The Book of Boba Fett Goes Out With Style, and Little Substance

After seven weeks of struggling to lay out a motive for why its titular hero desires to turn into against the law lord, The Book of Boba Fett has set the stage for its grand finale, and is able to see if the few causes it discovered for Boba are value combating for. The reply? Not actually. But the explosions required to get to that conclusion are very fairly.

Episode seven of The Book of Boba Fett, “In the Name of Honor,” brings collectively the lingering threads of the entire present. First, there’s Boba and Fennec, who it looks like we haven’t hung out with in eons. There’s Din Djarin and Grogu, who’ve turn into the primary focus of the present in current episodes. And there’s the entire motley crew of Wookiees, Gamorreans, cybernetic youths, and Freetown’s best for good measure. They’re all introduced collectively for a shootout with the Pyke Syndicate. And that’s… principally all the episode, actually. If followers had been annoyed at how the previous two episodes of the present felt extra like a sideways step into The Mandalorian season 3, then as soon as the adrenaline ranges even out from this week’s explosions they may discover “In the Name of Honor” just a little extra akin to a sugar rush of empty energy than a satisfying meal.

At least most of the motion that dominates the episode could be very enjoyable. There’s that visceral Star Wars thrill in seeing Boba and Din back-to-back blasting by waves of Pyke footsoldiers, or the comical chaos of Peli Motto and her pit droids rolling into the center of mentioned blasting with Grogu in tow, the younger little one having made their (apparent) determination after final week’s prolonged detour. When the size amps up and the Pykes roll in two large artillery droids to smoke out Boba’s holdouts—and the latter counters by gleefully driving his Rancor into battle like he hoped to some episodes in the past—issues start to really feel like a smashing collectively of Star Wars toys, evocative of the enjoyable of enjoying in an action-packed sandbox, as an alternative of simply laying your motion figures side-by-side for amassing functions.

It broadens the scope of motion we’ve seen from Star Wars’ live-action streaming ventures in methods it hasn’t carried out earlier than, delivering a scale that feels worthy of a climactic episode whereas additionally giving The Book of Boba Fett’s prolonged solid one thing massive and enjoyable to do. Everyone will get a second to shine with some kickass martial show or some crafty strategic ingenuity that turns the tide in opposition to the Pykes. And for probably the most half, getting these moments with supporting characters like Krrsantan or the Mods neatly pays off on Boba’s willingness to place belief in others as he constructed out his alliances early on within the collection—even when the repay isn’t notably satisfying aside from “they’re here now, and their blaster isn’t pointed at Boba.”

But beneath the bluster of what principally amounts to an hour-long motion sequence is the issue that there isn’t all that a lot in “In the Name of Honor” past its prolonged spectacle. It can be much less of an issue if this was not the finale of the season, or even perhaps the present at massive, because it’s unclear whether or not or not we’ll get extra Book of Boba Fett , or if threads left right here shall be picked up in reveals like The Mandalorian as an alternative. As the fruits of all the things The Book of Boba Fett was meant to be about—the development of its titular character and shut confidants like Fennec Shand—the truth that this episode is a collection of motion sequences that ultimately simply peter out means there’s little time to truly repay some correct character work.

There is just a little character improvement in matches and begins, however as in the final two episodes of the present, these moments really feel like they’re both brushed over too rapidly or for characters who aren’t Boba himself, who as soon as once more struggles to be the guts of his personal story. The scant quiet moments between chases and shootouts largely go to Din Djarin and his re-union with Grogu, however even these are fleeting—it’s nonetheless emotional, certain, as a result of we’re invested in these characters from two seasons of The Mandalorian. But there’s one thing darkly humorous that the long-awaited reunion between the duo comes mid-chase sequence as Peli Motto lifts a blanket from over Grogu to go “ta-da!”

What few beats we get with Boba between the moments of spectacle are equally fleeting, however additionally extra muddled and uneven. Boba is rapidly separated from the remainder of his allies in the course of the skirmish to stage a one-on-one duel with Cad Bane, and it’s handled as if Bane is The Book of Boba Fett’s reply to a serious foil for Boba, and never like he actually solely confirmed up with seconds to spare within the earlier episode. As Bane and Boba stare one another down, their duel of wills turns into about whether or not or not, as Bane sees it, Boba nonetheless has the killer fringe of a bounty hunter. He teases Boba for having the blood of Jango flowing by him, and for, confusingly, being each a coward and a killer. He gloats as if he has been a longtime mentor to Boba, a persistent thorn in his facet on this present, and that is the ultimate battle between pupil and grasp, a relationship Star Wars has at all times outlined a few of its biggest struggles by—one which, like a lot of these relationships, is severed completely when Boba kills Bane.

But it isn’t that. It’s barely even a relationship in any respect. This is the primary time they’re onscreen collectively in The Book of Boba Fett, solely the second time they’ve interacted on display in any respect, except for fleetingly crossing paths with a nod to a bigger shared historical past in The Clone Wars’ fourth season a decade in the past. Boba and Cad Bane have extra interplay in a famously unfinished deleted scene from an animated collection than they do in The Book of Boba Fett, and by spending one of its few moments of character work attempting to deal with Boba and Cad’s relationship like one which we should always not solely be invested in already, however prefer it actually exists within the first place, undercuts it as a personality second for Boba completely. And that’s not nice when that is the climax of his personal present!

You’ll discover Fennec, The Book of Boba Fett’s different ostensible protagonist, barely warrants a point out both—disappearing early on within the episode, she solely returns when the combating is essentially carried out, to wrap up the plot thread of the Mos Espa crime lords who betrayed Boba, Mok Shaiz and the lingering Pyke chief, by rapidly offing them. It’s an awkwardly neat bow that will get wrapped in a means that’s way more demure than getting vengeance on these characters must be. In doing so, makes it really feel like there’s little for The Book of Boba Fett to select up on ought to it proceed past this season. There’s simply not the emotional connection there with Fennec and Boba the way in which there may be with Din and Grogu, as a result of the 2 have needed to struggle tooth and nail for scraps of character work in their very own collection, Star Wars as soon as once more buying and selling spectacle and intertextual connection over an actual sense of substance.

And that’s actually the issue with “In the Name of Honor,” and in the end The Book of Boba Fett. Between prolonged detours full of characters we’re way more invested in, and its personal frustratingly sudden curbing of plotlines that gave the early components of the collection promise, it’s laborious to justify that Boba’s guide was value cracking open. What was completed in seven episodes—extra realistically 5, given our sidestep into The Mandalorian—is only a reminder that Boba is craving for belonging and which means in a world that has already taken the character’s mythos and compellingly examined its legacy by the helmeted eyes of different Mandalorians.

As the mud settles and Boba and Fennec settle in because the defacto rulers of Mos Espa, I’m unsure The Book of Boba Fett ever actually had an inkling of what it important character’s goal must be. It’s by no means been clearer that Boba’s unique standing as a compelling design in quest of a personality is one thing Star Wars continues to be struggling with in any case these years.

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