3x06 Chapter 22: Guns for Hire

[7.9/10] The fashionable thing today is to complain about “filler” episodes. But you know what? I could watch Din Djarin and Bo-Katan Kryze go on planet-of-the-week adventures until the banthas come home.

Part of what sets The Mandalorian apart is that it has a real sense of place. I’d argue that it’s done the most to expand Star Wars’ iconography since the Original Trilogy. So it’s invariably cool to see a Quarren spaceship where the captain spends most of her time in a big tube of water. It is badass to watch a pair of Mandalorians have an honor duel where they jetpack and grappling hook their way into action. And it’s especially engrossing to see them two of them get pulled into the internecine problems of one very distinctive local world.

That world is Plazir-15, an independent system that, I swear to god, feels like a Star Wars riff on Disney World, particularly Epcot and Tomorrowland. The aesthetics of the people-mover, domed city, and shopping/entertainment wonderland, the musical yet insistent welcome, and the sense of colorful people having fun above while grimmer and more quotidian business goes down below, all give you the strange sense of the Mando Duo being asked to police the Happiest Place on Earth.

What better place to feature some of the show’s most eye-opening guest stars. Jack Black! Lizzo! Christopher Lloyd! It’s fun to see the former two hamming it up as a colorful royal family who takes a shine to Grogu and wants Din and Bo-Katan to help solve their droid problem. And Lloyd is always a welcome presence, with his grave functionary-turned-culprit role being well-suited to his talents. This show has introduced or revived so many personalities that make Star Wars feel like a richer and wilder place, and “Guns for Hire” is prime on that front.

Part of why I can enjoy world-expanding jaunts like this one, though, is that the intra-episode storytelling is solid. Bo-Katan and Din have a clear goal -- to meet up with Bo-Katan’s former cohort. The pair have a clear obstacle -- The Dutchess and Captain Bombardier want them to solve the droid issue as a diplomatic favor before they’ll grant our heroes access to their private Mandalorian security force. So we having a driving premise for the hour -- the two Mandalorians solving a mechanical mystery, and clear stakes for the mission -- whether or not Bo-Katan will be able to reunite with her old crew.

It doesn’t have to be complicated, but it gives this episode a momentum that not every episode, or show for that matter, manages to pull off.

The mystery itself is intriguing! A rash of droids acting up is concerning, and the footage of them going nuts is both amusing and a little scary. As with Obi-Wan hunting down Padme’s would-be assassin in Attack of the Clones, turning Star Wars characters into noir detectives is a winning play. Watching them get the lay of the land from Commissioner Helgait (should have known it was him from name alone), ask for answers from the Ugnaughts who maintain the droids, get into a chase with a rogue B2 Battle Droid, follow the clues to a droid bar, use science to detect the problem, and piece the identifying marks on the offending nano droids together to figure out whodunnit, makes for an exciting set of causes-and-effects as they work their way through the case.

The mission asks much of them. They have to be sharp enough to follow the clues where they lead. They have to be strong and crafty enough to take down a malfunctioning battle droid. But most importantly, they have to be personable and emotionally intelligent enough to get the help they want from the people who have the information they need.

That last part is my favorite part of the episode. When the duo meet the Ugnaughts, Bo-Katan is insistent and demanding. She’s used to using a warrior’s touch and a leader’s confidence to get what she wants. But Din knows from his time with Kuiil that her approach won’t work with this kind. Instead, Din is respectful, deferential, speaking in their terms, and gets the help they require to move forward. It’s a nice reflection of how his experiences have changed him, and give him the kind of ecumenical understanding that allows him to get by in a wild and wooly galaxy.

And yet, Din has his prejudices too. He doesn’t trust droids, given his experiences, and so he’s not much of a gentle soul when it comes time to pump them for information. But Bo-Katan is, and her approach to treat them with respect, and not paint all droids with the same brush, earns them the trust from the bartender that allows them to figure this thing out. It speaks to why the two make a good team, and how the pairing gives them complementary strengths and helps them cover for one another’s blindspots.

But apart from the plotting, I particularly like that the droids want to help. Again, this episode is a treat for longtime fans of the aliens and automatons that populate Star Wars. From the royal tables to the back alley bars of Plazir 15, there’s plenty of articulated rubber masks and distinctive robots as far as the eye can see. But “Guns for Hire” makes the point that these droids are not slaves with restraining bolts, as L3-37 from Solo might say.

They want to give something back after being created by “organics”. They view human lives as short and the requests made of them minor. They want to help, since they still want to be useful and fear being “scrapped.” It’s an interesting and original take on the droids, whose seeming sentience yet menial servitude has long been a “just don’t think too hard about it” aspect of Star Wars. Giving a pack of them agency, making them willing participants in this society, is a fascinating choice.

All that said, I find myself once again asking what The Mandalorian is trying to say this season. There is an anti-authoritarian, anti-legal, arguably anti-civilization streak that runs through the show’s third batch of episodes. Once again, we run into a society that seems paralyzed by the strictures of its government. (Is the “direct democracy” aspect a dig on California’s referendums? It would fit if Plazir-15 is a stand-in for Disneyland.) Once again, we see those involved with leadership treated like aloof or oblivious ninnies. Once again we see the attempts to rehabilitate and reconcile with those on the wrong side of history, like Commissioner Helgait, turn out to be unfixable bad guys simply waiting for their chance to regroup and strike again.

Something about all of this sits uneasy with me. Star Wars has always had an anti-authoritarian streak. That's the core of the rebels versus the Empire. And maybe this is all just to set up how the New Republic was a hollow institution to show how it was unable to see the First Order coming. But there’s something about the show’s targets, and the virtues it seems to want to champion, that feel disconcerting in ways I can't quite put my finger on.

Nonetheless, it’s neat to see them pin this kerfuffle on Helgait, who turns out to be a Separatist Lost Causer and true believer in Count Dooku. Seeing them earn the key to the city and their ticket to meeting Bo-Katan’s old friend is suitably triumphant.

So is Bo-Katan’s shaky but, in the end, satisfying return to her one-time followers. As I mentioned, her fight with Axe Woves (silly name, by the way) is well-directed by Yaddle herself, Bryce Dallas-Howard. And it’s cool to see Bo-Katan, having found both The Way and her way, reasserting her command in the hopes of bolstering the Mandalorians writ large.

My only complaint is that it feels a bit like she regains her position on a technicality. The crew is still miffed she doesn’t have the darksaber. Din’s argument that a cyborg ambushed him, and she beat the cyborg, so she rightfully owns the storied weapon feels strangely legalistic and out of step with Mandalorian norms.

Even if I don’t care for the logistics of it, I like the spirit behind this idea. Bo-Katan accepts Din. Her crew wants to reject him because he’s not of Mandalorian blood, but she affirms him as a keeper of The Creed and someone as true to their people as any by deed. And in turns, when they’re skeptical of her leadership, Din affirms her as the rightful heir to his blade. It shows not only the bond and mutual respect they’ve formed, but the kind of broader understanding they’ve developed in their travels and mind-expanding experiences.

I’d like to think that's the point of this season. These little side quests work wonderfully as single-serving adventures with neat locales, unique problems, and nice character moments. I’d take them for that reason alone. But when you add them up, they show two people whose perspective keeps broadening, who recognize that Ugnaughts, droids, Children of the Watch, and even their fellow Mandalorians are worthy of more understanding and respect than they might have thought before. That is the foundation of a pluralistic society, and perhaps, a better one for the people of Mandalore, wherever their new home lies.