The Book of Boba Fett Chapter 7 - A Belated Recap and Review.

Susan and I have a ritual of cuddling up on the sofa and watching our favorite adventure shows.  In the past it was SF and fantasy series like Altered Carbon, The Mandalorian, Wandavision and The Witcher.  Our most recent selections are Peacemaker and The Book of Boba Fett.

Peacemaker isn’t wrapping up until February 17th, so today I focus on the last chapter of The Book of Boba Fett, “In the Name of Honor.”

It’s no secret that the Western genre is a major influence on Star Wars, and with “In the Name of Honor” it shines through.

It opens with Boba making his stand at a bombed out speakeasy with his allies Fennec Shand and Din Djarin - The Mandalorian.  Cad Bane, a bounty hunter and an old rival of Boba’s tries to coax him out into the street for a gunfight.  With his helmet on, Boba is unreadable to everyone except his lieutenant Fennec.  She advises Boba to choose the time and place for his final confrontation with Bane.  The two gunslingers disengage.

I can’t help but think that Boba’s dealings with the rival gotras (crime families) of the city of Mos Espa are uncharacteristically naïve.  In chapter four, “The Gathering Storm,” he brokers a truce with the three gotras:  The Aqualish, The Kaleesh, and the Trandoshans.  He advises them to stay out of the way of his confrontation with the Pyke Syndicate.  All three factions give their “word” that they will not intervene.  Boba Fett, in turn, accepts their “word” with no tribute given him.

  

What the hell?  He’s dealt with unscrupulous gangsters before.  He brought Han Solo in as a bounty for Jabba the Hutt, the archetypal gangster of the entire Star Wars series!  Fett’s new credo of strength through honor rather than imposing fear leads many of his followers to their deaths in their final confrontation with the Pyke Syndicate.

For a reason that escapes me, Boba’s allies and followers remain loyal to him in the final showdown.  I don’t think it’s because Boba has a personality cult (apart from the one he has IRL).  Rather, he aims to symbolize a newer, fairer Mos Espa.  A city that is different than the callous gangsters who made their trade on illicit spice to the detriment of Mos Espa’s citizens.  Boba is Marshal Will Kane from the Fred Zinnemann directed classic film High Noon.

Boba’s ranks are spread thin throughout Mos Espa.  His Gamorrean honor guard keep watch on the space ports.  The Mods (partly based on the Mods of 1960s London and also a reference to body modification) patrol the Aqualish and Kaleesh district.  The Wookie Krrsantan monitors the Trandoshan quarter.  That is not a wise move, since Wookies and Trandoshans have an ongoing feud between each other.  In the Star Wars novels, Chewbacca the Wookie has had his share of run ins with the Trandoshan bounty hunter, Bossk.

Din Djarin, the Mandalorian, stands alongside Boba at the speakeasy.  Fennec speeds off to deal with the leaders of the Pyke Syndicate in the far away sister spaceport of Mos Eisley - the legendary hive of scum and villainy from the first Star Wars film.

It is at that moment when all hell breaks loose.

All of Boba’s agents are ambushed.  The Gamorreans are pushed off a cliff by the Kaleesh.  The Mods are defending themselves from an Aqualish.  Krrsantan is piled on by a mob of Trandoshans.  Boba and Din take to the skies with the rocket packs (for the first time in the whole damn series) and empty their Mandalorian arsenal against the Pyke mobsters.

The cavalry arrives with the citizens of Freetown, who saw their Marshall gunned down in the street in the previous chapter, “From the Desert Comes a Stranger.”  Boba’s faction is still hemmed in.  Things get even worse when two massive Scorpenek Annihilator Droids - armed and armored to metaphorical teeth - advance on the ragtag defenders.

All of Boba Fett’s forces are on the run as he himself takes to the skies.  When all seems lost for the heroes, Boba returns, evening the odds with his nuclear option - his giant pet rancor.

The rancor is the payoff I had been waiting for.  When we last saw the great beast in Chapter Three, “The Streets of Mos Espa,” Boba was offered the rancor as a gift.  He asked its keeper if he could be trained to ride it.  I spent the remainder of the series waiting to see when he would be unleashed.

Din Djarin is himself on the retreat when he comes across a droid powered pedicab carrying the mechanic and comic relief Pelli Motto and a special passenger - Grogu.  I have a bone to pick with this reunion which I shall address toward the end of this critique.

After trashing the droids and treating the rancor to some fresh Pyke for lunch, Boba sees Cad Bane enter the street.  Bane scares the rancor away with a blast from his flame thrower.  Boba and Bane are left to face each other.  Bane is the quick draw while Boba believes himself shielded by his armor.

The two draw and fire.  Bane is smart enough to aim for Boba’s unarmored Tusken robes.  Bane moves in for the kill, committing the cardinal sin of many a villain:  Monologuing.  Boba takes the advantage.  He whips out his Tusken gaderffii staff, sweeps Bane off his feet and spears him in the chest with the business end of the staff.  Boba Fett is now daimyo of Mos Espa in fact as well as in name.  Bane lies dead, but some Star Wars characters have a knack for returning from the grave, as many Boba Fett and Cad Bane fans pointed out online.

Meanwhile, Boba Fett’s rancor is rampaging through the city in a manner reminiscent of King Kong’s near destruction of the Empire State Building.  The frightened Freetown folk are firing wildly, angering the creature even as Din Djarin yells at them to cease fire.  So, who should come out to confront the savage behemoth?  None other than Grogu.  Like Saint Francis of Assisi communicating with the beasts and birds of nature, the diminutive Force User eases the rancor into a deep sleep.  It is without doubt a more merciful means of taking down a rancor, in contrast to Luke Skywalker dropping a gate on one in Return of the Jedi.

Meanwhile in Mos Eisley, the Pikes, the gotra bosses and the deposed Mayor of Mos Espa, Mok Shaiz, cower in a safe house.  However, they are not safe enough from master assassin Fennec Shand, who quickly does them in, delivering the coup de graçe for House Fett.

In the aftermath of the showdown, Boba Fett and Fennec Shand walk along the main avenue of Mos Espa, as they had for several weeks prior to the battle.  The difference is that this time the city folk meet them with awe and respect rather than indifference or suspicion.  Fett shares an exotic mango with Krrsantan and laughs it up with the Mods as the scene shifts to Din Djarin giving Grogu a joyride in his N-1 Naboo Starfighter.

So, those are the highlights of “In the Name of Honor.”  Now I have some quibbles…

Boba Fett had a barely organized motley crew of misfits and a giant rancor contending with the Pykes, the Scorpeneks, and Cad Bane.  Respectfully, the Gamorreans and the Mods were the weakest links in Boba’s chain.  What I’m about to posit is something many a viewer pointed out  on the information super traffic jam:  Why didn’t Boba reach out to his Tusken allies, who were probably aching for revenge for the massacre of Boba’s tribe at the hands of the Pykes?  They are much more capable warriors than any Boba had - with the exception of Fennec Shand, Black Krrsantan, Din Djarin, and wee Baby Yoda.  They could have prowled the streets like ninja warriors, taking out one Pyke gangster after another while Boba Fett mopped up the droids and Cad Bane.  Boba proved to be a calculating mind in The Empire Strikes Back.  Why was his strategy so haphazard and poorly thought out?  Or is it more the fault of the series showrunner Jon Favreau?  C’mon Jon!  Two years ago you were celebrated as the savior of Star Wars.  How could you fumble the ball at this critical moment?

As for Grogu?  Yes, Grogu.  The little feller was given a proper send off at the end of the second season of The Mandalorian in the episode “The Rescue” in the hands of the de-aged Luke Skywalker.  Grogu was taking his first step into a larger world.  It was a heart swelling moment for the series…

Which is quickly dismantled in the BoBF episodes “From the Desert Walks a Stranger” and the subject of this review “In the Name of Honor.”  Oh, dear, Grogu is homesick for his surrogate dad and Luke gives him a “significant” choice to see which path he’ll take for his future:  The beskar chain mail of the Mandalorian life or the lightsaber of the Jedi Order.

Okay, first off, the mail shirt.  It is proportioned for Grogu at his present size.  But as diminutive as his species is, he will inevitably grow taller.  In time, the beskar shirt won’t fit him.  The lightsaber that Luke offers him, on the other hand, will be one that he will one day be big enough to grip.  In my eye, the chain mail shirt represents Grogu’s diminishing past.  The lightsaber represents the greater future that awaits him.  I believe Grogu made the wrong decision for himself.  However as a walking product placement and ratings booster, Grogu was placed back in the hands of Din Djarin.  And now Djarin has problems of his own.  He is a disgraced Mandalorian seeking redemption and staying one pace ahead of unscrupulous pursuers as he has a sacred ancient artifact - the Darksaber - in his possession.  Does he even have time to take care of Grogu?

But let’s get back to Boba.  At least, let’s try to get back to Boba.  While many found the chapters “Return of the Mandalorian” and “From the Desert Walks a Stranger” endearing, I was mightily pissed at Din, Grogu, Ahsoka Tano and Luke stealing the thunder from Boba Fett in his own damned show.  This show is called The Book of Boba Fett, not The Grogu Variety Hour.  Two whole episodes were used just to reunite Din Djarin with Grogu again, as though Jon Favreau and Robert Rodriguez had a bout of amnesia over who the star of BoBF is.  Or maybe they were distracted by the dollar signs flashing in front of their eyes.

In the other five episodes, we had the tale of a loner - Boba Fett - out in the wilderness without his armor in need of a tribe - a family.  He gained one in the form of the Tusken warriors.  When they were killed, Boba didn’t turn back to his lonely bounty hunting ways.  Instead he formed a new tribe with Fennec Shand, the Gamorreans, Black Krrsantan, the Mods, the Freetowners, and his big bundle of joy, the rancor.

And let’s take some perspective on several of the characters in this series.  Boba Fett and Fennec Shand were feared bounty hunters who started a new life.  Black Krrsantan has previously appeared in the comic adaptations as a sort of anti-Chewbacca.  The Gamorreans and the rancor were depicted as Jabba the Hutt’s personal playthings in Return of the Jedi, now they have identities of a sort and they were seen as living, thinking, feeling beings in the eyes of the reformed Boba Fett.  Boba took the Mod street punks under his wing and made them his intelligence web.  All these characters, once aligned with the forces of evil, were baptized in the scarce waters of Tatooine as a family - if somewhat dysfunctional.  Technically, they’re still an organized crime outfit, but House Fett was forged in the fires of combat and camaraderie.  The Pykes and the other gotras were bound simply by profit margins.

And while we’re on the subject of profit margins, how will House Fett make its coin?  The milk of the kindness of sentient beings?  Will Boba be able to make his fortune through his doctrine of respect, or will he fall back on fear and brute tactics?  Will there ever be a second season for us to find out?  Or will Boba Fett’s future be lost in the sands of Tatooine?

Well, as I and many other Star Wars fans have pointed out, the dead tend to come back to life.

- JJB