Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show I’m your host Paul and everywhere I go I make the Mando, Jango.
The fifth episode of The Book Of Boba Fett is now here and throughout this video we’re gonna be breaking down the full episode, talking about all the easter eggs in it and also giving our review of how the show is going so far.
Full Spoilers ahead so if you don’t want anything ruined then the videos gonna be a little short like Yoda. Is that it? That, that the best we’ve got this week, pfff ok then.
With that out the way, thanks for clicking this, now let’s get into the Book Of Boba Fett.
Now last week saw us discovering how Boba met Fennec Shand and it tied in directly with the fifth episode of The Mandalorian. With this new ally, Boba and Shand raided Jabbas Palace and managed to take back Slave One.
(There’s that word again)
In the Prisoners With Jobs 1 he did a drive by on on the Niktos Raiders and went looking for his armour in the Sarlaac pit. Alas it was probably with Cobb Vanth at this point and in present-day Boba met with the household heads.
They came to an agreement that they wouldn’t intervene in the coming war between Fett and the Pykes and we closed out with Fennec saying they were gonna have to hire some muscle.
Return Of The Mandalorian
Now the episode is called Return Of The Mandalorian which…spoiler alert, is because the big guy is back. Directed by Bryce Dallas Howard it’s one of the best in the season so far and we pretty much get a Mandalorian Season 3 pilot as we follow him after the events of Season 2.
We open in meat packing factory that looks like it was ripped straight out of Rocky which is where we’re reintroduced to the character. He’s come to collect a bounty named Kaba Baiz (kabba bayez) but Kabba no Jabba in the meat slabba. Now Mando is still carrying the armaments that he picked up in the second season including the beskar spear that he got from The Ahsoka episode and the Darksaber which Mando ended up taking at the end of Season 2.
It’s still up in the air whether he will have to fight Bo Katan for this as not only is it a badass weapon, but it’s also a ceremonial one that decides who leads Mandalore.
He also has the tracking device that popped up in his show and he comes across Kaba gambling in the back. Boba has actually run into Klattoonians before and you might remember that they raided a village during the first season.
He knows he’s him because he has his hologram bounty chip which too showed up when he was hunting Fennec and because the subtitles say it’s him. The Klatoonian isn’t messing around though and he doesn’t want to go in which leads to Mando fighting his men in one of the best action scenes so far. Now the fight isn’t exactly one sided and Mando does struggle at points throughout it showing how unwieldy someone can be with a lightsaber if they’re not properly trained.
He cuts Kaba in half and takes the Klatoonians head with him. Mando really shows how much he’s changed as a character because he says he has no quarrel with those that he doesn’t need to fight and he even leaves the credits behind for them to take. Republic Credits are the new currency in the galaxy right now and we did see in episode 1 that they even had the rebellion crest on them when they rolled out of Boba’s helmet.
Cut to space for the first time in the season and it’s nice to actually be off Tatooine for once.
This is a giant orbiting ring that feels like it was ripped right out of Elysium which I’ve put on screen now just incase you haven’t seen the film. Now we don’t know exactly what this location is but it could be Ringo Vinda, a space station that has a similar design to the one we find ourselves on.
Shoutouts Simon A Burman on twitter for pointing out that the way the ships come in is very reminiscent of the Star Destroyers in The Empire Strikes back and it helps us to fully gauge the scale of how big this thing is.
Your boy slowly limps along due to being shot in the leg and he has somewhat of an awkward elevator ride with one of the locals. May be a nod to the one in Spider-Man 2 but that’s probably just me looking for connections on the web that aren’t there.
That’s not even a good pun. However what is good is how they use this one shot take to completely immerse you in the world. We go from the walk, to the elevator to the bar without breaking or cutting and it just completely immerses you in what’s going in.
Here Mando comes across his contact, an Ishi Tib which is an amphibious species that come from the planet Tibrin. Normally they’re green but I’m guessing that living in space has change this ones complexion up.
It directs Mando to Kolzoc Alley and we further continue the one take as we see exactly what he was after. I love how this scene is pretty much a day in the life of the character and we can watch as he trades bodies and bounties on the black market in order to gain access to higher things.
Mando uses the infared detective vision scanner to locate hidden sigils and this popped up in the first season when he was tracking Cara Dune.
Here he comes across one that looks slightly like a mythosaur a symbol that The Mandalorians used to mark their territory and it leads him to the Armourer who is back with one of the soldiers that also appeared in the first season. Thisis Paz Viszla who weilded a Mini-gun on Nevarro. We find out some of the details that we didn’t know in the wake of that episode including how most of The Mandalorians were wiped out, leaving just these three.
Mando collapses and thank god we don’t go to a Bacta tank because ey, I’ve had enough of em.
Darksaber History Lesson
After presenting the Darksaber The Armourer recounts the history of it and how it was been with the Mandalorians for 10,000 years. She also talks about how it must be won in combat which is why Bo Katan didn’t take it at the end of Season 2.
It very much gives us a run down of the Darksaber including its creator Tarre Viszla who was both Jedi and Mandalorian. He was the ancestor of Paz and this somewhat makes him believe that it belongs in his hands.
The weapon has been contested for Millenia and along with Moff Gideon it’s also fallen into the hands of Darth Maul.
Sabine Wren also gave it to Bo Katan and this somewhat plays into the next part of the Armorers speech. She talks about her royal lineage later on and talks about how the character is somewhat a cautionary tale. She says that the character lost her way and the differences in the creeds were seen in her and her crew removing their helmets whereas the others wouldn’t.
The Armorer discusses how it’s prophesized that if it falls into the wrong hands without being traded in combat that this can lead to the destruction of Mandalore. This is very much the case and we’ve seen not only in Gideon and Maul how the planet has been racked with war because of those that seek it.
Mandalore used to be a thriving planet, however inner civil war and the galactic one led to it becoming a harsh landscape much like Tatooine. Even though it’s just a harsh rock at this point, the people still fight for it much in the same way that Boba fights for Tatooine.
Mando joins the covert and this is the way it looks like things are gonna be. We also learn that Gideon was sent off to be interrogated by the New Republic but the group don’t really have faith that he’s gonna get the justice he deserves.
Moff Gideon, Mandalorian Season 3 confirmed.
They rebuild the forge and forge the spear into armour so that it can’t be used as a weapon on other Mandalorians. As she melts it she brings up the moon of Concordia and also the Great purge.
We see it being ransacked by Tie Bombers on the night of a thousand tears. This happened in 19 BBY, during the Siege of Mandalore. This was mentioned in Episode 8 of The Mandalorian and Gideon was very much at the heart of it.
We also see several droids gunning down the survivors and these include your typical probe droids as well as the same model as K-2So who you might recognise from Rogue One. This KX model of droid was primarily used for security but here it’s been sent out to destroy and we watch as the fire burns into the night.
There’s a lot of imagery here that also evokes Terminator and Bryce Dallas Howard really knocks it out the park this entire episode.
Mando wants the spear made into something for Grogu and though it’s against the Jedi way to have attachments, the Mandalorians are very much the opposite of this.
We get an awesome welding scene and all that’s left is a small pouch for the boy. I love the way that the bow is tied on this parcel and the head and ears even somewhat resemble Grogu’s head.
It’s such a cool bit of imagery and it’s one of my favourite parts of the episode that makes us desperate to learn what’s in the package.
Because Mando is so crap with the Darksaber he starts to train with the Armorer who uses Beskar weapons which as we know are capable of blocking it.
The blade gets heavier the more that Mando wields it and this is because the Armorer says that he’s fighting against it.
The weight of this is clearly symbolic on a number of levels and it could be the case that Mando is actually fighting against not only it, but also what it truly means. Whoever wields it is thought to be the leader of Mandalore and though Bo has often been thought of as being the true air, I think it would work better if Mando’s destiny was to take back the planet and become it’s ruler.
Him fighting against this weight shows that he doesn’t want to go down this path but it’s only when he embraces it that becomes easier to wield. His mind is distracted, likely over his need to be with Grogu and it’s at this point that Paz contests the weapon.
Removing their Jetpack they fight on a bridge that looks, looks very precarious that and there are flashes of when Vader fought Luke in Empire.
Paz puts up one hell of a fight and he manages to grab the blade from Mando but as he can’t really wield it either he struggles with the weight of it which allows ya boy to win.
Now the Armorer asks Paz if he’s ever removed his helmet and she asks the same of Mando which as we know, yeah guy has done it a fair bit.
She says that he’s no longer a real Mandalorian, not a real fan, not a reaaal one and thus he must travel to the living waters beneath Mandalore in order to somewhat baptise himself.
Return To Tatooine
Rumour has it that they’re destroyed and thus Mando heads out Flight 1020 to Tatooine. This is the same ship that we saw the Pyke army arriving in and amongst the droids are some that look like the RX from Galaxy tours and also what appeared in the sanctuary.
Guy sets off the metal detector and thus he has to remove his weapons in order to travel. This includes his blaster and the whistling birds as well as several detonators, a wire spool and the Darksaber.
I love how it takes so long that the queue in the background pretty much disappears and he heads out into the galaxy.
On the flight he meets a Green Rhodian child that looks somewhat like Greedo and there’s also a dark grey astromech droid.
Mos Eisley itself is filled with several droids and as the ship lands we see the same Japanese esque structures that also appeared in the background of Episode 3.
We also come across a BD droid which you might recognise as being what Cal Kestis as his loyal companion in Jedi Fallen Order.
It’s difficult to tell whether this is the same one but it does get called BD and yeah, lets just say it is mate cos I wanna see Cal at some point, even though I think Cameron Monaghan is showing up could be a politician now or something.
There’s also R5 who appeared in a New Hope and on the top of him is a hole where his busted motivator exploded during that film.
Next to him we see a telescope droid which too appeared in that film. BD is grabbed by a womp rat and at this point Peli Motto breaks away from dating Jawas to come out and blast it. Amongst her are her pit droids which she had in tow when we saw her pop up in episode 3.
They’re pretty useless but Mando shows up to save the day.
He’s here to get the Razor Crest fixed but instead Peli has the scraps of an N1 Starfighter which you will probably recognise as being the ships that Naboo used for their defenses in A Phantom menace.
I’ve always loved the design of this ship and spent many hours flying it in Ye Olde star fighter games.
The ship is off the grid because the Empire didn’t register pre war craft and thus it’s somewhat similar to the Razor Crest which was also able to fly under the radar. Peli says that she’ll modify it to make it faster than a Fathier which were the animals that popped up in a Last Jedi…during the…the best scene in a Star Wars movie ever.
The ship can also jump to hyperspace without docking rings which is an issue that the Jedi starfighters had.
We spend a lot of time watching the ship get fixed up and during this scene you you can catch markings along the bottom of the cockpit. I was hoping that these would be the same as the ship that Anakin had but after checking they are different so it’s another vessel.
We also see a Gonk droid being used as a battery and BD showing holograms to outline where the panels should be placed.
The ship ends up looking very silvery which of course mirrors The Mandalorians beskar armour and I’m probably gonna waste most of the money I make from this video buying a model for this.
It’s at this point that the Jawas arrive, Peli talks to them in their own language and we also get lip service paid to how the Pykes are pretty much running the planet at this point.
The dawn is broken by the noise of Star Wars version of a rooster and the ship arrives completed, even though it still looks like it’s falling apart.
The astromech droid port has been removed and this is because, as we learned Mando didn’t like droids. However he did come to find an appreciation for them after IG-11 saved his life and he does seem a bit gutted he’ll not have any company on his flights.
He starts the baby up which looks like it might even have pod racer elements in it and we actually pass the race track that appeared in The Phantom menace. Mando touches on several of the locations that Anakin passed through including beggars canyon and the ramp that had it’s fence broken during the match.
It’s a great little callback to what’s come before and Mando ends up flying alongside the Rhodian kid once more. Bit goofy but ey I liked it.
Much in the same way he had to master the Darksaber, Mando now has to master flying a starfighter as opposed to a gun ship.
He says Dank Farrik, a curseword that has showed up in the star wars universe several times.
Speeding causes a lot of trouble though and thus some X-Wings come in to act like Policeman. He’s almost booked up but Carson Teva recognises his voice and you might recognise him as being the X-wing pilot that popped up in the second season of The Mandalorian.
Mando denies being the Razor Crest pilot that he’s encountered before and he blasts off into space. Carson lets him go because ey, he’s ya boy.
Mando returns back to the Hanger which is where he’s greeted by Fennec Shand who’s come looking for him.
She needs that muscle and it’s on the house but Mando has to pay a visit to a little friend, a little green friend if you will.
Likely ya boy Grogu who we could be seeing possibly a bit more grown up come the next entry.
As we know from Force Awakens, Kylo ended up wiping out Luke’s Jedi training academy, but Mando going to get him here could save the character and mean that he isn’t exterminated. Perhaps they will leave together and that will pretty much remove him from the second Jedi purge that he could have been a part of.
Final Thoughts
Now I can already tell that this episode is gonna go down well with most people who haven’t enjoyed the show so far and I imagine all the comments will be saying the best book of Boba Fett was the one without him in.
That’s pretty funny to be fair and ey this was a great entry that I really enjoyed.
It was brilliant seeing the continuation of Mandos story and the entry was also littered with cool easter eggs and callbacks.
We have the penultimate episode next week and then the finale the one after and I think it’s gonna get really interesting as we watch the war play out on Tatooine which I will of course be back for.
Now obviously I’d love to hear your thoughts so make sure you comment below and let me know.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.