Star Wars The Book of Boba Fett - Episode 5 - Review

With four episodes of Boba Fett down, the story was finally starting to get to a place where it was not so much about his past, but the future. When episode 4 ended with Fennec Shand saying she knew someone who could help them, the theme of The Mandalorian playing clearly indicated the way they were going to go, but no-one could have foreseen the way the latest episode played out.

The show opening on a bounty hunt for the Mandalorian, was a nice touch, not only was it a nice nod back to how we first met the Din Djarin, but it was great to see him all spec’d out with his beskar spear and the darksaber. Seeing him get his butt almost handed to, was also a welcome change, mostly because it shows that he is not some super amazing hunter, just because of the new gear he has. Learning that he was doing this latest bounty, purely for access back to the members of his Mandalorian family, was also welcome, not only did it provide some context as to what happened to them, after the battle above Navaro, but it also gave him a chance to learn more of the darksaber history.

Being shown the Night of a thousand Tears, was something I wasn’t expecting and highlighted just how evil the empire could truly be, you know if blowing up a planet wasn’t enough of a clue. But while it was a nice piece of history, it really didn’t add anything to the overall story that was being told, so I have to question its inclusion. From here, we got to see Din attempting to learn how to wield the darksaber, because it is not like a regular weapon and while he isn’t able to instantly become amazing with it, the hints he receives will clearly help him in the future. The fight between himself and the descendant of the creator, Tarre Vizsla, was interesting but again, I question its inclusion, simply because in the end, Din left with the blade anyway. Of course, seeing him kicked out of the exclusive zealot clubhouse was not something I expected, but given that he removed his helmet, one of those pesky rules of theirs, it was bound to happen.

Seeing Din make his way to Tatooine was interesting, if only it seems that everything now must happen on Tatooine. While funds might be low, heading to the Outer Rim, in search of a replacement Razorcrest, as the other one got blown up, seems like a poor way to execute the search, him being presented with a Naboo N-1 Starfighter though, that was a complete surprise. In fact, that entire sequence gave a few of them, not only was he building a version of the ship that ended the Naboo invasion, he was assisted with a BD droid, the same one that Cal Kestis used in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Of course, seeing him complete the ship and then take it for a test flight, through beggars canyon and along part of the same course as the pod racing scene from Episode 1 was also a delight. Having Paul Sun-Hyung Lee pop up at the end was also a nice touch, but it raised a problem that the episode had, it didn’t fit within the Boba Fett story.

In fact, apart from the recap at the beginning of the episode, Boba Fett didn’t make an appearance in the show at all, and given it is his show, that seems like a really stupid thing to do. Seeing Din Djarin was very cool and while I would have loved to have seen folks like The Bad Batch or some other Star Wars character appear in the show, it was still fun to see what Din has been up to, since we saw him last. The problem is, the focus of the entire episode was that exact premise, which made it feel like one of those episodes in other shows, that let you catch up on a few characters, from their original series, not the spin-off you are currently watching. Even after all that as well, we still got no actual progress, as Din wants to go visit Grogu, which is nice and all, but last we saw of him, there wasn’t a forwarding address provided.

On the visual design front, seeing Halo… I mean a space station in the shape of a ring was very cool, especially as it could be accessed from both sides. Normally when I see sets like that, in this show, it is easy to pick up the break between the physical set but this ring location, was one of those rare instances where the lack of physical ground worked to its advantage; Even the scenes of Din rebuilding the ship, you could easily determine where the break is. The sequence of building the ship and the transport to Tatooine was also fun, if only for the number of droids in the series, seeing the R3X model again, this time piloting something, was fun and of course the BD unit was great to see built.

For a show called The Book of Boba Fett, not including the main character in it, is just idiotic and while the content of the episode was fun and had some really cool moments, ignoring your lead never works out well. While seeing what Din Djarin was up to, was very good, spending the entire episode on that, seemed a little counter intuitive, they clearly could have removed some shots and even a few sequences all together, to get things moving back to focus on Boba. While the setup was great, the lack of real execution is a problem and seems to be a consistent theme with this show, hopefully these final three episodes can redeem it.

The Score

7.5

The Pros

+Being able to see what Din Djarin has been up to, was a nice treat

+The amount of references to other Star Wars content was great

The Cons

-Not including your main character, seems like a pretty stupid thing to do

-It really didn’t push the story forward at all, which given how the last episode left off, seems like a bad decision.