Characters collide and plot threads come together via a Mos Espa showdown in “In the Name of Honor”, chapter seven of The Book of Boba Fett, written by Jon Favreau and directed by Robert Rodriguez.
Austin Gorton: Welcome to the ComicsXF roundtable discussion of the Book of Boba Fett season finale! Because this episode is bigger and crammed full of more characters than ever, we thought we’d get all our Star Wars loving friends to join in on the discussion of this one.
Adam Reck: I just took a refreshing dip in my Bacta Tank and I’m raring to go!
Mark Turetsky: How do you do, fellow kids?
Matt Lazorwitz: Excuse me as I do a quick spin with my laptop before firing off some quips.
Tony Thornley: *roars*
Don’t Tell Me the Odds
Austin: Even though this is a Boba Fett show, the last episode concluded with a cliffhanger for Grogu: will he choose his buddy Mando, or stay with Luke to become a Jedi? Here, we quickly learn the result of that choice, as Grogu shows up in Peli Motto’s garage aboard Luke’s X-wing (piloted by Artoo), having apparently given Luke and his dumb ultimatiums the big ol’ FU and made the choice which, really, we all knew he was going to make.
Adam: Yay! Grogu DID cause Kylo Ren! He’s rocking that chainmail shirt like a boss. This is the first of many scenes featuring Amy Sedaris’s Pelli Motto and she continues to delight with her comic timing and doting on the little green guy. Meanwhile, Boba’s crew continues to follow the most idiotic of plans and are spread out in small groups across town waiting to get shot at or stabbed by the Pykes. Really guys? This is the strategy? Of course, after getting off to a terrible start, reinforcements arrive with the Freetonians led by the (still nameless! Give this person a name!) Weequay bartender as they wage battle against two gigantic, force-fielded Scorpenek Battle Droids! Unlike in the animated series’, our heroes don’t just roll explosives into their force fields and watch them blow up. They mostly – uh – get shot and die.
Tony: Am I the only one who was starting to tire of Pelli’s antics? At least until she pulled her blaster out and started actually helping? I like Sedaris a lot, but the broad comedy of the character is just a little much to me, especially in the middle of… y’know- (Tony gestures broadly at all of Mos Espa.) I don’t have a problem with Star Wars and comedy, but I feel like (except for Jar Jar) the franchise usually knows when to dial it back, and in this case they didn’t. Maybe that’s just me.
Adam: I think it might just be you. I love her. Give me the comic relief please.
Tony: I did love the battle droids though. They felt like a natural evolution of their predecessors from the Clone Wars, and I loved how sleek and modern they felt. Showed that the Pykes have some serious money behind them.
Adam: Agreed. Also gave Boba something big that couldn’t be defeated as easily as the person-size Pykes.
Austin: Plenty has been made of the fact that, aside from stuff in the flashbacks, Boba hasn’t exactly been an active participant in his story this season, delegating a lot of the action to his partners and subordinates (and then more or less taking the last two episodes off). While this episode doesn’t do a ton to assuage those criticisms (he still delegates a lot, and most wins the day through sheer force of will and the timely arrival of a certain Force-sensitive baby rather than through a newfound knack for cunning and strategy), the sequence when he and Mando emerge, Butch and Sundance style, to take on the Pyke forces more or less on their own is exhiliarating, and probably the best action-focused showcase for Boba of the whole season. He isn’t overshadowed by Mando, for once, and displays the skills that make him, in the minds of a large section of the audience, “a badass”, with the whole sequence coming to close to matching the “oh shit” feeling that accompanied his return to the screen in The Mandalorian last season.
Adam: I never tire of a good Butch and Sundance riff, and this one finally gave Boba a chance to shine next to his shinier pal, Mando. I also appreciate that it wasn’t as cut and dry as the two of them walking out and saving the day – they still got their asses handed to them and needed to regroup for the next part of the fight, which . . . drumroll please . . , pays off the previously promised Chekhov’s Rancor who shows up with Boba on board to kick some Scorpenek tail! Or try at least?
Mark: He doesn’t even come off as a good strategist here. The heads of the crime families betray him in a heartbeat, as we all knew they would. Why he ever thought that they wouldn’t is entirely beyond me.
Tony: Definitely, and it makes the idea of splitting up their forces look even worse.
Austin: RIP the poor, loyal Gamorreans who got shoved off a cliff. They are, I believe, the only notable casualties on Boba’s side. Also, speaking of poor strategy, was it terribly wise to put Black Krrsantan in the Trandoshan territory?
Matt: No! I heard that and immediately figured either these folk were worse at planning than we had already seen them be, or were expecting betrayal and putting Black K in the spot where his rage would be the most beneficial. We got that answer pretty darn quick.
Tony: But he should have gotten back-up. Sending him in solo was a bad move.
Austin: I do love how a few episodes ago, Black Krrsantan was a clear antagonist we were meant to root against as he beat the crap out of a mid-bath Boba Fett, and here, he gets the full “making a heroic stand” treatment (like, twice).
Adam: Again, any chance this crew has to make a bad decision – they will. That said, we do finally get the promised Boba Fett rides a Rancor scene, which seems right out of a kid’s action figure playtime. The Rancor even seemed somewhat stop-motion in certain movements? Anyone else notice that staggering as the Rancor went from monstrous pet ally to wild King Kong reenactor?
Austin: Credit where it’s due – they set this up, and then knocked it down. The rancor stuff was great, the right mix of effective against the droids but not so overwhelming that his presence robbed the scenes of tension. And for all the allusions in this episode to Western films both specific and general – from Unforgiven to countless “heroes fend off an assault from a besieged location against impossible odds” riffs – I never expected them to toss a King Kong homage in there, too, but here we are. I guess that makes Grogu the “beauty” which “kills” this beast.
Tony: I was SO glad that we got the Rancor instead of the rumored “Han Solo saves the day” scene. Though I did kind of hope to see the Firespray and another gravity mine (added bonus, a repeat of the best sound effect in science fiction). It wouldn’t have done any more damage the Rancor did.
Austin: You do raise a good point: rather than getting his rancor, Boba could have just climbed in his Firespray and blasted the droids. Maybe he was worried about the optics of that (or its targeting capabilities aren’t quite that refined). Or it just would have been less fun.
Tony: I thought last week’s Luke plotline was a little too much, but seeing this episode, I understand why it was necessary. We needed it to get that excellent Din & Grogu reunion and new status quo. There is no way in hell I can think of a way that shoe-horning Han Solo could have worked. Han hates Jabba so why would he want to protect his legacy/territory? He strongly dislikes Boba, why would he come to Mos Espa to help him out? Sorry, long aside about something that didn’t actually happen in the episode.
Adam: I hadn’t heard of this rumor until you told me, Tony, and I’m with you – thank the Force it didn’t happen. Just another reason they need to recast these parts instead of worrying about what digital monster is going to randomly wander onscreen.
Power of the Log
Austin: All season long, we’ve been probing the question of why Boba Fett is so set on being a crimelord (or at least this crimelord). We got an answer of sorts in the notion that he’s sick of doing work for hire and wants to be his own boss, but he could do that anywhere. Why be this boss, in this place, and risk his life to protect others. The answer this episode seems to suggest is that Boba is just…a good guy who cares about other people now, as a result of his experience with the Native Tatooiners. Which is fine, I guess. Maybe I’m just dense, but I would have liked that transition highlighted a little bit more, especially since his transformation from “feared jobber” to “benevolent boss” is the closest thing the character has to an arc in this season.
Adam: You’re absolutely right, Austin. I’ve just been along for the ride this season for whatever Star Wars hijinx are in store, but the fact that the payoff of Boba’s character arc was “I guess I should use my stick” really highlighted how low the stakes were. Not only that, but (and I know not everyone in the group agrees with this assessment) it sure seems like he’s going to hand off Daiymo status to his buddies Santo and the Mods at the end here.
Austin: I definitely read that more as a joke about how Boba and Fennec are stuck doing this now whether they like it or not, followed by a pan out to the whacky little family they’ve constructed around themselves, but I could be wrong. Only time – and future episodes – will tell.
Tony: But if there aren’t future episodes, I think that was a pretty satisfying way to leave it. Maybe Boba will stick around and do it with their help. Maybe he’ll hand it off to them. But it worked for me.
Mark: So, I’ve been thinking back to this exchange between Boba and Fennec, and thinking back to how he’s portrayed in the original trilogy, it makes sense. Boba Fett is the bounty hunter who catches Han because he’s clever. He stays behind because he figures out Han might try to float away with the garbage and that’s how he catches Han, Leia and company. It’s not because he’s the ultimate badass. And he’s terrible in a fight, getting killed out relatively easily. It’s only through ancillary materials that the legend of Boba Fett the badass is born. And here he’s not wily. He’s caught flatfooted at every turn, and so when Bane calls him out as a killer, it’s as if these two conceptions of who Boba Fett is as a character are facing off against each other. Is Boba Fett nothing more than a killer? It’s such a strange moment, because it wants to be the end of Unforgiven, where Clint Eastwood can no longer deny his violent past, and needs to embrace it, and slaughters a bunch of people. But here, Boba very much kills Bane in self defense.
Austin: It’s presented as – in part, because it’s drawing on things like Unforgiven and plenty of other stories in which protagonists are forced to choose between their sordid past and the new identity they’ve forged for themselves by a physical representation of that past – a moment of truth for Boba. Will he be the killer Cad Bane says he is, or will he be the more benevolent head of a crime family he’s positioned himself as? Yet it’s ultimately a non-existent choice. Any move he makes against Bane is couched in self-defense, and the question of killing him or not once Bane’s been put on his back is irrelevant; Boba’s internal struggle, such as it is, is between whether he’ll continue being a solo operative concerned only with himself or if he’ll stick it out as a leader trying to build something to protect people. Killing or not killing Cad Bane at this moment has no bearing on any of that.
Adam: This is also the case with the final assassination of Boba’s enemies who are taken out one by one in a sequence that could have been a testament to his bounty hunting abilities and turned out to be . . . Fennec, who gets in and gets out with such ease it makes me wonder why she didn’t do this before the attack so none of it happened?
Mark: I think that was a nod to the climax of The Godfather, but with all of Boba Fett’s enemies gathered in one spot. He’s solidified his power and is taking out all of his rivals and betrayers.
Adam: I know when I think of this season of television, I’ll definitely be thinking about Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather.
Tony: Regardless, it ruled. I want a second season if only to get Ming-Na kicking more ass as Fennec. I kind of wondered if she would show mercy to the Mayor, but nope, all of them got ganked. The power vacuum in Mos Espa and probably on all of Tatooine in general would make for a pretty great season two plotline.
Austin: For all that Boba and his plots took a break for roughly a third of this season, there is fertile material here for future “Boba Fett Crimelord” seasons by the end of this one. Also, yes, can we just make this “The Book of Fennec Shand”?
What Are We Doing Here?
Mark: I don’t want to harp on this point too much, but it’s astonishing to me that the most affecting parts of this episode are the moments between Grogu and Din. And it’s not like it’s just because I like those characters. Those moments were spotlighted in the production itself.
Austin: Absolutely. After a two episode break, Boba Fett did get some lines in his eponymous show and did get to do some cool stuff here (more on that below), but in terms of both plot and character, Din and Grogu remained central. Their reunion was the emotional center of the episode (it’s amazing how good Pedro Pascal is at emoting to a puppet while wearing a face-covering helmet in the middle of a gonzo chase sequence). Both made significant contributions to Boba’s overall victory and, to your point Mark, those contributions were staged and filmed in a way such that the creators knew they were big deals.
Tony: And they were effective as hell. The hug, the reveal of Grogu wearing the chainmail, Grogu coming in to save the day with the Rancor… All of it works really well and on a level a step up from just fan service.
Austin: I’m sure I beat this to death in the last review, but it’s just such a weird way to construct a spinoff. I can’t decide if it’s the result of a lack of material (or confidence in the material) specific to Boba Fett and his goals, or representative of a change in how episodic serial television is being made, and that I need to stop thinking of it in terms of the “old” way stuff like this worked. Like most things, it’s probably a little of both.
Matt: Austin, I watched this and I began to see a paradigm shift that I’m not sure Disney is wholly confident in. I agree this was a little of both, and so I felt like this was testing the waters for an anthology approach. We saw the closest thing to an anthology in the MCU with What If? and now Mando season 2.5 here. I think there might be a thought that an anthology might work, say Star Wars Tales, but modern American audiences haven’t embraced the format in decades, so you try it with animation (I suppose you could lump in Visions in that experiment as well), and this, and next thing you know, each short run series is a “season” of Tales. The MCU has reinforced the idea that the next thing should be a part of the current thing, so this feels like a logical progression.
Austin: We have something a little like this in the various Ryan Murphy “American __ Story” anthologies (mostly horror, but also a few of those crime ones), which is probably the closest thing modern TV has to the traditional anthology show. I could see something like that model working for Star Wars, in the right circumstances and if handled well. It is perhaps overly pedantic of me, but a lot of the structural issues I have with this season go away if it had been presented as a “Tales of the Star Wars Galaxy” season which started off focused on what Boba Fett’s been up to before widening to incorporate other characters, instead of being presented as a Boba Fett TV show in which the title characters disappears right before the climax.
Adam: It’s pretty clear following Rise of Skywalker that there’s a lack of cohesive vision to what the future of the Star Wars Universe will look like. There have been canceled trilogies by multiple directors, and the brand has largely migrated to television in the pandemic with no new movies on the horizon. What we’ve got now seems largely guided by Favreau and Filoni playing in their sandbox. I’m not suggesting this is good or bad, but we’re seeing the limits and the tantalizingly frightening possibilities of where we could be headed, and it all seems unfocused without any clear destination.
Tony: And I think we can all agree that was the biggest problem with Star Wars prior to Rise of Skywalker. Clearly there was/is no roadmap, because Johnson wouldn’t have ended The Last Jedi by breaking the trilogy, and JJ wouldn’t have done half of the reveals he put into TROS. Filoni and Favreau are clearly building to something, and if they weren’t so busy with these shows (which, let’s be real, are at this point more serialized films than episodic television) I’d say they’re clearly the guys to fill the role Feige does at Marvel.
Adam: They’re definitely in the pilot’s chair, but I disagree they know the destination.
Tony: There’s been mentions of plans for the core trio of the sequel trilogy. Maybe the spinning of wheels on the film side is so the TV side can set up some of those plans. Could we be getting a Rey/Grogu/Ahsoka team-up film maybe? I don’t know. But hey, I enjoyed this overall, even if it wasn’t what we expected.
Austin: I think that sums up the season on the whole pretty well, Tony: as the latest installment in this post-Return of the Jedi, pre-Sequel Trilogy narrative, this was lots of fun and largely entertaining. As a showcase for its title character as he attempts to carve out a niche for himself as a crime boss? It’s not nearly as effective. What that bodes – for the series, and for Star Wars – remains to be seen.
Force Facts
- The Bad Batch regularly disposed of force-fielded droids with a well-placed rolling explosive. It’s a shame they weren’t around. This battle would’ve ended much faster.
- Star Wars is known for inserting fake nouns into established idioms, but it’s going to be tough to top Cad Bane saying to Boba, “if that’s not the Quacta calling the Stifling slimy”.
- Peli uses a Jawa blaster during the fight, something I know because of the late 90s action figures. Maybe something she held onto after a break-up?
- The new Scorponek droids are reportedly based on unused designs from Attack of the Clones.
- The LEP ratcatcher droid makes a brief cameo at the end of the episode (he’s part of the team!).
- In a post-credits sequence we see Thundercat’s Modifier ready to work on Cobb Vanth inside Boba’s Bacta Tank, assuring Cobb will return.
- Unlike S2 of Mandolorian, the post-credits scene does not promise any new shows.
- Disney Plus announced soon after that the Ewan McGregor Obi-Wan series would be premiering on May 25th. Will we get more deepfake abominations? We’ll see!
- The thing I want most after seeing this episode? A series of shorts starring Amy Sedaris’s Peli Motto and Dave Pasquesi’s Mayor’s Majordomo (who still needs a name). I want to see them on a date, I want to see him clumsily helping at her shop. Just bring very domestic and day-to-day. It’s gold.
Adam Reck is the cartoonist behind Bish & Jubez as well as the co-host of Battle Of The Atom.
Austin Gorton also reviews older issues of X-Men at the Real Gentlemen of Leisure website, co-hosts the A Very Special episode podcast, and likes Star Wars. He lives outside Minneapolis, where sometimes, it is not cold. Follow him on Twitter @AustinGorton
Mark Turetsky
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of five. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the creator interview podcast WMQ&A with Dan Grote.
