The Book of Boba Fett episode 6 recap: the one with all the guest stars
Huge spoilers ahead
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- Episode 6 (of 7), ‘Chapter 6: From the Desert Comes a Stranger’- Written by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni- Directed by Dave Filoni★★★★
Spoilers for The Book of Boba Fettfollow.
Boba Fett famously spoke just four lines in the originalStar Warstrilogy, yet he still managed to become an icon.
Now, the son of Jango has made it through two whole episodes of the show that bears his name without uttering a single word. And the fact that they’ve also been the two best episodes so far isn’t a coincidence.
Look past the notion that The Book of Boba Fett is rapidly becoming the most misleading title on television, and it’s clear that the former bounty hunter works best in his original role – as a memorable supporting player with a killer suit of armor.
Now that the show has detailed the long and winding road that took him from Sarlacc dinner to mob boss, it’s free to tell a multi-character, thematically varied story in the tradition of classicStar Wars.
And, even if the much-vaunted Tatooine-meets-The Godfather plot is still struggling to deliver – despite early promise, there’s still little evidence there’s a concrete story to tell – there’s now no question that The Book of Boba Fett will leave its mark on the galaxy’s wider mythology. It’s just a shame that Boba himself may be the collateral damage in aDisney Plusseries that’s much better at telling other people’s stories than his own.
That said, this episode is so packed that writers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni (who also directs) would struggle to find space for Mr Fett, even if they wanted to. To borrow from that classicFriendstitle treatment, ‘From the Desert Comes a Stranger’ is ‘The One with all the Characters’. It’s an instalment that devotes screen time to so many major characters fromThe Mandalorianthat Carl Weathers (Greef Karga) and Katee Sackhoff (Bo-Katan Kryze) must be disappointed they didn’t get a phone call.
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After working with George Lucas on The Clone Wars for years, Star Wars lore runs through Filoni’s blood like Midi-chlorians, and his influence is unmistakeable here. From a pair of characters he originated in animation (Ahsoka Tano and Cad Bane), to a trio of bona fide superstars (R2-D2, Baby Yoda and Luke Skywalker), this is an unashamed opportunity to revel in the vastness of Star Wars lore.
But it’s Luke and Grogu’s Dagobah-inspired training sequence that will undoubtedly grab the headlines, as The Empire Strikes Back’s pupil/teacher dynamic shifts to make Luke the master.
Beyond the educational opportunities, most of Grogu’s exercises (whether levitating a frog or hopping between rocks) are precision engineered to become internet memes – frankly, everything that kid does is cute.
And yet he’s still prone to the impulsiveness of a toddler, something Luke may not have entirely grasped. In fact, learning about Grogu’s past – and by extension, that of his old master, Yoda – seems as important to Skywalker Jr. as training his new Padawan. A flashback to the Jedi slaughter during Order 66 – nearly three decades earlier – is a harrowing glimpse of the intense trauma in the Child’s past, and is sure to tug on the heartstrings.
While wheeling out an iconic character in Luke, for a supporting role no less, undeniably cheapens his surprise cameo inThe Mandalorian season 2 finale, it’s integral to the continuation of Mando and Grogu’s story. As a heartbroken Din Djarin looks on from a distance, this is far from the joyous reunion many were hoping for – even though the Child’s come on leaps and (Force-powered) bounds since they parted ways.
But Skywalker Jr. isn’t the only practitioner of Jedi ways in the episode. “Old friend of the family” Ahsoka Tano pops in for a visit, although she’s slightly surplus to requirements. Her main functions are seemingly keeping Mando away from Grogu, and reminding everyone she exists before herown spin-off seriesgets underway – for a character who’s such a favorite with fans, it feels like a slightly unnecessary cameo.
Back on Tatooine, the episode is effectively a recruitment drive for the inevitable season finale shoot-out – already something of a cliché in Star Wars TV shows.
Even by the standards of that galaxy far, far away, a militia boasting Boba Fett, Fennec Shand, ‘Mando’, Black Krrsantan, a pair of Gamorreans,anda bunch of Vespa-riding mods feels like an implausibly ragtag assortment of warriors. But that mercenary weirdness is perfect counterpoint to all that earnest Jedi philosophising with Luke and Ahsoka. Recapturing the original trilogy’s blend of Western-style lawlessness and Force-powered mythology, then, is the episode’s biggest strength.
The return of Mos Pelgo’s Marshal Cobb Vanth is particularly welcome. He’s the quintessential honorable lawman on a lawless frontier, one of the few to face up to the danger of the oncoming Pyke storm – even in his “more careful”, armor-less state, he’d be a worthy addition to Fett’s army.
Timothy Olyphant injects a healthy dose of charisma and quotable humor to the episode. As a character who survives by his wits and skills with a blaster alone, he may be the closest thing we’ve had to Han Solo since Return of the Jedi.
Fire up the Firespray gunship for a trip back throughThe Book of Boba Fett episode 1,The Book of Boba Fett episode 2,The Book of Boba Fett episode 3,The Book of Boba Fett episode 4andThe Book of Boba Fett episode 5.
If only he’d watched The Clone Wars, however, he’d have recognized the silhouette emerging from the desert a little sooner. Then he’d have realized that Cad Bane (a character who presumably had an alien Clint Eastwood on his bedroom wall as a kid) is not a bounty hunter to be messed with, and that he should have taken cover with the rest of Freetown’s residents.
But then we’d have been denied a wonderfully tense face-off lifted straight out of a classic Western, that ends with Vanth fighting for his life after Bane proves he’s the superior marksman. Bane’s reminder that that Tatooine belongs to his employers – the Pyke Syndicate – is wonderfully chilling, and makes the Spice runners significantly scarier than they have been to date.
But even the unresolved fates of Vanth – or the patrons of Madam Garsa’s Sanctuary after that bomb blast – come to feel close to inconsequential.
Indeed, Grogu’s choice becomes a cliffhanger that could shape the destiny of The Mandalorian’s next season. Will the kid opt to get his hands on the ultimate Star Wars souvenir, in the form of Yoda’s old lightsaber? Or will he go with that beautifully crafted beskar chain mail? We can’t help hoping he chooses the latter – after all, it would be a shame to see the little glass dome on Mando’s new Naboo starfighter going to waste.
Our verdict
When The Book of Boba Fett was first announced, many fans speculated that it was a rebranded third season. It now seems they weren’t too far off the mark, as the last two episodes have been as much continuation of Din Djarin’s story as a new chapter in Boba Fett’s. Whatever the title in the credits, it’s clear that Lucasfilm and Disney see both shows in this post-Return of the Jedi era as part of the same story.
ThatMarvel Cinematic Universe-style interconnectivity is great news for Star Wars as a whole, but may come at the expense of The Book of Boba Fett having its own beginning, middle and end. If there’s a bigger bad than the Pykes waiting in the wings, the show is running out of time for a big reveal, and if there isn’t… well, it’s disappointing that Favreau, Filoni and Robert Rodriguez couldn’t come up with a better adversary for a superstar like Fett.
Still, even if The Book of Boba Fett turns out to be a bridge to other corners of the galaxy rather than a show in its own right, this episode’s mix of Jedi lore, emotional beats and Star Wars underworld weirdness suggests that those overlong flashbacks earlier in the season were outliers rather than the norm. And the Star Wars galaxy is an essential pop culture destination once again.
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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