‘The Book of Boba Fett' Episode 3: "The Streets of Mos Espa" Recap and Review
The series takes one step forward and two steps back as it tries to justify seven episodes for a story with such limited scope
WARNING: Contains Spoilers
Story momentum for an episodic series is like a snowball rolling down a hill; the further it goes, the more snow it gathers and the more momentum it builds. Along the way it can hit obstacles that can change its direction but it’s momentum keeps moving forward. What The Book of Boba Fett is doing can be best described as picking up the snowball every few feet and placing it back at the top of the hill. As the series proceeds, the story progress from the previous episodes is reset and treated as filler to meander it’s way back to the status quo established at the beginning. We’ve been introduced to characters and stories only for them to be removed from the story with little to no fanfare. At one point, a character apologizes to Boba Fett for wasting his time then simply walks away, it almost feels like a message to the audience.
The episode begins just as the others did, with a scenic establishing shot of the former home to Jabba the Hutt. In the palace, Boba Fett (Temura Morrison), Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen), and 8D8 (Matt Berry) discus their current situation with the huts when they are interrupted by a request from local water monger Lortha Peel (Stephen Root). He complains about a gang of cyborgs stealing water from him. In order to prove his control of the city, Boba decides to address the complaint personally. Boba meets with the cyber punks’ leader Drash (Sophia Thatcher) and she stands defiant against Boba’s demands, citing the already unfair water prices. Boba sees something in the gang and offers them a place in his posse as a reasonable alternative to death. Back at the palace, Boba’s dreams of his past return. He leaves the tribe of Tusken Raiders and heads to the headquarters of the Pyke Gang, who’s speeder train he recently destroyed. He attempts to demand protection payments for the Tuskens. The leader declines, citing payments he is already making to a speeder bike gang. Boba returns to the Tusken encampment to find it in ruins and all the Tuskens dead. He finds a marking from the bike gang whom they had attacked before, this was their doing. He mourns, and burns the bodies ceremoniously. Suddenly Boba is awoken and attacked by Hutt Twin muscle Black Krrsantan (Carey Jones). Aided by his posse, they manage to fight off the attack and lock him in the Rancor pit. In the morning, the Hutts arrive with an unexpected apology. The Twins apologize for sending Black Krrsantan and gift Boba Fett with his very own Rancor and an Rancor Keeper (Danny Trejo). Boba asks about the sudden change and they tell him that the Mayor (Robert Rodriguez) has already promised the territory to the Pyke Gang. Boba returns Black Krrsantan and the Twins leave. The Rancor Keeper teaches Boba about the Rancor and Boba decides to imprint himself to the Rancor, so that he can ride it eventually. After being denied audience with the Mayor, Boba and the gang head out to have the meeting anyway. Once again, Mok Shaiz's Majordomo (David Pasquesi) stalls, but then tries to escape after Boba realizes that the Mayor was not there. The cyber punks chase the Majordomo through the streets until he skids into a fruit stand. Having been caught Boba learns that the Mayor is in deep with the Pykes, and through some investigation, he also learns that they Pykes are amassing numbers on Mos Espa.
So after three episodes Boba Fett is once again in the same situation he was in episode one. In his past, he is once again alone in the deserts of Tatooine surrounded by Hostiles and in the present he is still clinging on to his new territory and dealing with the Mischievious Mayor. The Tusken allies he gained in over the last two episodes; killed offscreen. The Hutt Twins and their Wookie muscle Black Krranstan; left the planet after a brief scuffle. The only progress that Boba Fett has made has been in numbers. He has gained t wo Gamorrean Guards and a handful of gang members with colorful speeder bikes. But the Guards seem inconsequential and the cyber punks feel like they are in the wrong show. The gang’s clothing looks too modern and of our culture, they appear to belong more to the Alita: Battle Angel universe than Star Wars. At this point, the inclusion of the Hutt Twins and Black Krrsantan feels like pointless fan service. Their inclusion was used only to stall the overall plot and the fact they were familiar faces seems like just a distraction from their purpose in the script. What was an exciting reveal of an interesting group of antagonists is now just a brief tease to switch back to the far less interesting villains. That less interesting villain is still the Mayor, whom was implicated in episode one, and has now aligned him with a mildly intimidating but extremely generic syndicate called the Pyke Syndicate. It’s easy to miss but the Pykes have been involved since episode one, being mentioned in passing a few times during the exposition heavy moments. Their involvement could lead to Crimson Dawn being the true big bad of this series but without the likes of Darth Maul to lead them, there seems to be no rush in their introduction. In fact, holding off that reveal until the end of the series seems more likely as a ploy to get viewers for a follow-up series. The true tragedy of the episode was not that the Tusken Raiders were killed but how they were killed. Boba’s allies were wiped out, off-screen, while Boba took a field trip into town. It is implied that they were killed by the speeder bike gang but their ineptitude leading up to the murder would make it hard to believe that they would have taken out the Raiders so easily, which is probably why they didn’t show it. It’s not like they were cut for time either, the episode was a little over 30 minutes long. Their entire purpose on the show was to give Boba Fett extra motivation against the gang which is a textbook example of ‘Fridging.’ The term was coined by comic book writer Gale Simone in 1999 and refers to an issue of Green Lantern where the hero’s girlfriend was introduced at the beginning of the issue and was killed and stuffed in a fridge before the end of the same issue. The trope appears embarrassingly frequently among modern media and is extremely disappointing to see in such a high profile Disney series. There is some hope lingering for the raiders, the child Tusken and Boba’s warrior trainer were not shown amongst the bodies but their survival seems un-likely.
It feels like we have been tricked by Disney into watching the same episode three times in a row.Everything about this episode feels like a distraction from the fact that their story could have easily fit in a single, feature-length narrative. They have paraded new and returning characters in front of our faces as if they were jingly keys to an infant. Character acting legend Stephen Root was brought in for the most minor of roles. They even went so far as adding Machete himself, the great Danny Trejo, to the series as a character who could have been anyone and actually could have been written out entirely. The second half of the series must progress the story in some big ways to save this series. Hopefully these distractions return to have a more significant impact and the show doesn’t begin with another establishing shot of Jabba’s Palace. There is only so much that Boba Fett riding a Rancor can fix.