TV SERIES Review: The Mandalorian S1E5 Chapter 5 -The Gunslinger⭐️⭐️⭐️½

Speedo-bikes – Mando on a mission in Mos Eisley with a new guild recruit

Season 1

“Chapter 5 – The Gunslinger”

Mando encounters a brief spaceship firefight only to emergency land on Mos Eisley. His ship needing repair, a female dock mechanic at port offers to fix, but Mando needs more coin. He heads into a cantina and meets a new guild recruit who has a difficult mission and needs help, but offers Mando all the cash so he can get into the guild.

Wonder if this will be a recurring plot device? Mando’s ship and/or his beskar steel armor being damaged? Nice to see a return to a familiar place (Mos Eisley). Also, nice to see speedo-bikes in action. It’s clear that Mando pretty much can trust nobody while he’s on the run with The Child aka Baby Yoda.

This episode, although a familiar shorter run time, has the same elements from previous elements. Mando takes on a mission, mission has obstacles and conflict, wrap-up and onto the next one, with a brief teaser to the future at the end. I’m going with the same rating as the last episode: 3.5 stars, but ratings will go down if the next episode doesn’t break some new ground.

As far as the Star Wars universe goes, I’ll keep following Mando’s adventures every week, unless/until this becomes too repetitive. There are elements in this episode that suggest a pattern is developing. Every TV series has some familiar recurring elements. Star Wars is a huge universe, repetition isn’t really desirable or necessary this soon into the series.

I do wish there was more cross-over in the stories other than Mando and The Child on the run from his treachery from the guild, but maybe we’ll get that in future episodes(?). They better hurry up, as there are only three episodes left in the first season … or maybe they’ll leave us on a cliffhanger heading into The Rise of Skywalker [PREVIEW] coming into theaters?

Past Episode The Mandalorian Reviews

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2 “The Child”
• Chapter 3 “The Sin”
• Chapter 4 “The Sanctuary”
• Chapter 5 “The Gunslinger” (this episode)

To read all our coverage related to The Mandalorian see search results.

Chapter 5 “The Gunslinger” Reviews and/or Related Discussion By Others

Warning: the links that follow may contain significant SPOILERS. They are here to see what others think of the episode after you’ve watched once, twice or more. Enjoy in the discussion.

• Bro Bible / Eric: “Dropping narrative-bombs seemingly a mile-a-minute in its early goings, The Mandalorian has since settled into a more manageable, episodic, “mission of the week” type pace in the last two episodes.”
• Cinemaholic: “….the story is meaty, but the turns are very predictable by now. While the previous episode showed a similar adventure, it made the wise decision to set it in an unknown planet, taking the chance to educate us about its people and culture. Setting Episode 5 in a highly familiar place does little more than fan service.”
• filmschoolwtf: “There’s a limit to pandering to fans (fandering), and in an episode with multiple aliens, animals, and droids from the original trilogy and prequels and Mondo literally saying someone has the “high ground,” hearing “Mad About Me” would have been too much.”
• Future of the Force: Ludwig GÖRANSSON shares the entire film score to Chapter 5.
• Making Star Wars: “…was a bit better than last week’s episode. It was actually a pretty daring episode in a lot of ways”
• Michael / Nerds on Earth: “I feel comfortable calling it the weakest episode yet. We don’t really learn anything that we didn’t already deduce from previous episodes. I mean, the fact that the Guild is after Mando and Baby Yoda is hardly a revelation”
• Monsters & Critics profiles Amy Sedaris who plays Peli Motto, the mechanic at the Mos Eisley dock.

What did you think of this episode of The Mandalorian? How do you like the series so far? I’m really digging it, as you can see from the review, but becoming a bit concerned that the stakes need to be a little higher. Can only do the same basic storylines so many times.