Countdown to ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3: Revisiting Chapter 3 “The Sin”
As we start to gear up for the release of The Mandalorian season 3 in February 2023, we’re taking a look back at each episode of the show so far through the lens of concept art. This will be a weekly series of reviews taking place each Thursday until the premiere of season 3 next year. You may find our previous entries in this series here.
While we will be revisiting all of the artwork displayed in the episode’s credits, bear in mind that this is not a fully conceptualized review of the episode. We still have those from when each episode came out, and will link to them at the end.
Looking back, The Sin was quite an important episode. Not only is it the first time Deborah Chow directed anything Star Wars-related, but it also gave us some interesting character dynamics in hindsight. Paz Vizsla is quick to defend Mando, while Greef Karga is quick to attach both him and The Child. We also get Mando’s iconic look here, and this is also the first time he feels compassionate about Grogu — “Wherever I go, he goes” is such a great line from season 2, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it throughout this episode. Let’s dive in!
We open with Mando flying into Navarro with Grogu by his side, playing around with one of the levers. Mando directly takes him to the Client, who is very excited to finally meet his prey. Dr. Pershing comes from behind and takes Grogu away from them before the Client can do Grogu any harm, and Mando leaves, unsatisfied, with an ice cream maker worth of Beskar. To the Client, finding other Mandalorians in those trying times is even harder than finding the steel… But not to our protagonist.
It’s interesting how this piece of concept art above, which clearly depicts Mando’s entrance into the Armorer’s workshop, was completely scrapped for the episode. Instead, Chow opted for having the camera on the ceiling and moving it down from there to capture Mando opening up the container for the Armorer. The big prize quickly captures the attention of the other Mandalorians in the headquarters, including Paz Vizsla.
An argument over the legitimacy of the Beskar and the ethics of accepting it from the Empire is held, but the Armorer puts a quick end to this. It’s interesting to look back at this scene after watching the Book of Boba Fett episode Return of the Mandalorian, where Mando is again at odds with Vizsla, but the Armorer sides against him.
We cut to another forging montage intercut with flashbacks from the Clone Wars, where it is finally revealed that Mando was almost killed by a battle droid, the one that most definitely killed his parents. After getting his armor, he decides to make everyone in the cantina jealous by showing it off in public. I will add, though, that everyone in the cantina had zero right to be upset over Mando’s win — at least when he was given a job, he got on his ship and had it done, unlike them, who are just sitting around in the cantina waiting for stuff to happen.
After accepting the most far-away job possible, he hops on his ship and decides he can’t accept the Child’s fate. He must rescue him.
He goes back and confronts at least a dozen stormtroopers to finally find Grogu under what appears to be a medical exam and a scared-out-of-his-mind Dr. Pershing begging for his life right next to him. In a Batman-esque move, Mando and the baby are gone when Dr. Pershing looks again.
Mando leaves the compound but is quickly confronted by the entire Guild. While we are on Mando’s side and obviously want Grogu to survive (because who wouldn’t), it’s very understandable that the Guild would be pissed off. In a single move, Mando just threw their entire code out the window, which has definitely hurt all of their chances of getting another job ever again. It’s definitely a morally bleak job, but they have to eat, and the next job might not be giving a child to the Empire but rather a dangerous criminal to the New Republic. They have to make a stand and clarify that they are all against breaking the code.
The Mandalorians get it done rather quickly, and Mando is able to escape. He then realizes he needs extra security in his ship when Greef Karga appears from behind. No problem, he simply shoots him out of the Razor Crest, though Karga is able to survive due to a miraculous ounce of Beskar, probably his cut from the Client.
“I gotta get one of those”, says Mando upon seeing the other Mandalorian with the jetpack. If only he knew! We wrap the episode with Grogu now happy with his little toy and the title card of “Directed by Deborah Chow”. If only she knew!
If you are interested, you can find our original review of Chapter 3 of The Mandalorian, from November 2019, right here.
Our “Countdown to The Mandalorian Season 3” series will continue next week, when we’ll be revisiting Chapter 4. Stay tuned!
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
