The Mandalorian Recap: S1E3 - The Sin

This week, the Mandalorian returned to The Client for that big payday. But if you thought that little reunion was going to go smoothly, you had another thing coming. Let's get into Episode 3 of the Disney+ original series "The Mandalorian." As always, if you haven't seen the most recent episode yet, you shouldn't be reading this blog, so consider yourself warned. Full spoilers ahead!

First and foremost, Baby Yoda remains adorable. I know this episode was technically called "The Sin," but they might as well have called it "Baby Yoda's Day Out." The Internet's collective child was wide awake and in the height of its glory for the first 15 minutes. In the opening minutes, The Child climbed out of its pod and curiously poked around the cockpit of The Mandalorian's ship, finding a metal knob that the bounty hunter explained was "not a toy." Once they touched down, TM embarked out to turn in his highly valued target, and the lil' thing was just poking its head out of its levitating pod, checking out its surroundings - his hair blowing in the wind - entirely cute as a button. It was a joy to watch.

On a serious note, I fear that, if anything happens to the miniature Force-user, the World Wide Web will burst into flames. It's probably going to happen at some point, and it's not gonna be pretty.

The Client and his men determine that the baby is healthy. They're pretty happy about it. The Mandalorian inquires as to how many other hunters had been sent in search of this particular mark. A lot, it turns out. (We later see that literally everyone in the cantina has a tracker-fob.) But to the victor go the spoils. In exchange for the kid, TM (or "Mando," as he is frequently called in this episode), is presented with a huge stack of credits, which he promptly takes to get melted down for new armor.

We found out that there is an underground society of other Mandalorians that are just chilling outside the armor forge. They give TM a hard time, jealous of the exorbitant amount of money he just earned, and envious of the suit of armor he has been building over the course of the season. Things nearly come to blows at one point, but the female armorer breaks things up, reminding the bounty hunters of the vows they have made for their creed. TM explains that he has never taken off his helmet (since joining the guild, we must presume), and that it has never been removed from him by anyone else, either. The armorer offers to forge another signet (similar to the one he had made for him previously) as a reward for taking down the rhino-beast in Episode 2, but he declines that honor because he couldn't have slayed it without the help of another warrior (Baby Yoda). Instead, he has her craft him something called "whistling birds," which he is warned are very powerful, can take out multiple enemies simultaneously and should be used sparingly.

As she begins to pound out the armor, we see more flashes of The Mandalorian's childhood - most of which seem similar if not identical to shots we've seen before. We do appear to get a bit of additional insight this time. We get a better view of the opponents that attacked his childhood village; there were enemy warships, as well as battle droids. We get a better idea of what happened to TM's parents - it appears that they were either taken or killed just moments after they hid their son in the hatch, and almost immediately, a battle droid discovers the hidden child, which is where the flashback ended this time around.

The Mandalorian heads to the local cantina, fully clad in his brand new Beskar steel armor, and it looks glorious. Truly, this man is an intergalactic baller. He meets up with his old friend Greef Karga (Carl Weathers). Greef explains that all of the other bounty hunters hate "Mando" now because finding Baby Yoda raked in the largest treasure any of them had ever seen. But they both got paid (he flashes some silver bars, which he has been keeping inside his tunic), so he's happy with how things turned out. Despite Greef's constant insistence that The Mandalorian take some time off to enjoy his newfound wealth, TM demands to be given his next mission.

Before he departs, Mando expresses some skepticism about the ex-Empire goons who took Baby Yoda, then asks Greef what The Client intends to do with the infant. At the beginning of the episode, Greef had mentioned, "I don't know if he wants to eat it or hang it on his wall, but he's very antsy." He clarifies that he didn't ask what the goal was, though, because having done so would have been a breach of his "code."

The Mandalorian returns to his ship and finds the knob that Baby Yoda was playing with at the beginning of the episode. We can't see the protagonist's facial expressions, but his long, drawn-out reaction indicates that he is considering going back for the child. What a softy.

Mando returns to the village in search of the infant. He finds the baby's pod, destroyed in a dumpster. (At this moment, it was as if millions of Twitter users cried out in terror, for fear that their Baby Yoda had been taken from them prematurely.) It would seem that The Mandalorian is not very pleased about this, either. He immediately heads to a rooftop and pulls out his long-rifle, which can not only see but also hear through walls, to locate The Client. TM draws some stormtroopers outside of the building, then blows a hole in their wall. Swiftly, he fights his way to the holding cell where Baby Yoda is being kept and monitored. After briefly searching for answers, he grabs the young alien and attempts to make his way out, although he is met with some resistance. He makes light work of those who dared oppose him with a flamethrower built into his armor and those amazing whistling birds!

Elsewhere, the fob trackers of all the bounty hunters light up like the Fourth of July. There's a new bounty, and he's wearing Beskar steel. The hunter has become the hunted.

Mando is eventually surrounded as he makes his way back to his ship. Of all people, Greef is leading the charge. He demands that The Mandalorian put Baby Yoda down and turn himself in peacefully. TM initiates a gunfight and hops into a droid-operated speeder. Greef shoots the droid, crashing the ship and allowing the other hunters to close in on the most wanted man in the galaxy. TM starts blasting away his enemies, popping shots and disintegrating them one shot at a time. It seems as though all is lost. TM looks Baby Yoda in the eyes and it mutters its first adorable sounds.

Suddenly, the Mandalorians from the forge fly in for the save, over the rooftops, allowing TM to escape. Greef sneaks onto Mando's ship and confronts his former friend one final time. Greef accuses The Mandalorian of breaking the code - a sin worthy of death. Mando shoots Greef in the chest, blasting him out of the ship and back to the planet below. We later see that Greef took the shot to those precious silver bars that he was holding so dear, so he's going to be just fine.

As Mando flies away, a jetpack-clad Mandalorian soars up to salute him. TM takes the metal knob and gives it to Baby Yoda. So precious. So heart-warming. Such a great episode.

Questions

There are two recurring themes that, if I'm not mistaken, have been brought up in every episode so far:

• The value of Beskar steel - and the fact that The Mandalorian is one of the very few who possess it
• The fact that The Mandalorian cannot remove his helmet

• What were they monitoring Baby Yoda for? Midi-chlorians?
• What the fight between The Mandalorian and Greef an act? Greef didn't seem too trigger-happy during that shootout, and Mando shot him right where he had seen those credits.
• Will we learn more about the Mandalorian purge that forced them all to go underground?
• Upon further contemplation (conversations with co-workers and the Ringer article I hyperlinked at the top of the blog), the odds that The Mandalorian and Baby Yoda both survive this series are very low. (Why haven't they been mentioned in any other movies or TV shows?) What is the end game here?

Quotes

• "Easy with that." - The Mandalorian, responding to the stormtroopers' rough handling of Baby Yoda's cradle.
• "Such a large bounty for such a small package." - The Client
• "Our secrecy is our survival. Our survival is our strength." - The female armorer describes the Mandalorian creed
• "This is the way." - The Mandalorian mantra
• "How do I know I can trust you?" "Because I'm your only hope." - The Mandalorian and Greef Karga
• "I gotta get one of those." - The Mandalorian wants a jetpack

Qualms

At this point, I really don't have any complaints about this episode. Each episode keeps getting better and better. I love it. The only thing I wish would have happened was that I wanted Baby Yoda to save The Mandalorian from that final fight, but I'm all right with what ended up happening, so it's cool.

Instant Analysis

I thought this was a great episode. We had some great action scenes, wth the hostile break-in to The Client's lab and the shootout at the end. The Mandalorian went full "face turn," to use a pro wrestling term. He's a good guy now and he's going to take care of Baby Yoda. It's awesome. Seeing the Mandalorians come to the aid of one of their own was awesome. I'm really digging this show.

Episode 3 of #TheMandalorian was better than like three or four actual #StarWars movies.

— Aaron Christensen (@atownmania) November 23, 2019

I loved this opening paragraph in the aforementioned Ringer article:

Here's what a very wise former co-worker had to say:

"Tombstone, 13 Assassins, the Mandalorian Ep. 3. All masterpieces of the cinematic showdown. In Episode 3, we feel the heart of The Mandalorian, plus we get more 'ice cream maker' and vibroblades."

- Estevan Ramirez

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That's it for now! What did you think? Leave a comment below, find me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter (@atownmania and @sottunderground). I'd love to hear your thoughts and theories.

Until next time,

I have spoken.