‘Star Wars: The Mandalorian’ S3: “Guns For Hire” – Everything We Noticed
Between big cameos and big moves forward in the galaxy, there was a lot to see in this week’s episode of The Mandalorian.
A lot happened this week on The Mandalorian. Between huge cameos and big moves for the galaxy, this season is pushing everything forward pretty consistently. Here’s everything we noticed in season three, episode 6 of The Mandalorian.
As always, in order to break down the episode and reveal the Easter eggs, I will have to spoil large portions of this week’s episode. If you haven’t watched yet, proceed at your own risk.
Those Cameos, Tho
It’s all anybody’s talking about, so let’s get them right out of the way at the top. This week’s cameos, huh?!
Jack Black and Lizzo played the elected-but-also-royalty leaders of Plazir-15, Captain Bombardier and the Duchess with the interesting note that Bombardier used to be an Imperial. Apparently, his character is one of the bigger success stories of the Republic’s Amnesty Program that we saw earlier in the season.
And then we saw Christopher Lloyd as Commissioner Helgait, the security officer on Plazir-15. We also learn that he’s been holding onto his Separatist beliefs since the Clone Wars and is still willing to tell anybody who will listen that Dooku did nothing wrong.
A New Hope Style Ship Chase
The episode begins with a ship chase right out of the opening scene of A New Hope. Only this time the Imperial cruiser is being flown by a crew of Mandalorian mercenaries and they’re chasing a Quarren ship in order to get back the Mon Cal prince and disrupt two literally star-crossed lovers. The scene references the rivalry between the Mon Cal and Quarren from The Clone Wars.
Plazir-15’s Look
Shortly after, Din Djarin and Bo-Katan track her former Mando crew to Plazir-15 where the fleet is parked right outside of city. And when they get to Plazir-15 it looks really familiar for a couple of reasons.
The first is that the domed city is reminiscent of Mandalore. We saw Mandalore’s domed capital city a number of times throughout The Clone Wars and earlier in this season we could still see the structure of where the circumference of the dome once stood. And Plazir-15 has built its idyllic society under a similar dome. But it reminded me of something else as well.
The too-friendly pre-recorded voice? The monorail? The giant geodesic domes? The fact that everybody inside is on permeant vacation and can relax and party all day without worrying about work? This is Disney. Plazir-15 has the perfect community-of-the-future vibe that EPCOT strives for. Turns out all they had to do was create an entirely science-fiction city.
But this is also why I think the big cameos work in this episode while they may not have worked in another. Plazir-15 doesn’t feel like a real place, it feels like a theme park. It’s a fun, goofy location where everything is over the top, so very big names making an appearance here feels like it was parred for the course while they would have been distracting on other planets.
Not-Quite BT-1 and 0-0-0
When Din and Bo-Katan land they are greeted by a protocol droid and an R2 unit, and any time we see those two varieties of droid next to each other it’s safe to assume it’s a reference to C-3PO and R2-D2.
But in this episode, the droids were both black, and the episode itself was a CSI-style mystery to figure out why some droids were malfunctioning and sometimes hurting people. I think these two may have been a reference to BT-1 and 0-0-0- or BeeTee and Tripp, if you’re on a first-name basis.
These two droids come from the Doctor Aphra comics where they’re known for being very good and hurting, killing, and torturing. They’re not exactly good guys, but they have an arrangement with Doctor Aphra and she can take as many allies as she can get.
The Bar Scene is Also Out of A New Hope… Sort Of
While hunting for clues, Din and Bo-Katan walk into a droid bar, where their presence causes the music and conversation to come to a screeching halt. It’s a complete 180 on the scene in A New Hope when C3PO and R2 try to accompany their human companions into the Mos Eisley Cantina but are kicked out when the bartender announces that he doesn’t allow droids. The droids don’t kick Din and Bo-Katan out of the bar, but the scene is pretty tense for a moment.
Grogu is a Jedi Knight
Towards the end of the episode and after a full day of being delighted by Grogu, the Duchess of Plazir-15 knights Grogu. By this point, he may have become a Jedi Knight if Order 66 had never happened. But instead, he’s a Knight of Plazir-15.
Bo-Katan Has the Dark Saber at Last
Once they finally meet up with the mercenary Mandos, Din reveals that Bo-Katan is the rightful wielder of the Darksaber… and has been for a little while now. He talks about how he had been captured on Mandalore and had the Darksaber taken from him, and how Bo-Katan not only rescued him but defeated his capturer to take the Darksaber back. Meaning that Din lost in battle and she won it back. We don’t get a verbal confirmation of what this means for her leadership among the Mandalorian, but it seemed pretty well implied that they’ll be following her lead to join back up with Din’s Mandalorians and eventually try to take back their planet.
What did you think of this week’s episode of The Mandalorian? Which cameo was your favorite? Do you think Bo-Katan can unify the Mandalorians? Let us know in the comments!
May the Force be with you, adventurers!
