RECAP:  The Mandalorian S1:E7:  The Reckoning

Mando gets a call from Greef telling him that since he has left Nevarro the Imperial remnant has tightened their grip on the planet and made the Guild’s ability to conduct its own business more difficult. He proposes that Mando return to the planet with the child, using himself as bait in a trap meant to kill The Client. Could the whole thing be a trap? Sure seems like the whole thing could be a trap; but Mando knows that this may be the only way to find a permanent solution to this situation. He swings by Sorgan to pick up Cara Dune; then goes to Arvala-7 to get Kuiil. He needs Cara’s experience as a fighter, and knows that he can trust Kuill to keep the baby safe. Kuiil, in the meantime, had salvaged IG-11 and reprogrammed him to serve as a protector and service droid. He insists that IG and some Blurrgs accompany them. They arrive on Nevarro and meet up with Greef and some Guild hunters. On their way to town, they are attacked by some flying things (Wikipedia says mynocks, but those did not seem like mynocks).They make off with one of the hunters and a blurrg, and Greef is wounded. Near death, he is saved by Baby Yoda’s Force intervention. The next morning, as they approach the town, the two remaining hunters draw their weapons, but Greef quickly takes them out first. He confesses that the original plan was to double cross Mando. Greef, like everybody else, thought BY was adorable when he first saw him; that, in combination with him having just saved his life has led to him having a change of heart. Kuiil heads back to the ship with BY (IG is still on the ship), while the others head into town with BY’s empty pram as a ruse (a clever attempt to trick them). The Client welcomes them; but things don’t look good for our friends as Greef has seriously underestimated the number of troops that would be present in his "so simple it’s either genius or idiotic" plan of fool ‘em and then kill ‘em. Things get very tense at one point as the Client insists on actually seeing BY because, I mean, of course; how long did they really think that would work? Fortunately, he gets a very important call that he has to take. I assumed it was going to be about extending his car’s warranty, because he can’t even wait 3 seconds to open the pram first. But no, it’s his boss Moff Gideon. The Client smugly tells him that he has the package in hand (giggity), but Gideon begs to differ; well, he doesn’t so much beg as have a bunch of Death Troopers open fire from outside killing everybody but Greef, Mando, and Cara. I’m...not sure why. Was he mad? Did he just want to be done with the Client and everybody else and focus solely on Baby Yoda? Honestly, at this point it doesn’t matter that much because seeing those Death Troopers was awesome. And even more awesome than that was then seeing an Imperial Troop Transport pull up and offload some shiny Stormtroopers. From the sky descends a modified TIE fighter with folding wings and landing gear; and from it emerges Moff Gideon. He tells Mando that he has no idea just how important Baby Yoda is to him, and the stage is set for a stand-off with Mando, Greef, and Cara hopelessly outnumbered by Imperial forces. Meanwhile, Kuiil has been trying to get BY safely back to the Razor Crest, but learns that a blurrg is no match for a speeder bike. He is killed by Scout Troopers and they snatch up BY.

After a few stand-alone type episodes, we return to the whole “baby Yoda and what does the Empire want with him anyway” storyline just in time for the season’s final two episodes. There was a lot going on here, and a lot to like. We knew Cara was going to be coming back at some point, but we also get more Kuiil and IG. I was very happy to see IG make a comeback, but he really doesn’t get a whole lot to do in this episode; not only that but the personality he displayed in his first appearance seems to be gone. That’s a shame. I hope we get more of him next week, but I also hope he gets some personality back between now and then. While this episode was very much about things coming full circle and reunions, there was also some very important advancement here; especially when it comes to Baby Yoda. Not once, but twice do we see him using the Force this week. As mentioned above, he uses it to heal Greef; but before that, he uses it to Force choke Cara while she and Mando are arm wrestling. He seems to think that she is hurting Mando daddy; well, that, or he was severely emotionally traumatized by the movie Over The Top; which would make him like everyone else who ever saw the movie Over The Top. It’s a big deal, though. Not only is he using the Force again, but he does it in such a way that is pretty much always associated with Dark Siders. It is a stark reminder that, not only is he strong in the Force; but that there is a real possibility that his power could be used for evil rather than good. There may actually be a third instance when BY uses the Force in this episode: before both the healing and choking incidents, when Mando decides to head back to Nevarro and has set a course, BY goes into the cockpit and basically tries to sabotage their journey. It seems more than just messing around with the controls, as if he had a Force inspired intuition that this whole thing would not end well. Well, it didn’t end well for Baby Yoda and Mando; but what we got out of it was the episode that we’ve been waiting for ever since the two of them took off from Nevarro. The Reckoning has come, and it’s not over yet. Once again, for the record, let me say how awesome it was to see that Imperial Troop Transport. Put that in a Vintage Collection box and I’d pay full price for it.

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