The Mandalorian Season 1 Episode Summary
Star Wars fans were thrilled to be introduced to The Mandalorian in Season 1 as he visited familiar and new locations in the Galaxy Far Far Away. But what is it all about? This episode sumary is created for beginners who want to get to know the show or as a recap to fans before who have already watched it.
The Mandalorian TV show is set in the period between the original trilogy and the sequel trilogy. We see a galaxy following the events of Return of the Jedi when the Empire fell and before The Force Awakens which introduced the rise of the First Order.
The lead character is Din Djarin, a lone bounty hunter of the Mandalorian race. Referred to as Mando, Djarin is recognisable as remaining always beneath his iconic Beskan steel helmet.
Table of Contents
Mandalorian Season 1: Episodes 1-8
The Mandalorian season 1 revolves around the adventures that follow a special assignment offered by Greef Carga. Mando accepts to capture the bounty, later to be revealed as “The Child”.
By the end of the first episode, the nature of the bounty is revealed to be an infant which relates to Star Wars mythology.
The series premiered on the Disney+ streaming service on November 12, 2019. The eight-episode season ran until December 27.
The Mandalorian season 1 gained mostly positive reviews and was nominated for several awards, winning seven Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
Chapter 1: The Mandalorian
Din Djarin arrives at a cantina on Nevarro to collect a payment and see his Bounty Hunter Guild handler Greef Karga. Karga instructs him to meet with a potential client for an ‘off the books’ assignment that he says will pay more than his usual job.
Although the client, guarded by Stormtroopers, is secretive about the details of the bounty, but tells Djarin that he’ll be paid in Beskar steel, a metal sacred to his people, if he brings his target back alive.
The bounty hunter tracks his prize to a desert planet where he meets a farmer named Kuiil who guides him to his bounty.
Unfortunately, the area is heavily guarded but, after a confrontation with a bounty hunting droid IG-11, who doesn’t know Mando is a fellow bounty hunter, the two team up and take out their opposition. When they find the object of their search, fans were able to recognize it as an infant of the same species as the Jedi Master Yoda.
When IG-11 attempts to kill the child, Djarin shoots it in the head, saving the child and his bounty.
Chapter 2: The Child
With the baby in tow, Djarin is on the way to his ship when he’s attacked by rival bounty hunters. After finishing with his adversaries he gets back to his ship to find it’s being stripped by a group of Jawas who escape in a sand crawler.
The next day Kuiil helps Djarin find the Jawas and negotiate a deal with them for the return of the components they took from his ship. They promise to return Mando’s stuff if he can bring them an egg from a creature called a mudhorn.
The mudhorn is much stronger than the bounty hunter and, when it appears he will lose the battle and likely his life, the Baby Yoda, uses the Force to incapacitate the mudhorn, allowing Mando to kill it.
After giving a mudhorn egg to the Jawas, Djarin fixes his ship and sets off to Nevarro.
Chapter 3: The Sin
Djarin returns to Nevarro and give Baby Yoda to the client, who pays him in Beskar steel. The metal in hand, Mando heads to an underground lair to meet with the Mandalorian Armourer introduced in Chapter 1, who crafts him a new set of armour, which includes a signet featuring a mudhorn.
While getting ready to go in search of his next bounty, Mando has an attack of conscience regarding the infant that saved him. He decides to return to the client’s base and save the child.
As the bounty hunter and Baby Yoda are making their escape, they’re attacked by Greef Karga and a group of other bounty hunters. During the fight that ensues Djarin and his young friend are saved by a squadron of Mandalorians, allowing them to get away.
Chapter 4: Sanctuary
Looking for a place to hide out, Mando makes his way to a forest planet called Sorgan. Soon after arriving, he meets a former Rebel shock trooper, Cara Dune. The two decide to help some fishermen to defend their village from raiders.
While preparing for the battle, Djarin meets and quickly becomes close to a widowed mother. In opening up to her he reveals that in keeping with the traditions of Mandalore, he’s kept his face hidden from others since childhood.
After Dune and Mando defeat the raiders, Mando decides his best course of action might be to leave Baby Yoda on Sorgan. This plan changes after Dune kills a Guild bounty hunter who tracked the pair to the planet.
The oddly matched pair then return to Djarin’s ship and depart for parts unknown.
Chapter 5: The Gunslinger
After damaging his ship in a dogfight, Djarin lands on Tatooine. While looking for work at a nearby cantina he meets an aspiring bounty hunter, Toro Calican, who is on the trail of an assassin named Fennec Shand.
The two are able to capture Shand but the assassin tells Calican about Mando’s fugitive status, revealing that the bounty on him is worth more than the price on her own head. After shooting Shand, Calican takes Baby Yoda hostage.
After killing the inexperienced Calican and rescuing the child, Mando uses the dead bounty hunter’s money to pay for his ship repairs.
After Djarin and Baby Yoda leave the desert planet, we see a mysterious figure back on Tatooine finding Shand’s body.
Chapter 6: The Prisoner
Mando takes a job with a group of criminals who want to rescue ab associate from a jail in space controlled by the New Republic. They get into the prison but are detected by its security system.
The bounty hunter and the criminals find their friend, who is the brother of one of the crooks, but the group betrays Mando and leave him in a cell.
The gang soon learns they’ve made a mistake in one of the most dynamic action sequences of the season, as Mando defeats each of them in turn. He then proceeds to deliver the man he was hired to help retrieve to the rendezvous point by himself.
After planting a tracking beacon on the crook, Djarin hands him over to his friend Ran who he now knows betrayed him. Soon after, a squad of X-Wing fighters appear and blow up Ran’s base.
Chapter 7: The Reckoning
The Mandalorian receives a message from his former handler, Greef Karga, who tells him his town has been occupied by the forces of the client he betrayed.
Greef pleads with Djarin to return to Nevarro and kill his former client. In return he promises to clear Mando’s name with the Bounty Hunter’s Guild. Mando recruits Kuiil, Cara Dune and a reprogrammed IG-11 for the mission.
Upon meeting his former handler and his team, they’re attacked by flying creatures that injure Karga. After the battle Baby Yoda heals him using the Force. Showing his gratitude, Karga kills his own foot soldiers and confesses he was going to betray Mando.
Karga, Dune and Mando go to meet with the client, who is killed when they’re attacked by Moff Gideon. Gideon had also sent scouts to capture Baby Yoda, who Kuiil had brought back to Djarin’s ship. After killing Kuiil, the scouts take possession of the Force sensitive infant and it appears that all hope is lost.
Chapter 8: Redemption
The episode opens with IG-11 saving Baby Yoda from the scouts before travelling back to the village where it then saves Mando, Greef Karga and Kara Dune from Moff Gideon.
Djarin is injured during the rescue and, after Karga and Dune escape with the child, IG-11 convinces Mando to remove his helmet so the droid can heal him.
Back in the fight, Mando and IG-11 catch up with the others. They then try to make their escape by travelling down a river of lava but are ambushed by Gideon’s remaining troops. IG-11 then sacrifices itself to help them escape.
Despite the droid’s heroic sacrifice, all seems lost when Gideon shows up in a Tie fighter. Luckily, Mando takes out the ship with his recently acquired jetpack. Djarin and the infant then leave Neverro to find the latter’s family, leaving Dune and Karga behind.
The season ends with Gideon freeing himself from the wreckage of his fighter using what appears to be a unique ebony lightsaber.
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