The action in this episode not looked good, but it was also very well choreographed, and there was a lot of excitement. The episode ended in a weird place though, it felt like the wrap-up of the Boba story was rushed, while Mando and Grogu got the better send off. I also found myself disliking the Scooter Gang, something about the way their speeders drove looked off, and as characters I found myself not caring about any of them. One of them did a very stylish spin and shoot thar was utterly useless, but that is on the director Robert Rodrigues. Drash (another member of the Scooter Gang), kept being given screen time, and almost everything she did ended in failure. I had hoped we would get to know the Scooter Gang, but it seems they will go down as only slightly better than Jar Jar Binks. Seeing the team up of Mando and Boba Fett was a lot of fun, both of them willing to go out shooting was a great moment between them. There was a lot to like about the episode, but I always seem to find myself leaning toward negativity. The show was entertaining as a whole, and we got some great moments which I need to remind myself about. Boba was given more depth in the first four episodes, but that was ignored in the final three episodes. I wish we got a longer conversation between Cad Bane and Boba near the end of the episode, I felt it was too short and there was potential to deepen both characters perspectives.
RECAP OF THE FINALE
Chapter seven opens with Boba and Fennec investigating the ruins of the cantina, Mando walks in saying he has gotten help from Freetown. The condition is that spice is no longer run through Freetown, Boba agrees, but Fennec is wary of losing the income generated by the spice trade. Cad Bane is going to meet with the Pykes, we see the Pykes are with the mayor. Cad Bane reports that Freetown will not help, it is revealed by the Pyke leader that the Pykes attacked the Tusken village framing the attack on the Kintan Striders. The Pyke leader says that the attack protected their margins since it eliminated the protection money, they were paying for running spice. Cad Bane has a plan to use the information he knows about the Pyke's role in the Tusken village massacre to get under Boba's skin. An X-wing starfighter is landing at Peli Motto's shop, Peli Motto believes it is a new republic visit, but it is actually Grogu. R2D2 was sent by Luke to bring Grogu to Mando, Peli Motto hugs Grogu and sees that he is wearing the armor Mando brought him. Boba's forces are meeting in the bombed-out cantina, Fennec has ordered the various team members tasks. Fennec, Boba and Mando are the only ones remaining at the cantina. Cad Bane goes to the cantina in an effort to lure Boba into a fight. Cad Bane tells Boba that the Pykes attacked the Tusken village, Fennec tells Boba to wait, and he is able to avoid attacking Cad Bane.
The mods are attacked by members of the other families, who in last episode had sworn to remain neutral. Krrsantan is also attacked by Trandoshans, and the Gamorrean guards are killed after they are pushed off a cliff. Fennec is going to attempt to go to the Pyke's base to stop the attack from there, but the mods and Krrsantan are being overwhelmed. Fennec arrives to help the mods on her way to the Pykes' base of operations, Fennec tells them to head to the cantina. The Pykes arrive to attack the cantina with just Boba and Mando there to hold the fort, they are greatly outnumbered, but Boba and Mando agree they will die with honor in battle if needs be. The mayor's Majordomo gives them another option, they can present terms of surrender. The Majordomo goes out to present the terms of surrender to the Pykes, but when he reads what Boba wrote it is revealed that it was just a trap to get the Pykes to lower their guard. Boba and Mando attack from the air using their jetpacks, they kill a lot of Pykes, but more keep coming. They are saved by the arrival of the fighters of Freetown, the mods and Krrsantan also arrive but the Pykes have a surprise for them in the form of two Scorpenek annihilator droids. The Scorpenek droids are big and have shields so nothing they have can pierce the shields, Mando and Boba distract the droids so the others can escape. Mando attempts to use the Darksaber on the shield, but it does nothing, so Boba says he will go and get help. One of the annihilator droids chases Mando, and the other goes after the remaining team members.
Peli Motto arrives, and Mando tells her to run, she reveals to Mando that Grogu is with her, and he has the armor on. There is a roar in the distant, we see that Boba is riding the Rancor which he uses to fight the annihilator droid. Mando sneaks up on the droid and he uses the Darksaber to get through the shield which has weakened after the Rancor attack. Mando chops off one of the arms of the droid, but the droid turns on him ready to attack until Grogu uses the force to remove another part of the droid. The Rancor finishes the droid off, Boba goes after the second droid which has pinned his forces down. The Rancor destroys the second droid as the Pykes start to flee, Cad Bane though injures the Rancor causing it to throw Boba off and go on a rampage. Boba and Cad face off again, though Cad Bane is faster than Boba at the draw. Boba then uses the stick the Tuskens gave him to defeat Cad Bane stabbing him through the chest. The Rancor is rampaging through the city, Mando attempts to stop it, but he fails, and Grogu stops him by using the force to calm the Rancor and put it to sleep. Grogu is exhausted by the effort he put forth and curls up beside the Rancor and goes to sleep.
Fennec arrives at the base of the Pykes, she kills the mayor, the leader of the other houses and the Pyke leader. Boba and Fennec walk around the town as everyone is rebuilding, we see Mando in his modified N-1 ship with Grogu who wants Mando to go fast as the episode ends. There is one post-credits scene where we see that Cobb Vanth is in Boba's bacta tank and the mod doctor is preparing to work on Vanth.
LAST THOUGHTS ON THE SEASON
With still no indication of whether there will be a second season I find it hard to review the episode and season as a whole. If there was confirmation of a second season it would be easier to judge the show, but if this is a limited series then that will change how I view the episode and season. The episode did deliver great action, but I still have problems with the creative choices the show made. When the Rancor was introduced, and Boba told the keeper he wanted to ride it I think we knew what would happen. I just wish there was some time spent in the previous two episodes showing Boba bonding with the Rancor, it would have felt more earned if that had happened. I liked watching the Rancor destroy the droids, and I thought the look of the Rancor was fantastic as it felt like a living and breathing monster come to life. The Scorpenek droids were also a really cool choice, they looked like something the Pykes would have acquired to use for something like this. The droids also looked really good, and they could appear after in future films and shows now. I know the people behind The Book of Boba Fett are trying to deliver a great product, but I felt something was missing by the end of the show. The first four episodes had Boba as the star, but I felt the last three episodes showcased Mando more. I think Mando appearing in the show makes total sense, but I wish when it came to the finale there was more to given to Boba especially at the end of the episode. All of the character stuff they did with Boba was never really explored again, and we never got a sense of what will happen next with Boba which is a strange way to end a season.
I do wonder if there was a missing episode in the series, was the show always planned at seven episode or was it originally eight. The pandemic could have caused delays which meant an episode was cut so the show could air on the originally scheduled date. I think Mando was always expected to appear on the show, but I think once he did, he immediately overshadowed Boba. The two best episodes of the show were the ones featuring Mando and Grogu; they were given big story changes that Boba never got. In the earlier episodes Boba kept having flashes of his past, specifically to do with his father, I kept waiting for that to be explored further but it never happened. There is a story to be told by Boba about his father, I thought this show was going there, but it didn't. I now wonder what the point of those flashes to his past were about, if they were not a part of the ongoing story by the end then why were they included. I also found that Fennec was often disagreeing with Boba, they could not agree on tactics, but Fennec always did what Boba asked of her. If there was a second season, I would want to see those disagreements explored in more detail, Boba is trying to rule with kindness while Fennec wants it to be more ruthless. Boba's way won out as his kindness proved to be essential to winning but will that always be good enough. I think as long as Boba stays on Tatooine there will be challengers (likely the Hutts) for Jabba's territory. Boba might not be able to be so kind in the future, but if he can keep his allies on his side than he has a good chance.
Grogu returning for the battle was not necessary, but it added some levity and cuteness to an episode that was very action-packed. Grogu we can see learned from Luke, when it came to disabling the Rancor, Grogu took a merciful route to saving Mando. In chapter two of The Mandalorian, Grogu saved Mando from the Mudhorn by lifting it with the force, in this episode Grogu saved Mando by bonding with the Rancor. That type of empathy that Grogu used was definitely something that he learned from Luke, Grogu might never be a Jedi, but he will be a force-user. I knew that Grogu would not stay with Luke for very long, Grogu is too essential to The Mandalorian for him to be off the show. Even though Grogu was not gone for long, his story was executed in a way that was compelling. Krrsantan continues to impress me, we knew that Wookies were fierce warriors, but with Krrsantan we finally can see it for ourselves. Watching Krrsantan take on all of the Trandoshans and still make it to the cantina was amazing. The part where he tried to push through the force field of the droids was really impressive, I hope we get to see a lot more of him in future. Fennec killing all of the people at the Pykes' base was truly brutal, she gave no quarter to anyone. Fennec might be one of the deadliest assassins we have met, her lack of compassion makes her so scary. Fennec does have a moral code (we saw in The Bad Batch), and I hope when see her again we see that she has more depth to her than a cold-blooded killer.
This episode and the season as a whole have been good, but not great; I think the show lost focus once Mando was introduced. I am going to give episode seven a 6/10, the action in this episode was great, but the episode did not do a good job closing out the story of Boba Fett. Even if there ends up being a second season, I still feel the finale did not live up to expectations beyond delivering fantastic action. The big picture stories of the season were not followed up with in the finale, and I will hold that against the episode. The finale felt like it was rushed into completion, the script either was missing some scenes, or they were left out of the finale. I said earlier there was a chance that a conversation between Boba and Cad Bane, they have history together and I wish their talk went on a bit longer. I also would have liked to see more time showing what will happen next on Tatooine, there was a quick walk through the town by Boba and Fennec but nothing else. There was room for more character depth in this episode, I like spectacle, but I also enjoyed the character exploration they were doing in the earlier part of the season.
The season as a whole I am going to give a 7/10, it delivered a lot of exciting moments but was ultimately undone by a finale lacking in character building. There were great moments throughout the season, some with Boba, Fennec and the Tuskens while others focused on Mando and Grogu also were amazing. The seven episodes did not really flow together, it felt like we were watching two episodes of The Mandalorian in the middle of The Book of Boba Fett. It might have been better had they introduced Mando earlier on in the season and had his story woven into the show more naturally. I think that would have made for a more balanced season, but it also does not fix the finale not making Boba the central character. The season was good, but the two episodes I will be going back to watch will episodes five and six. If there is a second season, I do hope they focus on Boba more, they could make it 4-6 episodes instead. The Book of Boba Fett will be the Star Wars show that might be a missed opportunity, there were some great things, but the show never really came together for me.
Thank you for reading my review, and please tell me what you thought of the episode and the season of The Book of Boba Fett.
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