Hello, friends! I hope you are all having a lovely day and wonderful week so far! Today we will (finally…sorry for the delay, friends) be looking at the next two chapters of the Mandalorian season one, the Child and the Sin. I am super excited to review these chapters because we finally start some, but not all, of the analysis for this show, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself, which I always tend to do…😁
However, before we begin, as always, I need to give my disclaimer that this post will have spoilers for the Mandalorian season one, chapters two and three. If you don’t want any spoilers and want just the general review information, kid caution, foul language count, and my rating, than just skip down to the end.
Now, without further ado, let us proceed! Allons-y!
Chapter Two: The Child
This chapter picks up a little bit after the first chapter ends. We see Mando and his new son (yes, Baby is his son, and no one will ever convince me otherwise) get ambushed in a canyon path, and of course, Mando saves the day with his expertise in hand-to-hand combat.
This first scene with him and the Child literally frames the show, showing us a tiny peek of where the show will be taking us, but I will get more into this later.
However, disaster strikes Mando’s ship in the form of Jawas! The Jawas in essence trash his ship and leave him unconscious in the sand when he tries desperately to hijack their sand crawler to get his parts back. This leaves him with no choice, but to return to his new found friend, who rides deranged dinosaurs, Kuiil.
Kuiil convinces Mando that he can make a trade deal with the Jawas to retrieve the parts needed to fix Mando’s ship and promises that he will take him to them. Then, we get the cutest scene in cinematic history (okay maybe not the cutest, but pretty close). Baby, eats a frog to the great disgust of his new daddy, Mando.
“Squeals with delight”
“Hey! Spit that out.”
“Gulps down entire frog and shows satisfaction with a burp.”
The Child and Din Djarin – The Mandalorian Season 1 Episode 2
Any who, Kuiil takes Mando and the Child to see the Jawas, who turn out to be tough bargainers. In the end, they agree to give Mando back his parts if he retrieves for them the “egg.”
“There must be something else?”
*Speaking in Jawa* “We will require The Egg. Bring us The Egg.”
“The Egg? What Egg?”
Kuiil, the Jawas, and Din Djarin – The Mandalorian Chapter 1 Episode 2
To trade to receive his parts back Mando must steal for the Jawas the Egg of a dangerous creature, the Mudhorn, which is like a giant, shaggy, rhinoceros. Well, let’s just say that it doesn’t go well, and Mando ends up being tossed to and fro in the mud like a rag doll.
Just as he attempts to make his final stand, the Child sees, or maybe senses, the danger his new found daddy and friend is in. He stretches out his hand and stops the creature in mid-charge. He uses all his might and strength to “force” the mudhorn to halt, but he can only hold it for so long, and after a mighty stand, he passes out from the exertion.
The Child sees the kindness in Mando and the way he protects him, in this case, with his life, and responds to that kindness by saving the life of the man he barely knows. He doesn’t know that Mando is a bounty hunter and only found him because he has a bounty on his head, nor does he know that when they arrive back on Nevarro, Mando will hand him over to the Empire. He knows none of this, yet he gives all his power and all his strength to save the man that showed him kindness and looks out for him. But how much more beautiful is it that Jesus showed us that same love and protection, except that he knew our faults, and even when we showed him no kindness, he loved and chose to protect us anyway, just as it says in Romans 5:8.
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8 (NIV)
What a lovely symbol of God’s love found in the midst of the tumultuous Star Wars universe!
Alright, sorry, back to the story! I did warn you all that I would get into some analysis in this post! 😄
Mando, with the help of the Child (we actually do know his name now because of the newly released season two, but I will continue to call him Baby or the Child until we get there for the sake of those who do not know yet) kills the mudhorn and retrieves the Egg for the Jawas, who immediately slice it open and enjoy a messy, yolky, and a bit disgusting egg feast. However, on the up side Mando gets the parts for this ship back and with Kuiil’s help successfully puts his ship back together.
Here we say goodbye to Kuiil, for now, and watch as Mando and the now revived Child begin their journey back to Nevarro so Mando can return the Child to the client and collect his bounty, or so everyone believes. The Kid’s daring rescue with the Mudhorn may have had more of an effect on this mysterious, masked Mandalorian than anyone thinks. Luckily, I am covering both Chapters two and three in this post, so let’s get to it!
Chapter Three: The Sin
It is indeed a most interesting title for a most interesting episode, and I cannot begin to say how much I love this episode, which really sealed the deal for me liking this show, but again I do not want to get ahead of myself. Let’s just start at the beginning.
The episode begins with Mando landing back on Nevarro, and immediately he goes to the undercover imperial base and same client that we saw in the first episode.
As necessary he receives his bounty, a large container of imperial, once Mandalorian, beskar. However, then he asks a very interesting question when hears the Child cry for him when he is taken through a door by the imperial scientist. A question that a bounty hunter does not ask when delivering his bounty. A question that is not asked when the bounty is already in the hands of the client.
“What are your plans for it?”
“How uncharacteristic of one of your reputation. You have taken both commission and payment. Is it not the code of the guild that these events are now forgotten?”
Din Djarin and The Client – The Mandalorian Season 1 Episode 3
Satisfied, or maybe not so satisfied, Mando leaves, taking the beskar with him. He returns to the Mandalorian covert underground, and with the help of the Armorer, he forges with the beskar a new set of armor.
When the armorer offers to engrave the mudhorn onto his shoulder plate as his signet after hearing of how he acquired the damage to his armor, Mando refuses, remembering once again how the Kid rescued him. However, even without this signet he still gets some nice armor that indeed draws many eyes once he steps outside and visits Greef Karga again to get his next assignment.
“They all hate you, Mando, because you’re a legend!”
“How many of them had tracking fobs?”
*Scoffs* “All of them. All of them! But not one of them closed the deal. Only you, Mando. Only you, and with it the richest reward this parsec has ever seen. Please sit, my friend.”
Greef Karga and Din Djarin – The Mandalorian Season 1 Episode 3
Naturally, Greef offers him the richest of the bounties to go and hunt, but Mando only chooses those that lead him far from Nevarro. He wants to get away, far away, from something on this planet. Perhaps, it is the little Child he handed over to the treacherous Empire.
He picks his bounties and boards his ship, but he doesn’t leave. By the control panels he sees the little ball that the Child had been playing with on the way back to Nevarro. He remembers the mudhorn and the Child’s rescue, he remembers his little fuzzy head, deep eyes, and pointy ears, and he remembers his cry or plea for help to Mando as he was taken away by the Imperial scientist.
This is the scene that we have been waiting for, friends, for in this moment a little piece of the mysterious, masked Mandalorian is chipped away. We see his compassion and love for a little creature that he barely knows. It is now time for Mando to return the favor and rescue the Child from the evil he has found himself in. Perhaps, those little seeds of pacifism and compassion planted by the Duchess of Mandalore all those years ago have stuck with at least one Mando! 😉
Swiftly and without hesitation he heads back to the Empire’s undercover base, and with the use of a well-placed grenade enters to save the day. He finds Baby asleep, and it looks like something was extracted from him by the scientist, who begs Mando not to kill the Child. However, it is unclear, at the moment, what they needed from him.
In a little bundle, Mando carries Baby and escapes through dozens of Storm Troopers by any means necessary, including the use of his newest weapon, the whistling birds!
I love the picture that we get in the final scenes of this episode. I very masculine male, gently carrying, protecting, and risking his life for a small almost helpless creature. It reminds me of a verse in the Pentateuch.
“The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still.”
Exodus 14:14 (NIV)
The Child is completely still in this scene. He is not helping Mando escape. He is doing absolutely nothing. He is simply being still. Sometimes the Lord calls us to be still so he can do the work that he knows needs to be done to get us to our next destination. We just let him hold us while we hold on for the ride, completely and utterly trusting in him. Sometimes we need to take a lesson from Baby and just be still.
Alright, once again back to the story! I just love how much you can pull out from these episodes, and yes, there is such a thing a gentle masculinity. It’s one of the things I love about this show. A big, strong Mando caring and loving for a little being five times less his size! He is definitely a dad now! 😃
I digress…once Mando makes it out of the Imperial hideout, remember those tracking fobs that all those bounty hunters had? Yep, those all start to activate, and Mando becomes completely surrounded by bounty hunters.
He tries to no avail to escape, but just when things seem hopeless, the other Mandalorians show up and come to the rescue. Mando and Baby escape to their ship where they are briefly met by Greef Karga, who tires to stop them, but we now know that nothing is going to come between Mando dad and his son. They escape and live happily ever after…until the next episode, of course! 😉
Conclusion:
Well, there it is, the Mandalorian Chapters two and three, during which we get a glimpse into the characters of Mando and the Child, and it is amazing that we can find such compassion, gentleness, and love, the themes of Christ, in a Star Wars show that has its violent moments. All truth is God’s truth, and there is definitely some excellent truths that can be pulled out of these two episodes. His truth can be found anywhere, friends, make sure and look for it, so you don’t miss it!
My Rating: 9.5/10.0
Kid Caution: High – for violence/ages 12+
Foul Language Count: Damn and Hell
I hope that you enjoyed this review, friends! Hopefully I will be able to post on the next few chapters of the Mandalorian in the next few weeks. My next post will possibly be on Star Wars Episode II: The Attack of the Clones, but I did say possibly because I haven’t decided quite yet. There are so many excellent things to review out there! Have a fantastic rest of your week, friends, and happy 2021!
Until next time,
Time Lady of Coruscant 😉
The Limelight 