The Mandalorian season 1, episode 3 review – Chapter Three: The Sin

“They all hate you Mando! Because you’re a legend!” Spoilers for The Mandalorian season 1, episode 3 follow.

The Mandalorian arrives back to his benefactor, ready to hand over “the asset,” a.k.a. baby Yoda, and complete his end of the bounty.

Once he drops the package off though, The Mandalorian begins to have second thoughts about his decision to carry out the bounty.

To the victor go the spoils

“Bounty hunting is a dangerous profession,” as The Mandalorian’s mysterious benefactor said in the premiere episode and that couldn’t be truer in this episode. The previous episode spent almost the entire runtime establishing the connection between The Mandalorian and baby Yoda, so to have him actually finish delivery is a bit of a stab in the gut at the beginning of the episode. There was very a “Lone Wolf and Cub” feel that had been established, which is a well-worn trope, but it felt right given the context of the trope. To have that thrown away so callously at the beginning was honestly a bit frustrating, but it was the right move in the end. It creates a solid set-up and uses other western tropes effectively to build tension throughout the episode.

Basically, the first half of this episode is to establish what The Mandalorian is willing to do to protect something he has come to care for. He asks questions he knows better than to ask. He tries to take another job to take his mind off of the child. He tries to move on. But the episode, thanks to Deborah Chow’s direction, does an effective job of showing why he ends up doing what he does in the back half of the episode. Little things throughout the episode that, if not directed well, would not have been effective.

However, Chow directs this episode extremely well for the most part, the action is a bit mediocre, and uses visual storytelling to allow the audience to get inside The Mandalorian’s headspace.

New armor, old culture

One of the most intriguing things about the first two episodes of the series was the little glimpse we got into Mandalorian culture. This is really the first time that it has been shown in live action, although it has been shown extensively in The Clone Wars and Rebels, but never in this context. The different Mandalorian sects have been split off since before the Empire rose to power and now, even after the fall, they are still split and in hiding.

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Taking that even further, the reverence for certain aspects of the culture, especially regarding their armor, of which the title character gets a new set of, is explored even more in this episode. If you’re a fan of the Mandalorians even slightly, you will take much enjoyment out of this episode’s dive into their culture, even if its just tidbits. Every little drip tastes great when it comes to Mandalorian culture.

To save a child

Coming back to little baby Yoda though, there’s no way that The Mandalorian would just leave him at the hands of the Empire. He’s already been shown to be very protective of the little guy (Who wouldn’t be? He’s so freaking cute), so it only makes sense that he wouldn’t leave him behind. This makes for an exciting, and honestly quite brutal, attack on the Empire’s safehouse by The Mandalorian, which is where we also get a glimpse of how multi-talented of a fighter that he is.

Then it comes to the climax of the episode where he’s surrounded by all of the bounty hunters who are also hunting for baby Yoda. It’s an enormously tense stand-off that really sets up how there’s no way The Mandalorian will be able to win. There are simply too many people surrounding him. It’s a phenomenal bit of tension and it leads to one of the best moments of the series so far. Just when all hope is lost, the Mandalorians arrive. It’s a bit of deus ex machina, but it’s awesome, nonetheless.

The Mandalorian puts forth another solid episode that lets us dive into the Mandalorian culture, while also providing an excellent heist.