Wednesday, March 23, 2022

The Book of Fennec Shand - In the Name of Honor

After getting off-track for a couple of episodes, The Book of Boba Fett concludes its season with a return to the main storyline involving Boba Fett's (Temuera Morrison) attempts to become the new crime boss of Mos Espa and fight off the invading the Pyke Syndicate. Oh, and there's that last-minute revenge for the Tusken Raiders (well, sort of). The finale certainly doesn't skimp on action and offers the payoff of Fett riding his Rancor (something we were told was extremely difficult and didn't see him train for even once). Most of the episode takes place in the streets of the city as Fett's crew fights the superior numbers and firepower of the Pykes. Most of Fett's crew, that is.

As the two groups battle through the streets, Fett sends Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) on her own mission. While the others fight for their lives, Shand actually accomplishes something by assassinating the head of the Pyke Syndicate on Tatooine. If this was the key stroke, the rest of the group could have holed up in Jabba's palace until it was done (although there's be far less action that way). While downplaying her actions, Shand turns out to be the one that delivers the big victory continuing the theme of the last few episodes where Fett is mostly an afterthought and is consistently outshone by other characters (including Grogu who calms the rampaging Rancor).

Overlong, and a bit of a jumbled mess working in Grogu's return and rushing through his reunion with Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), the explosive final episode feels somehow both incomplete and bloated. If the only goal was to delve into what Fett was up to between the events of The Return of the Jedi and his reemergence, The Book of Boba Fett does this... in its first four episodes. The rest of the show is mainly about highlight guest-stars, setting up the next season of The Mandalorian, and offering a huge action finale to try and disguise how little story the show's final episode contains (and how little of that is actually centered around the titular character). While there are stand-out episodes in the series, and none of the episodes are bad, as a whole the series feels like a Frankenstein Monster cobbled together for multiple purposes other than to explore the world of Boba Fett.

  • Title: The Book of Boba Fett - Chapter 7: In the Name of Honor
  • wiki: link

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