The Book of Boba Fett - The Streets of Mos Espa (Revisited).

A few days back, I wrote a sharp review of the latest chapter of The Book of Boba Fett.  “The Streets of Mos Espa,” I said, was an episode of setups but no payoffs.  That is true, but what I lost track of is that this is a serial.  Not every aspect of TBOBF stuck the landing, but it’s had some satisfactory endings such as Chapter Two, “The Tribes of Tatooine.”

So, basically I’m reassessing my review of “The Streets of Mos Espa.”  Upon watching it again, I saw the chapter’s strengths.  Boba Fett exhibits cunning when he turns a gang of  “water thief” street urchins into members of his crew.  There was the threat of Fett tarnishing his image as a big wheel in the underground if he gunned down a bunch of teenagers.  Instead, he heard them out, figured they were being screwed over by the water monger, and won them over to his side.  Fett may or may not be a new man with a conscience, but he’s proven he can weigh the pros and cons and arrive at the most profitable conclusion.  Fett isn’t just a guy with a cool helmet and jet pack.  He is calculating.

His ability to recruit allies proves to have immediate benefits when he is attacked by Black Krrsantan in his own bacta tank.  Fett would have been murdered quite painfully by Krrsantan had the street urchins and Fennec Shand not been at hand to protect him at a vulnerable moment.  The Hutt Twins arrive the next morning to “apologize” for Krrsantan’s “unwarranted” attack.  They offer Fett the gift of  a slumbering rancor - similar to the caged beast that attacked Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi.  Rather than handing over Krrsantan over to the Twins, Fett sets him free as a gesture of goodwill.  Krrsantan runs away, but he is now a potential ally.

Fett turns his attention to the rancor and his keeper (played by Danny Trejo).  The keeper tells Fett that the blinkered rancor will “imprint” the first person he sees and will form a loyalty to them.  Fett stands before the creature when his blinkers have been removed, and for the first time Fett shows affection for a fellow wretched creature.  He confidently walks over to the rancor and strokes its massive head and the creature responds to the hardened Daimyo’s gentleness.  Fett now has a new friend who is both loyal and powerful.  There is a setup to a major payoff in the future.  Fett only exhibits irritation when his protocol droid 8D8 announces business involving Mayor Mok Shaiz.

At Shaiz’s mansion, Fett and Fennec Shand square off with the mayor’s cowering majordomo who babbles excuses for the mayor’s absence.  When the majordomo beats a hasty retreat, Fett’s teen brigade jumps into action.  In an amusing race through the titular streets of Mos Espa, the youngsters use their knowledge of the city sprawl to corner and capture the majordomo.  When Fett presses him for information, he learns of a power play for the rule of Mos Espa by the Pyke Syndicate.  With the Pykes presenting a threat to Fett’s dominion, the Daimyo draws the battle lines.  It’s war.

So, why my “change of heart” about this chapter?  Why am I less harsh this time around with my critique of  “The Streets of  Mos Espa?”  Am I toeing the Disney party line?  No.  This time I’m speaking with my own mind.  It was the naysayers of  YouTube that I was parroting.

Now, that’s not their fault.  Their entitled to their opinion of the series and its characters.  But I put myself under pressure to align myself with the “cool kids.”  People who don’t even know me by name or by sight, and vice versa.  I began to wonder if I was too enamored of a character who was once my favorite action figure as a kid and if that was tainting a balanced view of “The Streets of Mos Espa” and TBOBF in general.  My thoughts were imbalanced, but in a direction that made me mistrust my own genuine opinion.

I watched the episode again, this time with my wife Susan.   I examined Boba Fett’s actions and schemes involving Fennec Shand and his new recruits.  I examined even more closely Fett’s affectionate rapport with the rancor.  I realized that there were indeed payoffs to the setups.  Fett is carefully putting together his own organization to vie with the Pykes over the dominion of Mos Espa and other potential territories.

Fett was introduced as a silent man in armor in The Empire Strikes Back and was given a slapstick ending in Return of the Jedi, but the present Fett is more than an action figure now, he is a full fledged character.  He is cool, cunning and even capable of expressing compassion and friendship as he had with the Tuskens in “The Tribes of Tatooine.”

So that’s my present take on TBOBF.  I wasn’t getting the Boba Fett I wanted - all blasters and armor and jet pack.  I got a lot more than I expected - a cool headed godfather who thinks first and kicks ass later.

- JJB

Original review can be read below:

To start with, there is a lot of setup and very little payoff in this episode.

Let’s begin with the plusses before we get to the negatives:

Boba Fett and his lieutenant Fennec Shand have to start their fledgling criminal enterprise at the very bottom of the desert city’s pecking order and work an excruciating path to the top.  

Fett’s stoicism is put to the test when he is told by a water merchant from Mos Espa that no one respects him.  The merchant offers him a paltry tribute to clear out some supposed water thieves.  When Fett and Shand confront the alleged water thieves, they discover they are street urchins with street smarts and a bad attitude.  Fett susses out that it is the merchant who is screwing them over and offers them employment as his eyes and ears.

We are given yet another flashback scene to Fett’s days with the Tuskens.  Again Fett is brokering a toll owed by the Pyke Syndicate to the Tuskens for safe passage.  Upon his return to the Tusken encampment, he sees smoke emerging over the dunes.  He arrives too late to a slaughter visited upon his fellow tribesman.  The burned tents and bodies will have the astute Star Wars fan recall when Luke Skywalker arrived too late to the scene where his uncle and aunt were murdered and their homestead was burned down.   Fett builds a pyre for his adoptive family.  His face is unreadable.  Will he exact vengeance for the Tuskens?  If so, how long will he wait?  Years?  That remains to be seen.

Yet for the first time, Fett is yanked out of his reminiscence by a gladiator Wookie tasked with assassinating him.  As strong as Fett is, a human is no match for the raw power of a Wookie.  The four street urchins he won to his side even the odds.  Fennec is the last on the scene as they all overpower the hired backbreaker and drop him into the empty rancor pit.

Speaking of rancors, Fett is offered one as a gift and a veiled apology from the Hutt Twins.  They concede Jabba’s old palace to Fett as they find the desert world of Tatooine beneath their dignity.

Okay, this is the next major setup.  The rancor’s keeper (played by Danny Trejo) tells Fett that the potentially ferocious creature will “imprint” to him and remain loyal and protective.  As he calmly examines the monster, Fett asks the keeper if he can be trained to ride it.  Now there is anticipation of a full pitched battle with the reigning Pyke Syndicate that should involve much action.  However, if you are expecting such a confrontation in this episode, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a while longer.

Okay, here’s the big minus in the episode…

Teenagers on hovering Vespas?  Seriously?   The urchins Fett employed are engaging the majordomo of Mos Espa’s mayor.  No the mayor himself, just his assistant in a medium stakes “car chase” through the titular Streets of Mos Espa.  This does not have the intensity of the speeder bike vs. rocket train sequence of the previous episode.  Hell, it doesn’t even reach the pace of the speeder chase in Return of the Jedi!  It’s very disappointing to put it mildly.

I can’t help but compare this to the show’s parent series The Mandalorian.  In the first episode, we knew what the stakes were when Din “Mando” Djarin first discovered Grogu after fighting his way through an army of mercenaries.   In episode two, Din was fighting Jawas with a disintegrator rifle and a giant rhinoceros-like “Mudhorn” with only a dagger and the diminutive Grogu to protect him.  By episode three, Din hands Grogu over to the Empire, changes his mind, fights his way into the Imperial stronghold to get him back, which leads to the climax between a large gang of bounty hunters and Din’s fellow Mandalorian engaged in a fierce firefight.

There.  That’s how you keep an audience engaged.  You clearly know what the stakes are, and the show is on the road.  So, it’s hard to believe that the same creative team behind The Mandalorian is also behind the slow burning Book of Boba Fett.  It’s hard to believe that the director of this week’s episode, Robert Rodriguez, directed the action packed return of Boba Fett in the Mandalorian episode, “The Tragedy” which was a master class in “less is more.”  We have yet to see any major payoffs in The Book of Boba Fett.  The only major setup and payoff of the series so far was a flashback to the train chase in the episode previous to this one.  Now we have reverted to slow burn and the threat of a gang war between Fett and the Pyke Syndicate, but the first volley hasn’t been shot.

We’re already three episodes into the series, with only four episodes remaining.

I have to say that as a fan of Boba Fett, I am wavering between reward and disappointment.  If it wasn’t for the fact that this series is based around an established Star Wars character that I love, I probably would have given up on it already.  The previous Disney Plus series from November into December, Hawkeye, didn’t pique the slightest interest for me.  If there are any casual viewers of The Book of Boba Fett that aren’t dyed in the wool Star Wars fans, I’m sure they’re peeling away from the series in droves.

I’m holding out because the pieces are being moved into place on the chessboard:  Fett and his gang, The Pyke Syndicate, the Tuskens, and the slumbering rancor waiting in the wings.  Yes, I say again, the pieces are in place, but the game has barely begun.

And that has me worried.

- JJB

The Book of Boba Fett has a new episode released every Wednesday on Disney Plus.