There's a lot to love in the gritty world of The Mandalorian. In preparation for Season 2, premiering October 30, Bounty Hunting Highlights will explore our favorite moments, both big and small, from the stunning, Emmy Award-winning, live-action Star Wars series now streaming on Disney+. Watch along, for the first time or as part of your own rewatch, and tell us about your favorite moments in the comments!
Everything we’ve seen in The Mandalorian so far seems to have been building to this. In “The Reckoning,” the penultimate episode of the first season of The Mandalorian, old friends and enemies unite to take on the remnants of the Empire in a thrilling 41 minutes that ends in a crushing, gut-punch of defeat.
Here are seven of our favorite moments from the episode.
1. The return of Karga.
Using the logic that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, Greef Karga makes a surprising plea to the bounty hunter who went rogue and dismantled much of the Nevarro-based Guild. It’s good to see Mando and Greef back on the same side…or so it seems.
2. Cara brawling.
We wouldn’t mess with Cara Dune. Would you?
3. “Would anyone care for some tea?”
This episode is just full of surprises. We assumed that we had seen the last of IG-11, but thanks to Kuiil’s ingenuity, the former bounty hunter programmed to follow Guild Code or self-destruct in defeat has been reprogrammed to serve…snacks? Through a series of delightful flashbacks, we see IG-11 taking its first steps in its new life of nursing with the unsteady feet of a newborn calf.
4. Kuiil’s Imperial past.
More interested in freedom and doing what is right than being paid handsomely for his trouble, Kuiil has always seemed like a pretty stand-up Ugnaught. Here, he reveals that during the revolution he found himself on the wrong side of the fight, but not by choice. He was sold into servitude for the Empire and paid down his debt through blood, sweat, and hard labor over many, many years.
5. “He’s trying to eat me!”
We’ve seen what the Child is capable of when he focuses and stretches out one tiny hand -- from levitating mudhorns to somewhat accidentally choking the Mandalorian’s friends. And we know he has quite the appetite for frog-like creatures and other slippery things. But here he's hilariously misunderstood by the injured Greef believing that he’s about to become a meal.
6. Enter Moff Gideon.
Say what you will about the Empire, but its remnant troopers sure know how to make a dramatic entrance. Moff Gideon arrives with a firing squad of death troopers and total domination on his mind.
7. “I will keep the child safe.”
Honestly, we would trust Kuiil with our lives and with the lives of our most precious children, too. The selfless Ugnaught has proven his good heart time and again and we were rooting for him. That makes the final shot in this episode...well, let's just say it makes us cry. On every. Single. Viewing.
