The more I watch The Book of Boba Fett, the more it reminds me of the first season of The Mandalorian: the slow, methodical pacing and the solo gunslinger fighting against darker forces trying to right a wrong – all while building up a team of allies he can use to succeed in his mission. And three episodes into the series, we’ve learned just enough about Boba Fett’s recent past and present conundrum to suss out where this particular story is likely headed.
As I predicted in my review of last week’s episode, Boba Fett’s time with the Tuskens ended in tragedy, with the entire camp being wiped out while Fett was in town dealing with the Pyke Syndicate (the operators of the train Fett and the Tuskens dealt with in episode two). It turns out that the Nikto biker gang (you know the one that was raiding the moisture farm in the pilot and the group Fett beat up last week?) already had a deal with the Syndicate – and didn’t take kindly to the Tuskens trying to hone in on it.* So, the Nikto gang murdered the Tuskens, leaving the burning remains of their homestead for Fett to find. Pretty crushing. But a necessary step in a hero’s journey.
*With the Tuskens meant to represent the native peoples of the planet, seeing them pushed off their ancestral land – and then killed – by other settlers is a chilling fate for this facet of the storyline. Although, considering their lack of presence in the present-day Boba Fett arc, it was fairly easy to see this tragedy coming. For all they do well, subtle storytelling is not one of the strengths of the Disney+ Star Wars series thus far.
Unfortunately for Boba Fett – and the rest of his slightly larger crew – it’s not looking like our hero will have much time in the upcoming episodes to take trips to the past via his Bacta Tank. After receiving Chekhov’s Rancor from the Hutt Twins, he is advised to get the heck out of dodge ASAP, as something even more frightening than the Hutts is coming to Tatooine to take over Mos Espa: The Pyke Syndicate. From what we’ve seen with Fett’s past interactions with the crime family (they have the financial means to charter a train filled with sharp shooters to move illegal cases of spice around the planet and are willing to pay a cut to whomever offers them the best protections), this isn’t a group that can easily be dispatched through a simple fight sequence (as was the case, disappointly, with Krrsantan, who ended up caught and released – although I suspect this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the Wookie in this story). They have numbers, financial power, and actual structure – something that Fett’s burgeoning team lacks in all areas.
If I have one major issue with The Book of Boba Fett thus far it’s that we’ve met a heck of a lot of characters, but still know next to nothing about any of them outside of Fett (and to a lesser extent, Fennec Shand, but that knowledge all comes from The Mandalorian and not from this series). Sure, he’s the titular character, but in order to make the impending showdown really work we need to understand just who he’s about to ride into battle with. Who, really, is Fennec Shand? She has been absent from a lot of the series thus far, and she was suspiciously missing from the bulk of the fight with Krrsantan. Could she be working more than one angle here? And the teenage street gang – whose leader, Drash, is played by Sophie Thatcher of Yellowjackets fame – came out of nowhere, proved to be a decent batch of fighters, but again, we know next to nothing about them. Yes, by taking them under his wing, Boba Fett has ingratiated himself to some interesting characters and gained a bit of firepower (humans modified with droid parts is a cool concept), but if they’re going to fight alongside him in the coming showdown, we need to better understand their role in the story and their characters.
Taking the time to dole out exposition isn’t a bad choice. And learning about Fett’s path prior to his present-day position in Mos Espa was a great choice to help deepen the character. But by making that choice, the series opted to sacrifice time in the present-day arc, setting up characters, and giving us depth where we will need it in coming episodes. Unless the series can make up some ground and get us some character-building stat, it’s a choice that could end up backfiring. There are four episodes left to find out.
-
Acting
-
Writing
-
Direction
