Review: Chapter 2 of "The Book of Boba Fett"

Like many Fett fans, I was disappointed with the first episode. However, I am glad to say that the second episode did not let me down.

The episode starts with Fennec Shand escorting the assassin she had captured in the previous episode. The prisoner is placed on the floor in front of Boba Fett, who is sitting on his throne. Fett attempts to scare information out of the assassin by threatening to cut his head off. However, the prisoner shows no fear and is willing to accept his fate. We then learn that he is a member of the Night’s Wind, who are a group of assassins for hire. Boba and Fennec both acknowledge that they know of this group. This makes sense as they both were top players in the Underworld in their earlier days. Fennec Shand, however, is not impressed by them and says “They’re just people… in hoods”. She then suggests that he might talk if they let the Rancor eat him. She says this as she activates the trap door lever and drops him into the pit below.

Something I noticed when this happened was that the Gamorrean Guard who was holding the knife to the assassin’s throat quickly got out of the way when Fennec activated the lever. In “Return of the Jedi,” the Gamorrean Guard that attempted to apprehend Luke Skywalker fell into the pit when Jabba activated the trap door. Perhaps he has learned from his colleague’s mistake. Once the assassin fell into the pit and the doors that guarded the Rancor opened, he was much more eager to talk. Fortunately for him, the Rancor had been killed about 5 years ago by Luke Skywalker. This allowed for a comedic scene but also proves Fennec Shand’s point that the Night’s Wind are all talk.

Thanks to the assassin revealing that he was hired by the mayor of Mos Espa, Boba Fett and Fennec Shand knew exactly where to go. The next scene has Fett, Shand, the prisoner, and Fett’s two guards make their way to the mayor’s office. They are confronted by a secretary of sorts who cannot find any appointments scheduled under Fett’s name. This altercation is quickly broken up when the Majordomo of the mayor comes out and tries to remedy the situation. He apologizes for the improper reception because he did not see Fett’s litter arrive. As a result, Fett gives him a glare with his black T-visor.

I love this little exchange. A simple stare with Fett’s helmet speaks louder than words when he is dealing with uncooperative people. The Majordomo did his best to stall Boba Fett but ultimately failed when Fett walked straight into the mayor’s office. The mayor asks who enters unannounced and Fett responds, “you know damn well who”. This is the type of anger and hostility I missed from Fett in the last episode. You can tell he is done playing nice. Fett presents the assassin to the mayor and asks why he was sent to kill Fett. The mayor signals his guards to kill the prisoner and brushes the issue off by saying that the Night’s Wind are not supposed to operate in this area. He then offers to pay Fett for bringing the assassin in. This is where we get the popular phrase that surprised many Fett fans in the trailer: “I am not a bounty hunter.” Fett decides to take the payment anyway and says he is taking it as the tribute that the mayor should’ve paid him to begin with. Fett and the mayor exchange some threats before the mayor tells him to go to Garsa’s Sanctuary to get some questions answered.

Fett and the gang then go to Garsa’s Sanctuary to get some answers. Fett is then told that The Twins are coming to claim Jabba’s belongings as their own. Fett dismisses it saying that The Twins are too busy on Nal Hutta. However, that is quickly debunked when he hears drums in the distant. Fett gives a “you gotta be kidding me” look before putting his helmet on and walking outside. He tells Fennec to watch his back and walks into the street alone. With Fennec and his guards standing a few feet away of course.

The next sequence of events were things I never imagined to see. Down the street came two Hutts sitting on a massive litter that was being carried by their slaves. Once the parade finally reached Boba Fett, they announced in Huttese that all of Jabba’s belongings belonged to them. Fett retorted that he was now the Daimyo of Mos Espa and that they all belong to him. Then another surprising thing happened. Back behind the litter, stepped out a black Wookiee in gold armor. The ruthless Black Krrsantan has made his live action debut after first appearing in a comic book. Fett quickly tells The Twins that they can bring out as many opponents as they like, none of them will do any good against him. The Twins decide that now is not the time for conflict and depart after telling Boba to sleep lightly. This was my favorite scene from this episode. We got a surprise cameo and we got to see more of what Boba Fett is all about. He stood alone against the Hutts and showed no fear against their threats. He even dished out a few warnings to them in the process. The Twins are definitely going to be a problem in the future and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

The next scene takes us back to Boba Fett’s time with the Tusken Raiders. He is learning how to fight with a Gaderffii stick by sparring with the mysterious Tusken Raider that bested him in combat last episode. We quickly see that he does not know how to fight with that type of melee weapon but he is still eager to learn regardless. It isn’t long before we see the next obstacle Fett must face. A hover train, similar to the ones in “Solo: A Star Wars Story” and “The Clone Wars” episode 20 (“Bounty”), flies through and shoots at the Tuskens. We briefly see that the passengers on the train are Pykes. This is another nod to “Solo” which was their first live action appearance.

After helping burn the dead, Fett watches a group of bikers fly by. This gives him an idea on how to stop the train. He gets permission and weapons from the Tusken leader and then sets out into the desert. He finds the bikers at a small cantina where they are causing trouble. He comes to the rescue of two humans who tried to stand up to the bikers and defeats all of them with ease. Seeing his shadow on the wall as the door to the cantina opened definitely gave me chills — especially with his new theme song playing in the background. The two humans that he rescued appear to be the friends of Luke Skywalker who make their only appearance in a deleted scene at Tosche Station from A New Hope. Fett takes a swig of a drink that one of the bikers was drinking before heading out of the door. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the fact that some random stranger walked into the cantina, beat all the bikers up, took a sip of a drink, and then walked back out.

After Boba beat up all the bikers, he stole their bikes and drove them back to the Tusken camp. This is where we get to see Boba training the Tuskens how to drive the speeders and how to jump from one speeder to another. Once they had mastered this, they were ready to take on the train. Boba continued to train with his Gaderffii stick until he was alerted that the train was coming. He and the chosen drivers of the bikes got ready and drove off towards the train. In the next scene, we got a very exciting and adventurous moment of the group trying to take down the train. Boba and the Tuskens used grappling hooks to get on top of the train and they fought their way to the driver. The driver droid bailed on them after the train was going at an uncontrollable speed. Fett used his training stick to pull the acceleration lever back and was able to stop the train.

This whole sequence was lots of fun and definitely a favorite of mine. We then see the Tuskens start scavenging off of the train and Boba interrogating their new prisoners. He asks the leader if they are transporting Spice. The leader denies it but is soon shown to be telling a lie when two Tuskens accidently drop a box full of Spice. Boba tells him, “this is not looking good for you.” I think this is a call back to the short story “The Last One Standing” in “Tales of the Bounty Hunters.” In this story, Boba Fett chooses to burn a shipment of Spice that he was supposed to deliver to Jabba. He does not approve of the use of Spice and doesn’t want Jabba to get his hands on it. This view point has never been shown in Canon by Boba Fett before. I think it is a nice bit of character development and a nice call back to Legends material. Boba chooses to let the Pykes live but tells them to inform their leaders that they must pay the Tuskens a toll if they wish to pass through anymore. Knowing that the Pykes are a large crime syndicate and that they have a connection with Crimson Dawn, it will be interesting how they respond to this.

The next scene shows Boba and the Tuskens taking a well-earned rest inside a tent. The Tusken Leader offers Boba a gift. It is a small basket with a lizard inside. It is said that the lizard will guide Boba. The Tusken Leader throws some powder on Boba’s face and the lizard jumps up Boba’s nose. He starts to enter some sort of fever dream. We see Boba wandering through the desert at night with brief transitions of Boba wearing his “Return of the Jedi” armor. It was good to see that armor on Fett again without pieces missing or it being covered in sand. Boba makes his way to a lone tree where he is trapped by its branches. We get a brief flashback to a young Boba watching Jango’s Slave I fly away from Kamino before Boba snaps one of the branches off of the tree.

We next see Boba slowly making his way back to the camp with the branch. The Leader retrieves the lizard from Boba and looks at the stick. We then get to see the Tuskens adorn Fett in black cloth before we get a complete shot of Boba in the black robes he first appeared with in “The Mandalorian” Season 2. He is then guided to a work table where he is shown how to shape the branch into a Gaderffii stick. I had wondered if we would get to see Boba make his own stick. This is a custom among the Tusken Raiders. I am glad that he did. We then get a very touching scene where Boba shows off his new staff to the rest of the tribe. Boba and the Tusken that had been training him started a dance around the fire. Soon more Tuskens joined in until they were all dancing, including the leader. After his attempt at escape, defeat of the sand monster, taking down the train, and forging his own Gaderffii stick, Boba Fett is finally apart of their tribe.

This episode was a pleasant surprise for me. The second episodes for Season 1 and Season 2 of “The Mandalorian” were disappointing in my opinion. Due to this, I was afraid that this second episode would follow suit. I am glad those fears were wrong. There is a thin line between showing Boba Fett’s humanity and showing his stoic side. I feel like this episode balanced it perfectly. He is fearless and a force to be reckoned with when facing his enemies, while he is friendly and tries to overcome barriers with those that he wishes to be friends with. This is still one piece to a larger story. We are going to see how the results of Fett standing against The Twins and Fett stealing from the biker gang will affect him. I for one am optimistic again and looking forward to what this show brings.

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