The Heiress (The Mandalorian - S02E03) - Live Action Series

"Here we go! Nice and easy!" SPOILERS.

And yet another happy landing?

Collectors who backed the Razor Crest on HasLab need to be very brave. It's not that the Razor Crest will get destroyed in Chapter 11, "The Heiress". But the ship will look very different after this episode, both on the in- and outside. And to make matters worse one of the accessories that is included with Baby Yoda is destroyed. The Child's pram is damaged beyond repair and left behind. Oh, and Din Djarin finally gets to meet the other Mandalorians he is searching for, only it's not what he expected!

An idea for your Razor Crest display

The Razor Crest was badly damaged in the previous episode and is now limping to Trask, the planet the Frog Lady wanted to travel to, so she can meet her mate. Trask actually turns out to be an estuary moon of the gas giant Kol Iben and is inhabited by Mon Calamari and Quarren. The Razor Crest has to attempt a manual landing approach and after a quite fiery descent (the scene from the trailer) things almost work out, but a few feet above the landing platform one of the engines malfunctions and the Razor Crest plummets into the harbor. But no worries, the ship is salvaged almost immediately, only now it's even more in serious need of some repairs, so Din Djarin hires a Mon Calamari to work on the ship.

Meet the mysterious bystander who watches from the shadows

The Frog Lady reunites with her husband and leads the Mandalorian to a cantina, but before they get there a mysterious woman watches them from afar.

When food fights back

In the cantina the bartender points the Mandalorian to some Quarren who can take him to the Mandalorians. Baby Yoda meanwhile learns that food can actually fight back, especially when it is still alive. So it turns out Mon Calamari and Quarren like their food really raw, as in: alive. Ok, let's move on quickly, especially after last week's frog egg debate.

When you become food

The Quarren who are supposed to take Din Djarin and Baby Yoda on their boat to the Mandalorians turn out to be rather shady fellows. Not only do they feed Baby Yoda to a monster in the ship's hold, where a beast named "mamacore" lives, they also capture the Mandalorian in the hold as he dives after Baby Yoda to save him. He has no way out and Baby Yoda is about to become digested by some mean monster. Another fine mess!

Aggressive negotiations, Mandalorian style

But just as things seem to look really bad for Din Djarin and Baby Yoda three Mandalorians in blue armor descend from the sky and take out the Quarren on the boat. They save Din and one of the female Mandalorians kills the monster in the cargo hold and rescues poor Baby Yoda. Baby Yoda's pram that was constructed by Kuill last season gets destroyed however, it's damaged beyond repair, but at least it served its function and protected Baby Yoda long enough.

Very familiar helmet markings

Din Djarin is happy he has found (and was rescued by) other Mandalorians and tells them about his task to deliver the child... as the three Mandalorians remove their helmets to Din Djarin's dismay.

Bo-Katan in the flesh

The helmet markings already gave away the fact that the leader of the Mandalorian trio is none other than Bo-Katan, portrayed by Katee Sackhoff, who we last saw in season 7 of The Clone Wars. Din Djarin demands to know where they got their armor from, but Bo-Katan reveals to Din Djarin that he is actually part of a religious sect, a group of zealots called "Children of the Watch" who broke away from Mandalorian society and want to restore the ancient ways. We already suspected that since the Mandalorians we met before had no rules about not removing your helmet. Din Djarin is less than pleased and flies away with his jetpack, leaving the other three Mandalorians behind.

It's a thug's life

Back in the settlement Din and Baby Yoda are cornered by the brother of the deceased boat captain. But before they can really do anything Bo-Katan and her friends fly in and dispose of them. Bo-Katan then invites Din to a drink, and he accepts. Not that he actually drinks something or removes his helmet of course. Bo-Katan reveals to Din that Trask is a staging port for smuggled weapons, the Imperial Remnant is paying for the smuggled weapons with the plunder from Mandalore and Bo-Katan wants to seize the weapons and use them to retake Mandalore. We also learn that the "Children of the Watch" believe that Mandalore is cursed and that anyone who goes there dies. Bo-Katan of course tells Din that he really shouldn't believe everything he hears. Eventually Din Djarin agrees to help Bo-Katan steal the weapons in exhange for information where he can find a Jedi. He leaves Baby Yoda with the Frog Lady and her husband because things are going to get very dangerous now.

That moment you realize you should have stayed in bed that day

What follows is yet another brilliant action sequence as the four Mandalorians infiltrate the Imperial transport. They quickly dispose of most of the Stormtroopers who really can't even hit a Bantha. One of the officers thinks he has the Mandalorians trapped as he orders all doors to be closed... but then he realizes - much too late - that he trapped the Mandalorians in the cargo control area. And of course they use the controls to open the cargo bay door. The Imperials get sucked out of the ship. With the weapons now seized Bo-Katan reveals the other part of her plan, she wants to seize the entire ship. Din Djarin is not pleased, since it was not part of the deal, but he grudingly complies.

Moff Gideon issues some rather unpleasant orders

On the bridge of the ship the officer in charge contacts Moff Gideon and calls for help, but the Moff informs him that no reinforcements are coming, since it's already too late for that and that the officer knows what he has to do... and so the officer kills his two subordinates with his blaster. He then takes control of the ship and wants to crash it into the ocean.

He'd rather be dead then feel Moff Gideon's vengeance

The Mandalorians gain access to the bridge just in time to avoid the crash. Bo-Katan captures the officer and inquires about the darksaber and wants to know if Moff Gideon has it. She offers the officer his life if he takes her to Moff Gideon, but he refuses to take her offer and kills himself with some suicide pill hidden in one of his teeth. The job is now done and Bo-Katan honors her side of the bargain. She finally tells Din Djarin where he can find a Jedi. He needs to travel to the city of Calodan on the planet Corvus. There he will find Ahsoka Tano!

Baby Yoda learns to like frogs

Din Djarin picks up Baby Yoda who he had left behind with the endearing Frog couple. Their first babies (tadpoles?) have hatched and Baby Yoda is really taken with one of the little ones. Din thanks the couple and Baby Yoda is reluctant to leave the cute Frog baby behind, but they need to be on their way.

Who will customize their HasLab Razor Crest to look like this?

Back at the docks Din Djarin finds the Mon Calamari tasked with repairing the ship was quite "creative". The Razor Crest looks like a real piece of junk now, there are ropes everywhere now inside the cockpit and some octopus shaped creature lurks in the cockpit even, but before it can attack Baby Yoda Din Djarin kills it, Baby Yoda promptly eats it, he's just always hungry! The Razor Crest then takes off, setting course for Corvus and Ahsoka Tano. And that concludes chapter 11!

Some fans complained about the filler nature of the previous two episodes. Chapter 11 is certainly not "filler", it advances the plot quite a bit and we also learn a thing or two that will certainly have an impact later in the series. Not only do we meet Bo-Katan for the first time in the flesh, we also learn that she is indeed after the darksaber that Moff Gideon stole during the purge.

And what viewers suspected for a long time is confirmed in the episode: Din Djarin is not a normal Mandalorian, he belongs to an offshoot sect of religious zealots. No modern Mandalorian has a "never remove your helmet" rule. This opens up quite a few pathways for the story. Perhaps Din Djarin, over the course of the series, will open up to the way modern Mandalorians live and realize that the ancient customs of his sect hold him back, making a connection with other people quite complicated. The next possibility is that the series may want to go to Mandalore and dedicate a few episodes to Bo-Katan's attempt to take back the planet.

Of course there is also the possibility that Chapter 11 is a backdoor pilot. Now that Bo-Katan has been cast with Katee Sackhoff it's not entirely unlikely Lucasfilm has more plans with her and may want to make a series about her and the fight for Mandalore.

People who, to my amazement, complained about Baby Yoda's eating habits in the last episode may be happy to see that Jon Favreau actually knows what he's doing and yes, of course there is some pay-off and very likely even some (minor) character growth for Baby Yoda as he actually takes a liking to the newly hatched frog baby. We will see if this will change Baby Yoda's eating habits.

The biggest reveal of the episode is of course the ultimate confirmation that Ahsoka Tano will be on the show. Now the big question is if Ahsoka will actually take on Baby Yoda or if she will merely provide Din Djarin with some much needed background info on the Jedi. It stands to reason that Ahsoka won't really know much about Baby Yoda's background either and I doubt she will adopt the child, especially since the growing attachment between Din Djarin and Baby Yoda is a central theme of the show.

And let's talk about the Razor Crest. That ship can really take a beating! It survived a crash landing, a fall, attacks by giant spiders, a fiery crash landing and a short visit to the bottom of the harbor basin. But as a result of all this the ship now looks nothing anymore like in season 1, and it certainly doesn't look at all like the version collectors backed on HasLab. And on top of that Baby Yoda's pram was destroyed as well. I wonder how collectors feel about the fact that the HasLab Razor Crest will be season 1 specific. However, it's becoming more and more evident that the Razor Crest will remain an integral part of the show, even if it looks like a pile of trash now. Maybe Din Djarin will find a proper space dock that can restore the ship to its former glory, we will see.

"The Heiress" was certainly the best episode of season 2 so far, it had some humor, some cute Baby Yoda scenes, great guest stars and very impressive action scenes. And Bo-Katans sassy "This is the way!" to Din Djarin the end of the episode was priceless. It's all you could ever want from the show. Chances are the pace of the series will pick up even more as we head towards the season finale. But I am not closing this review before I mention that adorable Frog couple. Their affection for each other was so wholesome and grounded the episode a bit, it was a piece of normality amidst all the chaos. Let's hope they will lead a happy life on Trask with their numerous children!