This episode of The Book of Boba Fett is the best because it isn’t about the series, instead it is The Book of The Mandalorian! The show may have turned a corner with The Mandalorian director, Bryce Dallas Howard, at the helm! No flashbacks, no government officials, or non-threatening crime bosses. It is The Mandalorian picking up from the last episode, “The Rescue” (2020). The ep opens with a Klatooinian, the dog faced aliens from Return of the Jedi, they were green in color, but brownish here. It is a meat packing plant, but I would think this is droid work. There are plastic-like strips of a curtain, very industrial, the shadowy armored figure appears. It is The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) in his armor with beskar spear!
He slowly walks the cutting room floor and goes through another curtained room. There are guards and Mando walks up to the boss seated at a table. The boss, Kaba (Ardeshir Radpour) doubts that that person is in the room. He sounds like someone talking through a Halloween mask. Mando shows him the tracking fob used to bring in bounties. The bounty hunter offers the others a chance to leave. Mando tells Kaba the same threat he gave in episode one, about bringing him in warm or cold, as he reaches for his blaster pistol. The Klatooinians attack Mando, but the blaster bolts just spark off of the beskar armor. Mando activates his Darksaber. The Darksaber proves to be heavy and he wounds his leg.
Kaba tries to blast Mando, not too bright, The Mandalorian slams Kaba on a table, and cuts both in half with the Darksaber! Mando gets to work with the Darksaber as the butchers look on from outside. One of the Klatooinians is pale and looks like a bulldog complete with cap. Mando limps out with the head of Kaba in a bag. He says that inside there is New Republic credits and offers them to take whatever they want inside the room. They start to rush in for their payday. Next, we see the circular strip of space station called Glavis, location unknown, it makes me think of the habitat rings of Elysium (2013). Mando reaches a posh level of the station and finds the Ishi Tib Guild Master (Helen Sadler).
Another Jedi alien, Ishi Tib have protrusions like a starfish, eyes at the topmost spikes, and beak-like mouths. This one is blue with a large, brown parrot-like beak. She wants him to eat first, but Mando is ready to take the bounty elsewhere so the Guild Master what he is looking for is a Kolzec Alley. He places Kaba’s head on the table. Mando struggles to walk in the alley using his helmet’s visor to detect signs until he reaches a door with the Mythosaur symbol, the crest of his tribe. He walks the bridge with only deep space below him to see the meditating person of The Armorer (Emily Swallow). In “Redemption” (2019), The Armorer gave Mando the quest to find The Child’s people.
She was defending the covert from remnant stormtroopers when we last saw her. He tries to walk the stairs, but collapses. The Armorer orders Paz Vizla (Tait Fletcher body and Dave Filoni is his voice) to give him help with a medkit. Paz Vizla clashed with Mando in “The Sin” because of his work with The Empire. He came to his aid with other Mandalorians to fight off bounty hunters. Vizla uses a Bacta spray on the wound. She asks about the weapon that wounded him and then tells Paz Vizla to bring her the Darksaber. The Armorer says that Tarre Vizsla forged the Darksaber, he was Mandalorian and Jedi. He was seen in flashback with the Star Wars: Rebels episode, “Trials of the Darksaber” (2017).
Vizla and Mando move over The Armorer’s forge. Mando says that Moff Gideon was turned over to the New Republic Tribunal. The Armorer asks about the Beskar spear and it could pierce Beskar armor. Mando asks for her to make it into armor, she puts the spearpoint into the forge, and then brings up Bo-Katan Kryze. The Armorer explains that she got the Darksaber, but not by Creed. The Armorer brings up the Great Purge, we see countless TIE Bombers drop proton bombs on Mandalore, destroying Mandlorians in the Night of a Thousand Tears, events we heard about in The Mandalorian, this is the first time we’ve watched it. Then, we see KX-series security droids like K-2SO searching the blazing wasteland like Terminators, but the scene more reminds me of the Giant Warriors in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) with Imperial probe droids overhead.
Mando wants the armor forged for a foundling, Grogu, of course Baby Yoda’s name revealed by Ahsoka Tano in “The Jedi” (2020). Not using his true name unless it is brought up. He wants to see Grogu again. We see The Armorer forge something, chains fall, chain mail armor?, which she ties up in a cloth origami-style to look like The Child. You know this is a perfect merch item. Later, she spares with Mando using the Darksaber and she wields her forging tools. Mando falls off the bridge and The Armorer says he is fighting against the Darksaber so it is heavier for him. Again, she easily defeats him. Vizla interrupts their practice to reclaim the Darksaber. The Armorer asks Din Djarin if he agrees to the duel. This is his real name revealed by Moff Gideon in “Redemption.” She walks away as they take off their jet packs.
Vizla has a vibrosword and a personal combat shield. He briefly claims the Darksaber, but Mando ends the duel with his vibroknife at Vizla’s neck. The Armorer asks them if they ever removed their helmets, Din Djarin has to say yes, and she says he is no longer a Mandalorian. He can only find redemption in the mines of Mandalore which Mando says are destroyed. A Star Liner Travel passenger line docks at a starport, we hear about “nonstop service to Tatooine”, very Star Tours. A security droid, in the RX-series also from Star Tours, asks him to turn over his weapons or he can’t take the flight. A Rodian youngling waves to him. On Tatooine, he takes his weapons back from a bell droid, another RX-series droid, I would actually have liked the G2 repair droid from the ride.
Then, we get the BD unit droid, a head like electrobinoculars and two legs. It was first seen in the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2021) game with BD-1. Another merch item!, it is swallowed by a womp rat, and then blasted by Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris). She was last seen in “The Passenger” (2020). Her droids are fearful to help with the womp rat. Peli goes in with her blaster rifle and the womp rat pulls her back! It is shot by Mando’s blaster. She has a ship for him, under the sheet are two engines, I first thought a podracer, but then the rest is shown and it is a N-1 starfighter from The Phantom Menace (1999)! The prequels, all of Star Wars is in this series, the rest of Lucasfilm is terrified of the prequels. Peli says it was hand-made on Naboo. She convinces him that she will make it flight ready with his help. He is working on the underside of the starfighter with BD's help.
Peli has found a power assimilator that will make the starfighter the fastest ship! She found the part from Jawas and admits that she dated one!, love it! Peli speaks to the Jawas in Jawaese, we don’t see humans speak alien languages, she must have the Galactic Phrase Book & Travel Guide printed in our galaxy in 2001. I like the scurriers slipping around the hangar. Also, the building scene montage which makes me think of Iron Man (2008), construction of tech in pieces that makes you think it would work. BD projects the location of a panel for Mando and his thanks makes the droid hopping with happiness! The Jawas bring Mando a compression booster, it looks like the pole Leia used to hold the trash compactor walls, that they took from the Pykes. A sandbat crows to announce the morning, it is a beastie first seen in Star Wars: The Old Republic (2011).
The starfighter is taken out by Pelli’s DUM-series pit droids. This is a Rocketeer (1991)-worthy scene. Pelli has him take it out for a test flight. We get the cockpit perspective of Mando flying. The N-1 zips through Mos Eisley and then, he heads towards Beggar’s Canyon, this is the reverse course of the podrace. Then, Mando takes it for a joy ride into space, and sees the Rodian youngling on the passenger liner. Mando is contacted by two X-Wing fighters, one pilot is Lieutenant Reed is played by Max Lloyd Jones, who doubled for Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian finale. The other pilot recognizes his voice, it is Captain Carson Teva played by Paul Sun-Hyung Lee otherwise known as Appa! Teva was last seen in “The Siege” (2020). Mando uses the Kineso-switch which blasts the starfighter at sublight speed, mistaken for going into hyperspace, it’s the Star Wars version of NOS! Pelli says an old friend stopped by, it's Fennec Shand!, tying into the main show again. The Book of Boba Fett ep has a complete The Mandalorian story with endearing characters and new concepts that are ripe for Disney merch!
Five Thrones of Boba Fett out of Five!
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