Mandalorian S2 E1 The Marhsall Television 

Five Thoughts on The Mandalorian‘s “Chapter Nine: The Marshal”

By | October 30th, 2020
Posted in Television | % Comments

Like a friend that you forget how much you miss until you see them again, The Mandalorian is back to make our days and nights seem a little less meaningless and bleak. Picking up not long after the events of Season 1, “The Marshal” plays like a bit of a reminder to the viewers of exactly what the show is meant to be without feeling like it was all retread. Continuing the chapters from last season also helps the idea that this is a continuation of that story and not something entirely new. Let’s dig in.

Be warned, if you haven’t watched “The Marshal,” it will get spoiled, so please watch it first.

1. The best casting department around

Yesterday, while rewatching all of Season 1, I was tweeting about how insane the cast is on this series. I mentioned Werner Herzog, Carl Weathers, Horatio Sanz, and Amy Sedaris, forgetting to highlight Bill Burr, Brian Posehn, and Giancarlo Esposito. These are not conventional Star Wars actors, and each of them did a great job in their roles. With Sedaris back in tow, “The Marshal” continues the ‘stunt’ casting, but does so with such finesse and skill that after the initial “holy shit!” moment, you buy that person as the character with no issues.

This season’s heavily make-up’d tough that starts the season’s plot is played by John Leguizamo, wearing the most makeup since Spawn, and Leguizamo plays the local crime boss with aplomb. But the bit of casting that may seem a little too on the nose is Timothy Olyphant as Cobb Vanth, the titular marshal. We’ll get to the character in a second, but casting the star of Justified as the sheriff of a near-ghost town on a desert planet seems a little obvious, no? Fortunately, Olyphant is a beast of an actor, and brings enough machismo, weariness and, eventually, earned respect to make the casting sing.

2. What’s up, Aftermath?

Since the Disney purchase, Lucasfilm has been working very hard to make sure that their various pieces of canon line up more than they did in the wild west that was the Expanded Universe. Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath trilogy, along with The Mandalorian, are the most expansive Star Wars stories set in the direct, ahem, aftermath of Return of the Jedi. Wendig’s novels intersperse small, one-chapter stories within a larger narrative. In those chapters, we follow minor characters, artifacts, and settings the earlier films and see what this new status quo has done to them.

One of the more memorable stories is that of Cobb Vanth, Olyphant’s character, coming into possession of Boba Fett’s armor. That scene is faithfully(ish) reproduced in this episode, and is, perhaps, the most clear example of an idea introduced in a novel showing up in a live-action Star Wars project yet. As a massive fan of those novels, it is very cool to see Vanth show up on screen.

3. Tatooine’s Greatest Hits

With the exception of the Hutts, this episode acts as a bit of a recap of everything Tatooine, from womprats to bantha, Mos Eisley to Mos Espa, Amy Sedaris to Tuscan Raiders. If there was a moisture farm or a pod race, it would really have been encyclopedic. While this may have seemed over the top at points, I think it was actually a really smart decision on behalf of Jon Favreau and co. One of the best parts of The Mandalorian is how it is incorporating so much from all over the Star Wars experience into one package. The Darksaber, IG units, Cobb Vanth, the rumored Clone Wars characters, all of this helps us buy stuff like Baby Yoda (or, as I keep calling him, Yodel) and, again, Werner Fucking Herzog as integral parts of this universe.

By taking one of the most iconic Star Wars settings and reminding us of its authenticity, it allows us to see things like Boba Fett’s armor and not roll our eyes. It’s all incorporated into the mix, and allows the new and the old to fit together in a satisfactory way.

4. Adding a new influence to the mix

It’s not secret that westerns and samurai films have always been Star Wars influences, and The Mandalorian has, if anything, doubled down on those tones. This episode is very much a plot from a western, where our hero rolls into town and befriends the sheriff in the name of saving the townsfolk from an outside evil. But this episode brings a new wrinkle to that, which is to make that threat, essentially, a kaiju. Yes, we all know it is a Dune riff (or, to an intellectual, a Beetlejuice riff), but this is treated more like an early Godzilla film, where there is a giant beast that is endangering life and needs to be taken down.

Continued below

Star Wars has never been afraid to mix metaphors, and so we get a little Jonah and the whale added to the mix, giving the story a little extra gravitas towards the end. Don’t get me wrong, this is still more or less a straight western, down to Vanth’s sheriff being a man of his word or the Tuscan Raiders taking the place of the misunderstood, prejudiced against Native Americans, but the extra flavors the show adds really enhances each episode.

5. Boba Fett? Boba Fett? Where?

There may be no smaller of a Boba Fett fan than me. Despite thinking he was cool when I was a kid, he’s probably the most glaring example of a ‘looks cool, no substance’ character that there is in all of films. He also completely blows in The Clone Wars, and any attempts to rehabilitate him have fallen on their face. We can only presume that Temuera Morrison is playing Boba Fett and not another clone, but with this episode being so focused on Fett’s armor, it seems likely that Morrison is doing just that.

And look, if Favreau, Dave Filoni, and whoever else is working on this season can do something worthwhile with Boba, I’m all for it. But of all the characters to bring back, it seems totally unnecessary. It is made doubly unnecessary because this episode ended with the Mando getting the armor off of Vanth without needing Fett’s corrupting presence.

I must admit, I’m not thrilled about Fett, nor the rumored Clone Wars characters showing up, because I don’t think this show needs them. There is plenty here to enjoy without having to bring in, essentially, stunt roles. And look, if you told me the secondary lead on this show would be a baby Yoda and it would be great, I would’ve laughed in your face. This crew gets Star Wars more than almost anyone else I can think of, an so if anyone can do it correctly, it is them. But I must say, I was much, much higher on this episode until that last shot.


//TAGS | The Mandalorian

Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

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