Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett - Finale - Review

When Lucasfilm announced that they were doing a series based around Boba Fett, part of me was excited and part was worried and while there were some cool moments in the show, very few of those centred around the title character. With the final episode, could the show make me change my point of view?

Honestly, no. The last episode continued the same problems that the previous few had, but also introduced a whole bunch of new ones as well, making for one really weird final. It is hard to explain why without spoiling elements of the show, so consider this your last chance to bail, if you haven’t seen it yet. First up, lets talk the Pike Syndicate, these are meant to be a major threat, especially given how much Boba and Fennec have talked them up, but in the end, it was only numbers that proved their danger, not skill. Second, Boba Fett proved that he was better as a silent background character and not the star of a major series, because this highlighted just how useless he is, both in leadership and actual combat skills. The final issue is just how unbalanced the entire episode was, from characters that couldn’t shoot in one scene, then being able to hit things while on the move the next, the entire episode was an utter letdown.

Let’s discuss that final point in detail first, the pacing, it was beyond weird and given that this is a show set on a desert planet in space, that should be a hard bar to clear. My issue with space mopeds aside, the people riding them are about as useful in a fight as the mayors assistant, and yet the show made them out to be a real dangerous group of folks. Once they get a chance to put their fighting skills to the test, they prove themselves to be Boba’s fighters as they can’t hit anything, even when the enemies are literally standing out in the open. Later on, as in minutes later, they are then able to pull off shots from their space mopeds, or dropping enemies from mere glance looks, it doesn’t match up. If that wasn’t enough, the show suffered across the board from characters speeding up and slowing down, one of the droids managed to get to the end of the street, in the time it took Din Djarin to walk around behind the other, but both of them took minutes to close the gap towards the group in the first place. The Rancor was another aspect that was impacted by this effect, at first its slow and heavy, which given its size makes sense, however when the shot needed it to be fast, it was quick and able to punch things with ease, it was just not balanced. There were other issues, Krrsantan having a broken ankle one moment, then moving fine the next; the arrival of the Freetown folks was just weird and of course, let’s not forget the ending with someone in the bacta tank.

These issues could have been forgiven, if Boba Fett was an interesting character, but somehow, they managed to take a mysterious character and make him so pathetic, I was rooting for the bad guy at the end. From the first time we saw Boba Fett fight in this series, he was making stupid decision and somehow, he never improved on it, and this episode proved that. This isn’t about me not liking this version of the character, it is more about the fact that all of the Star Wars lore we have, since his first appearance, has told us how he is such a badass, we saw some of that when he crawled out of the Sarlacc Pitt, years after he was unceremoniously thrown into it, but apart from the flashbacks where he was learning, he was weak. Again, I don’t mean he was weak as in couldn’t fight, I mean weak with his ability to use his tools correctly, he would use the wrong weapons, make the wrong choices and then, when all is said and done, behave as if he was still totally in control, it did not make for an entertaining character. About the only thing that he managed to get right, was saving the life of Fennec Shand, because while she was shown in action, using the Taken style of editing, at least we got a sense that she is a real dangerous person, the final scene with the Pyke Syndicate proved that.

Speaking of the Pyke Syndicate, let’s talk about them, the show barely introduced them, until such time as they were revealed as to be the ones moving in, sure we got a flashback with the train and that was cool, but even then, they were beaten by Tusken Raiders, with sticks and a few guns. Having them now become the big bad was just confusing, there was nothing that they did that provided any sense as to why that was true, they didn’t shake down people, they weren’t dragging folks out into the street to kill them, they did nothing. In fact, we got most of our ‘they are bad’ information from Boba’s Friends and anyone will tell you, a single point of information is always going to be biased. Sure, in the end, they proved they were a danger, but not to the people of the city, just to Boba, who was ensuring he was picking a fight with them.

If I take the episode on its own, looking at the action and the events in it, it wasn’t that bad, but as the tale end to a seven-episode season, that was meant to take one of the most badass characters from Star Wars and provide a reason as to why they deserved that honour, it utterly failed. Two of the episodes were dedicated to The Mandalorian and while he is a cool character, he has his own show, also lets not discuss the return of Grogu, that will make me even angrier. The final showdown between Boba and Cad was also a massive letdown, if only for the sad way that they dispatched Cad Bane, sure a western style duel is very appropriate for the show, given the bounty hunters in Star Wars have always had an old west outlaw vibe to them. However, seeing Boba grab the gaderffii, the name of the staff, from under his body, where it was and then hook Cad, and end up with them swapping places, it didn’t work, there was just no way it should have happened that way, but the ‘good guy’ must win, so they did it.

The Book of Boba Fett had so much potential, but in the end the final episode proved that not every character in Star Wars needs their own time in the spotlight, some are better left in the background. Temuera Morrison, Ming-Na Wen and Pedro Pascal all did great jobs bringing their characters to life, but even solid performances couldn’t make this pleasing to watch. From a character that made it hard to root for, to a story line that was content to ignore the titular character, this addition to the Star Wars legacy ranks far down on the list, still better than the Holiday Special though, so a small win.

The Score

5.0

The Pros

+Finally got a reason to see why the Pyke Syndicate was a threat, even if it was forced

+Seeing Din and Boba flying around and fighting side-by-side was great

The Cons

-Pacing, characters, action… so much wrong across the board of this episode

-Grogu’s return. The character was done and should have stayed gone, his inclusion here was not welcome at all