Chapter 22 of The Mandalorian sees veteran Star Wars director Bryce Dallas Howard going behind the camera for another episode.

Spoilers follow for the newest episode of The Mandalorian.

Did anybody else know that Jack Black and Lizzo were going to be joining the Star Wars universe? Just me? Okay. Christopher Lloyd finally makes his appearance on the show and well, you’re in for quite the treat. But anyway, this episode is probably going to be the one that offers the most fun this season. The only sad part is that two episodes are remaining in the season.

I’ve always enjoyed the episodes directed by Bryce Dallas Howard. This is her third episode of The Mandalorian, following “Chapter 4: Sanctuary” and “Chapter 11: The Heiress.” She also helmed “Chapter 5: Return of the Mandalorian” in The Book of Boba Fett. Say what you will about the latter show but the best episodes came during the second half of the series. In case you forgot, Howard was behind the camera for Bo-Katan Kryze’s (Katee Sackhoff) first live-action appearance. I would love to see Bryce Dallas Howard have an opportunity to go beyond the TV world and direct a feature film in the Star Wars universe. Whether that happens or not, I don’t know but she’s one of the few women getting a chance to direct anything Star Wars in live-action.

The episode’s run time is 46 minutes, which more or less means about 40 minutes before credits are taken into account. It’s not too short of an episode but it’s certainly packed with action and Grogu’s force-using capabilities. The little guy might not be so talkative but shows off his skills in the Force for all of the wrong reasons.

If there’s a subtitle for season three, it ought to be The Adventures of Din Djarin and Bo-Katan Kryze. I’m loving their team-up this season as they seek to reunite Mandalore. After last week, I thought we might get a glimpse of Sabine Wren in this episode but alas, that was not the case. In Chapter 22, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Bo-Katan Kryze make their way to Plazir-15 as Axe Woves (Simon Kassianides) and other Mandalorians have set up shop as mercenaries. But before they even make it that far, Captain Bombardier (Jack Black) and the Duchess (Lizzo). It turns out that they have a droid problem. We know from season 1 that droids can be repurposed but sooner or later, they’ll malfunction and revert back to their original programming.

Din and Bo-Katan stop a malfunctioning droid and and a card on the droid leads them to a droid bar, The Resistor. From there, we learn more about what’s been happening. It turns out that nanodroids have somehow made their way into the maintenance fluid. How and why remains the question. Further research shows the chain code, which brings them back to Commissioner Helgait (Christopher Lloyd) in the Security Office. When they go and confront him, to no surprise, he speaks high of Count Dooku’s views. Am I surprised that there are still Separatists years after the end of the Clone Wars? Not really.

Following a challenge with Axes Wolves, Bo-Katan Kryze finally gets claim to the Darksaber at the end of the episode. With that, she’s the rightful leader of Mandalore. The funny part about it is that she doesn’t have to challenge Din Djarin for the weapon. It’s all because of a technicality that goes back to when he found himself captured on Mandalore.

Having Separatist/Imperial droids appear in this episode means the return of Matthew Wood as the voice of a battle droid. It’s always fun to see Wood getting some work in an episode, aside from his sound editing duties. I mean, he doesn’t get to do much here but he still has some fun with it.

The Mandalorian is closing in on the season’s end but opts for a nice mixture of comedy and action as Bryce Dallas Howard returns to direct an episode.

DIRECTOR: Bryce Dallas Howard
SCREENWRITERS: Jon Favreau
CAST: Pedro Pascal, Katee Sackhoff, Simon Kassianides, Mercedes Varnado, Jack Black, Lizzo, Christopher Lloyd, Brendan Wayne, Lateef Crowder

Chapter 22 of The Mandalorian is now streaming on Disney+. Grade: 4/5

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