Mando joins a crew of mercenaries to break a prisoner out of jail, but who in his crew can he really trust?

For a show that only has eight episodes, spending the entirety of episode six in what’s effectively a side-quest is somewhat frustrating, even though it’s a fun caper. We’ve been waiting for weeks for the show to kick into gear and identify a central thread, and things looked promising at the conclusion of The Gunslinger when it felt like we were finally getting an antagonist. All of that is put on ice this week.

Even the meme darling that is Baby Yoda gets little to do, though the fact that the criminals didn’t recognise his species does suggest he is a rare breed. What drives this forty-minute adventure is the quality of the cast, from Clancy Brown (Highlander) as horned Devaron Burg, to Natalia Tena’s (Game of Thrones) Twi’lek Xi’An and the genius casting of Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd) as droid Zero.

There’s also some great action set pieces from director and co-writer Rick Famuwiya, particularly when Mando stealthily takes down Mayfield (Breaking Bad’s Bill Burr). Throw in some fan favourite vehicles and it all looks like a solid instalment, but I can’t help feel that this show is drifting at a time it should be building on what has gone before.

Verdict: No complaints in the casting, writing or direction of this episode, and in a run of 22 per year it could be forgiven for doing its own thing, but with only eight to play with, every episode should count, and this just isn’t that vital or essential. 7/10

Nick Joy

Mando runs a dangerous job for an old friend to make some money, but the deeper in he gets, the worse the job starts to look.

With its fifth episode, The Mandalorian committed the sin of spending too much time on fan service while essentially jogging in place and wasting a couple of potentially great characters. This week, thankfully, normal service is resumed and we get a genuinely great episode of Star Wars-themed TV which has enough callbacks for fans while actually doing something with its characters.

Mando is in need of money and obviously unable to take on Guild Work, leaving him to turn to an old contact he used to run jobs with back in the day, who needs his services (and his ship) for a tricky little prisoner rescue mission.

As usual, there’s nothing massively original here in the setup – old, obviously untrustworthy face from the past hires our hero for new job. New faces with something to prove and old faces with a grudge to nurse form part of the crew for the job. Details of the job keep getting worse and sketchier as time goes on. Inevitable attempts at double-crossing. All present and correct. What the episode does is present these elements in an unmistakably Star Wars way, with style and panache aplenty. So we get the expected aesthetic elements and we also get cheeky references to various elements from the entire breadth of the Star Wars cinematic canon, including the prequel trilogy. And we get to see Mando doing what he does best, outfighting and more importantly outwitting all comers.

It’s also got quite the cast, with English stars Natalia Tena and Richard Ayoade each bringing their distinct talents to their respective characters and Clancy Brown instantly recognisable even under layers of makeup with his distinctive burr and impressive stature and physicality. Comedian Bill Burr rounds out things, getting a wisecracking (shock) merc to play. Star of the show remains Pedro Pascal though, whose own physical acting really helps sell the character he’s playing. It’s not enough to just have our central character be the ultimate badass with guns – that would get dull quickly. Pascal instead is able to sell – with the help of the script – the cunning side of the character, his patience and skill, as well as his indefatigable nature.

One could argue that this episode doesn’t really advance the narrative of the show any more than last week, but what it does do is fill in some more of our protagonist’s backstory, showcase his wider skill set and provide some great cinematic moments along the way. Oh, and of course, Baby Yoda gets to steal the show in his own little adorable way.

Verdict: Back to what it’s good at, not quite as utterly brilliant as it is occasionally capable of being but thoroughly good nonetheless. 9/10

Greg D. Smith