1x07 Chapter 7: The Reckoning

[8.2/10] Another cool outing for the show. I appreciate that after a few more standalone adventures, the show is mixing it up once more and weaving things back together. Bringing Greef Carga, Cara Dune, Queel the Ugnaught, and IG-11 together for a big confrontation with The Client instantly adds stakes to whatever happens next. Most of these characters haven’t met before, so developing them independently in separate episodes and then having them bounce off one another adds a sense of electricity to the proceedings.

But I also appreciate that there’s a lot of character work, and not just action. That’s primarily for Mando, who wants to find safety for Baby Yoda (something he thinks he can only find if he kills The Client), but also wants to clear his name, because he’s a man of honor and of his world, and so living in exile as a violator of the Guild’s code doesn't sit right with him. He knows that Greef’s invitation is a trap, but he also knows he can’t keep running forever, and this is as good a way to make a stand as any. As taciturn as Mando is, the show does a good job of establishing his motivation.

It’s also an episode about change and choice, which is appropriate for Star Wars. We see two exchanges about droids here, and each has a second layer of meaning for Mando. The first is a narration and montage of Queel reprogramming IG-11, taking him from something designed to murder to something there to help and defend. It’s not something that happens overnight, as Queel describes it and the episode depicts, but something that takes practice, encouragement, and care.

The allegory is obvious but still potent -- Mando himself is learning to be more humane, to be a protector and a caretaker rather than just a dealer of death. The same goes for Mando’s comments to Dune about why he doesn't trust the new IG-11, arguing that its programming can’t be changed and, whether he knows it or not, arguing for why he can’t change either.

But Queel has the best response, namely that a droid is neutral, responding to and reflecting what it’s taught. And that adds the second layer to the metaphor. We’re not just talking about Mando with the metaphor; we’re talking about Baby Yoda. In this episode, we see the little tike exercise two sorts of Force powers. He chokes Cara Dune, a traditional move of Dark Side force-wielders like Darth Vader. But he also heals Greef Karga, a type of force power we’ve never seen on the screen before, which can only be used to help. The implication is that this isn’t just a choice being made for what kind of person Mando will be, but about what kind of example he’s setting for his surrogate son, and what path Baby Yoda will follow.

Beyond that highfalutin stuff, it’s just a good episode on a nuts and bolts level. Mando’s crew has a good dynamic. I particularly appreciate the mistrust between Queel and Dune, given the former’s Imperial service and the latter’s past as a New Republic “dropper.” Queel talking about having earned his freedom after being sold into slavery, a freedom born of the work of his two hands, and Dune’s reluctance to cover her stripes, speak to their characters and gives each depth and texture.

Hell, we even get some shading for Greef here. I’ll be frank -- I assumed he was just going to be a colorful bounty-administering tough and not much more. But the fact that he has a change of heart -- planning to kill Mando and take the kid, only to change his tune when he sees how pure Baby Yoda is and the good he can do -- gives him more depth.

This is also a really well directed and paced episode. Director Deborah Chow does a great job in the pterodactyl attack, having it come out of nowhere and seem like a moment of real chaos. She frames the characters expertly, whether it’s the simple shot depth when we see IG-11’s rehabilitation, or our heroes standing on Durg’s in front of Greef’s hired goons. Granted, it’s a little tough to discern what happens in the final sequence where Mando (I think?) shoots The Client, but for the most part, this is a visually superb outing, whether or not there’s action going on.

And hey, we get one more Werner Herzog monologue out of the deal! His comments about prosperity under Imperial rule and chaos and death reigning in the aftermath of the Rebel victory are intriguing, and add some “a good villain believes what they’re doing is right” shading to the baddie. A lot of the dialogue here is very mannered, very dramatic, but the episode strikes the right solemn tone through most of this and that make it work.

That solemnity goes a long way toward the episode’s ending which is, in movie terms, where our heroes have reached their lowest point. The mercenary types are pinned down by an Imperial battalion. Baby Yoda is in the clutches of a speeder bike trooper. And poor Queel is dead, having worked so long for his freedom (three human lifetimes), to earn a life of self-reliance and quiet, only to die in service of a fight that wasn’t his, that he joined from his sense of honor. It is tragic, in the best way, and makes things that much more charged, that much more powerful, as we head into the finale.

This episode is an improvement in comparison to the previous one, maybe because we revisit old characters and learn a bit more of their backstory. Mandalorian's ex-employer contacts him and offers him a deal which will enable him both to keep the baby and have his name cleared in the guild. Apparently his territory was overrun by some post-empire warlord, which is bad for business, and Mandalorian's role would be to kill the said warlord, using the baby as bait (this is supposed to be the client from the beginning of the show). Mandalorian sets out to find his allies, and these are the warrior woman Cara and the man he helped him during the action to get the baby. There is a short conflict between them at the beginning as he had apparently been forced to join the empire's army, while she served the rebels. The man shows himself to be a clever inventor and programmer, apparently he found the robot Mandalorian "killed" when he found the baby, and reprogrammed it so that it is now a friendly droid serving tea. This does bring some subtle "Doctor Who" references to the Daleks in the episode with Winston Churchill, where the Daleks do the same thing. Further on in the episode, there is a kind of Tolkien reference as the characters go through wastes which resemble Mordor, with rivers of lava, and when they camp there at night, they are attacked by creatures that bring to mind the fell beasts of the Nazgul, though I guess they have their own names and roles in the world of Star Wars. There is more action from the baby as he shows his magic powers again (I guess this is called the Force in the Star Wars universe, but functionally it is just the same as magic, isn't it?), first by almost choking Cara when she has a fist-fight with Mandalorian, and later by healing Mandalorian's ex-boss when he is bitten by the Nazgul. So the baby is apparently adept in both killing and healing. Then there is a change of the plan, when Mandalorian comes up with the idea that the ex-boss and the warrior woman would pretend to have captured him, whereas the friendly man is to take the baby back to the space ship. When they meet the client, everything goes south and they are attacked by an army of Stormtroopers and other imperial soldiers - possibly? The baby is captured by the Stormtroopers and the man Kuill seems to be killed; though as I have recently discovered, there is a high survival rate among deceased Star Wars characters so let's hope it would be the case with Kuill as well since he is a likeable character. I am not sure about the ending as it looks like the ex-boss of Mandalorian turned out to be the mastermind behind the attack? as the person who gets out of the plan looks quite like him. I was thinking that maybe the baby would do something to the pursuing Stormtroopers as he is not so helpless as he looks like, but apparently nothing of this sort happened. It seems he only uses his magic when he believed that Mandalorian is threatened.