Ryan Shoots First: The Mandalorian (S1 Ep7) “Chapter 7: The Reckoning”

It’s a very special Wednesday edition of our Mandalorian coverage as they bumped up this week’s episode with the release of The Rise of Skywalker this weekend.

This week’s episode begins with Carl Weathers offering Mando a pretty big proposal. The Imperial commander he took the job from in Chapter 1 has taken control over the city and Greef offers a Mando a chance to come back and rid the town of the Imperial threat. If he does not only will the constant threat on him and Baby Yoda be gone but Greef promised to restore his status with the guild. So the potential reward is high but Greef has already double crossed him once. To handle the threat Mando puts his own team together and just like we had been predicting he is pulling from his former allies over previous chapters.

First he recruits Cara who is fighting in a bar back on Sorgan. She is reluctant at first and has little to gain but as soon as Mando mentions the target is Imperial she is all to in. After Yodes decides to get his pilot on Mando decides he needs someone he can trust to look after him so he goes to Kuiil. As a surprise he has rebuilt and reprogrammed IG-11 to serve him. Mando already weary of droids is Leary to trust him. Kuiil insists IG-11 is coming too and if Mando trusts him he should trust his work. The head off with team in hand. Cara and Mando are having a friendly arm wrestling match when Yodes thinks Mando is in danger and delivers a force choke to Cara. They are all shocked at this and Kuiil says he has heard of such things. 

They show up and meet with Greef and after a tense meet and greet head out on their trek into town. While camping for the night their camp is attacked by flying creatures. After running them off Greef is mortally wounded and one of the Blurgs is taken. With the poison spreading Baby Yoda comes up and uses force heal to remove the poison. As they walk up to a cliff we see Greef’s men pull their blasters but Greef turns around and takers them out. He informs them the plan was to betray them but after Yodes heals healed him he has changed his mind. They make a plan for Greef to bring Mando in as a prisoner and remove Yodes from his pod to trick them. They roll into town and there are more Imps than expected. Meanwhile while Kuiil takes Baby Yodes back to the ship Greef takes them into the Clients chambers. He asks to see the baby but before they can open it the Client receives a call from Moff Gideon played by Giancarlo Esposito. Right then the cantina is ripped apart by Death Troopers and clean Stormtroopers. The Moff shows up and we see scouts on speeder bikes chasing down Kuiil as he flees to the ship. Back at the Cantina Gideon informs them they have something he wants and he will have it soon. Mando is pleading with Kuiil on the comm to get out of there but we see Baby Yoda on the ground as a trooper speeds by and picks up Yodes. We then see Kuills’ body as he was gunned down and the credits roll.

Wow, after two weeks of filler arc we jumped head on back into the main story of The Mandolarian with a fantastic episode. The team up aspect along with some great character moments and insight into what the world was like after the fall of the Empire. That Cara, the ex rebel, and Kuiil a former Imperial slave having to find their place in this new world. The Client and his paid ex imperials compared to the Moff and his clean more established troopers show the separated factions left over vying for power. Couple that with the twist ending and the loss of Kuiil and taking of Yodes. I fully expected Kuiil to get back to the ship and activate IG-11 and that save him mainly because every episode has been so self contained. It shows how Filoni and Favreau have been setting us up. With next week being the Penultimate episode of the season and Baby Yoda in peril I actually can’t wait for Christmas to be over so we can get back to some Mandalorian! 

As for the tie-in with Rise of Skywalker it did not turn out to be much. They added a small preview for the movie in the extras section but the actual episode did not tie in like many thought. That is fine as the episode was still fantastic but I assume they just wanted people to be on that Star Wars Jazz going into the movies release on Thursday. Be sure to head back here this weekend to see our review of Rise of Skywalker!

OBSERVATIONS

• Cool seeing another Dathomirian in live action and also the fight tether is a neat idea.
• Pretty close to blue milk.
• Baby Yoda peeking in, my heart…
• The bit about Kuill rebuilding and claiming IG-11 based on the New Republic charter was a cool bit of insight into how droid registration and ownership works. 
• Much like we heard in other filler canon and Hans thoughts on the force many in the universe still think of Jedi and the force as myth and old tales.
• Giant Mynok!
• Flamethrower shot of the week. 
• Baby Yoda using the force may be even cuter than sipping coffee. 
• 20 credits for the Mando helmet is a steal! Hasbro take note. 
• The dirty Stormtroopers are so cool looking and I have always had a soft spot for Scout Troopers. 
• DEATH TROOPERS!! Glad to see them back beyond just Rouge One, such a cool design and Rebels the animated series gave them some cool moments too. These guys are the most bad-ass of the bad-asses. 
• Man we have not had many deaths in the show Kuills hit me hard especially after he just wanted a peaceful life after such a hard go as a imperial slave and earning his freedom. 
• How am I supposed to go see my family and have all this Christmas cheer after seeing Baby Yoda get snatched up like that!! I need to know he is OK!

PREDICTIONS

• Kuill sent some sort of signal to IG-11 and he will come save the day
• Moff Gideon is one of the factions that goes on to form the First Order or possibly whatever secret group the Emperor is commanding in RoS as I don’t believe the Emperor is all about the First Order. His plan was different.