– Spoiler Review –
The Mandalorian’s “Chapter 22 – Guns for Hire” contains some delightful cameos, an enjoyable romp, and a finale with something we’ve all been waiting for, but it overall felt like spinning wheels with contrived beats to clear up certain threads ahead of the final two episodes.
Bryce Dallas Howard always directs an entertaining episode, with clear, kinetic action and well-paced downtime before the next big moment. “Chapter 22 – Guns for Hire” is no different, but its timing in the season, and some of its biggest moments, don’t have the forward push season three started with, as characters are written with some inconsistency, and the side mission, as fun as it is, feels written to have the many cameos and not to serve the series. Diversity behind and on the camera has been nice, but the writer’s room needs new blood or clearer direction as The Mandalorian finds itself doing circles too often, making it really feel like fans playing with their toys rather than expanding the story.
With Bo-Katan on a mission with the Armorer’s support to bring more Mandalorians together to retake Mandalore, she travels with Din Djarin and Grogu to Plazir-15 to confront her old team and gain back the armada she consolidated with them. Axe Woves and Koska Reeves have been busy since they left Bo-Katan after Din had the Blacksaber, taking jobs for credits and holing up on Plazir-15 to provide it security against external threats. We start “Chapter 22 – Guns for Hire” seeing them on their latest mission, returning a Mon Calamari prince back to his family, separating him from the Quarren woman he loves, which was a fun start and made me hopeful this is where the episode would center on, but the focus, story, and location quickly changed to (fun) cameo island instead. Having two alien leads for a moment was one of the things I was most excited by, as far too often these stories center on humans or non-humans are sidekicks, so I had my hopes up these two weren’t going to just be window dressing, though unfortunately they were. When Bo-Katan, Din, and Grogu arrive on Plazir-15, the idyllic world quickly causes concern when they are rerouting from a direct confrontation with Woves to an audience with the rulers of the planet.
The opulent city, complete with efficient hyperloop system, looks like the kind of place any sentient would love to retire to, especially as we see the royals enjoying delights and smiles, as if nothing is amiss. But as Din and Bo talk with the leaders, delightfully played by Jack Black and Lizzo (yes, THAT LIZZO!), it turns out the bubbly, idyllic surface isn’t all it seems. Considering Black’s character, Captain Bombardier, is an ex-Imperial, rehabilitated via the Amnesty Program we learned about in “Chapter 19 – The Convert,” their hands are tied a bit to deal with an internal problem, as their constabulary can’t be armed and they can’t have their protection army, in the form of the Mandalorians, armed and inside as well…but Din and Bo have cultural exceptions so the royals try to recruit them. Bo is reluctant, not wanting to do a side quest just to confront her people again, and I don’t blame her as I wasn’t terribly excited by the prospect either, but the royals promise to back Bo’s claim to Mandalore if they assist. Din’s in regardless because the problem concerns droids randomly going haywire, as while he seemingly got over his hatred of droids thanks to IG-11 he regresses here for the purpose of humor, and while I guess the technicality could be he actually didn’t regress because this is just about the battle droids themselves killing his family, the argument doesn’t fly because he’s antagonistic to all the droids throughout the episode. It’s one of the few issues with this episode that falls on the writing, not the directing.
When Bo and Din accept the deal, they are sent to the city’s security officer to see how widespread the problem is, leading us to the next, still delightful, cameo of the episode: Christopher Llyod! That’s right, Doc Brown himself joins Star Wars, telling us about how using the nuclear option on all the droids, while not a bad idea, would bring their society to a screeching halt as the democracy they’ve created here allows the citizens the privilege of not working, to follow the pursuits they’d prefer, while the droids do all the labor. He sends them to the Ugnaughts below for a potential lead on a list of affected droids while he monitors the situation from his team’s room. Bo has been trying to take the lead but finds her approach ineffective with the Ugnaughts, though Din’s dealings with Kuiil make him a better negotiator, finding a more diplomatic way of talking to them so they reveal a list of suspected droids/where the next incident might happen. Bo is surprised by his diplomatic abilities and could certainly learn from him a bit, and while it seems surprising she’s not better at it, thankfully by the end of the episode she’s displaying more of the leadership composure one would expect from her.
Their list leads them to the loading docks, and while Bo tries to talk to one of the B-1 Battle Droids to figure out what’s going on, Din just starts messing with the Super Battle Droids hauling cargo. Like I said earlier, this is played up for laughs yet is a character regression only for such humor, though the one he kicks turns out to be the next one to go rogue. There’s a fun chase through the streets nearby, full of on-lookers, obstacles, and a rousing final stop, which leads them to their next clue…a droid bar! Glimpsed in the trailers for the season, this scene lives up to the bit of hype for it, as it’s a fun one where Bo tries to be diplomatic and Din, once again showing his droid dislike for comedic effect, goes a little harsh. But the bartender, and the rest of the droids there, eager not to lose their usefulness, agree to see if they can help figure out the problem, revealing the haywire droids each drank the bar’s refreshment from the same batch. This leads the two to the droid mortuary to check the droid’s oil, which for convenience sake, contained all the information necessary to ascertain how this pollution of the droids happened, pointing us back towards…
…Commissioner Helgait, aka Christopher Llyod’s character! A supporter of Count Dooku back in the days of the Republic (my ears were singing hearing Dooku’s name again!), Helgait has been resisting the ruling government ever since, always a supporter of democracy in the end, and he prevents Din and Bo from taking him by threatening to unleash the droids on the populace, though Bo takes him by surprise during his rant. Llyod does excellent work as the character, as it’s fun to see him as the antagonist, unlike what he’s best known for, and there seems to be real shame on Helgait’s part when the Duchess (Lizzo) reveals her disappointment in his actions despite how long he’s worked for her family. The scene between the three of them might be my favorite with these big cameos/guest stars, as they all play off one another excellently and really made me happy in the end they all had a part in the show.
With the side quest out of the way, Din, Bo, and Grogu are free to visit the Mandalorian fleet commanded by Woves, who is quick to dismiss Bo’s return. She challenges him to a duel and the resulting fight is rather entertaining, using jetpacks, flamethrowers, and Bo’s shield, though from the start Bo seems like the clear winner. She gets him to yield, but not before he rightly points out she should be challenging Din for the Darksaber if she really wants to be their leader again. She doesn’t care about the blade anymore, still trying to get them to join with her and Din, but he’s able to read the room and suggests giving it to her. This is what happened last time she got it, given to her by Sabine Wren so Bo could lead Mandalore against the Empire, though the events between then and now are left unfortunately nebulous but we know Gideon rightfully won it from her at some point. But receiving it isn’t how this works, or at least maybe Bo might feel like it only caused her problems that way last time but the show never addresses this nor has her reference the earlier moment, but the group of Mandalorians before them wouldn’t follow her if she took it in such a way anyways. And then Din points out he was bested by the weird creature on Mandalore and she bested said creature, so technically the blade belongs with her. It seems like a lazy way out at this point in the season, as while it makes sense, it makes the transfer of the blade arbitrary, like oh yeah, this happened earlier in the season so it’s all good now, it’s Bo’s, leaving any dramatic tension on the floor. Sure Din and Bo have worked out their differences in the time they’ve spent with one another, so it wouldn’t quite make sense they would’ve fought for it at this point, but it just makes the earlier confrontation with the creature on Mandalore feel like it was created JUST for this moment, as if it only existed so they had this little out later in the season to get the blade to Bo, making it reek of plot contrivances and not natural story or character development. From Moff Gideon breaking out of custody off screen (we still haven’t seen him this season!), Grogu returning to Din in a whole different show, and Bo getting the Darksaber thanks to a random encounter, all of season two’s more interesting bits in its finale have fizzled or been reset, as if the kids playing with the toys decided they didn’t quite like their choices, and we’re left with a season that largely lacked aim and didn’t deal with much of what we last saw in the show. Imagine some scenes with Gideon in custody, showing off his charm and smarts, or seeing little glimpses of his plans and what he’s been up to, but instead we have Mandos flying around and beating up a winged creature on their Jurassic planet.
Regardless of these complaints, it was still satisfying to see Bo-Katan ignite the Darksaber, taking her place as the unitor of the Mandalorians going forward, with potentially Din and Grogu at her side. Are there more she can track down? Will this be enough? Has Gideon been watching and will be waiting when this armada of Mandalorians go to retake Mandalore? With only two episodes left, I’m sure we’ll get some answers, but it would be nice if we still had a better clue what they might look like.
Here are a few other things:
- Grogu hangs out with Lizzo’s Duchess for most of the episode and I loved how they were together, from her feeding him, petting his head like he’s a puppy and him enjoying it, to him helping her pull off an impressive throw in a little yard game. Hopefully Grogu can star in a music video for Lizzo in the future!
- The cameos or familiar names didn’t end with Black, Lizzo, and Llyod. The Quarren captain is played by Christine Adams (Agents of SHEILD, Black Lightning), and I really loved the water vat she was in and the overall design; the Mon Cal royal she’s absconded with is played by Harry Holland, Tom Holland’s younger brother; Saifir, the lead Ugnaught Din and Bo talk to, is played by Dale Dickey (My Name is Earl, True Blood); the droid bartender is voiced by Seth Gabel (Salem and Nip/Tuck); and the droid/med tech is Jen Kober, a comedian.
- If you’ve ever wanted to know more about Count Dooku, I highly suggest enjoying Dooku: Jedi Lost, an audio drama with a scriptbook, in case the audio part isn’t your thing.
The Mandalorian’s “Chapter 22 – Guns for Hire” is a fun, entertaining episode with well-placed cameos and an exciting ending, but it feels more like a shiny diversion built on the back of questionable choices at this point in the season.
+ Fun cameos/guest stars
+ Bo-Katan with the Darksaber
+ Enjoyable pace, action scenes
– Din’s regression
– Contrived resolution to certain story threads
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.
THE MANDALORIAN REVIEWS
Season Three: Chapter 17 – The Apostate | Chapter 18 – The Mines of Mandalore | Chapter 19 – The Convert | Chapter 20 – The Foundling | Chapter 21 – The Pirate
The Book of Boba Fett: Chapter 5 -Return of the Mandalorian | Chapter 6 – From the Desert Comes a Stranger | Chapter 7 – In the Name of Honor
Season Two: Chapter 9 – The Marshal | Chapter 10 – The Passenger | Chapter 11 – The Heiress | Chapter 12 – The Siege | Chapter 13 – The Jedi | Chapter 14 – The Tragedy | Chapter 15 – The Believer | Chapter 16 – The Rescue
Season One: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 – The Child | Chapter 3 – The Sin | Chapter 4 – The Sanctuary | Chapter 5 – The Gunslinger | Chapter 6 – The Prisoner | Chapter 7 – The Reckoning | Chapter 8 – Redemption