The Sanctuary is the weakest episode of the series so far, but there’s still far more to like about the episode than there’s to dislike.
Bryce Dallas Howard takes the reins to mixed results. She was able to pull the best performance of Gina Carano’s career, utilized Baby Yoda to maximum effectiveness, added more layers to Mando’s backstory and introduced a new setting to the show.
On the other hand, there are some rough supporting performances, success happens too quickly in the episode for it to feel rewarding and the poor dialogue with the exception of conversations between Cara Dune and Mando (Pedro Pascal) that makes this the weakest episode.
Sorgan is The Sanctuary
The episode begins with Mando and Baby Yoda descending on a new planet with an entirely different aesthetic from what the series has shown so far: Sorgan. Prior to landing, we get a nice scene between Mando and Baby Yoda that shows the growing depth in the relationship.
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Mando, at the outset, is no longer distancing himself from Baby Yoda and is seemingly taking on the responsibility of watching out for the adorable tyke. In Chapter 3, Baby Yoda is playing with the ship avionics. In episode No. 3, Mando placed Baby Yoda back in it’s Star Wars crib. While in Chapter 4, Mando grabs Baby Yoda, sits the “little swamp rat” (Mando’s words) on his lap and talks about how “Sorgan” is the perfect place for us to lay low for a bit.
Once they land on Sorgan, Mando and Baby Yoda stop off at a tavern. Mando has the most awkward conversation in the episode with a waitress. There’s some valuable information in this scene, but it’s delivered in an uncompelling manner. The one major issue in this series is there are too many characters in this show that speak in “basic” (English in Star Wars universe). An alien dialect would have gone a long way to delivering the information in an interesting way.
Introducing Cara Dune
During this unstimulating conversation, Mando notices a woman in the back of the tavern who is paying close attention. The woman leaves the tavern with Mando following behind her, which leads to some nice hand-to-hand combat that’s quickly interrupted by an adorable baby Yoda casually indulging in his soup.
Once the trio regroups in the tavern, we get some nice backstory into the identity of Cara Dune. In short, she was an elite-level soldier for the rebellion, but once the action died down and the politics started the role changed to suppressing riots and keeping the peace, which wasn’t of interest to her, so she left. The scene concludes with Mando agreeing to head to another planet since Dune arrived on Sorgan first.
The biggest accomplishment from Bryce Dallas Howard as a director is the performance she gets out of Carano, which is the best of the former MMA fighter’s acting career. From this scene onward, I completely bought into Carano’s performance and minus Baby Yoda is my favorite new character in this series.
Before Mando and Baby Yoda can leave, Mando’s approached by a pair of locals in another excruciating dialogue scene. The locals ask Mando to help their village fight off an enemy that’s trying to take over their territory.
Training Sequence Montage
Before Mando heads to the village, he heads back to the tavern and convinces Dune to help. The terrific twosome investigates and finds out that this enemy tribe has an AT-ST at their disposal. Mando and Dune try to convince the villagers to pack up and head to another part of the planet but are rebuffed. Dune’s speech is quite convincing, but the villagers want to fight back.
Before the training can commence, Mando seems to start to develop a connection with one of the female villagers. In this scene, Mando tells her the rare circumstances in which he’s allowed to remove his helmet. While not much, these little bits of added lore go a long way towards developing his character. After this conversation is an amusing scene featuring Dune poking fun at the fact that Mando could just settle down with the female villager and all it would take is removing the helmet. I can’t stress enough how much the conversations and moments between Dune and Mando feel like quintessential Star Wars.
Mando and Cara then show the villagers how to fight back against AT-ST and the invaders. The only villager that has experience with a blaster is the female villager that Mando was talking with earlier. The episode then goes through a long training montage that’s overly familiar.
Honestly, there’s no way these villagers could receive enough training in order to defeat this enemy in such a short amount of time. The show would have been better off telling this story over two episodes and fleshing out the characters a bit more.
The lack of connection to the character rids the battle sequence of stakes. While the shot of the AT-ST coming out of the trees at night is a nice homage to Jurassic Park and a great visual, there’s very little about the battle itself that stands out. Dune concocts a plan that traps the AT-ST and leads to the conventional triumph of the villagers over the enemy tribe.
Sorgan isn’t The Sanctuary Afterall
After the battle, Mando notices that Baby Yoda is having fun playing with the other children in the village. He tells Dune that he plans to leave Baby Yoda in the village because it’s the best thing for the child. You can tell that’s the decision is a completely selfless one for Mando. Dune says her goodbye to Mando.
What follows is the most tension-filled scene of the episode, in which we get a sniper scope centered on Baby Yoda, only to have Dune take out the sniper just before the shot goes off. The episode ends with Mando changing his mind and taking Baby Yoda with him, realizing that Baby Yoda won’t be safe in one place.
Until our Paths Cross
While The Sanctuary isn’t the strongest episode in the series, there are enough high-quality moments that add to the overall enjoyment of the series. I’m a bit disappointed that Dune and Mando part ways at the end of the episode. Dune, Mando and Baby Yoda is a fun trio. I’m sure she’ll be back later in the season.
What did you think of Chapter 4: The Sanctuary? Sound off in the comments.
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The Review
The Mandalorian Chapter 4 Review
PROS
- Best performance in Gina Carano's career.
- Strong dynamic between Mando and Cara Dune
- Bonding moments between Mando and Baby Yoda
- Additional info on Mandalorian lore
CONS
- Terrible dialogue
- Weak supporting performances
- Victory obtained too easily for the heroes
- Adds nothing new to the training montage formula.
