'The Book of Boba Fett' Episode 4: "The Gathering Storm" Recap and Review
A series already stuffed with filler manages to squeeze even more in by answering questions that no one asked
WARNING: Contains Spoilers
Imagine the feeling you get from opening a bag of chips only to find that most of the bag is just air. Now, imagine that happening three times in a row then the fourth bag is nothing but air. Even a half bag of chips is better than no chips at all. That is what Episode 4 is, an empty bag of chips. This is, of course, exaggeration, but only slightly. The episode decides to use the bulk of it’s time to elaborate on how the two lead characters ended up partnering up, which was explained succinctly in a single line of dialogue, maybe two, in season two of The Mandalorian. Admittedly, there were a handful moments in the episode that could have been impactful, but the string of events that led up to these moments left them without a shred of momentum and left them deflated. Instead, you are left with moments that are highlighted as being ‘neat’ surrounded by the instantly forgettable empty space.
The episode begins in another one of Boba Fett’s (Temuera Morrison) Bacta dreams. After his friends, the Tusken Raiders, were killed, he investigates the hideout of the gang responsible. While camping in the desert, a flair in the distance catches his attention. Upon further investigation he finds the body of master assassin Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen). Boba Fett takes Fennec’s body to a local dealer and asks him to save her life. He succeeds; when Fennec wakes up, she is back at the sight of her death. Boba explains that he needs her help to get his ship back. The ship is being held at Jabba’s Palace, surrounded by Guards, Boba and Fennec hatch a plan to retrieve it. They sneak in through the sewer and enter through a grate in the kitchen. They quickly dispose of chefs, but take longer with the robotic rat catcher. They make their way to the Hangar to find his ship in all its glory. An interruption of Guards force Boba to quickly start the ship and blow the doors to the gate for a tense escape. Next stop, he obliterates the Biker Gang with ease using the ship and after that they head to the Sarlacc Pit to find his armor. After a brief tussle with the Sarlacc that leaves it dead, he finds no sign of his armor. At night, the two bond and decide to join forces to take over the criminal underworld. This wakes Boba from his Bacta slumber and he prepares to show his face in town. At Garsa Fwip’s Cantina (Jennifer Beals), Black Krrsantan (Carey Jones) stews after being bested by Boba Fett and takes his frustrations out on a group of Trandoshans. Boba sees this as an opportunity and offers Black Krrsantan a job working for him. Back at the Palace, Boba has a meeting with Jabba’s former Captains with Black Krrsantan now under his employment. He warns them about the impending threat of the Pyke Syndicate and propose a truce against the Pykes. They all agree, and Boba and Fennec look out upon the land he is fighting so very hard for with war on the horizon.
The big takeaway from this episode is that Black Krrsantan is now working for Boba Fett. Yes, in an episode where Boba Fett steals back his ship, enacts revenge on the speeder gang, saves Fennec’s life, and blows up the Sarlacc Pit; that was the biggest takeaway. When it was revealed that Fennec and Boba Fett were working together it was implied if not out-right explained that Boba saved her life and she works for him now. That was all that was needed, no one really asked to see the details of how he saved her but we are given the story anyway. This could have been interesting, some deeper thought into the story arc could have resulted in a story worth telling but instead plays out as a series of Anecdotes. He finds Fennec, takes her to someone who makes her a cyborg, they take his ship, he kills the Bikers, then kills the Sarlacc. On top of that, emphasis was put in all the wrong places. More time was given to the process of turning Fennec into a cyborg than Boba taking revenge on the Speeder Bike Gang. This gang murdered his only friends, people who took him in, taught him their ways and whom he exposed leading to their deaths and it is solved with a drive-by shooting. The Tusken Raiders are the source of all the emotion and character development from Boba Fett, but the show runners decided that the process of fixing Fennec was more important. The only good to come from this is the fact that the past story is now caught up to the future and there is no more need for the Bacta Tank of Dreams. The main development of the episode is that Boba has gained yet another ally in Black Krrsantan by asking politely. That is really all to be said about it. It took more effort to catch a small robot than it did for Boba to convince his Wookie rival to join him.
The opportunity to make this show great is apparent. The Tusken Raiders were a smart device to fundamentally change who Boba Fett was at his core and having a rival in Black Krrsantan join his ranks was a great opportunity to show that Boba has the leadership skills to make his ascent to the king of the Underworld believable. Instead of elaborating and placing emphasis on these moments they focus all their time on highlighting moments that have absolutely no weight on the story. Worse, the moments they did emphasize contradict each other tonally. The show goes from Boba chasing a little robot around a kitchen to slaughtering the Biker Gang with absolutely no remorse. In fact, the scene with the tiny robot emphasizes exactly what is wrong with the series. In the scene, Boba is confronted by two chef robots, one of which his dispatches easily, but the other had six arms all wielding large Butcher knives. It spins the knives around and conjured memories of General Grevious from the Prequels. How does the mighty Boba Fett defeat this hurricane of sharp edges? The answer is Fennec snuck up and cut off its head with a laser pen before the fight even started. That’s when the cute little robot arrives and Boba proceeds to chase it around the room with the same energy and similar tone to Tom chasing Jerry. One has to wonder if it was the true intention of the creators to make Boba Fett similar to that of a Hanna-Barbera Cartoon.