The Mandalorian, Episode 5
This week’s episode of The Mandalorian on Disney+ takes Star Wars fans back to a planet that helped kick-off the Star Wars franchise back in 1977. The episode further expanded aspects of the bounty hunter guild and the still present seedy underbelly of the Outer Rim. Additionally, we were introduced to assassin Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) and spaceport operator/mechanic Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris).
As always, we’ll be covering lots of the finer–and not so finer–details within this week’s episode of The Mandalorian. If you want to avoid spoilers, it would be in your best interest to turn away for now.
Mando and Baby Yoda find themselves on one of the most recognizable planets in the outer rim, Tatooine. Mando needs money to fix his ship and hooks up with an inexperienced bounty hunter to hunt down a dangerous assassin. Meanwhile, Baby Yoda hangs out in a Mos Eisley spaceport, and continues to look adorable.
Take a look below at the best Easter eggs and references from “The Gunslinger” Then, if you’ve missed them, make sure to check out our Easter egg guides to Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, and Chapter 4.
1. The bounty hunter’s ship
In the opening sequence, Mando and his ship, the Razorcrest, are being chased by bounty hunter Riot Mar in space. While we couldn’t pinpoint what ship Mar was using, it does look old. It has elements of ships like the A-wing, Delta-7, and X-wing with its wings down, incorporated into its design.
2. Remember these dumb droids?
When Mando, Baby Yoda, and the Razorcrest land in Mos Eisley, we see a few DUM-series pit droids. The first time we saw these droids was in Episode 1: The Phantom Menace at Mos Espa where they worked at Watto’s shop and on podracers.
3. At home with Peli Motto
The woman that runs this spaceport dock on Mos Eisley is Peli Motto, but the actress that plays her is none other than Amy Sedaris. This comedic actress is best known for her role as Jerri Blank on Comedy Central’s Strangers With Candy. Additionally, she’s appeared on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and BoJack Horseman. Currently, she stars on the TruTv comedy At Home With Amy Sedaris. See what we did there with the title of this slide?
4. Fight the Empire
It’s already been established in continuity that after the Battle of Endor, the Empire had fallen, and we’ve seen the shot above in many trailers for the show. However, it’s important to note that even though Tatooine is on the Outer Rim–far from the Empire’s stranglehold–it still had a massive Empire presence. If you watch A New Hope, there are Stormtroopers everywhere. And considering how beaten up these helmets look, there was obviously an uprising in Mos Eisley.
This makes you wonder about the relationship between the Empire and the Hutt Cartel, since Jabba ran things in that area but allowed Stormtroopers on what was essentially his planet–even if his family’s cartel was losing power during the Galactic Civil War. Or maybe I’m just getting way too off on a tangent.
5. A friendly game of Sabacc
While Mando is off doing his bounty hunter thing, Peli and the DUM droids are playing a game of Sabacc. This widely-popular game was first mentioned in Empire Strikes Back, but it also appeared in Rebels, The Force Awakens, and was heavily-featured in Solo.
6. Another familiar droid
Briefly seen before Mando enters the cantina, there is a WED-15-77 droid–also known as a Treadwell–hanging out, talking to a human. It first appeared in a deleted scene for A New Hope and later made an appearance in Attack of the Clones.
7. I tried to translate, so you wouldn’t have to
When Mando walks into the cantina (officially known as Chalmun’s Spaceport Cantina), there is something written above the door, and the first symbol looks close to a “b” in Aurebesh. However, the second two letters didn’t match anything in that alphabet. This isn’t Huttese either.
It probably says “bar” or “pub,” as long as the characters directly match the English language–because Aurebesh does, so why wouldn’t others?
8. Mos Eisley Cantina
As mentioned earlier, its official name is Chalmun’s Spaceport Cantina, but it’s the most famous–and at times, infamous–watering hole in the Star Wars universe. As far as live-action appearances go, we’ve only seen it in A New Hope. However, this pub did also appear on the animated series The Clone Wars a few times as well.
9. Bantha party
We’ve seen these gigantic beasts in Star Wars many times before. Banthas are the preferred mode of transportation for Tusken Raiders.The native Raiders ride these Banthas in single-file lines in order to hide their numbers.
10. Tusken Raiders not painted in a bad light for once
Before this episode of Mandalorian, Tusken Raiders were generally seen as ruthless nomads, taking shots at podracers, killing Darth Vader’s mother, and generally causing havoc to people on Tatooine who ventured away from spaceports.
Here, however, they’re shown in a much kinder light. As Mando explains, Tuskens view everyone else as outsiders, as the Sand People and Jawas are the only native species to the planet. As a person of tradition and ritual, Mando respects the Tuskens by asking for passage, instead of just barging through.
Additionally, while Tuskens speak… well… Tusken, we also they can communicate through sign language. They’re not as barbaric and savage as we originally thought.
11. Empire Strikes Back callback
Before Mando leaves Toro to grab a Dewback, he tells the new bounty hunter that “She’s no good to us dead.” In Empire Strikes Back, Boba Fett has a whooping four lines, and one of them is “He’s no good to me dead.” He says this to Darth Vader on Bespin after they capture Han Solo.
12. Fennec Shand’s ties to The Force Awakens
Infamous assassin Fennec Shand (played by Ming-Na Wen) may be introduced for the first–and probably last–time in this episode of The Mandalorian, but it’s possible that another member of her family has already appeared in another Star Wars movie. In The Force Awakens, we briefly meet Kanjiklub, a criminal organization that Han Solo was in debt to. One of the members of this group was Crokind Shand.
Considering Fennec once worked for the Hutt Cartel and Kanjiklub’s members are comprised of former Hutt slaves, it’s a safe bet to say these two are related. Crokind could be Fennec’s son, considering there is a 25-year difference between this episode of The Mandalorian and The Force Awakens.
