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S02E48: Rapidly Rewatching Mando S1E3
20 Plays6 days ago
It would be a SIN to miss this show, as we rewatch Mandalorian episode 3: The Sin! Join us and discover why we think this is one of our favorite Star Wars stories ever. This is the way!
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Transcript
Introduction and Apology
00:00:01
Speaker
We're committing a sin and we're doing it real quick. Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short for a storm trooper? Hello, welcome back to Short for a Storm
Chapter Three Analysis
00:00:15
Speaker
Trooper. First, apologies. Yes, we're a little bit late. We were traveling. I got sick. I know many of you wait for that 6 a.m. Pacific Time Tuesday drop.
00:00:25
Speaker
Yeah, like nobody does. But anyway, this is coming to you a little bit late, but I am rejoined today by my friends, Phil and Ben. We are in the middle of our Mandalorian rewatch. We are going to talk about chapter three, The Sin.
00:00:42
Speaker
ah Here's the background on chapter three, of The Sin. In this Deborah Chow directed standout, Mando trades the child for Beskar, but immediately regrets it. He storms the Imperial base to rescue the baby, barely escaping the shootout thanks to a massive assist from his Mandalorian covert.
00:01:00
Speaker
Phil, tell me what you thought about this and tell me why you thought it was one of the best hours of Star Wars that we've had in many years that didn't have Andor
Mando's Character Arc
00:01:09
Speaker
in front of it. Right. That sounds like a Bob Gerrard quote. I don't know if that's a Phil Sammo quote, but no i i loved this episode. I thought it was great. And I think especially, you know, we talked in the last episode about how Episode two is a little bit of kind of ah a wind down. Wasn't as strong as the opener. I feel like they brought it right back here.
00:01:29
Speaker
Action packed, some additional cool backstory and world building with the Mandos. That was really cool. The armor building scene was awesome. um And, you know, I think there was some tension in that sequence too. And Mando kind of walks down the hall and everybody's sort of staring at him and a little bit of insight into his backstory when, yeah you know, kind of the intercut of the,
00:01:51
Speaker
clanking of the metal with the trauma of his backstory that was great um it was i think from start to finish and then not to mention you know the breaking out of baby yoda from the headquarters obviously was great super intense action-packed but i think also showed that mando is not just kind of a grunt he is an intelligent fighter uh and it's clear that you know for him this is the way This is the way Ben over to you.
Mandalorian Community Bond
00:02:22
Speaker
What are your thoughts on this episode? Yeah. I think this is a great episode. Episode three. If you put one, two and three together, you've got a movie and it's got this really wonderful, cohesive beginning, middle and end. and I think that the arc of that first three episodes is really about, are we going to root for this Mandalorian guy? The first thing you see when you come in to conversation,
00:02:45
Speaker
character the first episode right is here's a guy who you know warm or cold you can come in either way kind of like he's very cold-blooded you know and so you're expecting him to you know do what the mercenaries guild code says and to not be sentimental because it sure looks like the mandalorians are not sentimental but gosh darn it that missing round bulb on top of the lever and his ship and he just goes I'm not going to do it. I'm going to go back. I'm going you know, yeah, I've collected on my contract.
00:03:19
Speaker
So that's technically delivered. Like, I don't even know if he thinks that hard about it, but he's going to go back and now we can root for him as a hero because he's doing the human thing. So I think that was really great.
00:03:29
Speaker
And i I really appreciated how there's something that that extends out too, right? Like, because when we realized that all of his, I think they're called the culvert community or something like that. All the Mandalorians. Yeah. Thank you. yeah They're all sitting there and they, they come out and rescue him at the cost of having to move their entire community again and resettle.
Emotional Rescue Scenes
00:03:51
Speaker
And these people are refugees anyway.
00:03:53
Speaker
So you don't get the sense that these people have a really solid, uh, uh, you know, residential life figured out, you know, they're going to be kind of scratching it out of the, you know,
00:04:06
Speaker
scratching out a living wherever they go. Right. So um it's, it's neat to see that that community is tight, that even though you've watched them earlier in the same episode, kind of come to blows a little bit,
00:04:18
Speaker
you know what, when the when the going gets tough, this group comes together and and they're a family. Because it is the way. That is the way. yeah You know, Ben, I'm glad you brought up the shootout scene at the end because for me, this is another edition of Jon Favreau loves Western so much because yeah that ending shootout scene for a lot of reasons is very Western inspired. It was really reminding me of, you know, the Wild Bunch, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I think a lot of that imagery and even some of like, the camera angles and the staging really reminded me of a Western. Obviously, kind of the final climatic shootout, the hero is outnumbered, and then out of nowhere, their friends come to help them at the end. That was amazing.
00:04:59
Speaker
So I really loved that as well. And again, it's sort of weaving in, this is a Western, you know, in so many more ways than maybe is initially a apparent. Well, I think I did give away my overall reaction to this show at the very beginning. This is, I think, probably my second favorite episode of The Mandalorian. My favorite, Phil, you're going to look forward to. It's the last episode of season two.
00:05:21
Speaker
Nice. So we'll get to that in a little bit. Ben, you know what happens in that one i'm that I'm talking about. yeah i'm I'm sure I do. Yeah, yeah. But it is for that very thing is the fact that, you know, the Mando was just almost, well, he was coming to blows with his Mandalorian quote unquote brethren down in the covert. And yet they turned around and rescued him. It's just something that really hits me every single time. And I watched it on the airplane on the way back from Chicago.
00:05:53
Speaker
And, you know, Sherry looks over at me. She's like, Are you I'm wiping my eyes. She's like are
Baby Yoda's Impact
00:05:58
Speaker
you crying? Like, haven't you watched this 100 times? I'm like, yes, every single time. It just hits me right in the heart. Just the the because it is the way and the idea that these guys, even though they really didn't like Mando that much, they didn't see eye to eye with him. And we're going to see that again later in the show that they don't see eye to eye with Mando on everything.
00:06:20
Speaker
that they are going to come out and they are going to protect him and sacrifice everything that they had built just because that is the way of the Mandalorians. I love that. It's just such a, such a good one, such a keeper.
00:06:33
Speaker
um And yeah, we have seen an interesting character growth already over this three episodes. You've seen that arc in the Mando and that just came from the insertion of this little baby into his life.
00:06:46
Speaker
It's really a beautiful thing. It's so great. Okay, guys. thing is, yeah. Well, I was going to say this, this, uh, this creature, this baby Yoda is what we get called what he gets called early on. Yeah. By the child was his official name. The child, the child. That's right. Well, and they tried to make that stick and the fans were like, sorry, that's baby Yoda. We want to call him that. Um, but the, the thing I was thinking about is what, what do we know about this the child at this point,
Character Comparisons and Star Wars Updates
00:07:17
Speaker
right? Like we know he's apparently 50 years old, behaves in a sort of infant-like way. And I think we're supposed to think of him as being a child in that respect, but also seems a little precocious.
00:07:30
Speaker
um You know, clearly knows how to pull Mando's strings a little bit. um how much How much agency does this child really have, do you think, at this point? I think it's a good call that he's a little bit precocious. I think...
00:07:46
Speaker
You know, perhaps. OK, so he's 50, but he's 50 in a ah in a culture that lives to be 900 years old. We know we know that Yoda died when he was 900 years old. Right.
00:07:58
Speaker
Right. And so if you equate that to human terms, it'd be he it would be as if he was about five years old. And so in many ways, he acts younger than a five year old baby human.
00:08:11
Speaker
But in some ways, like you said, with the agency that he has, he he acts fully like a five-year-old toddler. But you know he's not speaking. i Maybe he had some trauma that stunted his his development.
00:08:26
Speaker
is that a Is that a little bit of a teaser for what I have to expect? Not really. Not really. But maybe. Maybe. To your point, then, think that there there's times in where I feel like it's almost a ah natural sort of instinctual reaction that, the child has like it, like it sort of feels like he just sort of do it. Like when he uses the force, it just feels like it's something that he feels in his instinct. Doesn't feel intentional and sort of has like that action, even, you know, stealing the little bulb off of the lever and Amanda ship just feels like a child playing with something just feels sort of natural. So um I don't know how much agency he has. It feels sort of like it just, it's not really a ah thought behind it.
00:09:13
Speaker
you know, as a child would for a lot of things. Yeah. And he's doing it with compassion and care, right? Like yeah remember the very first episode, he reaches out like he's trying to heal Mando and Mando stops him because Mando doesn't know what he's doing. Right. Yeah. It does. he He does seem to be drawn to other people being in pain and trying to rescue that.
00:09:33
Speaker
Yeah. I don't think it's a spoiler. And I think, but I'll say that I think one of the virtues of this series is that you could make ah this child character a little too smart or a little too convenient to your plot needs and so forth. And I think generally speaking, they do a pretty good job of letting the child still be childlike and not be the, you know, answer to every insurmountable problem or yeah or what have you like that.
Action Elements and Narrative Direction
00:10:02
Speaker
Yeah. They don't need to come up with a Kryptonite to, to combat the child. Cause i use him effectively. Right. Right. Um, I did want to mention the similarities between Mando and Han Solo. I think we talked about that a little bit before, and especially the Han Solo, the original Han Solo that shoots first in the cantina and shoots Greedo first. um That's also partly a way for me to drop the news in case any of our listeners haven't heard this yet, that they will be releasing. Well, we knew that they were going to be re-releasing Star Wars Episode IV in theaters in um in a couple of years, in 27, for the 50th anniversary. But they did just announce this last week. It's going to be the original version.
00:10:50
Speaker
So Han will shoot first. There'll be no Greedo shooting. Is it despecialized? Yeah, the despecialized version. There'll be no McClunky. ah We're going to see Han shoot first, which is, I think, what we really need to see that character growth in Han, to see him go from the cold-blooded killer to the cold-blooded killer to the with a heart of gold to, okay, I'm actually going to be a rebellion general.
00:11:12
Speaker
Right. I think it's important for the millennials to know you know what their elders had to kind of experience in whole early Star Wars experience, you know? Exactly. those were Things were a little rougher back then, guys.
00:11:24
Speaker
yeah and and And better, I would say. And better. Yeah. Speaking of shooting, one thing I do want to call out that I thought was great, actually two things sort of in relation to this is I loved the addition of the rocket blasters out of Mando's hands in his suit and then the callback when he steals the child from the from the Empire's, you know, whatever is sort of their bunker, whatever it is, you know, when he, when he's surrounded, you know, how is he going to get out of this? And he just presses that button and the rocket gets them all. That's the first thing. The second thing is that I loved at the end, Carl Weathers saved by his, I'm sorry, I'm forgetting the name of the currency that they're,
00:12:06
Speaker
The best car, the best car, and the yeah blocks saved by his greed, which I just thought was so good. And I'm sure that we will be seeing him again. some We will definitely be seeing him again. Yeah. Those little rockets. I just Googled it. Cause I, I was blanking out on the name. Whistling birds is what they call which I thought was great.
00:12:22
Speaker
Yeah. um I love that. I was whistling birds. One thing, guys, we got to talk about Werner Herzog. So, oh yeah, so he's so good. I'm trying to remember, Ben, is this the last we see of Werner Herzog?
00:12:34
Speaker
i think it it is. I think we see the doctor again. yeah i know we see the doctor again. Yeah, but I think this might be the end of Werner Herzog's run, which means that he's he's right there.
00:12:48
Speaker
He's right there for the picking, if that's the case. Well, you kind of wonder, like, as Mando goes through the entire, you know, lab or whatever, he blasts all the stormtroopers, he owns the place, you know, and he's, Herzog's nowhere to be seen, the the agent or whoever he's called. Yeah, the client. Nowhere to be seen, the client, yeah.
00:13:07
Speaker
and And so the next thing you get after Mando walks out of there is the mercenary bar and everybody's fobs light up. Which sets up the climax. And you're like, oh, well, apparently the client is not happy and he's created some new contracts.
00:13:25
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, exactly. That scene reminded me so much of John Wick. Yeah. You know, at the end of John Wick, when the contract goes out on him and everybody's phone lights up. Yeah, it was basically the same thing. That feels a little incomplete that we don't get any more of the client. That feels like he should be back. So i'm a little I'm a little disappointed by that one. Obviously because he's great, but also it feels a little bit incomplete from a narrative arc perspective, if that's the case. I would like to see that come back a little bit more. Well, we'll see what happens, won't we?
Werner Herzog's Role
00:13:56
Speaker
We'll see.
00:13:56
Speaker
um And I'm not teasing anything with you there, Phil. I don't know anything about it. Anything else we need to mention? You've only watched it 30 times. 30 times. It's so good um Last thing I'll say really quick, ah Deborah chow then went on to direct the entire series of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
00:14:14
Speaker
um i don't think that Obi-Wan Kenobi was met with as much acclaim as this episode of The Mandalorian. And I liked Obi-Wan a lot. I liked it a lot more than other people did. But but it had some problems.
00:14:30
Speaker
It had some problems. Yeah. Should have been a movie. So I was going to say, I've seen a fan edit of somebody that condensed it down to a movie and I thought it was pretty effective movie. Yeah, that was the original plan. But, you know, then we were in the era. Now we're out of that era.
00:14:43
Speaker
Right. Streaming's dead, folks. It's dying. Have you seen the news, Bob? I don't know about that one.
Conclusion and Streaming Landscape
00:14:50
Speaker
Well, you know, streaming as it was previously, i think it's definitely changing. I think we're heading back towards more movies, but we're out of time, guys.
00:15:01
Speaker
we're We're out of time. So we'll pick it up again next week with episode four. Until then, may the force be with you. See you soon. Bye. What is that mindless choice to do? Podcasts, hope you see them through.
00:15:12
Speaker
Star Wars is your favorite unit. Let's chat for 15 minutes. Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short for a sporn trooper?
00:15:25
Speaker
Aren't you a little short for us?