In what has already been the most chaotic and bizarre season of Star Wars television thus far, “Chapter 22: Guns for Hire” is a nearly inscrutable episode of the series. Let’s get into it.
1. Stunt casting
This episode is built around the casting of Christopher Lloyd, Jack Black, and Lizzo in supporting roles. I’ve seen a lot of people call these cameos; that’s not the term. If there was a band playing in a bar and Black was singing “Tribute,” that’s a cameo. Now, on the surface, there is nothing wrong with these decisions. All three of them are excellent, and each could easily have had a role that worked for them on this show. But this episode, directed by the usually sturdy Bryce Dallas Howard, seems to have been not just stunt cast, but written specifically for that stunt casting. That’s the only explanation that makes any sense to me.
Why do I say that? Well, in the case of Black and Lizzo, they are playing as close to ‘Star Wars versions’ of themselves as possible. Sure, Lizzo isn’t really a dignitary, but I can’t tell you one thing about her character based on her performance. I saw this part of the episode cuttingly described as resembling a Capital One commercial, and wow is that spot on. This looked like two actors whose direction was “act like silly royals” and…well, that’s it.
Lloyd is given a little more to do, but he falls into a trap of chewing the scenery and going as broad as possible in every take. There’s no restraint to the performance whatsoever and, because of that, it is clear that he is the culprit from jump.
I know it sounds odd to criticize any casting decision when this show has successfully integrated Amy Sedaris into a galaxy far, far away, but that character had more built into it, even just in her first appearance, than any of these three did. Also, at that time, it felt novel. This just feels like an episode that was hastily thrown together.
2. Roll initiative
As I was watching, there was an idea that I couldn’t get out of my head: this felt like the part of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign or an RPG that frustrates folks who hate side-quests. Din, Bo-Katan, and Grogu show up on this planet to meet with the Mandalorian fleet. But 4/5 of the episode is the side-quest that has to be completed in order to have the introduction made. The logic behind this is shaky, the execution is sloppy, and literally nothing happens between them landing on the planet and Bo-Katan meeting up with her comrades that has anything at all to do with the series as a whole or even the characters as individuals. If I am being extremely generous, I’d say that we got reminded of Din’s hatred of droids. Of course, this happens just a few weeks after we were reminded of just that.
I do not think that every episode of every TV show needs to be plot-first exposition, but there are only eight episodes of The Mandalorian per season, and we’ve had, at best, three episodes that weren’t dragged down by shiny objects that bring us further from the story and from the characters.
3. The first and last five minutes
The very beginning of the episode focuses on the Mandalorian fleet, featuring old friends Koska Reeves and Axe Woves. While there was a fun ‘fishy aliens’ love story at the heart of the cold open, we knew that this was happening out in space by what Bo-Katan has told us before. The insistence on both showing and telling on this topic makes no sense to me.
The episode ends with Bo-Katan confronting them and Din telling them that Bo-Katan is the rightful wielder of the Darksaber (like I had called, just saying), and another group of Mandalorians joining in the unification efforts. This is the most important part of the episode, and it feels like an epilogue to a goofy story that tries to connect to the Separatists in a meaningful way, but does so rather ineffectually.
If you noticed, I’m only writing three thoughts instead of the traditional five for this episode. That’s not an accident or a result of limited time. I truly feel like there is nothing else to say about this episode. I remain baffled by this season; a season that, lest you forget, was written during the COVID-19 lockdown. With season 2 wrapping just as the world was shutting down, Favreau and co. had plenty of time to craft a story worthy of the show’s title. But that’s not what happened; the show feels like TV circa the late 00s WGA strike, when shows like Late Night with Conan O’Brien were left having Conan spin his wedding ring on his desk, and scripted series like LOST and The Office had some of their most tonally bizarre episodes due to having to rush scripts into production.
I still enjoy much of what is being put on our screens by this series, but it seems abundantly clear that the show has no idea what it is right now. I know that Favreau has said that season four is already written; let’s hope that there is time to get someone else to look over it.
