[Episode Recap] THE MANDALORIAN EP 7

*RECAP INCLUDES SPOILERS*

The Episode:

This past week we were treated to a new episode of THE MANDALORIAN a bit earlier than the usual Friday premiere. The episode opens with Mando receiving a transmission from Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) who is miraculously still alive. He tells Mando that the original client that had hired Mando to retrieve Baby Yoda has been impeding the Guild of Bounty Hunters that live on Nevarro and needs to be terminated immediately. He propositions Mando to come back to Nevarro in order to use the Baby as bait in order to get close to The Client and kill him. In exchange for his services, Greef offers Mando an opportunity to keep the Baby and have his name cleared with the Guild.

Mando decides to take Greef up on his offer but not before recruiting some familiar faces to come along. We see Mando reunite with Cara Dune as well as Kuiil the Ugnaught, who has repurposed the IG-11 model we saw in the first episode. No longer a killing droid, IG-11 has been reprogrammed to help around the house. While he explains how he reprogrammed the droid, we are treated to a fun montage of Kuiil reteaching IG-11 to do mundane things like pour tea, carry heavy boxes, and feed the Blurrgs.

Speaking of Blurrgs, they manage to fit three of them on Mando’s ship along with Kuiil, IG-11 and Cara. Once aboard Mando’s ship, he and Cara are engaging in a friendly match of arm wrestling when suddenly Baby Yoda, sensing his dad is in danger, begins to force choke Cara! I know it’s dangerous and someone is being force choked, but seeing the tiny green bean angrily clench his fist is the cutest damn thing I’ve seen in a while.

Image courtesy of IMDB

Once at the rendezvous point, Greef and his crew camp out with Mando and his gang when suddenly they are attacked by a group of flying creatures, one of which mortally wounds Greef. With the poison quickly spreading, Baby Yoda decides it’s his time to shine and he quickly heals the wound on Greef’s arm.

On their way to Nevarro, with a sense of unease building, Greef admits that the whole mission was a trap to kill Mando, steal the Baby and deliver him to The Client. After a sudden change of heart, Greef decides not to go through with it and instead kills the two bounty hunters he had brought with him to carry out the double-crossing. Mando and Greef then decide to take the baby to The Client making it seem like Greef had captured Mando and was delivering him to The Client. Once they get close enough, Mando will kill The Client and the group will make their escape with the baby…again. Kuiil is tasked with taking the Baby back to the ship and guarding it with his life, while Mando, Greef and Cara approach The Client’s lair with the empty crib.

Once inside, Mando and Co. realize there are more troopers around than the four Greef had mentioned would be guarding The Client and things escalate. After receiving a call from Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) detailing that the Baby is not in the crib as they originally thought, The Client is gunned down as Moff Gideon and his Death Troopers light up the place. Things go from bad to worse as more and more troopers unload, pinning Mando and his crew and trapping them in The Client’s lair.

Image courtesy of IMDB

With two scout troopers on his tail, Kuiil struggles to make it back to the ship with Baby Yoda and almost manages to make it before he too is gunned down in an anxiety-inducing few minutes as we can hear Mando yelling “Kuiil do you copy?” through the comlink and we see Baby Yoda swaddled in blue laying on the ground. The scout troopers swoop up the Baby and we see Kuiil on the ground, so close and yet so far. Thus making this the first time we’ve been left at a cliff hanger and with one episode left in the season, boy is it a nerve-wracking one.

The Lore:

This episode gave us a look into the empire (?) being interested in Baby Yoda. I say empire with a question mark because remember, at the time of this show the empire has disbanded so there is no official empire to speak of which is interesting considering we are introduced to Moff Gideon, Tie fighter and all.

Image courtesy of IMDB

Gideon comes in hot, complete with a squad of Storm Troopers including a few Death Troopers, who we were first introduced to in Rogue One.

Earlier in the episode, the group is attacked by flying creatures who at the time of this writing, don’t really have an official name. At first, I thought they were Mynocks, who we saw in Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, but these new winged creatures are huge, almost dragon-like, and they are also poisonous.

When Greef is inured, we see Baby Yoda using his force healing powers which he had tried to use before on Mando but ultimately was rejected. We also see the Baby using his force powers to put Cara in a force choke when he senses his dad is in danger, which is as equally cute as it is terrifying.

Image courtesy of IMDB

We hear a new term in this episode. When Mando is talking to Kuiil about the Baby, he mentions that he might be a Strand-Cast, which Kuiil denies by saying he should know because he once worked in gene farms. I’m guessing this is some sort of cloning term, which would make sense considering some of the earlier theories suggested Baby Yoda was a clone of actual Yoda.

With one episode left in the season, I still have a lot of questions and I’m beginning to realize they may not all be answered. One of the main ones I do have is will the season finale be an hour-long episode? With so many unresolved questions and the true reasoning behind the plot to take the asset yet to be revealed, I’m not sure a lot of it could be answered if we get another half-hour episode. I guess we’ll just have to wait until Friday to find out. Each episode of THE MANDALORIAN will be released weekly each Friday on Disney+. Also, to catch up for the last episode, make sure to read Angie’s earlier recaps here.

Angie Coronado
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