Fresh off the excitement of Season 2 of The Mandalorian, we’re going back and reviewing / recapping all the episodes. In this post, we discuss the third episode of season one, Chapter 3: The Sin.

The Mandalorian, Copyright LucasFilm (Fair Use Claimed)

A Man’s Got To Have A Code (or Two)

The establishing shot in this episode is another good one, it opens with the Razor Crest appearing out of hyperspace and then heading straight to the center of Nevarro, like a dart to a bullseye. This is a ship on a mission.

Mando receives a hologram from Greef Karga that sets up the conflict of the episode:

Mando! I received your transmission—wonderful news! Upon your return, deliver the quarry directly to the Client. I have no idea if he wants to eat it or hang it on his wall but he's very antsy. Safe passage. You know where to find me.

Mando’s struggle for the first half of this episode is that he’s supposed to be fine with this. We’ll see that all his codes dictate (or at least permit) that he be fine with it. But is he actually fine with it?

The message sets this up well. Greef’s tone is pleased despite his message’s morbid content, and he assumes Mando is himself in a good mood. But there’s a lingering sense that something’s not quite right.

As the message wraps up, Mando catches The Child playing with a metal balls it’s unscrewed from a lever. He reprimands the child (“It’s not a toy”) before picking it up in the most loveless way possible (methink thou doth protest too much):

The mood on Nevarro is quite pleasant. It’s daytime and the market is bustling, another reminder that but for the audiences fears for “Baby Yoda” all is well and normal today.

One thing I failed to note in recapping Chapter 1 (even though I thought about it, I didn’t quite understand the relevance) was that we previously saw a Kowakian monkey-lizard being roasted in the Nevarro market. Small creatures apparently don’t fair well in these streets.

The big question heading into this episode is “Mando’s not really going to let anyone harm The Child…right?” It’s fair to say it’s also a question on Mando’s mind, and you start to see this tension play out in his interactions as he continually tries to find reasons to make enemies of his business partners.

When they enter The Client’s hideout and a Stormtrooper grabs The Child’s pod, he says “Easy with that.” It’s part him caring for The Child, but it’s also him finding reasons to pick a fight with the Stormtroopers for not handling his cargo with care. The Stormtroopers, though, don’t care about The Child.

At the meeting with the Client, Mando’s first remarks are more fight-picking, asking how many tracking fobs were handed out. Mando is quickly paid—and we finally get to see what a “camtono” is:

As he examines the beskar, Mando asks “What are your plans for it?” The tone gets dark as The Client remarks about this “uncharacteristic” question, reminding Mando that the “code of the Guild” requires “these events are now forgotten.” Mando takes payment, and the title card appears.

The title of this episode is “The Sin” and the question we had heading into it is whether or not “The Sin” was the obvious—handing over The Child to the Empire. Now, at least for the moment, it looks like that’s the case. (But much more on this later.)

Mando takes the beskar to the Mandalorian armorer, and I get to learn a new word when she offers to make him a full cuirass from the beskar.

A testy Mandalorian gets mad at Mando for taking the beskar payment from the Empire. Imperial beskar was taken from the Mandalorians in “The Great Purge” which is the reason the Mandalorians are underground. Mando didn’t pick this fight or raise this issue, but it’s another piece in his “should I really have made this deal?” puzzle, as is what comes next.

Mando engages in a scuffle with the testy guy, and as they come to a final standoff, the Armorer chimes in:

A: The Empire is no longer, and the Beskar has returned. When one chooses to walk the way of the Mandalore you are both hunter and prey. How can one be a coward if one chooses this way of life? Have you ever removed your helmet?
M: No.
A: Has it ever been removed by others?
M: Never.
A: This is the way.
All: This is the way.

I’ll come back to this conversation in a bit.

Mando and the armorer discuss the damage to his armor. Mando reveals his kill of the mudhorn was not honorable, offering that he was helped by an enemy. And in reply to the armorer’s confusion as to why an enemy would help him, Mando opaquely offers “it did not know it was my enemy.”

There’s a moment of silence between them, and I feel like Mando wanted the armorer to tell him that this couldn’t be the action of an enemy. Having already established the Empire are a true enemy, he’d love to have good reason to march right back to them and undo his deal. But instead, the armorer just moves on discussing Mando’s new armor.

As in Chapter 1, as the armor is forged, we see the flashes of a child being hidden away amidst a battle. If we draw the reasonable conclusions here—that this is Mando and that it’s the Empire attacking his city—we’ve got yet another reason he isn’t a fan of the Empire.

The Armorer equips Mando with”whistling birds” but tells him to use them sparingly because they’re so rare. The other notable thing about the new armor is its lack of red. Red, particularly deep shades, has been prevalent in Mandos flashbacks and on other characters (I haven’t taken the time to discern the significance).

New armor L, old armor R; The Mandalorian, Copyright LucasFilm (Fair Use Claimed)

Mando, all decked out in his new armor, goes to meet with Greef Karga and again tries to pick a fight about all the tracking fobs that were handed out.

I believe having to deal with the other bounty hunters was an annoyance for Mando, but his obsession with the issue really sounds like he’s trying to find any reason to burn bridges at the moment.

Greef has this gem in the scene:

They're all weighing the Beskar in their minds but not me. No. I, for one, I celebrate your success. Because it is my success as well.

I love that for exactly one sentence you think he might actually just be happy for Mando. But nope, he’s just happy he got paid too.

Greef is put off by Mando’s stoic demeanor and quick demand for a new job, telling him to take some time off. They settle on a new bounty.

As with his meeting with the Client, Mando can’t walk away without asking Greef if he knows what will happen to “the kid.”

One of the ways the writing conveys the nagging feeling Mando has is by letting the issue of “the kid” linger until late in his conversations. When he asks The Client what will happen, it’s after he’s handed off The Child and as he’s examining his payment. When he asks Greef Karga, he’s already turned his back and headed out the door. Mando isn’t on a mission to save The Child, but it’s gonna bug him if he doesn’t at least ask about it.

Greef reminds Mando it’s against the Guild code to ask such things. Mando desperately tries to find a “there” there, but Greef laughs him off:

M: They work for the Empire. What are they doing here?
G: The Empire is gone, Mando. All that are left are mercenaries and warlords. But if it bothers you, just go back to the Core and report them to the New Republic (sarcastically).
M: That’s a joke.

The first half of this episode is all Mando trying to weave together some story to push him to do what we all want him to do—save The Child.

The Armorer offers nothing. She cares not that he was “helped by an enemy.” She reminds all of them that the “Empire is no longer.” And she reminds them all of their “way” (which, to be clear, we don’t know enough about to know how it impacts Mando’s decisions right now).

And in parallel, Greef also has none of this. He tells Mando “the Empire is gone,” parrots a reminder about “the code” and offers that in their world, the best thing to do with your feelings is use “spice” to make them go away.

By the time he gets back to the Razor Crest, it’s clear what Mando’s code—or codes—tell him to do. Neither the Mandalorians or the Guild offer him any reason to have qualms about his deal. He turns on the ship, and we get one of the best moments of the series.

Mando reaches for a lever and notices the metal ball, removed by The Child to start the episode, missing. My heart breaks in that moment. Its beautifully shot and scored. The camera focuses on the level, and the music starts to push the engine noises into the background.

Mando takes a second and then forcefully pulls back the level, spooling down the ship. He has a new code.

The Rescue

Heading back into the alleys, Mando finds the Child’s pod discarded, and we all wonder if he’s too late. What follows is a cinematic treat.

As I joked in the previous reviews, we haven’t seen Mando at his best much—he’s bested by the bluurg, winds up having to work with IG-11, then bested by Jawas and the Mudhorn. But this time he has a powerful weapon—surprise.

In Chapter 1, Mando was upset with IG-11 for costing them the element of surprise. Retrieving The Child with the chance to surprise his enemy, we get to see Mando at his finest.

Pablo Pascal does a great job in these scenes, moving so swiftly and deliberately. We’ve seen Mando improv in past fights, but this rescue plays out as if he meticulously planned it.

There’s also a nice contrast with the thriller element we’ve noted before. In Chapter 1 we had the ice cracking before the ravinak leaped out at the Razor Crest. In Chapter 2 there was the mudhorn’s eye opening in the dark cave. Both situations where someone (or something) got the drop and surprised Mando and the audience.

In these scenes, it’s Mando that plays the role of “monster,” terrorizing the helpless Stormtroopers, as the audience experiences most of it from their side.

When Mando finally arrives at The Child, we get a few interesting things. The Doctor cowers in fear but it’s revealed he’s at least partially trying to help The Child, and he tells Mando it would have been killed if not for him. We also get to see an IT-O Interrogator droid, most notable for being used to torture Leia in Episode IV.

The wholly unnecessary up close shot is probably an homage to Episode IV, which has this shot:

Star Wars A. New Hope, Copyright LucasFilm (Fair Use Claimed)

Mando escapes with The Child with the help of his new whistling birds. But we know The Child is a hot target, and we see that all those tracking fobs Greef and The Client handed out are blinking again.

As night arrives on Nevarro, Mando finds himself in the main square, surrounded by the Guild, with Greef between him and his ship.

It’s fun to again see the Wild West motif in play, with Mando and Greef staring each other down, hands just off their guns.

Yes again, someone has the drop on Mando. Yet again, we get a great fight scene where Mando does admirably, but all appears lost. Yet again, Mando is saved. (I don’t mind this trope, it’s just comical how much it’s happened through three episodes of the show).

This time, it’s the Mandalorians who swoop in. They come out of hiding to save Mando from the Guild.

I haven’t had much cause to talk about it, but one interesting thread in the first three episodes (primarily Chapters 1 and 3) is the duality of Mando as a member of the Guild and a Mandalorian.

It was on display in this episode because we saw that neither of Mando’s “codes” could push him to save the kid, but he did it anyway. The Guild turned on him for this because that’s where the money is. The Mandalorians save him, because “this is the way.”

(Of course, we don’t know that Mando broke any Mandalorian rules by rescuing the kid. While it appears some Mandalorians are bounty hunters, that doesn’t mean they have any allegiance to those rules. Less clear is whether the Mandalorians would still welcome him if, say, he removed his helmet.)

Why, Mando?

I want to finish by focusing on this final fight scene. You see the Mandalorians fly in, and the red blaster fire is everywhere. That same red blaster fire in particular is just about the only noticeable thing in the flashes Mando sees during the forging of his armor, which are presumably of his city being attacked when he was a child.

This episode should leave you wondering why Mando did what he did. On the one hand it’s obvious, right? OMG have you seen “baby Yoda”? SO CUTE! But most no one else in the show cares about The Child.

IG-11 didn’t care and tried to kill it. Kuiil (more or less) didn’t care and told Mando he hoped he’d get a big reward for it. Greef Karga didn’t care and was happy to himself be rich for it. The Client didn’t care.

The only other person who did care for the child is the Doctor, who in this episode and Chapter 1 is more or less the emblem of cowardice.

More importantly, no one seems to understand why Mando would care. It’s against the Guild Code for him to ask questions, let alone care. Even the Doctor assumes he’s out to harm The Child during the rescue attempt.

But Mando does care. He cares so much that he gives himself a new code to go save The Child. With the Mandalorians saving him in the end, perhaps this is less about abandoning two codes for a new one, and more about choosing the Mandalorian side of himself. The show is, after all, “The Mandalorian” not “The Guild.”

Mando says in Chapter 1 that he was once a “founding,” just before we see the flashbacks of him as a child. It’s clear that “foundlings” are young members of the Mandalorians, and that Mando was apparently adopted by them at some point.

It’s cliche, but maybe Mando sees himself in The Child. Assuming it was indeed the Empire that attacked Mando’s city as a child, then like him The Child has been thrown astray by the Empire. And as he found himself in the care of the Mandalorians, The Child is now in his care.

In stories of Empires and rebellions, the story of the everyday person is often left behind. Chapter 1 included the nugget that basic commerce is difficult with the Empire gone. This week, Greef Karga comments that the Empire’s disappearance has left only “mercenaries and warlords.” Mando calls the New Republic a joke.

Mando and The Child are both forged out of a conflict they want no part of. I don’t think that’s the entirety of “Why, Mando?”. But it’s a start.

Mando makes it to his ship, but Greef Karga has stowed aboard. But Greef is apparently the only being in the Galaxy incompetent enough to lose when he catches Mando by surprise, though he survives a shot from Mando due to some beskar placed over his heart.

As Mando flies away, he gives The Child, now sitting at his side, the metal ball he was playing with earlier. The two fly away, zipping into hyperspace as they depart Nevarro.

What is The Sin?

The most straightforward interpretation of the title is that turning over The Child to the Empire is the sin, and the rest of the episode is Mando atoning for that sin.

But we can do more work (because why not?). Here’s perhaps the most famous sin, from Genesis 3:

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate...”

In the traditional Christian interpretation, the “original sin” is a bad thing that causes a lot of problems. But in a narrative sense it can be read differently. It represents the decision to abandon the code one has been given for the ability to build one’s own code (to “know good and evil”).

The Sin isn’t Mando handing over the child, it’s Mando saving The Child. In doing so, he opts to carve out his own new path where he’ll make decisions about what is good and what is evil. And in return, he and the Mandalorians are exiled from the lawless Eden of Nevarro. Greef Karga, who apparently commands some portion of the Nevarro underworld even delivers this line:

I didn't want it to come to this. But then you broke the Code.

Sound familiar?

Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man…

Odds and Ends

The puppeteering of The Child is fantastic throughout this (and all episodes). His inquisitiveness and nervousness and they arrive on Nevarro, and then his fear when he first sees the Stormtroopers are particularly good.

Mando sees the Mandalorian in the jetpack and says “I gotta get one of those.” It’s a cheeky line worthy of a grin, and also a callback to Boba Fett and Jango Fett of the films. Both wore Mandalorian armor and had jetpacks, but Mando does not have one for some reason.

Mandos flashes during the forging are similar to but more expansive than Chapter 1. In particular, we hear a large blast just after he’s stowed away, we see numerous droids shooting people in the city, and we see one of these droids finding him.

Small Spoiler! The concept art at the end of the episode contains a spoiler. It shows the Mandalorians flying in, as in the end of the episode, but they’re shooting droids—the same droids revealed in this episode to have been attacking Mando’s town. That the Mandalorians flew in and saved young Mando in this way is actually revealed in Chapter 8.

I always think it’s odd when characters—like Greef in this episode—show off beskar to Mando. Don’t they know he’ll kill to bring that back to the Mandalorians?

The testy Mandalorian remarks they now only come above ground one at a time, but that their strength used to be in numbers. I don’t really understand why having more than one of them above ground at a time would be worse, but perhaps it’s because they don’t want multiple being killed in a single ambush.

Greef calls a bounty hunter “dust breather” in an exchange I assume is included only for us to chuckle at that odd insult.

RELATED POSTS

A Man’s Got To Have A Code (or Two)

The Rescue

Why, Mando?

What is The Sin?

Odds and Ends

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