Book of Boba Fett Spoiler Recap: From the Desert Comes a Stranger
Well the good news is that Boba Fett was actually in The Book of Boba Fett this week. Kinda. For like a second.
Let’s get into it.
The sixth chapter of the series, “From the Desert Comes a Stranger” opens, sure enough, in the desert. The Pyke syndicate is arranging a handoff of spice, only their efforts are interrupted by a familiar, handsome man clad in red. That’s right, Marshal Cobb Vanth is back and despite not having Boba’s armor anymore has not lost one bit of his swagger.
He - very politely - tells the Pykes to take off and not try to pass through again. When they ignore the request, he kills three of them with an incredible quickdraw, and lets the fourth leave unharmed.
Probably a bad idea, all things considered. But we’ll get back to that.
Meanwhile Din makes good on his desire to visit a “little friend” before buckling down to help Boba in Mos Espa. Riding in his new N1 Starfighter, he makes for a lush green planet and arrives just as a bunch of very creepy looking spider droids are building a small structure that looks awfully familiar to The Last Jedi fans. Rather than lead him directly to who he seeks, Din’s guide - none other than R2-D2 himself - instructs him to wait on a hastily constructed bench, then very helpfully shuts himself down.
While Din waits, little Grogu is nearby getting a lesson in being a Jedi from Luke Skywalker himself. I remember a major reaction to Luke and Grogu leaving together at the end of the second season of The Mandalorian was whether or not this meant we would see Luke’s Jedi school (and consequently a little Ben Solo somewhere down the line). Obviously our thoughts trended in the right direction, but we were a little ahead of the game since as of right now, Grogu is the only student.
The little guy, it seems, is having trouble concentrating on his meditation, becoming far more interested in a passing frog than in the task at hand. Sensing Grogu needs a break, Luke suggests they go for a walk.
The only other time we’ve really seen Luke Skywalker as a teacher is when he begrudgingly teaches Rey two lessons on the Force. And even then, he spends the whole time bemoaning its pointlessness. Far from contradicting that development, one thing this episode does very well - poorly placed as it might be - is show how Luke reached that point as a teacher.
He speaks in the same platitudes and vague statements that Obi-Wan and Yoda used, but where they infused their every word with a lifetime of understanding of the nuance, Luke just…doesn’t have that. He knows how to employ it, and he knows what the Force feels like to him. That much is obvious in his training montage with Grogu later. He is a natural Force user, but not a natural teacher. It’s a little like my personal understanding of Algebra. I can do it on my own just fine, but good luck trying to get me to teach it to you.
But he hasn’t spent a lifetime honing his skill and having it taught to him. This isn’t to say that all Jedi need conventional training. Someone like Rey thrived best without it. But in trying to revive a training system he never actually experienced, all Luke can really do is go off of the texts on the subject. Something that is inevitably going to blow up in his face later.
Suspecting that Grogu might be holding something back, Luke offers to help him remember his past before finding the Mandalorian, and though it isn’t May 4th just yet, we still got to sit through Order 66 yet again. The flashback was blessedly short, sparing us all the emotional pain, and all seen through Grogu’s eyes. Three Jedi cut down trying to defend him while an army of Clone Troopers are overtaken by their inhibitor chips. The last thing we see is them running towards Grogu, and so the mystery of who took him out of the Temple will have to wait another day.
Nearby, Din is still waiting for someone to come find him, and in a peak dad move has fallen asleep on the bench. Ever the bounty hunter, however, a quiet nearby noise wakes him up. It’s not Luke or Grogu waiting for him, but rather Ahsoka Tano.
She guides him towards where Luke and Grogu are once again training, and wonders why Din has come all this way knowing Grogu has chosen to train as a Jedi. Though he doesn’t admit as much, she correctly assumes he came for himself, rather than the make sure Grogu is alright. He agrees not to actually see the little guy, but instead leaves the gift the Armorer made for him with Ahsoka, who promises to pass it on.
Despite being expelled from his covert, we see Din takes what it means to be a Mandalorian very seriously. He still uses the term to refer to himself, and even to Grogu though neither of them technically fall under the umbrella any longer. Though he still allows the covert’s rules to dominate his life, there is a subtle understanding that being a Mandalorian means something more than that.
After Din leaves, Ahsoka goes to find Luke to pass the little gift on to him. The conversation between them, in a general sense, is one I have wanted to see for a while. Ahsoka is one of the last living people who truly knew who Anakin Skywalker was, and it seems like a natural story choice for her to seek out his son, who is following in his Jedi footsteps. I just don’t know that this story was the right time or place to address it.
Yes, the two of them talk about Grogu, and she tells Luke to trust his instincts when it comes to his training. But in terms of character beats, and in terms of who is truly affected by the conversation, this is now two guest stars advancing their arcs at the expense of the characters the series is actually supposed to be about. It almost feels like Filoni and Favreau jumped the gun on something that would have been a natural fit for the Ahsoka series. Hell, start the first episode at this point, to show us the timeline overlap with where Mando is in his journey, then follow her as she departs to do the plot of that series!
This also seems like the place for me to mention that now, in her second appearance as the character, I still cannot quite get behind this iteration of Ahsoka Tano. She just doesn’t feel like herself. The undercurrent of strength and optimism that persisted in the hardest moments of her life is just gone. She’s a shadow of her former self, and it breaks my heart, because I cannot believe that five years in peace time would be the thing to wear down seasoned veteran Ahsoka Tano.
I also do not understand her sudden adherence to the Jedi dogma and the concept of foregoing attachment. This is the woman who formed strong bonds with those she worked with because it made her a beter general and a beter Jedi. She walked away when the Order threw those attachments in her face. She has never been one to toe the party line, so I cannot for the life of me figure out why she is doing it now, except for the fact that Din needed to not see Grogu right then for Plot Reasons.
I’d chalk it up to the writing changing hands but Dave Filoni created the character and he wrote this episode. If anyone should nail it, its him. And yet, there is something sorely lacking in her character in live-action so far, which makes me genuinely nervous for her spin-off series.
Back on Tatooine, Din returns to the Palace at Fennec’s request for what had to be the single most frustrating scene in the whole episode. He walks into a meeting with Boba, Fennec, Krrsantan and the Mods while Fennec reiterates who each individual territory belongs to, and what they need to wage proper war on the Pykes.
Boba, the man whom the series is named for, just stands there. Doesn’t say a word. A single, dialogueless appearance across two episodes. Perhaps they really are taking him back to his roots after all.
When Fennec mentions they are in need of foot soldiers, Din volunteers to go scope some out, and heads out to visit Mos Pelgo. Cobb Vanth is initially hesitant to help Din out, until he reminds him that the war is not going to limit itself to a single city’s limits. Perhaps remembering the issues with the spice runners earlier, Vanth agrees to at least speak to his people, and Din heads back to Mos Espa satisfied.
As Vanth is getting ready to talk to his people, a stranger comes in from the desert (see what I did there?). Well, a stranger to Cobb Vanth in any case, because Clone Wars fans know exactly who the hat-wearing, drawling Duros is: Cad Bane, bounty hunter. He strongly suggests (with his hand on his blaster) that Vanth sit out the conflict in exchange for double whatever Boba is paying.
Because the marshal is a stand up guy, he doesn’t agree right away, and the two get locked in a stand-off. One that is almost immediately broken by the excitable deputy who threatens Cad Bane and is killed for his trouble. Vanth is shot too, but not as many times, fuelling the hope that he might just pull through.
Cad Bane was a highlight of the episode. The epitome of cameo done right, because it is directly relevant to the arcs of the characters the show is supposed to be about. He and Boba go way back to the Clone Wars series with their rivalry, and more recently in The Bad Batch we saw he doesn’t get along with Fennec much either. Once you get past the hilarity of Cad Bane being physically incapable of having a rivalry with someone his own age (Boba was a teenager in TCW and Fennec was…maybe in her early 20s at most), you can appreciate the delicious potential of what his involvement with the Pykes will mean for our King and Queen of Mos Espa.
The episode ends on two wildly different notes. First, the Pykes plant a bomb in Garsa Fwip’s Sanctuary, completely incinerating everything within. Or at least that’s what it looks like. Check back next week to see just how livid I can be if it turns out Garsa Fwip was collateral damage.
The final moment of the episode, however, is one of relative calm. Luke presents Grogu with his gift from Din - a tiny beskar chain mail shirt - as well as Yoda’s old lightsaber. He tells Grogu that both options are available to him, but he may only choose one, and once he does, that will be his path going forward. He can either return to Din or remain with Luke and never see the Mandalorian again.
You know, I’m starting to see why Ben Solo wanted to let the Jedi Order die, if this is the kind of nonsense his uncle is spouting. I know this was the whole point, that Luke let his adherence to a very troubled religious order guide his actions, but really. How is this man so obtuse. Luke’s biggest strength was his compassion and his love. His “attachment” to Vader is what helped him become Anakin Skywalker again in the moments before his death. Luke’s method was far from broken, but he decided to fix it anyway.
I never ever thought I would be the one to advocate for more Boba Fett, and yet here I am. This episode and the previous one are great examples of all the eras and story threads of Star Wars converging and intertwining. And the continuity nut in me loves that. But this is the second consecutive week where the focus has completely shifted away from the small scale war for Mos Espa that the series was initially building to.
I want to have faith that they will stick the landing, but at this point I’m more nervous than anything else. Because it has now become a question of which plot is going to pay off. Din’s journey toes into Boba’s neatly in the macrostructural sense, but is there enough time for them to weave that together, plus payoff the cliffhanger with Grogu, plus wrap up whatever Din has going on in a satisfying way all while bringing the war for Mos Espa to a satisfying conclusion?
I guess we’ll see next week.
What did you think? What will Grogu choose? Are you vibing with this Ahsoka? Is Cobb Vanth a goner? 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+