The Book of Boba Fett episode 5 recap: a special guest star and spaceships from afar
Huge spoilers ahead
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- Episode 5 (of 7), ‘Chapter 5: Return of the Mandalorian’- Written by Jon Favreau- Directed by Bryce Dallas Howard★★★★★
Spoilers for The Book of Boba Fettfollow.
“Hey look, everyone! It’s Mando!”
The response of Peli Motto’s droid entourage is strangely muted. But, if ‘Return of the Mandalorian’ had been filmed in front of a live studio audience, the crowd would have gone wild when Din Djarin arrived at her Mos Eisley hangar bay.
Indeed, when she celebrates his arrival – “what an entrance!” – she’s echoing what the rest of us were thinking half an hour earlier, when he strode into the Klatooinian abattoir in the episode’sverycold open.
Bringing in a special guest star for a headline-grabbing cameo is something of a TV cliché – especially when the show itself may be floundering. But The Book of Boba Fett’s Mando-centric episode is more substantial than Cheers veterans Sam, Diane, Woody, Carla, NormandCliff showing up in episodes of Frasier.
This isThe MandalorianChapter 17 in all but name, an instalment that does more to further Din Djarin’s post-Grogu story arc than that of the completely absent Boba Fett. It also provides an exciting glimpse of theMarvel Cinematic Universe-style joined-up thinking that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy promised at 2020’s Disney Investor Day, when she talked of“interconnected stories” culminating in a “climactic story event”.
More importantly, though, it’s the best and most joyous episode of The Book of Boba Fett by at least 12 parsecs. As it turns out, The Mandalorian isn’t just in town to help Fett out of a Pyke-shaped bind – he’s here to save a show that’s proved divisive so far.
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While the episode is technically one-long flashback – chronologically, at least – it feels much more essential toStar Warslore than Boba’s bacta tank journeys down memory lane. This is storytelling designed to advance a character’s story, rather than simply filling in a load of blanks.
And the episode begins with plenty of gunslinger style, Mando appearing in iconic silhouette before proving his time with Grogu wasn’t quite enough to soften his dead-or-alive mercenary edge. The slaughterhouse smackdown is a wonderful reminder of the show we hoped The Book of Boba Fett might be. That was before the title character became fixated with sitting on his throne and ruling via respect – perhaps the biggest takeaway from the episode is that the guy in the Boba Fett cosplay is now significantly cooler thanStar Wars’ most famous bounty hunter.
In fact, our only real quibble with the storytelling is that a few notes of the iconic Mandalorian theme last week ensured Din Djarin’s return wasn’t quite the surprise it could have been. Indeed,Disney Plus’s “An unexpected ally emerges” tagline only works if you haven’t been paying attention thus far.
Aside from proving Mando hasn’t quite got to grips with the legendary Darksaber – the gash on his leg shows what happens when non-Force sensitives play with Jedi toys. The slaughterhouse skirmish is simply the means to an end, his decapitated bounty little more than a lead to help him locate the remainder of the tribe of Mandalorian purists he left behind on Nevarro.
The covert’s home on a stunning, artificialHalo-esque ringworld suggests they have an eye for the spectacular, but it’s also important to note that they haven’t turned their backs on their zealot-like interpretation of Mandalorian doctrine. The whole of Djarin’s encounter with the Armorer and fellow survivor Paz Vizsla could easily have felt like a colossal info-dump – which it effectively is – but everything she reveals feels both essential and organic to The Mandalorian story. It’s almost as if she’d anticipated the questions we all had about the Great Purge, Princess Bo-Katan Kryze and her claims on the Mandalorian throne, and what possession of the Darksaber means for Mando himself.
We’re also treated to an excellent Mandalorian duel for the Darksaber – a surprisingly tricky weapon to wield – with the evocative clink of beskar on beskar proving the perfect soundtrack to a wonderfully primal brawl. It feels cruel when Mando’s hard-earned victory quickly becomes a defeat of sorts, as the Armorer casts him out for the seemingly minor infraction of removing his helmet. As they’re so keen of reminding each other, however, “This is the way”.
When Djarin subsequently makes his way to Tatooine – paying for a ride on commercial transport in the absence of his own ship – ‘Return of the Mandalorian’ inadvertently highlights where The Book of Boba Fett has been going wrong so far.
Director Bryce Dallas Howard has already delivered a pair of standouts in her two Mandalorian episodes, and here she once again revels in showing us the man beneath the helmet. That’s partly a consequence of our long history with Mando and Baby Yoda – we know and care about those characters – but she also generates a sense of humor and humanity that hasn’t always been visible on the mean streets of Mos Espa.
Relive Fett and Shand’s previous adventures inThe Book of Boba Fett episode 1,The Book of Boba Fett episode 2,The Book of Boba Fett episode 3andThe Book of Boba Fett episode 4.
Here, the brief moments explaining the secret lives of Jawas feel fun and self-aware, unlike the show’s clunky efforts to rehabilitate the Tuskens. Meanwhile, the pain Mando still feels about handing Grogu to Luke Skywalker is tangible. Amazingly, a brief moment where he realizes his beskar-filled handkerchief resembles Baby Yoda is far more moving than anything this show has previously delivered.
Regular writer Jon Favreau also ups his game on the script: Peli Motto wheels out the starship technobabble with all the flair of Han Solo, while lines like “that’s a lot of engine for a little ship” leave you wondering why the exchanges between Boba Fett and Fennec Shand have been engineered to be so stiff.
Where Fett’s mission to recover his Firespray gunship last week felt overlong and unnecessary, Mando and Peli Motto rebuilding an old Naboo starfighter has all the energy of a DIY montage from The A-Team or MacGyver. As soon as Mando takes to the sky, his new ship grabs you the way only the best Star Wars ships can, making you want to give the same nod of approval Djarin exchanges with the Rodian kid on the star cruiser. And, as if the vessel’s appropriate brushed metal appearance wasn’t already perfect enough, the glass dome left behind by the droid port looks the ideal size for a diminutive child skilled in the Jedi arts.
In offering up the next chapter of Din Djarin’s story, The Book of Boba Fett has given us the first episode of The Mandalorian season 3 a little earlier than expected. On the evidence of this, we can’t wait to see what happens next.
Our verdict
On one level, it’s a bizarre decision to devote the fifth episode of a new TV show to the established star of another, But it pays off spectacularly in this glorious piece of Star Wars storytelling – a huge leap forward after last week’s disappointing offering.
Featuring essential lore, X-wings and even some fun bounty hunting action, ‘Return of the Mandalorian’ contains plenty of classic Star Wars ingredients that The Book of Boba Fett has been missing up to now.
Its most important legacy, though, may be proving that the team behind The Mandalorian hasn’t lost its magic touch. As well as showing that Lucasfilm’s Disney Plus offerings have the potential to interweave in the seamless manner of the MCU, the episode provides excellent launchpads for the next instalments of both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Best of all, Din Djarin doesn’t even want paying for his services when he comes to Fett and Shand’s aid.
If “little friend” Grogu is due a comeback as well – as is strongly hinted – the internet may well have exploded by the time the end credits roll on next week’s instalment…
Force facts
New episodes of The Book of Boba Fett debut on Disney Plus every Wednesday.
Richard is a freelance journalist specialising in movies and TV, primarily of the sci-fi and fantasy variety. An early encounter with a certain galaxy far, far away started a lifelong love affair with outer space, and these days Richard’s happiest geeking out about Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel and other long-running pop culture franchises. In a previous life he was editor of legendary sci-fi and fantasy magazine SFX, where he got to interview many of the biggest names in the business – though he’ll always have a soft spot for Jeff Goldblum who (somewhat bizarrely) thought Richard’s name was Winter.
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