas have raided his ship, leaving it unable to take off. With the help of Kuiil, the guide whose help he enlisted when he arrived on this planet, he strikes a bargain with the Jawas: they will return all of the parts stolen from his ship in exchange for “the Egg”…belonging to an enormous beast fully capable of dispatching even an armored Mandalorian. But just as the Mandalorian has been the “asset”‘s salvation, the tiny creature may yet prove to be his as well.

The Mandalorianwritten by Jon Favreau
directed by Rick Famuyiwa
music by Ludwig Goransson

Cast: Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Nick Nolte (voice of Kuiil), Stephen Jackson Powers Jr. (Jawa Elder)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Mandalorian, The Season 1

Chapter 3: The Sin

Star Wars: The MandalorianThe Mandalorian delivers the child to the small enclave of Imperial holdovers, but he is curious – and perhaps worried – about what will become of the creature. Even so much as asking is a violation of the code by which bounty hunters live. Rewarded with a fairly large quantity of Beskar steel, the Mandalorian has new armor fashioned for himself, though some of his fellow Mandalorians, tired of living in hiding, question his decision to accept work from Imperial loyalists. His concern for the child’s well being, bringing to the surface memories of his own tortured childhood on the run with his family until they could no longer shelter him, finally override his oath to the bounty hunter code, and he all but single-handedly wipes out the Imperial encampment to rescue the child. The price for the Mandalorian’s compassion: he is now not the hunter, but the hunted, and his survival depends on whether or not the other Mandalorians will cover his escape.

The Mandalorianwritten by Jon Favreau
directed by Deborah Chow
music by Ludwig Goransson

Cast: Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Werner Herzog (The Client), Omid Abtahi (Dr. Pershing), Carl Weathers (Greef Karga), Emily Swallow (Armorer)

Notes: The Mandalorian scoffs at the suggestion that he could travel to the Core worlds to alert the New Republic to report the Imperial activity – he regards the reconstituted Republic as “a joke”. Given that the child The Mandalorianis clearly a member of the same as-yet unidentified species as Yoda, it’s possible that the “necessary material” Dr. Pershing is attempting to extract for his client could be those pesky Force-enabling, fandom-enraging midichlorians that have gone unmentioned since Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. (That movie also contained glimpses of the only other adult member of Yoda’s species seen to date, a Jedi Master named Yaddle.)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Mandalorian, The Season 1

Chapter 4: Sanctuary

Star Wars: The MandalorianOn the run from just about every bounty hunter and Imperial remnant in the business, the Mandalorian brings the newly liberated child to the backwater planet Sorgan, an agrarian planet far from interplanetary trade lanes. At the nearest local watering hole, a customer worries him: someone who’s clearly equipped for a fight, which he promptly gives her when she tries to get the jump on him. She is an ex-Rebel named Cara Dune whose services have been less in demand since the fall of the Empire. When the locals try to hire the Mandalorian to take care of a problem they’re having with raiders, he takes the meager amount of money offered and uses it to hire Cara to help him deal with the problem. But when they discover that the raiders have a leftover (but fully functional) Imperial Walker at their disposal, the job is suddenly much more dangerous than they bargained for – and it now entails the Mandalorian using his personal arsenal to arm an entire village against an enemy with significant technological superiority.

The Mandalorianwritten by Jon Favreau
directed by Bryce Dallas Howard
music by Ludwig Goransson

Cast: Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Gina Carano (Cara Dune), Julia Jones (Omera), Isla Farris (Winta), Asif Ali (Caben), Eugene Cordero (Stoke), Tiffany Thomas (Sorgan Farmer #3), Aydrea Walden (Sorgan Farmer #4), Trula Marcus (Sorgan Farmer #5), Sala Baker (Klatoonian Raider Captain), Ida Darvish (Common House Proprietor)

Notes: The furry creature that menaces the child in the opening scenes is a Loth-cat, a species native to the planet Lothal, the setting for much of the animated series Star Wars: Rebels. This is the first time a Loth-cat has been rendered as a “photo-real” (but still very recognizable) creature.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Mandalorian, The Season 1

Chapter 5: The Gunslinger

Star Wars: The MandalorianThe Razor Crest comes out the worse for wear in a dogfight with another bounty hunter, forcing the Mandalorian down on the planet Tatooine’s infamous Mos Eisley spaceport with barely enough Imperial credits on him to rent a hangar, let alone cover the needed repairs. The Mandalorian looks for work in the local cantina, finding only a rookie bounty hunter named Toro Calican on his first job. The problem is that he’s chosen as his first quarry a skilled assassin named Fennec Shand, not an easy target for an inexperienced hunter. With the Mandalorian’s help – and the promise that the Mandalorian can keep the money while Calican gets the reputation points for the catch – they find and capture Shand, but not before she has destroyed one of their speeder bikes, forcing the Mandalorian to go and find another means of transporting Shand back to Mos Eisley. In his absence, Shand tells Calican about the Mandalorian’s own reputation – and the fact that he’s on the run from the Guild, and therefore a far more valuable target than she is. Blind ambition inspires an unwise decision that nevertheless puts the child traveling with the Mandalorian in great danger.

The Mandalorianwritten by Dave Filoni
directed by Dave Filoni
music by Ludwig Goransson

Cast: Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Amy Sedaris (Peli Motto), Jake Cannavale (Toro Calican), Ming-Na Wen (Fennec Shand), Rio Hackford (Riot Mar), Troy Kotsur (Tusken Raider Scout #1), Steve Jay Blum (Spaceport Operator)

Notes: Time – and possibly Luke’s destruction of Jabba’s criminal empire in Return Of The Jedi – haven’t been particularly kind to Tatooine, and the Bounty Hunters’ Guild no longer even The Mandalorianoperates from there. Rusty pit droids dating back to the days of the Republic are still in common use, as are reprogrammed K-2 Imperial droids (K-2SO, seen in Rogue One, was something of a trailblazer in that respect – or maybe that model’s just easily hacked). Toro Calican thinks he’s worthy of holding down Han Solo’s old seat at the Mos Eisley Cantina (a booth where, it has to be said, there’s no evidence of Greedo getting a single shot off, maclunkey or otherwise). Tusken Raiders can apparently be negotiated with if you know their form of sign language (and have something of value to trade), and the Mandalorian acknowledges that the Tuskens are Tatooine’s indigenous life form, and not the vermin that many humanoids take them to be.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Mandalorian, The Season 1

Chapter 6: The Prisoner

Star Wars: The MandalorianThe Mandalorian accepts a job from an old associate who needs another associate broken out of a maximum security New Republic prison transport – not exactly the low-profile kind of job that the Mandalorian is seeking, but the only one available to him. Worse yet, his employer hand-picks a team of thuggish mercenaries to do the job – the Mandalorian is expected only to provide the use of his ship and extra trigger fingers. But once this disjointed team is aboard the prison transport, they face more resistance than expected – along with a pilot (on a ship they were told would be staffed entirely by droids) who activates an emergency homing beacon as he is killed, summoning a New Republic X-Wing strike team to its location. And once the prisoner is sprung, the team decides that the Mandalorian is disposable.

The Mandalorianteleplay by Christopher Yost and Rick Famuyiwa
story by Christopher Yost
directed by Rick Famuyiwa
music by Ludwig Goransson

Cast: Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Mark Boone Jr. (Ran), Bill Burr (Mayfeld), Natalia Tena (Xi’an), Clancy Brown (Burg), Richard Ayoade (Zero), Carl Weathers (Greef Karga), Ismael Cruz Cordova (Qin), Matt Lanter (New Republic Soldier), Dave Filoni (Trooper Wolf), Rick Famuyiwa (Jib Dodger), Deborah Chow (Sash Ketter)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Mandalorian, The Season 1

Chapter 7: The Reckoning

Star Wars: The MandalorianGreef Karga sends a message to the Mandalorian, revealing that the Imperial presence near the Guild’s home base on Nevarro has grown to an intolerable level, almost as if the planet is again under Imperial rule. Karga proposes using the child as bait to draw out the Imperials who wanted to dissect him, and then take out their leadership. The Mandalorian changes course, but not for Nevarro; first he returns to offer Cara Dune the job of backing him up. They then travel to the planet where the child was found, where the Mandalorian plans to make the same offer to Kuiil, only to discover that IG-11 is still operational – reprogrammed by Kuiil to be a servant. With Dune, Kuiil, IG-11, and Kuiil’s blurrgs aboard, the Razor Crest finally returns to Nevarro. En route to the city, the local fauna attacks, and Karga is seriously injured, but the child heals his injuries completely; this inspires Karga to take out what remains of his security detail and warn the Mandalorian that the plan was to lure him back to Nevarro, where the now sizeable Imperial regiment would kill him and take the child. The plan is altered accordingly, but it would seem that even the Imperial client who originally ordered the child’s capture is marked for death. Someone else is now calling the shots: Moff Gideon.

The Mandalorianwritten by Jon Favreau
directed by Deborah Chow
music by Ludwig Goransson

Cast: Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Carl Weathers (Greef Karga), Gina Carano (Cara Dune), Nick Nolte (voice of Kuiil), Taiki Waititi (voice of IG-11), Werner Herzog (The Client), Giancarlo Esposito (Moff Gideon), Adam Pally (Bike Scout Trooper #2), Dave Reaves (Zabrak Fighter), Misty Rosas (Kuiil performance artist), Rio Hackford (IG-11 performance artist), Chris Bartlett (RA-7 Droid performance artist)

The MandalorianNotes: Death Troopers were established in Rogue One (2016), and appeared again in the animated series Star Wars: Rebels; they accompany only high-ranking officials such as Director Krennic or, in this case, Moff Gideon. Gideon’s TIE Fighter, though it looks much like a standard-issue Imperial fighter, demonstrates a previously unseen ability to fold up its wings and land; also seen for the first time in live action is an Imperial Troop Transporter, a vehicle that was introduced to the Star Wars universe not by a film or animated appearance, but by Kenner’s toy line from the original movie. (Naturally, Hasbro, Kenner’s successors to the Star Wars toy license, rolled out a new Imperial Troop Transport after its appearance in The Mandalorian. Odds are pretty good that they’re working on Gideon’s TIE Fighter too.)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Mandalorian, The Season 1

Chapter 8: Redemption

Star Wars: The MandalorianKuiil has been killed by Imperial Stormtroopers, and the child has been abducted, though the troopers are held up at a checkpoint outside of the city gates as Moff Gideon delivers an ultimatum to the Mandalorian, Cara Dune, and Greef Karga. An unexpected wild card tips the negotiations in the Mandalorian’s favor: IG-11, programmed to serve as a nurse droid for the child, kills the tiny creature’s captors and rescues him, before commandeering a speeder bike and blasting a path through the Imperial reinforcements. The Mandalorian and his allies use this distraction to decimate the Imperial platoons keeping them pinned down, though Moff Gideon proves to be harder to eliminate. The Mandalorian is severely injured; IG-11 creates an escape route for Dune, Karga and the child, staying behind to tend to the Mandalorian’s injuries before helping him escape as well. In the sewers underneath the city, the Mandalorian is stunned to find that, in the wake of his previous escape from Nevarro, the Mandalorian covert was laid to waste, leaving only the Armorer alive to count the dead and reclaim their armor. She gives him his pick of munitions, as well as a jet pack that he will have to learn to use, before covering his escape yet again. Escape is seemingly in sight when the Mandalorian spots an Imperial platoon ready to ambush; IG-11 entrusts the care of the child to the Mandalorian before sacrificing itself to make sure they escape alive. But Moff Gideon is leaving nothing to chance, and intends to deal with the Mandalorian personally.

The Mandalorianwritten by Jon Favreau
directed by Taiki Waititi
music by Ludwig Goransson

Cast: Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Taiki Waititi (voice of IG-11), Giancarlo Esposito (Moff Gideon), Gina Carano (Cara Dune), Carl Weathers (Greef Karga), Emily Swallow (The Armorer), Jason Sudeikis (Bike Scout Trooper #1), Adam Pally (Bike Scout Trooper #2), Aidin Bertola (young Din Djarin), Alexandra Manea (Din Djarin’s Mother), Bernard Bullen (Din Djarin’s Father), Brendan Wayne (Mandalorian Warrior), Rio Hackford (IG-11 performance artist)

The MandalorianNotes: Cara Dune was born on Alderaan; at this point, she may be among the last living Alderaanian natives. (Even though Leia is still alive during the events of The Mandalorian’s first season, she was Alderaanian only by adoption, not by birth.) Moff Gideon is shown to be wielding the Darksaber, a weapon introduced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (The Mandalore Plot, 2010) and last seen in the hands of Sabine Wren (Star Wars: Rebels: Legacy Of Mandalore, 2017). Assuming that there has been only one Darksaber all along, presumably the weapon fell into Gideon’s hands during the purge of Mandalore during the darkest era of Imperial rule.

LogBook entry by Earl Green