Book of Boba Fett Spoiler Recap: The Return of The Mandalorian
If the flutes at the end of last week’s episode didn’t give it away, then the title certainly did. Everyone’s favourite beskar-clad himbo single father is back in an episode that catches audiences up to where he’s been since rescuing Grogu from Moff Gideon, winning the Darksaber, and then sending the little green guy off to Jedi training with Luke Skywalker.
Off the top, I just want to say that as a piece of the larger Mandoverse story, I really liked this episode. I thought it was a solid piece of Star Wars storytelling that hit every beat I like my stories to hit. It had well-paced action, organic exposition, and a deepening of both overall lore and personal character motivation.
I do, however, question its placement within the season. It’s not unusual for series (or even books) to pull away from the central action for a bit and focus the plot elsewhere in a way that will tie it all together. I mean, The Bad Batch did it partway through their first season, focusing an entire episode on Ryloth and the Syndulla family. The difference for me is that The Bad Batch was 16 episodes long, and The Book of Boba Fett is only 7. I suppose, however, that the side mission with Din accounts for why it’s 7 episodes at all as opposed to a more conventional 6 or 8.
Whatever my issues with the timing of telling this particular chapter, taking the episode for the piece of Star Wars storytelling it is, there was a lot to enjoy! So let’s dive in.
The episode opens with Din Djarin, back to business as usual. He tracks down a target to the meat locker where he is hiding out, and attempts to bring him in alive in order to claim the bounty on him. Because the Klatoonian in question, Kaba Baiz, refuses to go quietly, Din pulls out the Darksaber and uses it to cut down all of Baiz’s men, and eventually Baiz himself.
If it was surprising to see him wielding the ancient weapon of Mandalore in such a brutal fashion, it was even more of a surprise to see him stumble while fighting with it, and give himself a nasty wound on the leg for his trouble.
He delivers Baiz’s head to his client, and requests payment in information, specifically access to the substrata of the circular space station they’re on. It becomes clear why he’s so desperate for the information when he arrives on the lower level to find The Armorer waiting for him there, along with Paz Vizla, the only other surviving member of their covert.
For those in the audience who didn’t have a friend or family member shrieking at them about the Darksaber and/or pulling out a PowerPoint presentation about its significance, The Armorer neatly sums it up for Din: the blade only holds power if its holder won it by Creed. If not, then the holder will curse Mandalore and scatter its people.
It’s obvious Bo Katan believes this. She was unwilling to take the blade from Din after he’d won it off Gideon. She did that once before, taking it when Sabine Wren offered it, and its clear things did not go well. As the Armorer later tells Din, Gideon and the Empire were responsible for the Night of a Thousand Tears, the large-scale attack that destroyed Mandalore and sent their people scattering.
Their covert survived, she said, because they were on the moon of Concordia, the one-time home of Mandalorian sect Death Watch. Bo Katan herself was once a part of Death Watch, and though its clear they’ve had a falling out since, this also explains why she holds the belief about the Darksaber as firmly as she does.
In light of everything we now know about the Children of the Watch and their particularly strict idea of what it means to be a Mandalorian, the scenes with the Armorer were filled with some of the best tension I’ve felt from a Star Wars television project. I particularly want to single out this conversational progression: the Armorer tells Din that one may only carry the Darksaber if it is won by Creed. She then tells him that his beskar spear can pierce beskar armor. She then tells him to hand the spear over to her and he does it.
For a moment there, I really thought our boy had learned nothing of the wider galaxy since we started going on adventures with him.
Fortunately, despite her intimidating air, the Armorer really did just want to melt the spear down. She might be a zealot, but at least she’s a woman of her word. Din requests that she use a piece of it to make some armor for a foundling. One foundling in particular. Though she tells him that the Jedi forego all attachments, Din finds himself unable to fully let Grogu go just yet.
Despite my reservations with the placement of the episode, I am glad that we’re checking in on where Din is mentally so soon after sending Grogu off. The little guy very quickly went from a quest, to a charge, to the only other member of Din’s little clan. Even when he strayed from The Way, or lost his ship, or accidentally became the rightful ruler of Mandalore, he found his purpose in keeping Grogu safe. Until suddenly that was stripped away too.
By returning to his covert, we see him regress into the person he was at the start of the series, attempting to convey an air of detachment and professional disinterest. But in requesting the bit of armor for Grogu, we see how far he has truly come, and how unwilling he is to let go. Something that, incidentally, comes in very handy moments later.
Paz Vizla, whose Mandalorian Jedi ancestor forged the Darksaber, challenges Din to a duel for ownership. Din accepts, even though while training with the Armorer he struggles to wield the blade effectively. She tells him he is fighting against the blade, rather than with it, which makes me wonder if there is some deeper connection required, much like a Jedi and their kyber crystals. It’s easy to imagine season three of The Mandalorian tackling this question, at least in part.
Din wins the battle (barely) but ultimately loses the war when the Armorer asks both him and Paz if they have ever removed their helmets. While Paz replies at once that he has not, Din hesitates before admitting that he has. The Armorer casts him out at once, telling him he is no longer a Mandalorian. When he tries to atone for the sin, he is told the only way to do so is bathing in ritual waters on Mandalore that are beneath collapsed mines. In a word: inaccessible.
Din is allowed to leave with the Darksaber, but I would be surprised if this is the last challenge he faces from these two.
With nothing left for him on the station, and without a ship to call his own Din boards a commercial flight to Tatooine. At first I thought he was headed that way because Boba and Fennec had been in touch, but it turns out business of a completely different kind brought him to the planet furthest from the bright centre of the universe.
What brought him to Tatooine wasn’t the prospect of another job, but rather the prospect of a ship courtesy of one Peli Motto. The abrasive mechanic with a heart of gold tells Din that she’s found just the ship for him and pulls back the tarp to reveal an N1 Starfighter.
And the Prequel Kids went wild.
In a franchise that can sometimes feel just a little too focused on the 1977-1983 set, this episode was an absolute gift. For many of us, the prequel trilogy was our gateway into Star Wars as it was intended to be, but too often it feels a step removed from everything else. It doesn’t get woven into the tapestry as often. But “The Return of The Mandalorian” continued the Book of Boba Fett trend of making sure the prequel kids feel seen and heard.
This wasn’t just a visual cue though. Having someone onscreen in 2022 saying things like “the Galactic Republic”, “Royal Guard” and “Queen of Naboo”? I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This is what I mean when I say the episode works really well as a piece of larger Star Wars storytelling. It blends in so seamlessly with the universe surrounding it, and makes connections to every corner of existing story.
Including a very sweet appearance from a BD droid (as seen in the game Jedi: Fallen Order), and he is just the best boy. Actually, all the droids in this episode were top tier, including the baggage check droid on the space station who absolutely refused to let Din board with his weapons still on his person.
Din is initially skeptical about the N1 making a suitable replacement for the Razor Crest, so Peli offers to fix it up (with his help of course), and let him take it for a test drive to see how it feels. Together they refurbish the ship, doing away with the astromech port - though it now makes a perfect Grogu-sized bubble - and equipping it with enhanced speed capabilities.
When it’s ready to go, Din takes the ship out for a test drive. The show makes yet another Phantom Menace connection by having Din pilot along the Boonta Eve racetrack, which just makes me wonder how close the track is to Mos Espa and Mos Eisley. I guess they can’t be that far apart after all. Once he’s tested the capabilities in atmosphere, he takes the ship up above the planet to try it out there. The Starfighter handles a lot differently from the gunship he’s used to, and Din can’t resist trying out a few tricks.
Sadly, some of those tricks skirt a little too close to illegal, and he is pulled over by the Space Cops aka the New Republic Rangers. In another unexpected surprise, we see the return of Captain Carson Teva. Teva is still investigating the explosion at the Imperial facility on Nevarro that Din is definitely responsible for, but Din takes off before he can ask any questions. Though Teva’s lieutenant wants to give chase, the captain himself doesn’t seem to mind. Another question left hanging.
When Din returns to the hangar, Fennec is there waiting for him. She offers him a job acting as muscle for her and Boba as they face the Pykes, and he accpets gladly, on the condition he make a stop to see a little friend first.
While it is very strange that Boba isn’t in this episode at all and Fennec is only here for a minute, I have reached the following, very professional conclusion: after ending the last episode on the Romance Balcony, the two characters simply needed some alone time, and left us to hang around with Din while they had it.
The implication Din’s condition is obviously that he wants to check on Grogu. The little armor bundle he has is even shaped like the little guys head. I know we all miss the little gremlin, but I’m really hoping that the final two episodes tie in more directly with the conflict with the Pykes. We have an entire season of The Mandalorian on the horizon to explore the rest of it.
What did you think? Did you miss Boba and Fennec? Are we seeing Grogu next week? When exactly are Din’s problems all going to catch up with him? Let us know on Twitter!
For more Book of Boba Fett, be sure to catch our episode recap panel - The Book of Bonnec - on Space Waffles, and check back here each week for a spoiler deep dive!
The Book of Boba Fett airs new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+
