The Mandalorian's CSI: Star Wars Episode Gives Detective Din Djarin His Chance To Shine
This post contains spoilers for "The Mandalorian" season 3, episode 6 "Guns for Hire."
Bryce Dallas Howard has a proven track record of directing some of the best episodes of "The Mandalorian," and her latest episode in the show, titled "Guns For Hire," continues to deliver on all fronts. Episode 5 ended on a tense, massive cliffhanger, and this particular installment amps up the fun while committing to resolving major plotlines, such as the rightful owner of the Darksaber.
Here, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) embark on an unwitting buddy-cop adventure on Plazir-15, ruled by elected leaders Captain Bombardier (Jack Black!) and the Duchess (Lizzo!). The Din-Bo combination never fails to entertain, and "Guns For Hire" allows both of them to share the spotlight, and lets Din shine in his own show after ages.
Apart from some surprising, yet pleasant cameos — a wild Christopher Lloyd stars as covert Separatist Commissioner Helgait — the latest episodic entry has Din put his detective hat on while he and Bo play out variations of the age-old good cop-bad cop routine. The rulers of Plazir-15 request the duo to sort out their rogue droid problems in exchange for an audience with the Mandalorian mercenaries, as "re-commissioned" droids are currently wreaking havoc across the planet.
This paves a way for a fun little mystery that requires expert sleuthing, and Din emerges as a wild card who is surprisingly well at negotiations, sniffing out leads, and being a badass all around. This is undoubtedly the "CSI: Star Wars" episode we thought we didn't need but deserve.
Din Djarin, expert negotiator
Any kind of investigative sleuthing requires impromptu negotiation skills, especially when time is of the essence and fresh leads are the key to the heart of an evolving case. After Din and Bo-Katan are sent off to the Ugnaught department (which specializes in rewiring droids), the latter's pleas for help fall on deaf ears, despite her mentioning that they're carrying out direct orders from the Duchess.
This is when our boy Din decides to step up his game. In a callback to Kuiil, the Ugnaught who helped Din barter with the Jawas in season 1, he politely asks the group to help him out as he's friends with him. This helps matters progress in the right direction, as the Ugnaughts immediately set out to help the duo, as Din is clearly well-versed in their ways of communication. Din Djarin has spoken.
Bo-Katan is a natural leader, no doubt. She proves it (yet again) towards the end after besting Axe Woves (Simon Mario Kassianides), who led the renegade mercenary Mandalorians until Bo-Katan defeats him in a duel. However, the princess often lacks the necessary tact when it comes to negotiations, as evidenced when she implies that there might be something wrong with Ugnaught droid craftsmanship.
Thankfully, Din immediately interjects by clarifying that they do not mean to offend them and reassures them that he is cognizant of their skilled artistry. This leads them to their next lead: recommissioned battle droids in the city's loading docks.
Much later, Din leans heavily into his bad-cop routine while interrogating the droid bartender at The Resistor and threatening to "yank his memory circuits and dissect it back at the lab," lest he refuses to cooperate. A bit overkill, for sure, but it all works out, as the droid seems eager to help.
Himbo antics, and a tense chase scene
Rewind to the loading docks segment, Din and Bo-Katan are stopped by a droid, who asks them to vacate the premises while assuring them the "recommissioned" battle droids have undergone security protocols. While Bo-Katan tries to reason her way out of the situation, Din, our resident himbo, starts waving his arms in the faces of the assembly battle droids and randomly kicking them to incite a reaction.
This is the stupidest way to lure out a rogue suspect, but it works: the compromised droid attacks Din who is thrown to the ground, shocked that actions have consequences. This leads to a tense chase sequence in a crowded area, with Din and Bo-Katan running through throngs of civilians to catch a perp. Unfurling like a police/detective chase scene in any crime drama, the duo evades the droid's attacks and attempts to corner him and take him out.
Thanks to Din once again, he manages to pin the battle droid to the ground after taking a shortcut, allowing Bo-Katan to decommission him with dual guns. Smaller droids immediately announce, "This is a crime scene," while a holographic police tape isolates the site, like something straight out of a dystopian game like "Cyberpunk 2077."
Later, when one of the droids in the lab goes rogue due to the corrupt nano-bots inside it, Din slashes the robot in half before it can potentially kill everyone in the room with its lasers. It's been a while since Din saved the day, especially since Bo-Katan has been sharing a space with him, and we love to see it!
(An important aside — as for Grogu, who has taken a break from adventure in this episode, he is SIR Grogu to you now, having been granted Knighthood by the Duchess of Plazir-15 herself.)
'Enhance! Now rotate it'
Din is clearly in his CSI era during the lab scene on Plazir-15, where he and Bo-Katan look on as a doctor runs a "blood" test on the rogue battle droid. This is peak crime drama, where detectives await evidence that could potentially point toward the perpetrator. And that is exactly what happens here. After scanning the droid, they isolate the nano-droid sub-particles and Din uses his skills of *expert observation* to notice what looks like "an aberration in the metal."
Nope, it turns out to be writing — a chain code, to be exact — and Din figures this out after asking the expert to rotate and enhance it like he's Rick Deckard in "Blade Runner." Thanks to Detective Din, we are able to trace the chain code back to Helgait, who is exposed to be a Count Dooku (!) loyalist.
Bonus points for deft problem-solving: Din also manages to resolve the Darksaber problem in under three minutes after Bo-Katan and her gang of mercenaries arrive at a stalemate about the leadership of the saber. Woves taunts Bo-Katan about not fighting Din and re-claiming the sword, and Din steps in and attempts to hand it over to her.
While Bo-Katan reminds him that it is not a gift that can be given, big-brain Din clarifies that it is not a gift at all, as she has actually won it from him when he was captured by the cyborg beast in the Mines of Mandalore. I was unaware that the Darksaber followed Elder Wand-ownership mechanics, but Din explains that Bo-Katan had fought and killed the beast, which makes her the rightful owner, and he is simply returning it. The man single-handedly unified a major chunk of Mandalorians without breaking a sweat, and we've got to respect the hustle.