While this episode wasn’t quite as removed from the general Boba Fett action as last week’s, it is quite telling that all the characters that were interesting in this episode were introduced in The Mandalorian and that Boba had, I think?, one line of dialogue.
1. How did I forget Cobb?
I made a bingo card for my friends to use over the last two episodes of The Book of Boba Fett to keep track of all the guest stars, and I am legitimately mad at myself for not including Cobb Vanth on that card. Aside from that, it was a pleasure to see Timothy Olyphant back on Star Wars TV, and his Vanth is instantly more interesting in 2 minutes than Boba has been all season (I promise, I will eventually stop harping on this). Vanth’s defending of Mos Pelgo Freetown feels authentic and true, whereas Boba trying to do something similar for Mos Espa feels false and weird.
Vanth expresses legitimate concern for his people, and seems to be quite the leader of Freetown. He is patient and reserved, unlike his deputy, who eats from a well timed blaster shot from Cad Fucking Bane (we’ll get to him in a minute). Din clearly respects him, and is asking for his help both because he needs it, and also because he can see the big picture for Freetown if the Pykes get their way. At least that’s how he is presenting his position, and he’s right, as the actions later in the episode prove.
2. Meanwhile, let’s visit with the Jedi
The sequences that focus on Grogu, Luke Skywalker, Ahsoka, and R2D2 manage to both feel like obvious fan service and work incredibly well. Sure, Luke’s deepfaking still is clumsy when he speaks, but this is a huge improvement from his last appearance on The Mandalorian, but this episode packs so much into its runtime that we basically get a complete Vanth story and a complete Grogu story (with a cliffhanger on each), and there’s still time for a scene at Jabba/Boba’s palace.
But let’s run down some Jedi shit: Luke tells Grogu about Yoda! Ahsoka tells Luke about his father! Ahsoka has droids build Din a bench! All of this is very fun for Star Wars fans of a certain vintage, though it does seem to be presented almost entirely to make fans squeal instead of move the story along in necessary ways. If Grogu is to return to Din, we didn’t need to see any of this; it doesn’t really impact the overarching story. But we all like Luke and Ahsoka, so that’s fun.
It is interesting to see Luke making the classic Jedi mistake of trying to shake Grogu’s attachment off of him, instead of attempting to break new ground with the Jedi Order. Grogu’s choice seems clearly to lean towards Din, but why not allow Grogu to be the new Tarre Vizsla, a Jedi and a Mandalorian? That would be a very surprising and interesting choice, especially because that doesn’t give an easy way out, vis a vis the destruction of the Jedi Temple by the Knights of Ren pre-The Force Awakens. I would think that this likely means the end of CGI Luke, the end of Grogu developing his Force powers formally, and likely a return to the Mandalorian status quo. That’s not the worst thing in the world, but it does feel pretty expected.
3. The Clone Wars in all their glory
When Dave Filoni was announced as the co-writer and director of this episode, I was hopeful that we would get some Clone Wars characters popping up, and with both Ahsoka and Cad Bane showing up, we certainly got our taste of that series. With Ahsoka, it is a shame that we won’t see more of her interactions with Luke, at least not right away, but this was a handy reminder that she has a solo series debuting likely next year on Disney+. While The Book of Boba Fett seems like mostly a Jon Favreau/Robert Rodriguez pet project, it seems likely that Ahsoka will be a Filoni joint through and through.
Cad Bane is one of the best bounty hunters in all of Star Wars, and the live action look was pretty dope. He cuts an intimidating figure, and fits in extremely well with Cobb Vanth in the more Western inspired corner of this show. (Yes, all of it is Western-inspired, but the Vanth stuff is basically Gunsmoke.)
Continued belowWith all the pieces on the table now, the finale is set to be a bloodbath between the Pykes and everyone else we’ve spent time with on this show. And that could be fun, but it likely won’t be as satisfying about the last two episodes were.
4. Why?
There’s a scene where Jennifer Beals and her Twi’lek pals get blown up by the Pykes when they plant a bomb in her club. We are fully aware of how evil the Pyke Syndicate is, and have no moral issues with the war that is coming. So blowing up the club serves no structural purpose in the story, and only kills off a few characters that we never really got a chance to get to know in the service of reinforcing an idea that wasn’t in doubt. This is just bad writing.
5. Endgame
I have no idea how the series will play out in actually, but I’ve constructed the perfect ending to the series that won’t actually happen:
Luke brings Grogu to Tatooine to reunite him with Din, and when they get there, he sees Boba Fett. He doesn’t know that Boba has reformed, and just sees him as the guy who tried to kill his boy Han, and he fires up the lightsaber and beheads Boba, giving him a death much like his father’s. Since Luke is parroting old Jedi lessons now, he might as well make the same mistakes his antecedents did. It lets Boba go out tragically, it gets us out of this show, and it adds a major guilt onto Luke’s already complex mindset about his role in the galaxy.
It’ll never happen.
But whatever does, we’ll be back next week to discuss it.
