The Mandalorian Season 1 Episode 3 Recap: ‘The Sin’

This was the show we were looking for!  If we were at all skeptical about “The Mandalorian,” episode 1 showed us what it was capable of, and episode 2 expanded on that excellent start.  Even after that, we may have been cautiously optimistic that the show wouldn’t go downhill after throwing out all the stops in the first two episodes.  Well, episode 3 “The Sin” is here to show us that things are only going up!

Collecting His Bounty

This one opens like many Star Wars shows do, with a spaceship (this happens to be the Razor Crest) arriving at a planet.  Baby yoda wakes and climbs out of his bassinet, onto Mando’s control panel and begins playing with a ball on the top of a lever, to which Mando tells him “it’s not a toy” and puts the child back in his bassinet.

Our companions enter the city together, with the child looking around nervously at all the hustle and bustle. Heading down an alley, it now becomes apparent to me they are heading back to where Mando received this job.  Arriving at the door, they are greeted by storm troopers, who escort them back to their leader.  When we enter his room, Werner Herzog’s character comes forward and says “yes. yes, yes, yes,” to the site of the child.

Bringing forward the reward, Herzog says, “to the winner, go the spoils.” A container full of beskar is the bounty for returning the child alive! “Such a large bounty, for such a small package,” Herzog reiterates to Mando again.  I don’t think we’ve been given Werner Herzog’s character’s name, but I have to say he is amazing in this role.  Without saying much, he is able to get his point across, but you also get the sense that he is sleazy and there are some strange dealings going on.

Mando asks, “what are your plans for it?”  Herzog throws the guild code in his face (it’s the code of the guild that events are forgotten once paid) to which Mando quickly quiets down, locks up the container holding his large bounty, and leaves.

New Armor

With a large sum of beskar (appears to be 18-20 bricks), Mando heads back to the Mandalorian stronghold, wanting to create new armor for himself, as well as spare some for the foundlings.

This bounty has attracted the attention of others, and some Mandalorians are not happy that Mando would use beskar “from the great purge.”  They know it is from the purge as it has been re-forged with the Imperial emblem on it.

It is mentioned this is why they are in hiding, and why only one at a time can go above the surface.  A fight between Mando and the main dissenter ensues. The Mandalorian who forges the armor tells them that the beskar has returned and that “this is the way” which all the Mandalorians repeat like a religious chant, ending the confrontation.

Because a Mudhorn caused the damage to Mando’s armor, he is told he will be made a Mudhorn signet.  Mando declines the offer, saying that it wasn’t a noble kill as he was helped by an enemy.  In lieu of the signet the excess will be used to forge “whistling birds,” which can be used against multiple enemies at once but are very rare and should be used sparingly. As the armor is made another montage of what we have to believe is the Mando as a child, takes place.

Another Bounty

With his new, shiny, silver armor affixed Mando heads back to Greef Carga for another bounty. While strolling into the cantina all the other bounty hunters look at Mando with distain. He asks Greef how many trackers were out there. Greef tells him that everyone of them had a tracker to the bounty, but only Mando could deliver.

Greef is proud of Mando, tells him he’s his number one man, Greef got a good payday too, and all the other bounty hunters are jealous of Mando’s score. He suggests Mando take some well-deserved time off, but Mando just wants his next job. He is again given the best job Greef has to offer.

He then inquires to Greef about what they are doing with the child, and in turn Greef tells him he didn’t ask, as it is against the guild code. When Mando tells Greef that they work for the empire, and asks, “what are they doing here?”  Greef responds, “the empire is gone Mando,” and recommends he buy some “old spice” and by the time he is out of hyperspace he will have forgotten all about it.

Change of Conscience

When it appears that Mando is going to leave on to his next bounty, his conscience gets the better of him, and he turns off his ship and heads back to the settlement.

Mando breaks into the laboratory where the child is being held. Dr. Pershing, being the only one in the room, retracts in fear but says, “don’t hurt him he is only a child.” Mando questions Dr. Pershing, “what did you do to it,’ which Pershing replies, “I protected him, if it wasn’t for me, he would already be dead.” As he is leaving the building with the child, Mando is surrounded by stormtroopers and appears to have no way out. Luckily, he was just recently given those whistling birds, which enable him to take out the multiple stormtroopers at once.

A shot back at the cantina full of bounty hunters, shows all their trackers start beeping again, as the hunt for the child is back on. Greef Carga and all the bounty hunters step outside to collect the child from Mando. When it looks like Mando is about to surrender for the sake of himself and the child, he shoots someone and jumps onto a cargo transport and orders the droid to drive.

Another shootout straight from our childhood geek dreams ensues. Mando scares off some of the other hunters by disintegrating a few of his attackers with his rifle.  Greef has the same thought we probably all did when we saw what Mando’s rifle does, and says, “that’s one impressive weapon!”  Watching Mando’s weapon disintegrate people is a bit disconcerting and amazing all at once. As impressive as the weapon may be Mando is still surrounded and heavily outnumbered. 

Mandalorians!

And Holy Crap! Is that a group of Mandalorian’s flying in to help!! Am I really seeing this? Carga seems to be asking himself this as well as he sneaks off from the battle. But yes! It is Mandalorians with jetpacks upon their backs flying in to help Mando escape back to his ship, while they battle the other bounty hunters.

As Mando, with the child in his arms, boards his ship, Carga sneaks in behind him and says he didn’t want it to come to this, “but then  you broke the code.”  Mando breaks a hose of some sort in his ship, which starts spraying steam, enabling the Mando to hide a bit.  At this Greef starts firing his blaster in different directions, and Mando puts one shot in Greef’s chest and flies off.

We see Greef lying on the ground, as he reaches into his vest and shows us he was saved by the beskar he had in his inside pocket. I’m starting to believe there is something fishy going on here, and Mando is right in questioning why the Empire would be involved in this.  Greef and the guild may even be involved in a deeper plot.

As the Razor Crest is making its exit, another Mandalorian (I believe this to be the dissenting one from earlier) with a jetpack on his back, flies alongside the cockpit and salutes our hero. To which Mando says to himself, “I gotta get one of those.” There is also a cute interaction here between Mando and the child that recalls the opening scene, where Mando unscrews the ball from his lever and hands it to the child to play with, signaling maybe Mando is growing a soft spot for the child.

Final Thoughts

This was a great episode! The ending scene evokes many emotions from the great visuals, to the storytelling, and showing of mutual respect. I was beginning to feel that Mando wasn’t going to let the child go, however I didn’t think they would take the story that way, especially after he took his bounty and left.

Does this mean “baby yoda” is around for good!?  Is this show going to be all about Mando protecting the child from all the bounty hunters that clearly have trackers? Does this mean Mando’s bounty hunting days are over, or will this turn out to be just a quick detour?

What did everyone think of episode 3? Still getting better episode to episode, going downhill, or just meh from the beginning?

The Mandalorian stars Pedro Pascal and is written and produced by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni. Each episode is helmed by a different director including, Dave Filoni, Rick Famuyiwa, Deborah Chow, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Taika Waititi. Catch new episodes of The Mandalorian every Friday on Disney+.