So which does he pick? The shirt or the sword?! The big question plaguing Baby Yoda fans gets answered early on as Grogu turns up on Tatooine for the big showdown – an extra-long episode that runs as one explosive set piece paying off everything built up across The Book Of Boba Fett and The Mandalorian so far.
Boba (Temuera Morrison), Mando (Pedro Pascal) and Fennec (Ming-Na Wen) start drawing up their battle plans in the bombed-out shell of The Sanctuary nightclub. They have Drash (Sophie Thatcher), Skad (Jordan Bolger) and Chris the Wookiee on their side, but that’s about it – since Cad Bane gunned down Marshall Cobb in last week’s episode and stopped him sending any reinforcements.
Bane swaggers up to Boba and tries to draw him out – hoping that a confrontation with his mentor will be enough to settle the war with an old fashioned western shootout. They trade words instead of shots (“If that’s not the Quacta calling the Stifling slimy…”), and Boba finds out that the Pykes killed his adopted Tusken tribe and blamed it on the bikers. Just as his blood gets hot, the whole city explodes. Turning the crime families against Boba, the Pykes have an unstoppable army of mercenaries and Mafiosos at their disposal – forcing the good guys into a tough corner.
Chris gets overwhelmed, the pig men get thrown off a cliff and Boba and Mando prepare for a Butch and Sundance style suicide pact. Thankfully, backup arrives. The Marshall might have been gunned down but his death inspired the townsfolk to gather up their weapons and join the fight – turning up in an old tank just in time to stop Boba and Mando being riddled with bullets. At the same time, Baby Yoda arrives with Peli (Amy Sedaris) in a rickshaw (“Grogu? That’s a terrible name. No way am I calling you that!”), now wearing his little shiny shirt and obviously having already made the decision to leave Luke’s Jedi school behind to spend more time with his dad.
Just as the scales start balancing out, a pair of giant Scorpenek droids turn up. Protected by force fields and packing huge cannons and razor legs, each robot is clearly capable of winning the war on its own. Finally, then, Boba brings out his own trump card – riding his pet rancor into the fight like Godzilla.
As Boba Fett wrangles his rancor, Mando chops away with his darksaber, and Baby Yoda uses his force powers to fight a giant robot scorpion, it’s hard to think of a scene in any Star Wars film or show that feels so ridiculously satisfying for long-time fans. Briefly turning the series into a kaiju movie, the giant lizard monster swipes and eats his way through a whole city before King Kong-ing the two Scorpeneks in an impressive double-headed smackdown.
Scared off by Bane’s flamethrower, the rancor runs off to go berserk somewhere else and Boba is left to face his old boss alone. Bane wins the quickdraw but Boba fights back with his Gaderffii stick, killing the desperado just as he was getting interesting. Across the other side of town, Mando tries to wrangle the rogue rancor but ends up getting punched through a building. Baby Yoda manages to force-calm the monster down instead, and everyone starts celebrating.
A quick cut to whatever Fennec has been doing during all this shows her ruthlessly assassinating the heads of all the mafia gangs in the Pyke HQ, putting an end to the violence on Tatooine once and for all. Walking through town after the fight like a local hero, Boba now has the respect, and the power, he always wanted – closing the first chapter in The Book Of Boba Fett as the episode leaves Mando and Baby Yoda joy-riding off to the next season of their own series. Now rumoured to land sometime around Christmas, it feels like far too long a wait already.
Under the helmet
- Stick around for an end credit sting to see Marshall Cobb alive and well in Boba’s bacta tank. What’s more, he’s about to be turned into a cyborg by Thundercat…
- The Scorpenek Annihilator droid entered the Star Wars canon after turning up in the concept art for Attack Of The Clones. Never seen on screen before, their first appearance is a big deal for droid-heads.
- What’s happened to Luke, and his gift of Yoda’s lightsaber? We know Grogu turned up in Luke’s X-Wing so it seems like he condoned the visit. Will the next season of The Mandalorian see Baby Yoda finally end up back at school?