THE MANDALORIAN S1/E3- "The Sin" has debuted, and all I can say is, "THIS IS THE WAY."
The episode opens on The Mandalorian headed back to base with "The Child", who is cooing and peering around the cockpit in curiosity and just being its unbearably cute self. It fixates on the shiny chrome shifter knob on one of the controls on the console, climbs out of its crib, and takes it as a toy. The Mandalorian catches it, takes the knob back, and tells the child "It's not a toy," while putting the child back in its crib.
This is a setup.
This is projection.
Is it WAY obvious? Yes.
Does it work? Perfectly.
More on that later.
Upon reaching Werner Herzog's "Client" to deliver the child, The Madalorian shows some concern for its well-being, and is chided by the client for asking questions after completing the job. Here is where we get a cheer-out-loud easter egg moment. The container carrying the Beskar Steel that is payment for the bounty is the same "Ice Cream Maker" style container seen being carried across the screen by retroactively-named character Willrow Hood.
NOW we know why, of all the things this dude would or could have grabbed when evacuating Cloud City, he chose THAT. It was, apparently, carrying a fortune.
After keeping eye contact with the child as Dr. Pershing takes it out of the room, The Mandalorian takes his spoils and goes back to his clan armorer again, and has his armor made from it, again leaving the excess for the Madalorian foundlings (children orphaned in the Galactic Civl War and collapse of Mandalore). After a confrontation with another Mando, Paz Vizla (JON FAVREAU, who may be his own father now, since he played Pre Vizsla in THE CLONE WARS... yes, the spelling is one letter different, but then, nobody in Star Wars is good at deception when it comes to their identity), he returns to visit Carl Weathers' Greef Carga for a bounty "as far away as possible", because obviously, he feels guilt for delivering a child to the remnants of the Empire. His entry into the bar where Carga and the other hunters in the guild conduct business gives us our first look at The Madalorian's now-complete Beskar armor, and it looks great.
Having been issued a bounty puck, he goes to his ship, begins flipping switches to prepare for takeoff, and reaches for the shifter handle that is missing its knob.
PAYOFF! He pauses, shows visible remorse (even through the armor and helmet), and begins shutting his ship down again.
He returns to the Imperial enclave, blasts his way in, and fights his way to the lab where Pershing has the child strapped to a table and is analyzing it. Upon seeing the Madalorian pointing his blaster at him, Pershing cowers and says, in his own defense, "I protected him! I protected him! If it weren't for me, he'd already be dead!" IT'S A BOY! We may not have a name yet, but at least the Baby Yoda/Baby Yaddle prattle battle can stop.
Taking the child and heading back to his ship, he's pinned down by Greef Carga and the other guild hunters, and just when it seems he is resigned to dying to save the child, we get the big action payoff as the entirety of the Mandalorian group (or Covert, as they refer to their hidden community as) he lives with come flying in on their jetpacks, blasters blazing, and take down the hunters! This is a really, really great moment in the show, and maybe my favorite in an episode full of memorable moments.
That projection from early in the episode with the shifter knob? We get the final payoff in a sweet moment when, as they are breaking the atmosphere to escape, The Madalorian removes the shifter knob again and hands it to the child to play with as they head for hyperspace and new adventures together.
Did we know the child would get the shifter knob again? Yes.
Does it work? YES IT DOES.
Heartstrings, tugged.
The episode is directed by Deborah Chow (BETTER CALL SAUL, AMERICAN GODS, MR. ROBOT), and she turned in what is possibly the strongest episode of the show to date. She's also been tapped to Direct the KENOBI series that is being developed with Ewan McGregor, and this episode makes me really excited to see what she does with it.
That's it for now, so until next time,
keep it geek!
Benny No-Good
