‘The Mandalorian’ Episode 7: Mando Has a Terrifying New Enemy (RECAP)
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This Is the Way
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[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Mandalorian Season 1 Episode 7, “The Reckoning.”]
For the past six episodes, Mando (Pedro Pascal) has largely been fighting one enemy: Time. He’s trying to buy time for himself and Baby Yoda to get to safety, since they know they’re being pursued by the Empire’s forces, and specifically, The Client’s.
In “The Reckoning,” that changes.
As Mando’s called back to Navarro for a dangerous mission, he assembles a crew of familiar faces to help him succeed. But — as has been a staple for The Mandalorian so far — absolutely nothing is as it seems, and it appears Mando is caught in a struggle much larger and perilous than he imagined.
Putting a Team Together
Mando’s old boss, Greef Carga (Carl Weathers), needs his help. As he says in a message, the city has been taken over by the Empire’s forces, which has complicated matters for the Guild. If Mando can eradicate them and kill The Client, he can leave with the child with his name cleared. If that offer seems too good to be true, it probably is — but it’s understandable that Mando takes it.
That said, Mando’s no moron. He stops to pick up Cara Dune (Gina Carano) as his partner, then stops to snag Kuiil and — by shocking coincidence — IG-11, whom Kuiil has re-programmed as a kind of service droid. Mando doesn’t want to take a droid and certainly doesn’t want one previously programmed to kill the child taking care of such precious cargo, but Kuill insists that droids “are neutral reflections of those that imprint them.” Along with Kuill and IG-11, he’s forced to take his pal’s blurrgs, too.
Bad Move, Baby Yoda!
On the way, Cara and Mando do a little arm wrestling… but Baby Yoda, thinking Mando’s being seriously hurt, Force-chokes Cara and nearly kills her. (That’s a Dark Side move, Baby Yoda!) At Mando’s panicked discouragement he releases her, and after everyone’s calmed down, Mando asks Kuiil to build the child a new, more comfortable crib.
The group arrives at the remote meeting place, and both Mando and Greef have brought reinforcements. Greef asks to see the child, but thankfully, he doesn’t do anything to harm it — “what a precious little creature,” he notes. “I can see why you didn’t want to harm a hair on its little, little head.” They make plans to camp out overnight and head into the city in the morning.
The general plan, as Greef explains, is this: Mando and he will enter the common house, then show The Client the bait (Baby Yoda). Then, Mando kills The Client and they make their escape. Of course, this gets more complicated when large, pterodactyl-like beasts swoop down from the sky and snag several members of their force and injure Greef quite badly. The poison from his wound is spreading and he’s convinced that this is how it ends, but Baby Yoda uses the Force to heal him.
New Plan
In the morning, they head toward the city. Everything seems to be falling into place… and then Greef turns around and shoots the two remaining members of his group. Stunned, Cara and Mando pull their weapons on him. “There’s something you should know,” he tells them, explaining that originally, the plan had been to kill them and bring the child to The Client. After what happened the previous night, Greef says he can’t go through with that. They can, he suggests, take down The Client together, since they both need to be rid of him.
They eventually devise a plan in which Cara, under Greef’s direction, brings Mando to the Client and says she caught him and the child. Meanwhile, Kuiil will take Baby Yoda back to the ship and seal them both inside, so while Team Mando takes an empty cradle to the baddies, the child will be safe. Kuill hands Mando a comm link, and Mando’s group heads into the city.
Meet Moff Gidian
They make it past the Stormtroopers at the gate and into the common house, where they’re greeted by The Client… and a bunch of Stormtroopers. He offers Greef a drink to “celebrate the closing of their shared narrative” and invites them to have a seat, then asks to see the child. Greef tells him the child is sleeping. The tension in the air lessens when he gets a call from a man named Moff Gidian (Giancarlo Esposito), who asks them if Mando and his group have brought Baby Yoda. He says they have, but Moff says “you might want to check again.” Then, all of a sudden, they’re fired upon by a team of Stormtroopers in all black: The Client is killed.
Pinned down in the ruined common house, Mando radios Kuiil and tells him that when he gets back to the ship, he needs to “get the kid out of here.” Unfortunately, some of the Stormtroopers intercept the comms, and they speed away, pursuing Kuiil to Mando’s ship. Meanwhile, Moff arrives in a ship, steps outside and starts addressing Mando.
“You may think you have some idea of what you’re in possession of,” he says, “but you do not. And soon, it will be mine.” As he talks, Mando tries to get Kuiil to respond over the comms, but he goes silent. Then, as the episode ends, the troopers scoop Baby Yoda up off the ground… and leave Kuiil’s body behind.
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