The Book of Boba Fett - Episode 2 - Review

While the first episode of the series had to do a lot, in order to set things up, its failure to provide a singular focus point, left me wanting more. The second episode therefore had a lot of ground to make up, in order for me to feel like it is a show worthy of watching each week and while it didn’t achieve that, it was a lot better than the first.

The second episode was again split between the ‘modern’ era and a flashback and while this was an almost even split, it still feels a little weird to experience in the course of the tale. For the modern scenes, were Boba is walking around acting like he is the big dog on Tatooine, it feels like a crime drama, where he is miscast. The beginning of the episode, with Boba and Fennec standing in front of the would-be assassin, deciding to get him to talk by feeding him to the Rancor, you know that massive beast that Luke Skywalker killed a few years back, in the timeline of course. While death did not scare the assassin, it seems common sense does exist in the world as the moment they confirmed he would be fed, the fear seemed so very real. Of course, there was nothing below it was just a bluff and it was nice to see them using the myth of Jabba’s Palace to their advantage.

This of course led them into town to meet with the mysterious mayor, who while is an Ithorian, the most well known one for us these days is Dok-Ondar over at Black Spire Outpost on Batuu, was not someone I could have seen in the role. But while the character speaks with a soft voice and a calm cadence, you can tell that there is a lot more to him than meets the eye. While Boba Fett is using his history as a bounty hunter, to help shape what people think of him, the mayor was able to seem far more dangerous, just in how he spoke to Boba, which makes him far more likely to be a thorn later on. Of course, a good adversary always seeks to mess with the minds of the hero, or in this case the anti-hero and sent him back to the casino and while Boba notices something is wrong, the host doesn’t fear him, rather the Twins, a pair of Hutts who have decided to lay claim to all that was one Jabbas.

For some reason, their appearance was utterly worthless to me, not because the threat of a Hutt isn’t a good one, but it just seems like a little to many players right now and the board is still being set up, but the worst point is that we don’t even know what game is being played. What I really do appreciate was the appearance of the gladiatorial Wookie, purely because normally whenever we see a Wookie in Star Wars, it is Chewbacca, who is cool and all, or its animated and a slave or being rescued from being a slave. At first, I thought it was Grozz, but then I realised that his colouring is more light brown and this one was far darker and dare I say it, meaner looking. Of course, the show couldn’t keep us there, instead this was where the left the present and went back in time, to learn more about Boba’s time in the sand.

The flashback here was more consistent and was able to keep the story, at least for the flashback, moving forward in sequence, though the bar fight seemed a little weak. Having established he is a friend in the first episode, Boba sees a chance to become something more to the Tusken Raiders and with some training and an ambitious plan, he manages to take down a train that is causing them some problems, each time it comes through. I did appreciate that it was essentially us looking at the side of the Raiders, because if you recall back in Episode 1, during the pod racing sequence, they were up on the ledge taking pot shots at the racers as they went by in one area. Now we have seen the opposite side, maybe the noise startled them and they reacted thinking they were in danger, I don’t know if the team making the show planned that, but it was a nice point of view to see.

Following on from the first episode, the acting was a little withdrawn here, at least in the modern, but that is what happens when your main character is decked out in a helmet and you have to rely on body motions to make sense of what is going on. The problem is that Boba rarely moves when wearing the helmet, in order to provide a sense of imposing, so it is hard to get a read on his thoughts, while Temuera Morrison is able to keep a wonderful calmness to his voice in those moments, it does make it harder to see where the character is going. The opening scene where Fett and Shand were watching the assassin freak out though, that was great fun for the simple fact that they showed a sense of humour. The other characters still feel a little to new to get a nuanced read from, and much like the Tusken Raiders with their face masks, they can be hard to decipher what is going on.

The second episode of The Book of Boba Fett was better than the first, if only it managed to keep things a little more evenly paced, keeping the split between present and past down to one cut. While the spirit journey, inside of a flashback was perhaps pushing it a bit, all to get his own tree branch, it did help to provide a little more insight into the Tusken Raider lifestyle, but as that is not what we want from a Boba Fett show. The addition of more new characters for Boba and Fennec to deal with is cool, but the show hasn’t been able to lock down its main theme yet for what is going on in the modern day, so it is adding a little confusion where none is really needed. With some good pacing and solid character growth, at least in flashback form, this was a decent episode.

The Score

8.0

The Pros

+The pacing was much better in this episode, keeping things more interesting

+The train hijacking sequence was fun and fit within the setting of the episode

The Cons

-Still not sold on the additional characters, the show feels complicated enough without them

-The vision quest, inside of a flashback was a little to inception for the show