Disney Plus
The latest episode of The Mandalorian is called ‘Guns For Hire’ and stands out in this series because it’s partially a weird fever dream and partially a continuation of the main arc of the season. The episode starts oddly with a sort of weird take on sea creature aliens Romeo & Juliet which those Mando mercenaries have been tasked to ‘rescue’.
The reminder of what those Mandalorians have been up to is a useful note, especially that they control a bunch of stolen Imperial ships, but it’s also an odd wrapper because the episode starts and ends with Mandalorian mercenary stuff. The ‘Previously On’ reminded us about the Darksaber loss and gain and the other Mandos Bo-Katan was with, in a way that feels like ‘Remember? Don’t forget, because this episode won’t really cover that except lightning quick.’
The next odd note was the appearance of Jack Black as a local leader, playing larger than life as always, alongside Lizzo as the ‘Duchess’ of the planet and his romantic partner. These two cameos are incredibly odd, as she’s playing it more natural albeit with a cartoonishly colorful and silly style, while Jack Black is just being Space Jack Black — he’s funny but the character feels out of place, way more than Tim Meadows (another comedic performer) felt last episode.
The actual little side-quest felt a bit pointless other than having a few fun notes — it’s like it’s own little episode where Bo-Katan and Din are detectives tracking down rogue droids and discovering that a local security leader (another crazy cameo by Christopher Lloyd) who is secretly a Separatist and old school Dooku sympathizer. It’s the sort of thing that feels again, weirdly out of place and rushed.
The idea of an older Separatist dude with connections to the Clone Wars is an interesting one, but the episode simply skips past all that with Bo-Katan electrocuting him with a terse, dismissive ‘Politics’. Makes the episode feel like it doesn’t have any idea what it’s trying to do, other than be a very weird placeholder. Similarly the droid bar is such a fun concept in theory but it really feels like just another odd tease in an episode of disconnected teases.
Disney Plus
The only part that actually feels connected to the normal show is the very last scene where Bo-Katan challenges the current leader of the Mandalorian mercenaries in a fun fight scene that’s over too soon. Din uses an obvious loophole to let Bo-Katan get the Darksaber back, but I feel like this could’ve been established already when she saved his life earlier in the season. Another odd note that feels rushed.
It’s an unsatisfying ending when the Duchess gives the Mando detectives a symbolic key thank you and a ‘knighting’ to Grogu — are either of these things meant to mean anything at all? Was it supposed to be meaningful, comedic, or what? Honestly I couldn’t tell and that’s not a great sign.
The episode overall was an entertaining one, and the ending felt like it was more or less logical — the idea of the video game narrative of the show was apparent here too where they wanted to simply do the last scene of the episode but needed to solve a local mystery first. But it feels weird in a season that’s already been all over the place.
It’s been a very up or down season so far, but I suspect that a lot of that is due to the weird nature of how the Grogu/Din story was smashed into the Boba Fett show and ended up completely altering this show too. I don’t know what the original plan was for this season, but it’s hard to imagine this is how it was supposed to go.
What did you think of this episode? Sound off in the comments below!
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