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S02E52: Rapidly Rewatching Mando S1E7
28 Plays22 days ago
Sorry that our publishing schedule has been so wonky... a lot of really great life-stuff happening! But you don't care about that! You want to hear what Phil, Ben, and I thought about the penultimate episode of The Mandalorian's debut season! Well, look no further... here you go.
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Transcript
Revisiting The Mandalorian Season 1
00:00:00
Speaker
We're getting close to the end of Mandalorian Season 1 and we're getting there real quick. Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?
00:00:14
Speaker
Welcome back to short for a storm trooper where we are revisiting season one of the Mandalorian in preparation for the release of the Mandalorian and Grogu, which is coming May 22nd, 2026. And I'm not even getting paid by Disney to say any of that, but we have been watching ah season one. We will get into season two and season three before it starts today.
The Reckoning: Deal and Threats
00:00:39
Speaker
We are on Chapter 7, The Reckoning, directed by Deborah Chow and written by Jon Favreau and Rick Famuyiwa.
00:00:50
Speaker
I think I said his name right. This is great. um Here's the summary. Grief Karga offers Mando a deal. Kill the Imperial client and clear his name in exchange for peace on Navarro.
00:01:02
Speaker
Wary of a trap, Mando recruits Cara Dune and Queel, who has rebuilt the assassin droid IG-11 into a protector. During the journey, the child uses the force to heal a mortally wounded Karga, prompting a change of heart in the magistrate.
00:01:17
Speaker
However, the plan goes sideways when Moff Gideon arrives with an overwhelming legion of death troopers. The episode ends on a tragic cliffhanger as Queel is killed and the child is captured by Imperial Scout troopers. Now, Ben Dyer, little bit under the weather today.
00:01:34
Speaker
So thank you, Ben, for showing up. This is great. but Couldn't miss it. I'm here for
Phil's Reflections: Crew Reunion and Surprises
00:01:39
Speaker
it. Well, that's great. But nevertheless, I'm going throw it to Phil first to carry the heavy burden. Phil, what was your reaction upon your first viewing of Chapter 7, The Reckoning? Yeah, yeah. So I liked this one. um I did feel like it started off a little slow.
00:01:55
Speaker
You know, I think from what I was expecting as kind of the penultimate episode, the things I really liked. Really liked you know bringing the crew back together. That's always a fun sequence.
00:02:06
Speaker
Great that they brought back Cara Dunn and Kuleil. kuil Quill. Quill. Quill. Yep. Yep. ah That was great. Loved the – do they have a name? I tried looking up the name. The flying reptiles from this – from the attack when they're all by the bonfire at night. Oh, I don't know if we ever identified who those actually were.
00:02:27
Speaker
Yeah. they know I couldn't find it i couldn' find a name. yeah but okay Um, that was really good. Um, I loved, you know, you guys, ah and I do recall this because I was very surprised. You said we weren't going to see the client again. You said that was the last time and lo and behold, we see him ever so briefly for about 90 seconds. Um, and you know, I really liked that.
00:02:52
Speaker
Glad we saw him again. Loved the shootout in the bar. Very cool. Very Western. Obviously Favreau has that on the brain, uh, being surrounded by a crazy amount of see a seemingly inurmount insurmountable amount of troops.
00:03:05
Speaker
Very Western, very Butch Cassidy in Sundance. And then we get the one, the only Giancarlo Esposito Moth Gideon. So good. Even though he's only in it for, you know, obviously he has a bigger role in the finale, but just a very small role in this particular episode.
00:03:23
Speaker
um So good. And then, yes, as you mentioned, Bob, the heartbreaking end to this episode. And I did feel overall, i kind of slow to a really nice buildup for the end. And I mean, really excited to watch the finale. Yeah. I was to say, if you didn't know if you're coming back the next episode, having Giancarlo Esposito finish up that episode, you're like all right, well, I don't really like, I have to be back to see what happens now because that guy is, is just great television.
00:03:51
Speaker
Yeah. hundred percent So two quick things before we get more input from Ben is first off, I have to admit, I would love to say i was just being very crafty and spoiler free and saying that we wouldn't see any more of the client. I completely forgot. And I i think I said it on an earlier episode of this very podcast that I couldn't remember, like if we see him Or not. And so I was really shocked not only to see him again, but to remember that like, yes, he was pretty, you know, anonymously shot down by Moff Gideon and his troops. Like, you know, he was just done.
00:04:30
Speaker
which was a surprise, right? Awesome, I think, surprise. Awesome twist, because you expect him to kind of be the main baddie in this, and he really is not, you know. ye The second thing is, according to to Wikipedia, ah the flying creatures are called Navarro Reptavians, which is a pretty good name for reptile plus avian mashup, reptavian.
00:04:53
Speaker
Ben, what additional thoughts did you have?
Ben's Insights: Evolving Dynamics
00:04:57
Speaker
oh I'll just sort of, without rehashing the stuff that Phil just said, I'll just pick out some highlights, some other things that I thought were really neat. One is I thought it was really fun when you're starting to see the group come back together, that's starting to ramp up your excitement and your apprehension. You know, you realize that whatever happens next, you know, Mando's going to have his full posse with him. It's going to be like a,
00:05:18
Speaker
ah kind of a full summation of what's going on in this whole season. so I was really, i think that was a really well nicely done thing. um i also really liked that the ah the turn of Grief Karga is not ah essentially like some kind of a hey, let's appeal to the better angels of your nature. right he he literally gets his life saved. he's He would have been smoked. you know And so the cool part is he's got a code. And so now we're going to have a different kind of ending or we're going to have a different kind of situation. And that that initial, i don't know about this, you can walk into that last scene with a little bit more confidence about how things are starting to fall out with the different the different things there. um I also really was fond of the way that The Mandalorian is really concerned about IG-88. And given how that whole thing then progresses and plays out, I think that's a really fun um arc. There's a kind of a nice symmetry to that really, if you kind of compare and episode one versus IG-88 in episodes 7 and 8. So I thought that was really, really neat, especially because it's because of IG-88 that we actually get a chance to, ah this is anticipating, but we get a chance to see our Mandalorian take his helmet off, though it would mortify him that we did so. Yeah, yeah, totally. Spoiler, but that's okay.
00:06:49
Speaker
Yeah, I was heartbroken at the death of Quell. I thought that was such a great character. And I remember when I heard that Nick Nolte was going to be on the show, i was kind of like, wow, isn't he just a washed up actor from the seventy s and um Then when I heard that he actually was just doing the voice and it was going to be the voice of an Ugnaught, I was like, you got to be kidding me. Like, Ugnaughts don't talk. They just talk piggy language, you know, if anything. i could talk to a Gamorrean, but um i I just, I loved that character. i loved...
00:07:25
Speaker
The whole I have spoken thing and just his wisdom and his code of honor and code of ethics. And I really do think he had a huge impact on the Mandalorian and the the character arc that we've already seen on him from him in chapter one of season one of the Mandalorian. we'll continue to see through the rest of the series.
00:07:48
Speaker
I was really sad that it was very clear that he had spoken his last. Yeah. Ben, if you didn't say it, I would have. i I knew I needed to get that one in before you did because you that's ah that's your wit too. um What other thoughts do have, Phil?
00:08:06
Speaker
um I'm just going through it a little bit here. there the I'll say, so I started off saying that I liked it, right? you know And eventually on this podcast, we will get to the finale of season one.
00:08:17
Speaker
Um, no spoilers of my thoughts there, but I'll say like, like it was good. I liked, I liked, uh, episode seven, you know, a couple of things that I was sort of a little iffy on. Um, you know, you talked about grief, Karga and kind of that near death experience and sort of changing him.
00:08:33
Speaker
i don't know if I totally bought it. Right. The idea of like the child saving him makes him change his mind. I mean, it wasn't that he was going to kill the child. It was that he was going to you know,
00:08:45
Speaker
betray Mando. But, you know, as you said, he has a code, you know, part of the guild. So maybe something turned in and maybe realized that he shouldn't have been betraying his own.
00:08:55
Speaker
Also, you know, as far as sort of the whole conceit of the episode, I'm not, I'm not criticizing it in any way, but I felt like Mando should have known that this was coming in some ways he did. Cause he obviously brought reinforcements, brought the crew together, but it felt like in that sort of in that shot, when grief Carga, you know, turns around and, kills the other two members of the guild, which was very cool. I really liked that. It just felt like if Mando was so concerned, why would him and Caradon have their backs to these untour untrustworthy guild members? So there's a couple of things there. Other than that, I was a big fan of this. I really liked this, especially sort of, as I mentioned, the last, you know, 10 to 15 minutes of it. um but There's a couple of things that sort of, from like a logic perspective, that even in like in the moment didn't land for me.
00:09:43
Speaker
Do you feel, you guys feel
Setting Up the Finale: Themes and Motivations
00:09:46
Speaker
similarly different? What is sort of your assessment of this episode kind of in, you know, season one, how it kind of stacks up against the other episodes? I agree with the, I liked it. It was clearly for me setting up the finale. I mean, you can even say it's part one of a two part episode. So, you know, it did its purpose. It introduced Moff Gideon. um it put them in a can't win Butch Cassidy or the Sundance Kid situation. And i did like that aspect of it. I do agree that the character turn of Grief Karga was a little abrupt.
00:10:22
Speaker
And um I agree with you. I'm not quite sure that that was enough to see such a big change of heart. um There's another similar, i think, quick change of heart that we're going to see next episode. So I'll talk about that next week.
00:10:37
Speaker
But I did think that was a little bit of a shortcoming in it. So what do you think, Ben? um I feel like... that sort of change is not the weirdest one. I mean, I feel like that's the kind of thing you get in all kinds of old Westerns. I mean, think about this for a minute, right? When you when you watch Tuco and the good, the bad, and the ugly, he's changing his allegiance all the time. The problem isn't, can he change? The problem is, will he stay that way for very long? Yeah, fair. So, you know, when the math changes, you know, who knows? All bets are off.
00:11:12
Speaker
um With respect to how this is as as an episode in the season, I, yeah, I agree. I don't think you frankly judge it on its own. I think you judge it a two-parter yeah because it's clearly just doing all the setup that then the next episode pays off. And I think, again, this isn't spoiling anything, but I think we'll probably agree that the next episode pays off nicely. And as a result,
00:11:32
Speaker
this episode looks better for it. If if they had crashed and burned, ah you know, on, well, at least it crashed and burned in the wrong way on yeah episode eight, then we'd be having a different conversation about episode seven. um I certainly think it's it's it's not a bad episode, even if it,
00:11:52
Speaker
even if it's not got a lot of the kind of self enclosed great properties that you might see in an episode like the prisoner or, you know, some of the earlier ones we'd seen the sanctuary.
00:12:06
Speaker
There was one. you know what? And actually, let me, this is a complete side note, but since you brought up Nick Nolte earlier, yeah go watch Warrior if you haven't seen it. That's a great movie. And Nick Nolte plays a great role in it. And it will have you jumping out of your chair, ah yelling at the TV before it's all done.
00:12:24
Speaker
Wow. No kidding. Warrior. When was that made? with Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton. It's a movie about MMA ah fighters. And Nick Nolte is a father figure in that who's,
00:12:35
Speaker
really plays a great role. Does he have the same like gruff raspy voice? Yeah. Yeah. That's sort of his thing. That's sort of his trademark. I would say, see like i just thought he sounded like such like an old man is quill where I never really heard that before.
00:12:51
Speaker
Yeah. No, check it out. I would love to hear your thoughts on that. When you get a chance to see warrior, you know, but since you're, since you're doing this and everybody knows that i'm a movie guy, I'll throw out one that I, that I rewatched, which is one of my old favorites over the holiday break. Um,
00:13:06
Speaker
48 hours with Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy, Eddie Murphy's film debut. Nick Nolte, absolutely like all the kind of like gruff, like, you know, cop energy that you want in that kind of 80s action movie. um But obviously, you know, sawed towards smack the middle of us doing our Mandalorian season one conversation. So having that Additional element in the back of my mind was very funny as well. Yeah. Well, as long as we're this far off track, I've got to mention this too. i' I'm even going to go back to our Andor rewatch is Sherry and I last weekend watched a sentimental value with Stellan Scargaard, which he just,
00:13:44
Speaker
He just won the Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe for. Yes. Highly recommend it It was a great movie. At the end of it, when we were gushing about what fantastic episodes they all were, I was saying to Sherry, oh my gosh, I just wish you would watch Andor because you will love it. And he is so amazing. And she's like, he's in it? I'm like, I've got an action figure of him on my desk. Yeah.
00:14:09
Speaker
Like, here's a little Stalin Skarsgård for you. So anyway, we are out of time. oh I did have one last thing I wanted to say really quick.
Moff Gideon's TIE Fighter: A Childhood Curiosity
00:14:17
Speaker
The landing TIE fighter of Moff Gideon with the wings folding up, I'm guessing they just did that to make it easier for the production value and for them for him not to have to wheel like steps up or something like that. yeah But still, I thought it was really cool. And it answered a question that we all had as kids playing with our with our Kenner TIE fighter is how do they climb down from there?
00:14:45
Speaker
when the thing lands. So I, I just thought that was epic. Anyway, um that's it for this episode. Thank you. Next week, we will finish up season one with chapter eight redemption until then, Ben, Phil, thanks so much for being here. Listeners.
00:15:01
Speaker
Thank you for being here. May the force be with you. We'll see you next time. Who's that mindless choice to do? Podcasts, hope you see them through. Star Wars is your favorite unit. Let's chat for 15 minutes.
00:15:13
Speaker
Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short for sporn trooper? Aren't you a little short for a slur?