THE MANDALORIAN (S1E3) “The Sin”: Trudges Along

The progress The Mandalorian is tracking through each episode is almost worrying for a show of this magnitude. Throughout three episodes Mando has been given a job, he’s done the job, and he’s gotten into violent complications surrounding the delivery of the job. Each episode is fun enough to keep ones attention but not quick enough to really move anything forward. As mentioned earlier, this episode is surrounding Mando’s delivery of Baby Yoda to the client who ordered the job in the first place. And like a father with his son, giving the baby up won’t be so easy.

The Asset

Upon landing back at Mandalore, Mando promptly takes Baby Yoda back to his client, and negotiates the situation and his reward. He gives the child up, receives an entire box of that sweet sweet beskar steel and is promptly reminded of the code that all mandalorians must follow, one where he’s not allowed to question his clients and what they intend to do with their bounties. He’s reluctant, but he heads off with the steel to Greef Karga and the craftswoman at his hiding hole.

Werner Herzog only shows up in this episode for around 2-3 minutes but when the man is on the screen he makes it worth it. He’s able to bring levity to even the silliest jargon, to even the most absurd world and its rules. It’s a shame we don’t get to see more of him and his character, hell it’s a shame we don’t see more of him generally speaking, but every moment is a delight. His scenes are the best in this episode. And Baby Yoda, of course, remains the cutest thing in the parsec. No competition at all.

Mando goes to his hiding hole, gets confronted for having as much Empire beskar steel as he does, and gets a new set of armor crafted as he reflects on his past in a poorly edited cross between the present and his past, similar to how it’s executed in the first episode. He goes off with a new job and a new reward to boot, and seems ready to head off into the stars before he’s confronted with his own grief, his own memories of his surrogate son. He needs to get him back.

This Is The Way

Mando scopes out his client and the scientist that took Baby Yoda and their argument about what to do, something about extraction and keeping the child alive for an outside source. Mando breaks in, evaporates some stormtroopers, and saves his child from the scientist who begs for mercy, claiming he saved the child from a possible death by way of science. Scientist stays alive, Mando gets his kid back, and now tracking fobs all over the city are beeping towards the kid.

It’s been clear since Baby Yoda was first revealed at the end of episode 1 that Mando wasn’t going to give the child away so easily, but it’s admirable how long it takes for him to get there this episode. Giving the baby away at all, at the start of the episode, is unexpected for the moment and throws one off their tracks in terms of predictions for the rest of the episode. And while he does eventually go back for the kid it’s a nice moment nonetheless.

Now with the city on his back, Mando attempts to head back to his ship with a cooing baby and some new armor. Naturally, it’s not that easy in a city full of bounty hunters and he’s confronted at the city gates by Greef Karga. Ensue shootout, a fun sequence with some clever action made better by the gorgeous cinematography highlighting the shine of Mando’s armor against the night sky.

Upon nearly dying, his fellow Mandalorian buddies from the hideout come out of their hole with guns and numbers, and allow Mando to head to his ship. He goes there, fends off Greef Karga, and shoots into the skies.

Conclusion

As mentioned in the opening paragraph, moment to moment this is a quick show but on an episode to episode basis it’s exceptionally slow. One can’t help but feel like it would benefit from hour long episodes to really flesh out the world and the characters and further the situation faster, cause at the current moment it’s fun but the juxtaposition between episode pacing and series pacing seems a bit jarring. At the very least, there’s no clue as to where it’s going next.

The Mandalorian is now streaming on Disney+