Recap: Baby Yoda Awakens The Mandalorian’s Better Nature in Episode 3
Things really heated up in this week’s episode of The Mandalorian on Disney+.
Titled “The Sin,” the latest installment of the live-action Star Wars series finds the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) turning over cute Baby Yoda (hereby referred to as “BY”) to the Client (Werner Herzog) in exchange for a buttload of Beskar. Of course, the episode title refers to the fact that giving BY to the Client and Dr. Pershing (Omid Abtahi) is wrong with a capital W, and the main character knows it.
The weight of his actions is too much for his conscious, and he breaks the bounty hunter’s code by asking Herzog what he intends to do with the child. It’s our first indication that, despite his stoic nature and merciless methods of killing people, the Mandalorian has a good heart deep down. Naturally, the Client (who we learn hired every hunter in the parsec to retrieve BY) dodges the question and sends the Mandalorian on his merry Mandalorian way.
Beskar in hand, our protagonist, heads back to that Mandalorian hideout/forge we were first introduced to in the pilot episode. The character intends to melt down the metal into a new armor. Still, before that happens, he has an altercation with another member of his species who doesn’t like the fact that the Mandalorian makes nice with former members of the Empire, which nearly made them go extinct and drove them into hiding in the first place.
If you listen closely, you’ll note that series creator, Jon Favreau voice the antagonistic Mandalorian who confronts our Mandalorian. During this scene, we get another flashback to the main character’s tumultuous childhood in which he and his parents were hunted by the Battle droids seen in the prequel films.
This is probably why he feels a close kinship to BY, whom he doesn’t want to suffer the same fate as he did.
With his shiny new armor affixed to his body, the Mandalorian rendezvous with Greef Carga (Carl Weathers) for another job and once again, inquires about the child. Carga, who also got rich off the transaction, knows nothing about their plans but says that if Mando (his nickname for the Mandalorian) has a problem with the Client and Pershing, he should report them to the New Republic.
Carga also suggests that Mando take a vacation after such a major score, but Mando refuses and takes a job hunting down the son of a Mon Calamarian nobleman who has skipped bail. Fun fact: Mon Calamar is the home planet of the late Admiral Ackbar.
The Mandalorian makes it back to his ship and is about to take off when he notices a lever that BY was playing with prior to their arrival at the bounty hunter hub. It’s at this moment that the character decides to go for some redemption and save the kid from certain death.
After the more low-key events of Episode 2, “The Sin” ramps up the action 10 times over as the Mandalorian breaks into the Client’s compound and, living up to his reputation as the fastest blaster in the parsec, shoots a bunch of Stormtroopers in quick succession.
He finds Pershing performing some sort of scan on BY but doesn’t kill the doctor, which will probably come back to haunt our hero.
Intending to blast off with BY, the Mandalorian is blocked from his ship by Carga and every bounty hunter on the planet. Mando asks Greef why he should trust him, and Carga responds, “Because I’m your only hope.” That’s a nice little nod to the A New Hope when Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) sent a message to Obi-Wan Kenobi, saying that the retired Jedi was her “only hope.”
Anyway, back to business.
Carga and the rest of the bounty hunting guild just want the kid, but Mando’s in too deep to turn back now, and another epic gunfight erupts in the spaceport square. Mando proves himself extremely resourceful by hopping on a speeder and forcing the droid to drive it to his ship, but it’s not enough. All seems lost when much-needed reinforcements arrive from…the other Mandalorians!
Oh, and it’s badass AF. Director Deborah Chow really killed it, both figuratively and literally.
These Mandalorians have weapons; our Mandalorian doesn’t like jetpacks and machine gun blasters. They provide cover fire, allowing the Mandalorian to escape with BY. Mando tells them that they’ll now have to find a new hiding spot, but they don’t seem to mind, because as the old Mandalorian saying goes, “This is the way.”
Mando makes it to his ship, but Carga has snuck aboard, and instead of killing the bounty hunter outright, he speaks up, allowing the bounty hunter to shoot Greef in the chest. Luckily, Carga had some bars of Beskar in his shirt, which acted as a bulletproof vest. The Mandalorian should have gone for the double-tap just to make sure.
Mando and BY blast off for safer pastures, and in a touching moment, the Mandalorian hands the child the top of his lever as a toy. Both are now fugitives, but there’s still the mystery of why the Client and Pershing wanted the baby in the first place. Could factions of the decimated Empire be worried about a new Jedi movement rallying about this Yoda lookalike?
That seems unlikely since Luke Skywalker already restarted the Jedi Order after Return of the Jedi.
Next week, the show will hit the halfway point of Season 1, so it needs to start introducing the characters played by Gina Carano and Giancarlo Esposito. Episode 4 premieres on Disney+ next Friday. We don’t know its title yet, but we do know Bryce Dallas Howard directed it.
For our guide to the series, click here. For our recaps of the first two episodes, click here and here.
Originally published at https://yourmoneygeek.com on November 22, 2019.
