I love a crossover as much as the next guy, but watching what should've been saved for an episode of The Mandalorian in what could've been a key moment in The Book of Boba Fett is not what I had in mind.
While there is plenty to unpack in what we did see, I can't help but feel deflated a bit for the final two episodes of Book of Boba. There really was no progression toward setting up a good way for this season to end. Heck, we didn't even see Boba at all, and we got was felt like a cameo by Fennec Shand on her own show. With the flashbacks completed and the context provided, we really had no reason to hesitate moving forward in setting up a showdown with the Pykes and possibly eluding to grander story arcs at work.
Instead, we simply got a filler episode of what Din Djarin, the Mandalorian, has been up to in getting to this point in the Boba Fett story. Any way you slice it, the episode was out of place. This is not the show to delve into more history with the Mandalorians. We don't need an episode that likely will serve as a promo for The Mandalorian Season 3. It's a bummer for sure. With only two episodes left, there isn't much time now for them to blow the lid off of anything significant to close out Book of Boba without making it feel rushed and half-baked. What's worse, I fear these Star Wars shows will continue to develop these arcs with Marvel-like endings that don't really end anything at all, but rather set up the next big thing. I hope I'm wrong.
Now, the episode itself was packed to the guild with exposition, including important information to parse through in preparation for Season 3 of The Mandalorian. While the mode of storytelling was quite forced in the form of long lectures from the returning character The Armorer, what she did have to say was quite enthralling.
We start with the return of Mando, whom we knew was coming after the end of the previous episode. Mando is trying to bring in some bounty, and he uses his Darksaber to do so; remember, Bo Katan did not take the Darksaber from Mando at the end of The Mandalorian Season 2. Turns out, Mando is merely trying to find the location of The Armorer, a character we saw at the end of The Mandalorian Season 1. She was the one who gave Mando his armor and the big history lesson of the Mandalores and their ways.
She was disappointed when she asked if Mando had ever taken off his helmet (we saw him do it in Season 2 when he said goodbye to Grogu), so much so that Mando feels the need to make things right by going off on some wild goose chase to find some healing waters on Mandalore (more on that later).
Before he goes, Mando trains while tight-roping catwalks in space under the tutelage of The Armorer. He learns that the Darksaber is a difficult weapon to wield. The Armorer then dives into a history lesson about Tarre Vizsla, the first Mandalorian Jedi who created the Darksaber more than 1,000 years ago. Tarre Vizsla's name was mentioned in an episode of Rebels during a storyline involving Sabine Wren, who, of course, grew up on Mandalore and heard all about his legend growing up (I think there was a piece of artwork with his picture on it, but I don't remember for sure).
Another tale that The Armorer tells involves a prophecy about a Mandalorian riding a Mithosaur to emerge and lead the Mandalorians. There was a throw-away comment in an earlier episode of Book of Boba: when the Hutts deliver the rancor to Boba's palace, Boba makes a joke to the Rancor's trainer that he has ridden larger creatures than the rancor before. Now it seems like we may actually one day see Boba riding this fabled Mithosaur in live action (I guess we've seen this large dragon-like creature already if you count the Star Wars Holiday Special; and actually, Boba's portion of that show was actually the best part, especially when Han is involved).
It was also interesting to hear The Armorer talk about Beskar only being used for armor instead of weaponry. This sounds much like the way Jedi operate, so it may be interesting to see if any connections between the Jedi and the Mandalores are forged as they seemingly once were.
Now, getting into the weeds a bit more, The Armorer retells the tragedy of the destruction of Mandalore. We've seen clips of this in Rebels, but in Book of Boba, we see a live-action scene of terror as the Empire destroys Mandalore. It was interesting to see all the evil K-2 droids leading the Empire's droid army at the time. The timing of the K2 droids being so prevalent (as they are in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) lines up because Mandalore was destroyed briefly before the events of A New Hope. The fact that Jon Favreau, who wrote this week's episode, is so adamant about making sure we know all about the history of Madalore makes me think we will see a lot more of that storyline in a future project, if not The Mandalorian Season 3. With so many bits and pieces of the story scattered all around different shows in the Star Wars canon, it would be nice to have it all brought to the forefront in one cohesive story.
So Mando needs to redeem himself if he wants to remain in his Mandalorian clan. So off he goes to do that. He reunites with Peli Motto, the mechanic who previously helped him in past Mandalorian episodes. While at her shop, we see a BD droid! BD-1 was Cal's droid in the Jedi: Fallen Order video game. Surely that means Cal will appear in live action, right? Hey, I can dream, can't I? I mean, Luke is going to need any Jedi he can find if he's going to start training people, right?
A more important callback was the ship Peli and Mando were building: a Naboo starfighter. It was cool to hear the same sounds we've heard most prevalently in Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Though they didn't finish the paint job (where's Sabine when you need her?), it was cool to watch Mando fly the starfighter around. He even takes out on the old Boonta Eve podrace track that Anakin raced on (the track apparently is littered with womp rats now)! Later he takes the ship out to orbit. But of course, that's when he runs into trouble: a pair of Republic Rangers appear, and they actually are the same pilots who tracked him down during The Mandalorian.
Fennec Shand recruits Mando to join Boba Fett, so hopefully we stay focused these last two episodes of Book of Boba instead of switching to Mandalorian Season 3 promotions already.
Notes:
-Will Mando need training from Luke on how to use the Darksaber? How would Luke even know about it? More likely it'll be Ahsoka Tano who will shed some light on the dark.
-The ring city looks like something straight out of Halo. I like seeing these weird cities. We saw another weird city (a trading post) near the beginning of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story named the Ring of Kafrene; it was the city split up on two meteors, one on top of the other.
-When the ring city appears as concept art during the credits of this Book of Boba episode, if you notice really quickly, there's a shot of what appears to be Darth Maul's old ship, the Sith Infiltrator. Now last we knew, Darth Maul was dead (though we've been proven wrong about that before), so if he isn't flying his ship, who is? This could be another way to bring in Qi'Ra, who, if you remember, was actually working with Darth Maul, revealed in the final scene of Solo: A Star Wars Story. Maybe she's following Mando as part of a mission for Crimson Dawn, who knows.
-Apparently they wanted the audience to know that Moff Gideon is imprisoned at the moment. He'll almost certainly return in The Mandalorian Season 3, right?
-I didn't know this, but apparently the droid that makes Mando check his weapons before entering the commercial ship is the same droid that greets people in Star Tours in California.
-Mando says the ride in the Naboo starfighter was "Wizard," the same word Fitster used when talking to Anakin in Episode I. Pretty cool.