The Mandalorian Review: Chapter 7: The Reckoning (Season 1 Episode 7)
The Mandalorian Season 1 Episode 7, “Chapter 7: The Reckoning,” finally gets into the meat of its story for its penultimate episode.
There are a couple of important things to note about this episode. The first is that it’s great that we’re finally getting back to the plot that actually feels like it matters within the scope of the show. On the other hand, this is an episode that we probably should’ve gotten a while ago instead of wandering aimlessly across the map.
A large majority of this first season has been made up of smaller stories that have been very episodic and don’t really ask much of its audience on an engagement level, which is perfectly fine. Now, however, we’re getting back to things that actually fit in with this universe, like the Empire and Baby Yoda’s connection with them, plus his force abilities.
Both are fine, disparate of one another, but the series can’t really figure out how to mesh the serialized with the episodic, and it leaves the former feeling a bit lacking in light of the latter.
When one has enjoyable but somewhat underwhelming adventures and the other has performances from Carl Weathers, Werner Herzog, and Giancarlo Esposito, the contrast feels stark.
It leaves us with the feeling that much of what has happened in the last few episodes hasn’t mattered since we could’be gotten to this point narratively without those episodes as well. Why did any of that matter? That’s not terribly clear.
If anything, the previous episodes make this one worse because it demonstrates just how terrible this plan that Mando has come up with really is. The risk versus reward that’s presented here doesn’t tip into Mando’s favor, and if the previous episodes proved anything, it’s that he can just keep running without a lot of sweat off his back.
The plan is bad and there’s no real reason to do it or believe that it will work well for him. Even if he does have Cara Dune at his side and constantly tells him how bad this plan is, it never quite justifies why he would go through with it when there are so many ways that it could go wrong.
In that way, there’s a lot of hand waving that charitably paints Mando as an optimist throughout this episode.
As we alluded to before, though, the best parts of this episode are how the side characters come together and really shine in scenes together. Cara and Kuiil bounce off of each other rather nicely as two people that previously would’ve found themselves on separate sides but now can only reflect on how their conflict ahs changed.
Similarly, Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) brings a nice affable energy to this, and Weathers is able to have this balancing charm to the character even when we know that he’s inherently untrustworthy. Also enjoyable is the return of The Client, who is less of a character and more Werner Herzog putting out odd dialogue but no less entertaining.
The one that shines in a really brief performance is Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), who puts out this impressive menace with such little effort, and it’s totally believable that this is a man that has been able to survive the fall of The Empire and still have this strong show of force.
In all, it’s a solid episode that gets us back on track to the main thrust of the story before the end, and it’ll be fascinating to see where it goes from here.
What did you think of this episode of The Mandalorian? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Critic Rating:
User Rating:
The Mandalorian airs Fridays on Disney+.
Follow us on Twitter and on 
Instagram!
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Drew Koenig
Drew has an ongoing, borderline unhealthy obsession with pop culture, but with television in particular. When he's not aggressively trying to get out of a perpetual state of catching up, he can be found passionately defending the ending of Lost. More of his online work can be found at The Lost Cause and he also co-hosts The Lost Cause Pod.