The Mandalorian Season 1 Beat Sheet
Tags: Film, Star Wars, The Mandalorian, Screenplay, George Lucas

Opening Image

We follow Din Djarin, the Mandalorian as he moves from one target to the other collecting bounties. Bounty hunting is his only mission/purpose and it’s the only life he’s ever known.

Theme

His latest target is Maldo Kreis, who explores Din’s ship in hopes of finding a means of escape. Instead he stumbles upon several other targets who are frozen in carbonite before getting frozen himself. The theme centers around the Mandalorian’s life as a soulless bounty hunter and the principles he lives by, all of which will soon be tested.

Set Up

It’s made clear that the Empire is no more and the New Republic has emerged in its place. Additionally, Mando does not seem to like droids.

Catalyst

Mando meets with the guild leader, Greef Karga who tells him about this one job that seems very peculiar but pays well. Persistent about always working, Mando decides to accept it.

Debate

Mando heads to the client’s location and finds out it’s a job for the Empire. The target is a 50 year old and whoever they are, the client believes that they will be crucial in enabling the Empire to rise back to its former glory.

Break into Two

Having accepted the job and the down payment of a bar of Beskar steel, he heads to the hidden base of the Mandalorians. He is seen handing over all his payment to the creed, showing just how much their way of life means to him.

B Story

As the Beskar is forged into an armor plate, Mando remembers his past and how his parents were casualties of war. This portion will be elaborated upon later.

Fun and Games

The first plot point focuses on change and clashes with the theme of the story. As he lands on the planet, he’s attacked by a blurrg and is rescued by Kuiil.

Kuiil is unlike anyone Mando has ever met on his job, and is basically his opposite in terms of character. He isn’t cunning or shrewd and instead insists on helping others. To get things moving, he insists Mando learn how to ride one in order to proceed further. Being someone who is heavily resistant to change, Mando sees the task as irrelevant and a waste of time until he finally decides to give it a try after Kuiil reminds him his ancestors rode far fiercer creatures.

Kuiil tells Mando he helped him because he knows there can be no peace in the land as long as the target is present, this is a bit ironic to Mando as his whole profession centers around violence, but it is again hinting at change by implying that Mando is capable of it. However, before he can engage a bounty droid, IG-11 enters the field and Mando is forced to work with him despite hating droids. The final act of change is made when Mando realizes that the target is a child and goes against his code as a bounty hunter to kill the droid and instead save the child.

The second plot point is centered around hostile forces who are also after the same target. Mando returns back to the ship to find it ransacked by Jawas and is forced to be more diplomatic when dealing with them rather than resorting to violent means as he normally would (this hints at the theme of the story). The plot point of danger looming closer and closer is always present as being stranded in one place means they’re more vulnerable.

He’s tasked with finding the egg of a Mudhorn, but the beast seems too powerful for him, he uses every weapon at his disposal but nothing works. It smashes through his chest plate, his gun gets damaged, it’s immune to the flamethrower and it isn’t subdued by the grappling hook. However, when all seems lost, the child uses the force to levitate it, giving Mando an opening. This act echoes the theme as the beast was able to counter every move of the bounty hunter but was rendered helpless against a greater power, the force.

Midpoint

After delivering the child to the client, Mando asks them what their plans for him are, as he begins deviating from the code of the bounty hunter. Having collected his payment, he has the rest of his armor forged with his payment. The armorer asks him why his target i.e. the enemy helped him in slaying the Mudhorn, he says because the child did not know they were enemies, which begins to grey the areas of the job that are generally black and white.

The B story crosses over when Mando recalls his childhood again and this time it’s revealed that his parents were killed by battle droids (which is why he doesn’t like droids). Just as his parents were killed by the “bad guys” of the prequel films, he has delivered the child to the bad guys of the original films. Furthermore, Mando is always shown to have a soft spot for foundlings, which is why he develops a soft spot for the child.

Karga is seen dismissing another bounty hunter before Mando walks in, this is not the profession where second chances are offered and Mando once again asks about the child. The big twist occurs when Mando decides to go against everything the guild is built on, by choosing to go back for the child.

Bad Guys Close In

While laying low, Mando is tasked with defending a village from raiders and recruits Cara Dune to help him. The child clearly enjoys being surrounded by other children while Mando forms a connection with one of the villagers. The “bad guy” here is Mando being tempted to leave his life as a Mandalorian behind to start a family.

This might be a bit of a stretch, but another negative aspect could be Mando and Cara teaching the peaceful villagers about their violent methods. Also, in an earlier episode the child is seen swallowing a frog when he’s with Mando but when he’s in the village he spares the one he’s about to eat.

After their victory, Mando thinks about leaving the child with the villagers but when a bounty hunter tracks them, he realizes that a normal childhood is no longer an option and they need to keep moving.

The episode begins with Mando being chased by a hunter who tells him “I can bring you in warm or I can bring you in cold”, the tables are turned as Mando is now the prey. With his ship damaged, he’s forced to look for work in Tattoine to pay for repairs. He meets Toro Calican who’s an aspiring bounty hunter eager to join the guild. There’s a clear comparison made between Calican and Han Solo as they’re both seated in the same place in Mos Eisley Cantina and they both carry the same weapon, the difference is Calican lacks experience.

They head out to track Fennec Shand and it’s clear that Mando is leading the whole operation while Calican just follows orders. After subduing her, Mando heads out to find them some transportation, during which, Shand begins brainwashing Calican but instead of working with her, he makes a bold move by killing her and going after Mando and the child himself, but eventually he’s beaten. This second plot point in this story beat focused on the dark descent of Calican, from aspiring bounty hunter to cold blooded killer.

Mando is tasked with working with a team of convicts to break a prisoner out of jail. Right off the bat, Mando seems uncomfortable with the job and is eventually double crossed by his team. Meanwhile, the child is hunted by the droid piloting the ship. Eventually they manage to escape just as the New Republic pilots arrive.

All is Lost

This plot point also focuses on change. Mando is contacted by Karga who offers him a chance to make things right by helping him get rid of the Empire from Nevarro. Mando recruits Dune and Kuiil but the two don’t get along as Dune sees him as just an Imperial worker incapable of being anything else, while Mando sees the reprogrammed IG-11 droid as a merciless killer regardless of what his programming tells him.

Karga initially planned to kill Mando and Dune but changed his mind after the child force healed him after he was attacked by a mynock. Before they can make a move on the Imperial officer, they’re gunned down by Moff Gideon’s death troopers, on the other hand, Kuiil is killed and the child is abducted.

Dark Night of the Soul

IG-11 rescues the child while Gideon reveals that he knows everything about Mando, Dune and Karga. Mando remembers that the attack on his village was planned by Gideon and right before the battle droid could kill him, he was saved by Mandalorians.

Break into Three

Just as he was rescued as a child by the Mandalorians, Mando knows that it’s up to him to save the child.

Finale

After fighting their way out, they’re forced back into hiding when Mando is badly hurt. He urges the others to leave while IG-11 tries to heal him. Mando believes that he’s going to kill him but IG says that isn’t who he is anymore, as a sign of trust he lets him take his helmet off.

They make their way to the Mandalorian base where the armorer tells them that it’s now up to Mando to deliver the child to the Jedi. He earns his signet and she tells him that he and the child are a clan of two.

While escaping out of a tunnel, they see stormtroopers on the other end. IG decides to self destruct to enable the rest to escape and for the first time, Mando shows compassion for a droid as he never thought a soulless being would be able to do something so selfless.

Closing Image

Mando sets out to reunite the child with the Jedi as he’s no longer tied to the guild and all the violence and death that comes with it.

Like the content? Support this blog by donating on PayPal

Purchase Star Wars on Amazon