An Action Packed Episode Changes Everything

The Mandalorian thrills with an action bonanza as our bounty hunter makes a fateful decision. “The Sin” has Mando, all the characters refer to the protagonist by this nickname, returning to deliver Baby Yoda. He collects his Beskar steel payment, but is instantly regretful. What happens next is a huge turning point for the series. We learn Mando is a bonafide good guy by his actions. The Mandalorian also reveals other survivors of the Separatist purge. Mando gets a helpful assist from his brothers in armor. Baby Yoda shows more emotions and is freaking cuter than ever.

“The Sin” opens with the Razor Crest returning to Greef Karga’s (Carl Weathers) planet. Baby Yoda looks around the cockpit with large curious eyes. He climbs out of the carrier and removes the round knob of the throttle to play with. Greef Karga contacts Mando via hologram. He instructs him to return the bounty directly to The Client (Wernor Herzog). Mando takes the knob from Baby Yoda, “It’s not a toy.” He puts the child back in the carrier, who gurgles with disappointment.

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The Razor Crest lands. As The Mandalorian walks to the settlement with the carrier floating behind him, Baby Yoda looks out frightened by the noise of the ships and strange new surroundings. Mando knocks on The Client’s compound door. He shows a marker to the probe droid to gain entrance. Baby Yoda’s ears droop as two stormtroopers escort them inside. One of the stormtroopers grabs the carrier roughly. Mando warns him to “take it easy.” The stormtrooper responds in kind.

The Client uses the tracking fob and grunts with satisfaction as it confirms the bounty. Dr. Pershing (Omid Abtahi) scans Baby Yoda, “Very healthy.” The Client is pleased, “Your reputation was not unwarranted.” Mando asks how many fobs he gave out. The Client had to “ensure its delivery.” He presents “the spoils”, a container of Beskar steel plates. Dr. Pershing takes Baby Yoda away. Mando wants to know their plans for the child. The Client shuts him down. He’s got his payment. The Client comments it’s harder to find a Mandalorian than the Beskar steel. More stormtroopers enter the room. Mando takes the container and leaves.

Mando walks to a hidden staircase. He passes several other Mandalorians checking their gear. They look suspiciously at the container. Mando gives the steel to The Armorer (Emily Swallow). His armor has lost “its integrity, I may need to begin again.” She warns it will draw many eyes. The other Mandalorians surround them. One of them picks up a steel bar, “These were cast in an Imperial smelter. These are the spoils of the great purge, the reason we live hidden like sandrats.”

He continues angrily, they live underground, only coming out one at a time, “Our world was shattered by the Empire, with who this coward shares tables.” He grabs Mando’s helmet. They fight viciously until coming to a draw with knives at each others necks. The Armorer stops them. He has chosen to walk the way of the Mandalore. He is both hunter and prey. She asks, “Have you ever removed your helmet? Has it ever been removed by others?” Mando replies “no” and “never”. She continues, “This is the way.” The attacker backs off. All The Mandalorian’s speak in unison, “This is the way.”

The Armorer wonders what caused the damage. Mando tells her it was a mudhorn. She replies, “You have earned the mudhorn as your signet.” Mando cannot accept, “It was not a noble kill. I was helped by an enemy…it did not know it was my enemy.” Since he’s “foregone a signet”, she will use the excess to make “Whistling Birds.” Mando tells her to also reserve some steel for the Foundlings. All The Mandalorians chime in, “This is the way.”

The Armorer melts the steel in the forge. Mando hears screams from his childhood. As she pounds the new armor, he flashes back to the Separatist droids killing his people. His parents run with him as the droids gun down the fleeing. The Armorer puts the Whistling Birds in his gauntlet, reminding him to use them sparingly. As she hammers the breast plate, he continues to remember the massacre. His parents hide him underground. They close him in, but are killed. As the breast plate is revealed, Mando remembers looking up at the killer B2 battle droid.

In the bar, Greef Karga curses away a complaining bounty hunter. The bar falls quiet as Mando walks in resplendent with shiny new armor. Greef Karga greets him enthusiastically, “They all hate you, because you’re a legend.” He gave tracking fobs to all of them. Greef Karga continues to gloat, “Even I’m rich.” He shows Mando Beskar steel bars hidden under his tunic. The Mandalorian wants his next job. He ignores Karga’s pleas to “enjoy himself at the Twi’lek healing baths.” Mando chooses a puck for a bounty far away, a Mon Calamari nobleman, on the ocean dunes of Carnac. Before he leaves, Mando asks what are they going to do with “the kid”? Greef Karga doesn’t know or care. Report them to the New Republic, or enjoy some spice. Mando scoffs at both suggestions.

Mando returns to the Razor Crest. As he preps to launch, he sees the round knob missing from the throttle. He shuts down the ship and hurriedly returns to The Client’s door. He inspects a dumpster in the back and sees the remains of Baby Yoda’s carrier. Mando climbs an adjacent roof. He points his rifle scope at a wall, then adjusts his helmet. Inside, the heat signatures of The Client tells Dr. Pershing to “extract the material and be done with it.” Pershing responds, “We were told explicitly to bring it back alive.” The Client orders him to finish quickly. He can’t guarantee the doctor’s safety.

Mando knocks on the door, then tears out the probe droid. He puts an explosive on the back wall. Mando enters the compound with alarms blaring. He blasts every stormtrooper he encounters. Mando hooks one with his rope, then stabs him in the neck. He shoots open the door to Dr. Pershing’s lab. A stormtrooper shoots him, but it glances off the new armor. He kills him and then turns to Dr. Pershing. Baby Yoda is unconscious on the scanning table. Dr. Pershing swears “he protected him.” Mando grabs Baby Yoda, but leaves Pershing alive.

Mando guns down stormtroopers while holding the baby. He burns one to a crisp with his flamethrower. He enters The Client’s conference room, but is surrounded by stormtroopers. He gingerly puts the baby and his weapons down, then activates the Whistling Birds. They fly around the room, killing all of the stormtroopers. He exits quickly with the baby.

In the bar, every tracking fob beeps loudly. All of the bounty hunters and Greef Karga spring into action. Mando walks through the settlement towards his ship. The bounty hunters close in behind him and all sides. The tracking fobs are a chorus. Greef Karga blocks his way. Mando warns him, “The kid is coming with me.” Karga orders him to put the child on a speeder beside them. Mando looks at the sleeping baby, then opens fire.

He leaps into the speeder, taking shelter behind several containers. He guns down bounty hunters around him, then tells the speeder droid to drive. Greef Karga shoots the droid as blaster fire rains unto the speeder. The bounty hunters close in. Mando sweeps the area with his flamethrower. It kills several, but runs out of fuel. Baby Yoda opens his eyes and gurgles as Mando shelters him. Suddenly, a rocket hits the bounty hunters. The other Mandalorians soar to the rescue in their jetpacks.

They land by the speeder and a huge firefight ensues. Greef Karga runs away. The Mandalorian that attacked Mando earlier lands beside him with a laser cannon belching fire, “Get outta here!” Mando yells, “You’ll have to move the Covert!” His countryman responds calmly, “This is the way.”

Mando races from the battle into the Razor Crest’s hold. He’s confronted by an angry Greef Karga, “I didn’t want it to come to this, but you broke the code!” Mando fires his rope into the carbonite freezer’s controls. It shoots out gas, blocking Greef Karga. Mando shoots Greef Karga in the chest, who tumbles out of the ship from the blast force.

The Razor Crest takes off with the battle still raging below. Greef Karga gets up off the ground, the Beskar steel bars deflected the laser shot. As the Razor Crest flies away, one of The Mandalorian Covert soars beside him with a salute. Mando responds, “I’ve got to get one of those.” Baby Yoda reaches toward the throttle knob. Mando unscrews it and gives the ball to Baby Yoda, who gurgles happily. The clouds part as the Razor Crest leaves the atmosphere and jumps into hyperspace.

“The Sin” was thirty-five glorious minutes of insane action and crisp storytelling, and The Mandalorian soundtrack really brings it all home as a true space Western. Mando kills the stormtroopers to save Baby Yoda, but Dr. Pershing and The Client survived. Greef Karga will ensure Mando is target numero uno for every bounty hunter in the galaxy. But he has allies, The Mandalorian Covert came to his rescue. They had to evacuate the planet as well, but I’ll bet he has ways to communicate with them. Mando, clad in bad-ass new armor, has officially become Baby Yoda’s guardian. I cannot wait to see where the Razor Crest goes next. The Mandalorian returns next Friday on Disney+ streaming channel.

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Julian Roman
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Film critic, raconteur, praying for dolphins to grow thumbs and do better.

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