By: “The Watchman”
Surprise, surprise – we made it to the final episode! I wasn’t sure I could hold on after the bantha fodder that was the start of this series, but after the refreshment of what was essentially “The Mandalorian” Season 3 taking up Episodes 5 and 6, we made it to the ninth inning, ready to see if Boba knocks one out of the park to turn things around for the home team. How’d he do? Was the Force strong with this episode?
[MOSTLY SPOILER FREE REVIEW]
This is a “Mostly Spoiler Free Review”, so I will talk about different elements of the show without discussing almost any specific plot points. This is a review for Episode 7, however, so there WILL be spoilers for previous episodes as we set the stage for what happened this week. If you are not caught up through Episode 6 before reading this review, you might want to do that first.
If you’ve read my other reviews of this series, you know that I basically hated everything about Episodes 1 through 4 with few exceptions. I felt that the show was stupidly written, with characters doing things that made no sense and convenience being used to drive the plot more than anything realistic or believable. Boba Fett seemed very “Disneyfied”, not even allowed to fire a gun half the time, and scolding Fennec Shand for using the mere appearance of her pistol in its holster to strongarm her way through the Mayor’s obnoxious assistant.
Episode 1 was mostly Boba Fett standing around smiling with his helmet off while nothing interesting happened. Episode 2 was a little better, having a satisfying training arc between Boba Fett and some Tusken Raiders that ended in a fun and interesting battle against a train that made me much more optimistic for the future of the show, even if the whole premise of the Tusken vs. train battle was nonsensical if you stopped to think about it for more than two seconds.
Episode 3 was awful, with cartoonish characters doing cartoonish things. (The introduction of the Mods as major characters was definitely a low point for the series.) Episode 4 tried to, at last, explain some of Boba Fett’s motivations and thoughts behind his actions, which were mostly a mystery up to this point despite us now being halfway through the season, but it was a very boring episode, and Boba was shown up repeatedly by Fennec Shand in-between explaining his very generic character motivations, making him look basically useless (as usual) in his own show.
Episode 5 did not even have Boba Fett in it and, unsurprisingly, turned out to be amazing as a result. The Episode started with the Mandalorian cutting people apart with the Darksaber before reuniting and then splitting up again with his old Mandalorian crew after an awesome traditional duel for his new Kyber crystal weapon. He gets a new ship, a heavily souped up Naboo starfighter, before Fennec Shand shows up to recruit him at the end, Din Djarin actually refusing her money and agreeing to help his friend Boba Fett for free.
Episode 6 was even better than Episode 5, if you can believe that, featuring a very well written Luke Skywalker that felt exactly like Luke Skywalker should feel, training Grogu in the way of the Force. The Mandalorian comes to see Grogu only to be turned away, not by Luke directly, but by the reappearance of Ahsoka Tano. She questions Mando about his reasons for wanting to see Grogu, warning him that his very presence there could disrupt the Child’s training. This outing also reintroduced Marshall Cobb Vanth and an interesting side character I am told is from other good Star Wars shows (the blue bug-faced outlaw), featuring a wild west style shootout between them that was satisfying, while once again treating Boba Fett himself as nothing more than the most minor of side characters in his own show.
Episode 7 was a mix of all these things, the good and the bad, thoroughly shaken up and poured out together into a single not quite 100% cohesive Smoothie King smoothie. It had plot points that made me shake my head and say “Really?” out loud, as well as moments that made me genuinely cheer at the screen with excitement. It did a very good job of tying all the different concepts and characters introduced throughout the star-studded run of Boba Fett’s little Disney+ outing into a single narrative arrangement that, more or less, worked to create a decent end to the series. Unlike the Star Wars sequel trilogy, which started out so-so but ended horribly, “The Book of Boba Fett” has played out much more like George Lucas’ earlier Prequels, beginning very rough, but, in the end, eeking out a minor overall win after some rather well-crafted fight scenes.
I was really hoping Han Solo would show up at the end, as that was the rumor flying around since his name appeared on the IMDB cast list for the episode, but, alas, that was just a rumor. Either that, or he was removed following the last minute changes and reshoots also rumored to have been taking place on Episode 7 over the last few days to try and salvage the show’s reputation. (If that’s what happened, they worked. Of the five ‘Book of Boba Fett’ episodes that were actually about Boba Fett, this is, by far, my favorite.) I’m also a little disappointed that we see Grogu’s choice between a Beskar shirt Mando acquired for him (representing Grogu’s desire to return to the Mandalorian at the cost of abandoning his Jedi training) and Yoda’s old lightsaber that Luke was offering him (representing a chance for Grogu to set aside his past and remain as Luke’s student until he became a great Jedi Master), with Baby Yoda choosing the Beskar shirt, forcing Luke to send him back to his buddy Mando via an empty X-Wing flown to Tatooine by R2-D2.
Choosing the lightsaber would have erased the Disney trilogy by making Grogu into Luke’s first student instead of Ben Solo (“Kylo Ren”), which would be a big plus for all true Star Wars fans in my book, but Grogu choosing the Beskar shirt and returning to Mando is what I was expecting for a couple of big reasons. Mainly, it would be a little financially silly for Disney, even if they are planning to retcon the Sequel Trilogy someday (which is very possible), to remove the money-making mascot, Grogu, at the heart of The Mandalorian from his own show, and risk hurting the bottom dollar of their merchandise sales going into Season 3. Even worse, such a decision would risk damage to The Mandalorian show itself, which is the life support keeping Star Wars alive at this point. (Clearly, “The Book of Boba Fett” isn’t exactly going to be winning awards any time soon for its storyline.)
Reluctantly returning to “The Book of Boba Fett”, there’s really not a whole lot more I can say about the final episode without going into spoilers, so I’ll have to keep the rest of my review a little brief. I am currently planning to do a spoiler-filled “Season 1 Retrospective” in the next week, in which I will breakdown the whole series with a little more specificity, but, for tonight, I think the most telling thing I can say about ‘The Book of Boba Fett” is that, even after watching and mostly enjoying this week’s episode, the biggest thing on my mind immediately afterwards is “The Mandalorian” and the future of Star Wars as effected by “The Mandalorian”. What Grogu and Din Djarin do is a hundred times more interesting to me than anything Boba Fett does, even if Boba mustered up a literal army of rancors and ex-Wookie gladiators to rush to his side and help him kick criminal butt across half the galaxy.
Din feels much more like Star Wars than the literal character he’s based off from the original Star Wars trilogy. Let that sink in before you keep reading. Din feels much more like Star Wars than this version of Boba Fett does. Again, Episode 7 is definitely worth watching if you’ve kept up with the series up to this point. It is a decent episode in my opinion, with some fun moments, including several epic fight scenes that have to be seen to be believed. It also has some stupid moments, too, though, mostly featuring the Mods, or Boba Fett being shown up by Fennec and/or the Mods. Overall, I am glad to have seen it, and, with the addition of Episodes 5 and 6 to help me make it all the way to the end, this “satisfying enough” conclusion to the whole affair makes me glad that I watched “The Book of Boba Fett”, even if some episodes (Episodes 1 and 3 especially) were just painful to get through. Let’s just say I hope there’s not a second season of this, and wrap things up for the night on a mostly positive note, shall we?
Final Score for Episode 7, the Season Finale: 7/10
“A mixed bag conclusion to ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ that wraps up the show in a ‘satisfying enough’ way as to justify all of the plot threads woven together throughout the mostly long and boring episodes that came before it, excluding those focused entirely on The Mandalorian which were anomalies. Worth watching if you stayed committed to the series, but nothing you’ll be ranting and raving about with your friends a week from now. At best, this episode reveals ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ to be a well-crafted plug for Season 3 of ‘The Mandalorian’. At worst, it confirms it to be a pale imitation with far less imagination and energy than the latest adventures of Grogu and Din Djarin, which you are left immediately wanting to see more of.”
Overall Series Rating (The Average of My Scores for All Seven Episodes of Season 1): 6.5/10
“Mostly boring and stupid, ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ is not a fun Star Wars adventure until the Mandalorian arrives to interject some real character and personality into the ‘bland as sand’ universe that Disney is attempting to create around their new, neutered version of Boba Fett. While it has some interesting characters and moments, contrivance dictates many of the show’s major plot points, and the conclusion has just as many of the cringeworthy moments from the series’ early episodes as it does the ‘winner takes all’ action of the Mandalorian – Season 3 insert episodes. Overall, worth watching for Star Wars fans, even if just to see Episodes 5 and 6 and nothing else. It may be hard to get through Episodes 1-3, however.”