'The Book of Boba Fett' Episode 7: "In The Name Of Honor" Recap and Review
It is a finale overstuffed with shootouts, chases, droids, and a giant monster and yet it still felt as empty as the deserts of tatooine
WARNING: Contains Spoilers
Imagine your back in primary school, art class to be specific, and it is finger-paint day. All week you’ve waiting for finger paint day because you absolutely love to finger paint. You’ve been staring at those paints all week with simmering excitement as you ponder what magnificent colors you will create. Finally, your imagination is unleashed upon the palette but what color do you create? You love blue so you add a bit of that, red is a cool color, so you squeeze a dollop of that, a touch of green, a dash of yellow. Pretty soon you are throwing every color you can think of into the mix in an excited frenzy; pink, orange, seafoam green, plum crazy purple… You mix it all together, imagining the radiant and vibrant color you’ve created, then you look down at your creation and see brown. Let that feeling sink in, really allow it to wash over you. That’s the finale of The Book of Boba Fett, brown. Yes, there were elements that otherwise would have been effective if given room to breathe and were properly highlighted but they are lost in the sea of a series of unfortunate events that is this episode. In an attempt to make the audience happy they threw every card they had on the table but unfortunately that table was on fire, and the cards made it worse.
After the attack on Garsa Fwip’s Cantina, Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) and Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) survey the destruction when they are joined by the Mandalorian Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), Din informs them of the reinforcements he negotiated with Cobb Vanth (Timothy Olyphant). They decide to hole up in the rubble of the Cantina while they wait for the reinforcements. In Mos Eisley, Cad Bane (Corey Burton) interrupts a meeting with the head of the Pyke Syndicate and the Mayor of Mos Espa (Robert Rodriguez), he lets them know that he took care of Cobb Vanth and they let it slip that it was the Pyke Syndicate who murdered Boba Fett’s Tusken Raider allies and he does not know. Elsewhere, a single X-Wing flies into Pelli Motto’s (Amy Sedaris) shop. She greets it, expecting a Republic officer, but instead finds Grogu inside wearing the Beskar shirt the Mandalorian had made for him. In Mos Espa, Fennec lays out the situation, with the Mods, Black Krrsantan, and the Gamorrian Guards all watching different parts of the city when 8D8 (Matt Berry) interrupting to inform them of a visitor. Boba walks out to find Cad Bane waiting for him. The two square off and Cad Bane attempts to negotiate but Boba refuses after learning the truth to the demise of the Tusken Raiders. Suddenly the lookouts are attacked. The Mods, Black Krrsantan and the Guards are all attacked simultaneously. Immediately, Fennec heads to Mos Eisley in attempt to find the head of the syndicate, but not before saving the Mods. Slowly the Pykes surround the Cantina, Boba and Din prepare to run out guns blazing, but the Mayor’s Majordomo (David Pasquesi) offers to help negotiate, which does not go well. Boba and Din get into a firefight and the battle kicks off. The sheer numbers of the Pykes are too much for them but they are saved when the Garrison arrives from Free town. Soon the mods join them and Black Krrsantan fights through the injuries to make it back as well. Together they force the Pykes into a retreat, but the relief is only momentary as two massive droids with shield generators force their own retreat. During the retreat, Peli Motto arrives just in time to pick up Din and drive him to safety. Peli reveals to Din that she brought Grogu with her and the two reunite just before their transport crashes. Suddenly a roar stops the fighting and a Rancor, with Boba riding it, climbs over the buildings and attacks the giant droid. They damage the droid, but it wounds the Rancor then goes after Din. Din is helpless against the Droid but is saved when Grogu disables it by pulling a vital piece out of its leg with the force, giving the Rancor time an opportunity to destroy the droid. After which, Boba and the Rancor head off to save the others from the last giant droid. The droid puts up a fight, but it is no match for the Rancor and the group turns the tides against the Syndicate. Then out comes Cad Bane, he stares Down Boba and the Rancor and uses his flamethrower to unseat Boba and scare off the Rancor. Now, Boba and Bane have a proper showdown. Cad Bane is too quick for Boba and knocks him to the ground. It seems Cad Bane has bested Boba but after being taunted too much, Boba overpowers Bane and stabs him in the chest with his Tusken spear. The Rancor rages in the city and starts destroying the area, Din attempts to stop it but he is no match for the Rancor. Suddenly, Din is moments away from killing Din when Grogu waddles in between them. Grogu raises a single small hand out to the Rancor and slowly the Rancor calms to an eventual slumber. Back in Mos Eisley, the head of the Syndicate, the Mayor of Mos Espa, and the heads of the other crime family all get taken out by an unknown assailant. After the last one falls, Fennec reveals herself and escapes unseen. In the aftermath Boba strolls through his city, surrounded by the appreciating public, ready for any new threat to his city.
Well, all the things happened. Boba and Din Djarin team up for some Mandalorian action, Grogu uses some space magic, Boba rides a Rancor, and Boba the last showdown with Cad Bane. Yes, all those things happened and yet it was all still underwhelming. Boba’s Tusken Raider arc gets a second conclusion as it is revealed that the Pykes were the ones who actually killed the Tribe. Cad Bane uses this fact to get under Boba’s skin which is used as extra motivation for Boba in the fight but is ultimately unnecessary if either story arc were treated better. If the showdown with Cad Bane was the ultimate goal of the season, then he should have been introduced earlier in the series. Maybe instead of the Hutt Twins, you introduce him then, but that would require another way to introduce Black Krrsantan which would still feel meaningless giver his ornamental nature in this episode. Cad Bane could have been the one to actually had killed the Tribe which would have added real weight to the showdown. As it stands, Cad Bane suffers from “Big Bad” syndrome which has plagued many series on Disney+ where the true villain is revealed in the second to last episode then dispatched in the finale. Doing this forces a rushed attempt to make the villain’s end feel meaningful which typically does not work. It is also implied that Boba kills Cad Bane in the end which would be tragic and wasteful of such a storied character. In their history, Boba and Bane have enough problems in between them to build to Boba killing Bane but the way it is handled by using the Tusken Raiders to egg him on into it just feels melodramatic to a general audience and underwhelming to the fanatics.
The whole episode feels structured like a videogame; starts with basic enemies, vehicle level, a power up, and then the Final Boss. The fight starts with a shootout with the Pykes. When Boba and Din get overwhelmed, the people of Freetown save them. Then the Droids arrive, it’s too much for them until Boba rides a Rancor. Din gains a power up when Grogu arrives. Finally, a boss fight with Cad Bane. The progression through the fight feels as disjointed as those sentences that preceded this one. It felt like a series of highlights from a full season of fights that were separated by scenes of people running away. The slow escalation of the fight could have worked if Boba felt in danger at any point during the fight. Each time Boba was the least bit overwhelmed something came in and saved him to a point where it became comical. The only time Boba felt vulnerable was during the fight with Cad Bane, but he hulked up and turned the tables on Bane in the blink of an eye. The excuse could be made that Boba’s invincible armor killed the tension, but we have seen Din Djarin be pummeled nearly to death multiple times during The Mandalorian and when he is saved it is connected to a poignant development in his character. Cad Bane’s taunting of Boba with the information that the Pykes were actually the ones to kill the Tusken Tribe feels like an attempt at this, but Cad Bane had nothing to do with the murders. All Cad Bane was really doing was a little bit of smack talk and Boba treated it like he was killing the person responsible. What makes it worse is that the people truly responsible, the leaders of the Pyke Syndicate, were wiped out in seconds by Fennec Shand instead making Boba’s victory ring a bit hollow.
The Mandalorian Din Djarin and Grogu’s story arc was the highlight of the episode and arguably the series as a whole. Anchored by choice between Foundling and Padawan, we see both Din and Grogu deal with the choice in their own way. Din believes the path of the Force is what is best for Grogu and removes himself from Grogu’s life as to not be a determent while Grogu is willing to give up the force to be with his surrogate father whom he has become inseparably fond of. This conflict of intentions and feelings and the implications of the conflict are the most interesting elements of this whole series which both helps and hurts the series. On one hand, the Mandalorian’s inclusion provided a notable jump in quality and intrigue but also made Boba Fett feel characteristically inferior by comparison. Even during the final battle, the Mandalorian felt like the true focus of the episode as he felt the most in danger and had more story development during the fight. All this only highlights the fact that this entire story arc should have been a side story during the The Mandalorian instead of a full series that exists under the guise that it is a story about Boba Fett instead.
Looking at the stills of the series, it is easy to see the excitement that came with the creation of the big moments. Boba riding a massive beast as it pounds on a giant shield droid, Boba and Din raining down blaster fire while hovering twenty feet above the ground, legendary bounty hunters Boba Fett and Cad Bane have their long-awaited showdown; all these events are exciting and intriguing on the surface level. But the moment you dive deeper into what led to and the outcome of these moments, you realize that there is no depth. All those moments are just that, fleeting moments impress visually but immediately vacate your mind because of their lack of importance to the story. It is hard to tell what exactly went wrong with this series. John Favreau and Dave Filoni have an impeccable track record when it comes to crafting true intrigue and story, and with an incredibly popular character like Boba Fett it should have been a cake walk to get the audience to care. It feels like some other entity was at play here; it was either time or studio mandates that hindered the series. They either had all these incredible moments in mind and couldn’t spend the time to form the narrative around those events to make them meaningful or they were given all these moments that needed to be included and then struggled to write around them. What could be pointing to the answer to this is the rumor that arose an almost a year ago that Favreau was battling the President of Lucasfilm Kathleen Kennedy for control of The Mandalorian and their spin-offs and he was frustrated by her micro-managing which was originally reported by gossip writer Daniel Richtman and picked up by numerous outlets. If true, then that would explain all of the problems with this series as clashes between creators and producers usually result in messy and disjointed narratives a seen with major projects like Justice League and Suicide Squad. Whatever led to the faults in this series, the result is very disappointing. As popular as Boba Fett was as a character, it is not nearly enough to carry a lackluster series into popularity. A character is only as good as the stories they imbody. Unfortunately, the story around Boba Fett does not build intrigue for a second season, there would have to be a notable change in how these characters are treated. However, the third season of The Mandalorian is ripe with anticipation