Force Friday: The Mandalorian Episode 7

 Welcome back to The Real World According To Sam! Today is Force Friday and we're picking up where we left off last week. Today, we are going to talk about the seventh episode of the Disney + original series, The Mandalorian.


Reviews for this first season will be FULL of SPOILERS!!! If you have not watched this show, and want to, then I recommend you just go watch it, and then come back. 
The Mandalorian Poster

Chapter 7: The Reckoning

Directed by: Deborah Chow
Written by: Jon Favreau

Synopsis:

An old contact extends an invitation for the Mandalorian to make peace with his enemies.

Review:

Chapter 7 was directed by Deborah Chow. She directed Chapter 3: The Sin, which had the Mandalorian take back the Child after "completing" the job. It ended with an epic showdown between the Guild and the Mandalorians who had been hiding out. So what do we get in this episode? 

The episode opens up with Greef Karga sending the Mandalorian a hologram message. Surprisingly, yes, he is in fact alive still. He wants to make a deal with the Mandalorian. Karga will set up a meeting with the client who wants the Child, the Mandalorian will attend and kill the client, and then everyone can go home happy. Or at least, that's the hope. Before going back to Nevarro, the Mandalorian decides to enlist some help first. He picks up Cara Dune, who is found fighting an Iridonian Zabrak, after a bit of negotiation. Shortly after this, we see one of the most adorable ship takeovers, EVER. We make a pitstop on Arvala-7 to continue the ally pick-up. Unexpectedly, we also get to pick up an awesome droid. Then we carry on towards Nevarro and the task at hand. 

I really enjoyed the way this episode started to further develop characters we have already met, while beginning to tie up the initial story of the hunt for the Child. For example, we find out the Ugnaught farmer who lives on Arvala-7 is named Kuiil (pronounced kweel). We get to know more of his history and also a bit more about the divisions the Empire created during its rule. The character development is exceptional and this is an A-plus group to have together. These were my favorite characters from throughout this season, and they're all coming together for one big showdown.

This episode doesn't have much for action until we get about halfway through it. However, I really enjoyed the set-up and thought it was time well-spent. I found it much more enjoyable than the set-up time in Chapter 6. Once things kick up, they really kick up. We also get a lot more of the most adorable baby alien in the galaxy. There are high tension conversations, a tense environment, and a baddie reveal. We finally figure out the name of the person calling the shots and things get bad...really bad. The cliffhanger we are left with is insane, and you can already tell the next episode is going to be CRAZY. It gets so tense, even the credit music takes a step back and changes to a quieter, more somber tone than the previous episodes in the series have had. 

Overall, this episode is very straight forward. The focus is on setting up the main conflict, building up the characters we have, and getting us ready for a big time showdown. The artistic visuals that have been in previous episodes are not as prevalent in this episode, but I don't have any problems with that considering what story this episode is presenting. This is no longer about building a world to escape into or to explore. Now we are getting into pure survival mode and the episode does a good job of conveying that tone. I give The Mandalorian Chapter 7 a Lone Star rating of ✯✯✯✯. The pacing is good, the story is compelling, the characters are worth cheering for, and the action delivers when it is there. I'm glad to see how strong this episode is considering the issues I had with the previous episode. 

This concludes another Force Friday review. I'll see you next week to talk about the final episode in this first season of The Mandalorian. 

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