The Mandalorian recap: 'The Heiress'
— Recommendations are independently chosen by Reviewed’s editors. Purchases you make through our links may earn us a commission.
In “Chapter 11: The Heiress,” Mando, Baby Yoda, and the aptly named Frog Lady arrive on the moon of Trask—but just barely. It’s a rough landing; a crane has to fish them out of the harbor. Squealing with delight, Frog Lady is reunited with her husband (Frog Man, natch), and the two share a quiet embrace.
Here, Bryce Dallas Howard returns to direct her sophomore effort within the Star Wars universe, and succeeds brilliantly.
How can you watch The Mandalorian?
In order to watch The Mandalorian, you’ll need to subscribe to Disney+, the streaming service that’s home to all things Star Wars. You can enjoy the Disney+ catalog on most browsers, phones, streaming devices, smart TVs, tablets, and video-game consoles.
A Disney+ subscription costs $6.99 per month—or $69.99 for the full year—though you can save 25% if you sign up for the Disney bundle with ESPN+ and Hulu, which gives you access to all three streamers for just $12.99 a month.
Sign up for Disney+ starting at $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year
What happens in this week’s episode?
While Mando asks around about where he might find other Mandalorians hiding out on Trask, the Child is served a bowl of chowder. When he goes to eat, a squidlike creature leaps out and clutches his tiny green head.
“Don’t play with your food,” Mando tells the kid.
Baby Yoda is mortified by this whole ordeal, but maybe it serves him right after all the infamous snacking he did in the previous episode. (He ate, at minimum, several of Frog Lady’s precious unfertilized eggs.)
Between Din Djarin’s beskar armor and the Child’s rare Force talents—making them targets of the Imperial remnant and bounty hunters alike—it’s unwise for the pair to be too trusting of strangers. They get to relearn this lesson the hard way around the episode’s 10-minute mark, when a large sea monster swallows Baby Yoda (inside his perambulator).
Djarin dives in after his clanmate, and the Quarrens who led them into this trap snap a metal cage shut around our heroes. “The beskar is ours!” one of the pirates laughs. “We’re rich, brothers.”
Just as Mando’s about to drown—the Quarrens’ spears at his throat—Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) flies in and saves him, accompanied by two more of her kind. But Djarin isn’t concerned for his own safety. “Help the Child,” he pleads.
Mando gets a shock when the three remove their helmets in his presence. “You are not Mandalorian,” he reasons.
“I was born on Mandalore and fought in the Purge,” Lady Kryze counters. She tells Mando that he is part of the Children of the Watch, a “cult of religious zealots” who broke away from Mandalorian society in an attempt to revive their people’s more ancient ways.
“There is only one way,” Djarin says. “The Way of the Mandalore.”
When Mando gets ambushed by yet more Quarren pirates, Kryze and her two allies—Axe and Koska—show up again to have his back. “At least let us buy you a drink,” Bo-Katan says. They’re on Trask, she explains, to reclaim weapons that were plundered from their homeworld, hoping to one day retake the planet and install a new leader—a new Mandalore.
Djarin tells them of his quest to deliver the Child to the Jedi, and Bo-Katan’s response isn’t to act stunned or mention the Order 66 purge. Instead, she says, “I can lead you to one of their kind.”
First, however, they want his help pulling off a heist. Their target? A small Imperial freighter filled with weapons.
Mando leaves the Child in the care of Frog Lady and Frog Man, warning him to “mind your manners.” Baby Yoda wastes no time before pressing his face and hands up against the glass of Frog Lady’s incubator full of orange eggs—fertilized, now, and beginning to hatch.
As the Child witnesses the miracle of life, four Mandalorians soar into the skies to rob a spaceship.
For Clone Wars devotees, there’s no shortage of fan service and hints of more to come in this last stretch. But it’s also a great action set piece all on its own; Howard and crew manage to craft a distinctive look and feel for most of this episode.
At one point, the camera follows a grenade as it comes to rest at some stormtroopers’ feet. We get a first-person view through thermal vision. It’s got the fluid confidence of animated Star Wars projects like Rebels.
When Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) learns that the Mandalorians are in fact attempting to seize command of the entire freighter for themselves, he orders the Imperial crew to scuttle it. “Long live the Empire,” he says over the holoprojector.
After they’ve stopped the Imperials and commandeered the ship, Mando asks Bo-Katan where to find the Jedi she spoke of earlier.
“Take the foundling to the city of Calodan, on the forest planet of Corvus,” Kryze tells him. “There you will find Ahsoka Tano.”
The product experts at Reviewed have all your shopping needs covered. Follow Reviewed on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for the latest deals, reviews, and more.
Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.