‘The Book of Boba Fett’ Ep. 5 – ‘Return Of The Mandalorian’
The Book of Boba Fett ep 5 is gearing us up for its season finale. Let’s see what sort of muscle Fennec was talking about hiring.
At last, a beginning to end flawless episode of The Book of Boba Fett and all it had to do was…. have no Boba Fett. Man, what a bummer. But seriously, this episode was delightful and successful in getting us excited about the upcoming final two episodes.
Spoilers for Episode 5 Below
“Boun T. Badperson? Never heard of him.”
Return of the Madalorian
The episode opens on Din Djarin trying to take in a bounty. The bounty in question runs a meat packing plant. Apparently those plastic-sheet doors are universal. This guy has some powerful friend and guards hanging out with him in the back room.
Despite wielding a beskar spear and the Darksaber (or even because of it), Din gets the snot kicked out of him, barely taking out all of the guards and collecting his bounty’s head. It was a dead or alive sort of job and he wasn’t being cooperative.
Y’know, stuff happens. For a moment it looks like the workers are going to fight Din for killing their boss and all of his friends. But instead, they seem more interested in letting him pass and collecting their pay. Maybe they’ll seize the means of production, who knows.
We see that Din has been on Glavis, a very neat half-circle ring city. And Glavis shows us how innovative and fun to look at Star Wars can be. Why do we spend so much time on sand planets when places like this exist?!
He makes he way around the ring to drop collect his bounty without making a single, “getting ahead” joke. Then he meets with his employer, but seemingly isn’t interested in the money. He’s looking for for the location of the elevator to the equivalent of the ring’s sub basement.
The path is peppered with small Mandalorian mythosaur symbols. We find out that this is where the Armorer and Paz Vizsla have been hanging out since their last stronghold was destroyed.
Unfortunately, they are the only three of their sect left. Paz Vizsla, interestingly, is the descendant of Tarre Vizsla, the first wielder of the Darksaber.
The Prophecy of the Darksaber
The Armorer agrees to turn the beskar spear into Grogu sized armor and examines Din’s new Darksaber. She refers to Bo Katan as a cautionary tale; she claimed rule of Mandalore without winning the Darksaber in combat.
This, the Armorer claims, was what caused the eventual weakening and loss of the planet. There’s a striking and horrifying flashback to the Night of a Thousand tears as the empire completely destroys Mandalore.
Including a shot of five or six KX droids, like K-2S0 from Rogue One. Only these KXs are ‘dealing with’ survivor instead of… y’know, what4ever Kay Two was up to.
“Cassian said I had to…”
Unfortunately, this meeting ends badly when the Armorer asks if Din has ever removed his helmet, and he answers honestly. He has removed it. Numerous time. Like at least three that we’ve seen.
Din is ostracized for this. When he asks how he can redeem himself, the Armorer tells him that he must go to rivers in the mines of Mandalore.
Din points out that the mines are famously destroyed, but apparently that is “the way.” So whether this is a mission he will undertake in the next season of The Mandalorian or whether he’s a Mandalorian without a sect remains to be seen.
And We’re Back to the Sand Planet
Instead, his next stop is back to Tatooine; a planet that people return to way too often. Peli Motto messaged him that she had a Razor Crest replacement and Din needs a new ship.
So he flies commercial to get there. Included are all of the worst parts of flying commercial; efficacious TSA droids, checking your most precious belongings, and of course some stranger’s kid staring at you.
Din arrives and Motto shows him his Razor Crest replacement: a completely junked N-1 Starfighter. Apprehensive about trading in his space faring camper van for a royal race car, Motto has to sell Din on it a bit.
But in the end, they spend some time fixing up the ship together. Some Jawa’s steal Pyke ship parts and Motto has a very cute BD-1 droid now. Din gets pulled over by the police for flying too fast near a commercial ship on the N-1’s test flight… It’s a pretty fun couple of scenes.
He comes back and tells Motto that the ship is “Wizard,” a throwback to Anakin in The Phantom Menace and then Fennec shows up. Boba’s looking for muscle, etc.
You know what’s been going on with Boba while Din was getting kicked out of his Mando club and fixing up a classic car. He says he’s happy to help Boba, the job’s on he house.
“Now this is podracing!”
But first he has to go see a “little friend” and role credits. Which earned some booing from my couch. You’re going to tease Grogu like that? Boo!
The Book of Boba Fett ep 5– Final Thoughts
All in all, this was one of the most fun episodes of the season. Even if it wasn’t a Boba Fett episode as much as a surprise Mando episode. The final episodes are gearing up to be good ones. And then we have the next season of The Mandalorian to look forward to.
What did you think of The Book of Boba Fett ep. 5? Do you hope Din is about to pick up Grogu from Jedi school? What do you think is next for all of these characters? Let us know in the comments!
May The Force Be with You, Adventurers!
