REVIEW: The Mandalorian Season 1 Episode 7 – The Reckoning

Everyone saw this coming. After spending his time traveling the galaxy, making both friends and enemies, The Mando had to deal with his client problem. The Mandalorian Season 1 Episode 7 gets that started. Unfortunately, that’s all it does.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is review is a redo of our original review as we never finished our reviews initially. Each episode of Season 1 is being re-reviewed (or reviewed the first time) ahead of the Season 2 premiere on October 30th and written as if we were viewing the episode for the first time.

SPOILER WARNING: The following review contains spoilers for The Mandalorian Season 1 Episode 7, The Reckoning. If you have not seen the episode and want to remain spoiler-free, do not continue reading.

Getting the band back together

If you thought you’d seen the last of Kuiil or Cara Dune, you were wrong. And thank the Maker for that! After receiving a dubious message from Greef Karga, Mando realizes he’s been running for too long and plans a mission back to Nevarro to settle the score with The Client and Karga. He needs help, so naturally, we get a return to Sorgan to pick up Cara Dune.

Cara’s enjoying life on Sorgan in relative peace, with nary a worry save for wondering who her next boxing opponent is going to be. Just when you think Cara’s going to pass on the opportunity of another adventure with Mando, he says the magic words: “he’s Imperial.” Dune doesn’t even hesitate and joins in.

Her lack of hesitation fits her character perfectly, but it still bothered me. She finally has peace in her life, and is willing to risk it all for a small amount of revenge? Clearly she’s not the most level-headed of characters. That’s fine, but it’s not the person I’d necessarily trust if things need a bit of nuance. We saw that with Xi’an as well. Perhaps Mando has a type?

Also returning is the lovable Kuiil. After a hilarious sequence where The Child decides he’s going to fly the Razor Crest, Cara and Mando realize they need a babysitter. Who better than Kuiil?! But everyone’s favorite Ugnaught (sorry Melch!) has a big surprise for Mando. He’s not alone. He’s rebuilt IG-11 and turned him into a ranch hand and butler droid.

Lots of build-up

If all that sounds like a lot of build-up, you’d be right. The Mandalorian Season 1 Episode 7 is a stage setter. Mando pulls together his crew, but that’s all that really happens. Even the big moment of The Child using The Force to heal Greef Karga is build-up, and it turns out not even for The Mandalorian. All the scene does is establish Force healing as a thing prior to its use by Rey in Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker.

We don’t really get anything concrete until Mando returns to The Client, and even that is cut short by a holocall. I love that Werner Herzog plays it straight, but the dialogue he’s forced to deliver, apologizing for essentially taking a phone call, was ridiculous, if for no other reason than it felt very out-of-character for The Client. While previously focused on decorum, The Client is also all business. That he didn’t demand to see The Child was a joke, and he got his just reward for his mistake from Moff Gideon.

To make matters worse, the episode closes on more build-up. Kuiil is hunted down and killed. Baby Yoda is lost to the Imperials, and the rest of Mando’s crew are left begging for a response while Death Troopers and Moff Gideon wait outside the cantina. And then we cut to black. Ugh.

Season 1 of The Mandalorian has been all about building up to something, revealing as little as possible, but this is too much. This build-up format for the episode works great if the next episode starts right away. But having to wait a week for a resolution is just cruel to the viewer. We’re seven episodes in. We’re invested. More people won’t watch the finale just because the previous episode ended on a cliffhanger. It was really disappointing.

All episodes of The Mandalorian Season 1 are streaming now, exclusively on Disney+.