Spoiler warning for The Book Of Boba Fett: Chapter Five
When Chapter Four of The Book Of Boba Fett ended, there was a palpable (not Palpatine) sense that, despite being more than halfway into the season, the long-awaited solo adventure of the fan-favourite bounty hunter still hadn’t taken off. Across four episodes, viewers had been treated to all kinds of familiar locations (Jabba’s Palace!), curious new creatures (brain lizards!), and comic book crossovers (hello, Black Krrsantan!), but something wasn’t clicking. The series’ dual-timeline story has been wallowing in atmospheric but uneventful extended flashbacks, while the present-day storyline – in which Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) establishes his new status as a Mos Espa crime lord with the help of Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) – has crawled forward at a Bantha’s pace. But a familiar musical flutter at the end of Chapter Four teased a tantalising return in the following episode: The Mandalorian, aka Din Djarin, was on the way to save the day.
As it turned out, Mando wasn’t just popping in for a quick cameo or to rub shoulders with Boba after their Mandalorian Season 2 buddy-up. Instead, we got an entire episode of The Book Of Boba Fett which didn’t feature a single frame of its titular character – spending the best part of an hour with a newly Grogu-less Din Djarin as he navigates a world in which he’s no longer a surrogate dad to an adorable Baby Yoda. It was, for many reasons, the best episode of The Book Of Boba Fett so far – not just because of the familiarity of revisiting a character we’ve come to know and love over the course of 16 episodes, but because it featured so many things the other Book Of Boba Fett instalments have so far lacked.
For one, it packed more incident into a single episode than Boba has managed in its entire series to date. We saw Mando at his most malicious in a surprisingly hard-edged fight sequence, getting chop-happy with the Darksaber. We revisited The Armorer for an (admittedly unwieldy) exposition dump of Mando-lore, sure to come in handy for The Mandalorian Season 3. We got a duel between Din and Paz Vizsla and the creation of some teeny-tiny Beskar armour for Grogu. And then we saw Mando head to Tattooine, where he hung out with Peli Motto while she assembled a Republic-era Starfighter for him, eventually taking his speedy new ship for a test-drive, before Fennec Shand showed up to remind us all what show we were actually watching. Compared to Boba’s endless Mos Espa meetings, it was a blast.
Watching Mando stride out into a ringworld, the stars shining above him, felt like a genuine breath of fresh air.
And it blasted us back out into the galaxy once more. Even in just four episodes, it’s becoming clear that a show set entirely on the sands of Tattooine ends up feeling visually samey from week to week. Watching Mando stride out into a ringworld, the stars shining above him, or jetting off in his new Starfighter, felt like a genuine breath of fresh air – a reminder that his own show is a globe-trotting adventure that travels to new exciting destinations every week.
Most importantly, The Book Of Boba Fett was a reminder of how strong a character Din Djarin is – how much capacity and range he has under all that Beskar steel. In this single episode, we felt how lost he is without Grogu; how much he’s lost overall, without his companion or his ship or his creed; how his connection with the galaxy and its people has changed since we first met him. We saw a character capable of serious violence (he chopped a guy’s head off and stuck it in a bag!), but who also provides a considerable comedy foil for demanding flight-attendant droids and the shtick of Peli Motto. And we felt him as a warrior, a capable action hero. It only served as a contrast to how ineffectual Boba has been throughout his own show so far – frequently outmatched in fights, incapable of making smart decisions, and without much for viewers to emotionally connect with, despite hours of flashbacks.
With two instalments left, there remains some promise for the concluding chapters of Boba’s book. We are, theoretically, heading into a two-part finale that finally kicks the present-day storyline into gear, as the bounty hunter stakes his claim as the Daimyo of the desert and fights back against the Pyke Syndicate. It’s strongly implied that Din Djarin will not only be back, but could even be bringing Grogu with him. And there’s still Chekhov’s Rankor waiting in the pits of Jabba’s Palace, ready to be ridden into battle.
But ‘Chapter Five’ – or, as it should more accurately be called, The Mandalorian Season 2.5 – didn’t exactly solve any of The Book Of Boba Fett’s problems. If anything it accentuated them – it felt like a different, better show (namely, The Mandalorian) focused on a much more interesting character (namely, The Mandalorian). It was a thrilling hour of TV, one that proved Din Djarin is the real hero the galaxy needs right now. When it comes to small-screen Star Wars adventures, this is the way.
The Book Of Boba Fett arrives weekly on Disney+