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Television

The Book of Boba Fett – In the Name of Honor review S1 E7

Jeffrey Lyles , , , , , , , , ,

The Book of Boba Fett’s season(?)series(?) finale was wild. You could make a case for it having way too much going on. While some subplots felt rushed and the title character was still away for long stretches, this was a pretty satisfying season finale.

Spoilers of course.

Clearly the biggest issue in having your penultimate episode feature Grogu, Ahsoka, Cad Bane and Luke Skywalker is there’s bound to be some measure of letdown even with half of them showing up in the finale.

Boba, Fennec and Mando surveyed the wreckage of Garsa’s club. No amount of Bacta Tank resting was gonna help this crew. The only real loss was Garsa, who made for a more civilized cantina owner than the rest of Tatooine. Side note, I re-watched last week’s episode and confirmed that Max Rebo was not performing that night so he’s probably still alive thankfully.

Skad and Drash convince Boba to stay in the wreckage so the people of Mos Espa can see him fighting for them instead of hanging out at his fortified palace. Boba has wisely listened to Fennec’s counsel all season and now he wants to listen to the teen mod heads?

Fennec and Boba devise a plan to prepare for the Pykes. Skad, Drash and the rest of the mods will do patrols, Black Krrsantan and the Gamorrean Guards will survey two other spots and everything should go smoothly. Right up until Cad Bane strolls up to the cantina wreckage to offer Boba one last shot at a peaceful conclusion.

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Writer Jon Favreau made sure to include some dialogue referencing Boba and Cad’s Clone Wars history. Seriously, if you just haven’t binged Clone Wars, as a Star Wars fan it might be the most rewarding deep dive back story expanded universe assignment ever.

Before he leaves, Cad tells Boba the folks at Free Town won’t be by and he really shouldn’t have taken the armor back from Cobb Vanth. Well, technically Mando did, but whatever.

An X-Wing arrives and this time it’s a tease as R2-D2 piloted it to bring Grogu to Peli. That’s probably the best way to reach Mando. Peli gets a nice meta joke as she says Grogu is a terrible name and there’s no way she’s calling him that. Grogu’s choice felt like a decision that would have made for a better payoff in The Mandalorian Season 3. Especially when there’s so much left for Boba.

Despite the sound strategy and peaceful treaty with the crime bosses, they turn on Boba and try and take out his forces. This felt like a scene out of The Godfather. Mando says it was the smart strategy. Tessio would approve. Some of the random mod crew get taken out, but the bigger loss is the Gamorrean Guards. I’ll miss you guys.

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Boba and Mando deal with the Pykes outside of Garsa’s. It’s a tremendous shootout and one that actually gets to show Boba as more of a bada$$ finally. Fennec is busy saving the mod crew as Krrsantan fights through to the cantina meetup on his own. This shows how incredibly tough it is to kill a Wookie — especially one with a significant bad attitude.

Thankfully more backup arrives with the Free Town crew. But where’s Cobb Vanth??? Sigh. It feels like this would be the time for Boba to admit rallying at the broken down and bombed out cantina was not smarter than the palace. Moral of the story?  Teens aren’t great military strategists particularly those who willingly attach robotic parts to their bodies.

The Pykes try to stack the odds again by bringing in their equivalent of destroyer droids complete with ray shields. Boba asks Mando to hold them off while he grabs some reinforcements essentially taking him off screen for close to 10 minutes. Mando, Krrsantan, the mods and Free Town crew blast away at the droids with no luck.

This was the one area where Director Robert Rodrigeuz and Favreau could have had Boba’s army do something to mix up their attack. Or anything to make the fight more compelling than them blasting and running for cover. Grogu and Mando have a nice, if ill-timed reunion, but that was it of note until Boba returns with his pet Rancor. We knew this was gonna happen the second the handler mentioned some masters ride their Rancors into battle.

Surprisingly, the Rancor doesn’t just demolish them. Maybe Rodriguez wanted to do some sort of Kaiju tribute? With a little help from Grogu, Boba and the Rancor eventually destroy both of the droids.

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Then it’s time for a showdown with Cad Bane. The unfortunate deal here was clearly only one could survive. Cad Bane was such a cool villain and it felt like a shame to introduce him only to kill him so fast. But that’s the draw. Boba still isn’t fast enough to beat Cad in a shootout, but he does have his gaffi stick, which he uses to disarm and then kill Cad. Well, that was at least a memorable death sequence.

Without Boba to keep him in line, the Rancor isn’t happy and still looking for a few more meals. But with the Pyke army gone, that means the only thing left on the menu is Boba’s crew. Mando tries to hold him off, but it’s on Grogu to calm the beast down and get to sleep.

There’s still a few more bodies left to hit the floor. Fennec missed the main fight so she could get to the Pyke leaders and kill them in straight up assassin style.

Now order has been restored to Mos Espa and Boba, Fennec, Krrsantan and the mod crew can enjoy the spoils of their war.

There’s a brief post-credit scene showing Cobb Vanth in the Bacta Tank. Were the Free Town folk just completely wrong? It didn’t seem like Cobb was dead either so maybe Free Town really desperately needs a doctor and one less deputy? Either way, I’m glad he’s not dead.

Last week probably set expectations too high, but this was a wildly chaotic season finale that wrapped everything neat enough. It did feel like Boba got upstaged on the back end by Mando and Grogu. The main question now is it that wraps up Boba Fett’s adventures or if another season is on the way.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Photo Credit: Disney+

Check out the Black Series Boba Fett in his Tython attire figure now on Amazon.

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