It tells a lot about the strengths of “The Mandalorian” that a breather episode where very little happens to progress the main narrative still manages to be pretty good overall.

Maybe I got a bit too hyped with the prospect of the ice planet being Ilum, but having gotten over that debunked theory, it was a well-made episode with a surprising amount of focus on subtle character development.

I liked the more nuanced aspects of this chapter, with Mando questioning his adherence to his code and diving more into its “nature vs nurture” theme, probably foreshadowing how Baby Yoda is going to follow the steps of his “step-father” whether that’s a good thing or not.

All the visuals were breathtaking and the CGI work on the krykna spiders (or at least I’m gonna pretend it’s a subspecies of krykna, seeing how they are inspired by the same concept art as the ones from Rebels) was so well done that at some points I couldn’t tell if the creatures were fully digital or practical with CGI enhancements.

As a small detail, I liked that Jawas have yellow eyes again.