So I have finally done it, I got around to watching the second episode of The Book of Boba Fett and I have to say it is great. It puts most of the nitpicks about the last episode to rest, I.E The Tusken Raiders looking different and Boba Fetts under armour robes, but, I'll get to that later on in the review.
The Story
The episode opens up with Fennec Shand walking to Jabbas Palace with one of the Ninjas she captured in the last episode. Have to say, Jabbas Palace never gets old, it looks great in this series, not just the exterior of the building but, the attention to detail on the interior is great too. I have to say though, it does feel a little empty I can't wait for the building to be open to the public and we get to see some partying going on in it.
Once inside Fennec and Boba start interrogating the prisoner, but he doesn't talk. So they threaten him with the Rancor and drop him down into the famous pit Luke was thrown into during Return of the Jedi. The pit, however, is empty, I think this is a little bit of foreshadowing though for later in the season when Boba Fett might go out in search of another Rancor, or maybe a different intimidating creature to be used to deal with anyone who displeases him.
The Ninja talks as the door opens however and mentions the mayor of Mos Espa. With that Boba, Fennec, the Gamorreans and the prisoner head out to the mayor, how almost instantly had the prisoner killed and the mayor offers to pay Boba Fett a bounty for him, which Fett refuses.
Shortly after they are talking with someone else when their conversation is interrupted by drumming, going out into the street a litter arrives carrying two (I can't remember the name of Jabba the Hutts species so I looked it up, everywhere online says that they're called Huts. That's wrong, Hutt's are a clan not the name of the species if anyone knows let me know please.) Anyway, a litter comes along carrying two of Jabbas cousins known as the twins, they looked amazing, the CGI for these two is great, hearing them speak is brilliant too they really did a good job on the design and sound design for these two. Also, a nice detail I thought was that the litter carrying them was bending in the centre for the sheer weight of the two of them. They have a bit of a standoff with Boba Fett, but it doesn't end in violence. I think we'll be building to that though, these two might be the series baddies that Boba will have to deal with, they even show off their bodyguard, an intimidating Wookie, who I think will be a tough fight for anyone, especially Boba Fett.
After this encounter and introduction, Boba Fett enters his bacta tank and the rest of the episode is spent on his past with the Tuskens. The story of this is interesting and explains a lot, not only about Fett and his newfound sense of honor but, the Tuskens too.
I'll only discuss important stuff during this storyline, so there's a train that passes through the Dunne Sea (Tusken land) The train starts to take potshots at Boba and the Tuskens killing a bantha and a few of their people, so Boba decides to take it out. He notices some speeder going by and tells the leader that he's going to help. With that he heads out, some Bikers are terrorizing a small bar and Boba enters and kicks some ass and steals the speeders, takes them back and teaches the Tuskens how to ride them. Which makes for some funny moments while they learn. Using them they set up an ambush and hijack the train successfully. One thing I will say though, is the sequence is done with very little dialogue so would have been a great chance to have a really good score, instead, I noticed the sound effects were way louder than the music and the music was good but I think could of been better.
Once the train is destroyed Boba talks to the leader of the operation and tells them from now on they pay tribute to the Tuskens for running spice through their land, good but I have an idea about this that I'll get to later. After that, they are all back at the camp and Boba Fett is given a lizard that crawls up his nose and gives him a drug trip, during which he finds a stick in the desert and the Tuskens give him the dark robes and show him how to make his own Gaffi Stick. The robes he wears are symbolic, which before this episode I didn't like, but, I get it now and think it's okay. In my first episode review I spoke about the Tuskens looking different too which I didn't like, but, it was explained that they are a different tribe of Tusken to the ones we have seen in A New Hope, so that also explains that previous nitpick I had.
Speculation
Okay I think the Tusken raiders are going to be killed by the people who own the train that they destroyed, probably around episode 4 or 5 it'll happen and with that Boba Fett will be made wander in search of the ones who did it and get revenge, maybe with one or two Tusken survivors.
This speculation is kind of stupid, but, I think it'll be cool. I think the Wookie who works for the Twins will fight Boba Fett and Boba will lose. Then I think Fennec is going to capture the Wookie but not kill it, instead, they'll imprison it in the Rancor pit. Which I think would be pretty cool, because what's scarier than a Rancor monster, a hungry Wookie.
I think it's going to turn out that the Mayor is working for the Hutt twins and he is going to undermine Boba Fett at every turn.
I think the season arch is going to see Boba turn from the honourable path he's trying to walk and be turned into a cold-blooded killer, his environment will seep into his mind and change him. Because being honourable in Mos Espa seems to be pretty tough.
Also one last speculation, the twins said something during their dialogue with Boba and it cut to Boba with the Gamorreans behind him and they kind of had a look on their faces which made me think they're going to betray Boba and work for the Twins. I don't know why, I just have a feeling that might happen too.
Conclusion
The episode was good, better than the first one I think and even had a longer running time, 50 minutes which was great and I hope they make most of the other episodes closer to this time. I think the show is shaping up to be a really good one, also one thing I'll say. I think a lot of people are complaining about this show saying it's not as good as the Mandalorian. I think it's because we expect so much of this because of the success of the last series, also the fact that we know who Boba Fett is, so it'll be hard for this show to live up to our expectations. I think to enjoy this we'll have to put out of our mind who Boba Fett was and instead focus on who he is now. I'm enjoying it, I think they should give the Gamorreans some armour so they don't look like BDSM Gamorreans and also I think they should stay away from the cringey fistfights like the first episode because it really does just look like power rangers. If they do those two things the show will be fine.
Here's a link to the first episode review if you want to read that and if you made it this far thank you.
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