Kristian Harloff And Sam React To The Mandalorian Season 2 Premiere: "I Love It"

We are back with The Mandalorian and jumping straight into season two, watching as Sam works through Star Wars for the first time. We told viewers up front that episodes will be posted in pairs, one and two, three and four, five and six, but that we are knocking out the whole season in one sitting because, as we put it, Sam just wants to see this thing. Before hitting play we recapped where things left off: Din Djarin now has Grogu and is trying to get him back to his own kind, while Cara Dune stuck around with Greef Karga.

For anyone who loved the original run, this premiere matters because it immediately leans back into the show's monster-of-the-week format, and that is exactly what won Sam over.

Mando tracks his armor to Cobb Vanth on Tatooine

Episode one has Mando threatening the crime boss Gor Koresh for information, learning that a Mandalorian has been seen on Tatooine. From there it is back to Peli Motto, a running joke about trusting droids, and an R5 unit brought in to map the way to Mos Pelgo. That is where they find Timothy Olyphant's Cobb Vanth wearing Din's old Mandalorian armor. We immediately clocked the helmet, joking "see that helmet look like anybody? There's the bump." Vanth explains he bought the armor off Jawas after the Empire pulled out of Tatooine and a mining collective enslaved the town, and that he has used it to protect Mos Pelgo ever since, though the Krayt dragon living in an old Sarlacc pit is too much for him alone. He strikes a deal with Mando and even brings the Tusken Raiders into an unlikely alliance to kill it. We loved how the show builds out a whole new crew for this one adventure, and Sam pointed to that as the thing she likes most about the series, saying "I love it, it's every episode is a new adventure. I love love love that."

The dragon fight ends with a Boba Fett reveal that had us cheering

The Krayt dragon battle itself got a big reaction from us as the town, Vanth, and the Tusken Raiders team up to lure it out and finish it off. Once it is dead, a mysterious armored figure appears and is revealed to be Boba Fett, prompting an excited "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" from us and the immediate follow up question, "how the hell did he survive?"

Episode two turns into a horror movie once Grogu starts eating Frog Lady's eggs

Episode two shifts gears fast. Mando agrees to fly a passenger known as Frog Lady to the moon of Trask so she can fertilize her eggs before the equinox, vouching for her on his life despite, as he admits, only having met her minutes earlier. New Republic X-wings intercept them over an old bounty tied to blowing up a prison transport, forcing a crash landing that leads into a genuinely spooky cave sequence full of giant spiders, with Grogu steadily eating Frog Lady's eggs along the way, earning him the joking label of "mass murderer" from us. The New Republic pilots catch up again at the end and let Mando go so long as he fixes his ship's transponder.

Sam's verdict on the two episodes was simple: "I loved it," and we agreed the premiere brings the show right back into its groove.

Do you think Boba Fett's return in this premiere holds up as well now as it did for first-time viewers like Sam?