I’m much happier with the latest episode. It seems they’re leaving any real resolution until later in the season and what we’re getting now is just build-up. The episodes feel less self-contained than in Mando, which I think is the reason the open-ended ending of the first episode felt jarring to me. I’m really enjoying the insight into the sandpeople’s way of life.
Just finished the 2nd episode, and man, Favreau really gets the SW vibe. This was a really great episode.
…
The western movie vibe was strong in this one with the whole train sequence, and I especially liked the train conductor droid. I’m so glad to see that Favreau is embracing the absurd and metaphorical logic of SW. The interior of the “locomotive” section with all the tubes and the blue-burning engine is perfect SW weirdness that is just similar enough to our past to be recognizable, but just ‘futuristic’ enough to have that veneer of sci-fi to it. I also got some strong Lawrence of Arabia vibes from this sequence, and the end credits concept art pretty much confirmed that that was intentional.
I did not expect the Tusken peyote trip. Nice to see some Force-vision type thing away from the Jedi, the Sith, etc. We’ll have plenty to theorize about for a while with that scene.
I very much agree with all this. This feels exactly like Star Wars should, but it’s not just recycling stuff we’ve already seen. This kind of stuff gets me excited for more.
The Camie and Fixer cameo turned out exactly as I expected. It’s a fun little easter egg for SW fans, but to 99% of the audience they were just two civilians that needed to be saved from a swoop gang.
Agreed. I think they handled it really well. And we got to see Boba kick some ass instead of getting beat up, so that satisfied some of my disappointment with the first episode.
The fact that the assassins sent after Boba in chapter 1 are supposed to be the best of the best also makes me feel a bit better about Boba not being able to take them on. Still doesn’t explain why he didn’t use his jetpack though…