The Wonderfully Crooked Streets of Mos Espa
It was a short but satisfying new episode of The Book of Boba Fett last night. The second of three directed by Robert Rodriguez, this episode made me realise The Book of Boba Fett is the most Disney Star Wars has come to feeling like George Lucas and like the old adventure serials he sought to emulate.
Spoilers after the screenshot
It's hard to imagine anyone will complain nothing happened in this episode because nearly every scene featured a dramatic turn of events. When a water broker asks Boba to take out a biker gang raiding his stock, Boba hires the gang instead. Last week I said I was hoping to get more insight into how things worked in Jabba's dominion, this episode delivered, giving me a fairly good idea. It was also interesting hearing about how moisture farmers, like Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, take their harvests to a city distributor.
Boba's strategy of ruling with respect continues to pay off as it's the biker gang who saves his ass when that big black wookiee gets the drop on him.
Apparently this is a character from the comics. The few Star Wars comics I've read since Disney took over where astonishingly bad and I've heard nothing but bad things about them since. But this guy was certainly a big hairy nightmare on the screen from the moment he yanked Boba out of the bacta tank. His name is Black Krrsantan, by the way, which I keep hearing as "Black Chrysanthemum", which I'm not sure is a good or bad thing.
The flashback was much shorter this time but came with the massacre of Boba's adopted family, the Tusken tribe. I knew this was coming--why else would Boba be wandering alone when he appeared on The Mandalorian?--but I was surprised it was so soon. So it took me a little off guard, which helped give me an impression of Boba's own sense of devastation. I hope Disney will allow him to get bloody revenge.
However, it's notable the badass female Tusken who trained him doesn't seem to be among the remains. Did the gang take her captive? That would imply a fate I know Disney would very much prefer not to suggest.
Back in the present day, Boba gets himself a new rancor as a gift from a surprisingly apologetic pair of hutts. Though it sounds to me like they're hoping Boba will defeat or at least weaken the Pykes so that the hutts can more easily take over the territory. I was surprised Boba let Krrsantan go, I was kind of hoping he'd make the wookiee into the replacement rancor.
But it was nice getting that sure trademark of a Rodriguez production when Danny Trejo appeared as the keeper of the new rancor.
So let's just tally it up here--things that happened in this episode. Boba hires the biker gang, the sand people are massacred in flashback, the wookiee tries to kill him and is thwarted by the combined efforts of Boba's whole crew, the Twins make peace, and Boba gets a new rancor that imprints on him. All that, and the episode wasn't even done yet.
A trip to the mayor's reveals the man had scarpered and his weaselly major-domo attempts to do the same. If I have one complaint about the episode it's that the speeder chase through the streets of Mos Espa felt too slow. But I do love this teen biker gang with their brightly coloured bikes. What else were they up to besides stealing water? Think about it--they said they didn't have any money. How did they get those bikes and cybernetic implants? These kids are crooked. And that makes me happy.
The Book of Boba Fett is available on Disney+.