Running from the nearly-Kryknas

Presidential election turmoil is gripping the USA. The world nervously waits for the final votes to be counted, refreshing social media feeds every few seconds while pundits on every station shout at touchscreen maps that haven’t changed in what feels like an eternity. Yeah, nightmare fuel.

The second episode of The Mandalorian’s second season was meant to provide some sweet relief from the anxiety, but I guess Peyton Reed had other ideas.

‘The Passenger’ feels like it should have been released on October 31 and would fit in perfectly alongside a terrifying match of Ewok Hunt on Battlefront 2, the “Brain Invaders” episode of The Clone Wars or, well, most of Revenge of the Sith in the more horrifying corners of a galaxy far, far away.

I’ve criticised The Mandalorian for at times having a disjointed feel. This isn’t a HBO series where each episode feeds into a central narrative that continuously evolves. Instead at times, it has a ‘Monster of the Week’ feel – quite literally in the case of the first two episodes of the new season.

Last week we hunted the Krayt Dragon. This week, Din, The Child and their amphibian-esque passenger, (en route to the estuary moon of Trask in the Kol Iben system), crash land on an ice planet and stumble upon a legion of spider-like monsters which have the power to send arachnophobes spiralling.

These creatures are the latest edition of eight-legged “multileggers” in Star Wars. In season two of Rebels, the Ghost crew similarly stumbled upon a force of Krykna who occupied a region of the wasteland on Lothal and in Jedi: Fallen Order, Cal Kestis cuts through some shudder-inducing Wyyyschokk while exploring the darker caverns of the Wookie homeworld Kashyyyk.

The creatures disturbed by the Razor Crest crew are not a species we’ve seen before. They look like the Krykna from Rebels because they are both inspired by the same piece of Ralph McQuarrie concept art, but Lucasfilm creative art manager Phil Szostak has confirmed that this is a brand new creature to Star Wars lore.

As far as a ‘Monster of the Week’ goes, it might not match the Krayt Dragon’s 16:9 cinematic ‘wow’ factor but this legion of arachnids certainly delivered a thrilling set piece as our heroes ran from the creatures and in the end, had to be saved by the same New Republic X-Wing pilots who chased the Razor Crest into the ice cave in the first place.

That chase sequence was absolutely thrilling. From the X-Wing pilots locking their S-Foils into attack position at suspicions that Din was an undercover Imperial, to the sense of speed during the chase, it was a truly memorable sequence despite not even a single shot being fired.

Of course, Dave Filoni’s X-Wing pilot returning was a nice callback to chapter six. However, I’d like to get to know some of the New Republic characters so that these X-Wing pilots are more than simple sometime plot devices, and as the show evolves I hope that happens. With this show primarily being a serialised adventure series to date, it doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for character exploration outside of Din and The Child.

For instance, we know that the female amphibian needs to get her eggs back to her homeworld and her husband. We know that she’s smart at rewiring old Imperial droids for the purposes of communication and that she runs on all-fours when sprinting from killer spiders. But that’s about it.

Oh, and that The Child finds her eggs to be quite tasty.

Of course, she is still aboard the Crest at the end of the episode, so we could learn more in chapter 11. I did say a similar thing about Peli Motto after her seemingly one and done appearance in season one, but Amy Sedaris’ character has not only returned for a season two cameo, but has now been a double-feature.

Following a cold open ambush that sees Din’s speeder reduced to wreckage, he has to walk back to Mos Eisely where he reconvenes with Motto in a cantina. She introduces him to amphibi-girl.

Had you told me before the season that Motto would feature in the first two episodes, I’d have been anxious. I wasn’t a fan of the character in season one – her lines were janky, the acting failed to make up for the dialogue and she felt like a Star Wars Resistance character that had gotten lost. So far, Motto’s been great in season two, as we’re able to explore her character beyond the loud-mouthed mechanic.

Finally, an admission that feels important to include in my first reaction. Perhaps my most anticipated widely-held prediction of a Mandalorian exploration of the planet Ilum might have been wide of the mark, as all of the ice-planet imagery from the trailer is accounted for in this episode. Perhaps it’s a bait and switch and Ilum will be served up down the line, but the provenance for the theory has been debunked in chapter 10.

It is at least refreshing to have the vast majority of trailer imagery already seen in either episodes one or two. Most of the shots and locations throughout the remainder of the series will be surprises and that’s exciting.

I’d be willing to bet that the Sasha Bank’s trailer scene – where Din spots her while they are both aboard a boat – is to come next week on account of the fact that we still need to take Amphibi-girl and her offspring to her husband on Trask. It’s one of the only as-yet-unseen shots.

Is Bank’s playing Sabine Wren? Is the mystery woman on Trask? Well, after my false-Ilum prediction, I wouldn’t like to say.