Why You Can Trust CNET The Book of Boba Fett episode 2 recap: Star Wars gets weird as bounty hunter joins tribe
Boba's flashback adventures with the Tusken Raiders continue with Chapter 2's train heist.
Boba Fett's Tusken training continues in his solo show's second episode.
The Book of Boba Fett turned another page on Disney Plus Wednesday, as the second chapter of the seven-episode live-action Star Wars show landed on the streaming service. The first episode flashed back to Boba's escape from the sarlacc.
When it wasn't looking to the past, last week's episode revealed Boba and master assassin pal Fennec Shand (Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen) taking their messy first steps toward seizing control of Tatooine's criminal underworld. After an attempt on their lives in the streets of Mos Espa, Fennec leaves one of the would-be killers alive for interrogation.
It's time to pay tribute and enter an underworld of SPOILERS in Chapter 2: The Tribes of Tatooine.
Becoming a Tusken
The majority of this episode is set during Boba's bacta-induced flashback to the time following his escape from the sarlacc (the period after Return of the Jedi's Tatooine scenes), as he gets in deeper with the Tusken Raider tribe whose respect he earned in episode 1.
This sees him battling a swoop gang and leading the Tuskens in an ambitious attack on a train run by the Pyke Syndicate, a crime group previously seen in The Clone Wars and Solo. This epic sequence ends with Boba sparing the Pykes, even though they were transporting the narcotic spice. He tells them they must pay a toll to the Tuskens for passing through their territory.
Boba Fett gets his Tusken Raider outfit after the tribe accepts him.
The crime groups we've seen operating on Tatooine (the Hutts and Pykes) are offworlders and apparently have no respect for the natives. Boba is taking a different approach, which could unite the locals in support of his rule -- they'll probably help him drive his rivals away.
The Tuskens embrace Boba further after the train heist, putting a tiny lizard in his head and sending him on an intense quest to get the tree branch that'll be forged into his gaffi stick, the Tusken melee weapon. They also give him their black robes, making him look like a total badass -- the same look he had when he was reintroduced in the first episode of The Mandalorian season 2.
The Tuskens welcome Boba with a ceremonial dance.
The Tuskens' ceremonial dance in the episode's conclusion is likely inspired by Morrison's Māori heritage, which he said was incorporated into the character in The Mandalorian. One of the best-known aspects of Māori culture is the haka, a traditional dance most famously performed by New Zealand rugby team the All Blacks.
Challenging the Hutts
The present-day storyline (which occurs roughly five years after Return of the Jedi) only takes up a small portion of this episode, but the Night Wind assassin says he was hired by Mos Espa's Ithorian mayor Mok Shaiz -- who previously refused to pay tribute to Boba.
It seems like Boba earns the mayor's respect through his forceful entry, and we discover that Jabba's cousins The Twins want to take over the late Hutt's territory. However, Boba refuses to give up his claim and tells them they'll have to kill him.
The Twins want Boba's territory, but are apparently gonna be sneaky about it.
The female twin's lines aren't translated and my Huttese is mostly limited to the stuff Jabba said in A New Hope and Return of the Jedi, but it seems like she advises her brother that trying to kill Boba in a busy Mos Espa street wouldn't be a good look (they'd probably get shot too).
"Sleep lightly, bounty hunter," says the male twin threateningly as they leave. Since Boba is having loads of dreams while snoozin' in a bacta tank, he's probably sleeping heavily.
Nasty Wookiee bounty hunter Black Krrsantan is apparently on the Hutts' side.
Comic cameo
The Wookiee enforcer with the Hutts isn't named, but he's almost certainly Black Krrsantan making his first live-action appearance. This bounty hunter has been a regular in Marvel's Star Wars comics since 2015, and is real mean.
Boba's reference to "gladiators" hints at Krrsantan's past – after getting off his home planet Kashyyyk, he was forced to battle in a gladiator pit. Once he escaped that life, he became a bounty hunter, working for such charming employers as Jabba and Darth Vader.
Krrsantan also had a run-in with Obi-Wan Kenobi during the Jedi's exile on Tatooine -- Obi-Wan was forced to rescue Luke Skywalker's Uncle Owen from the bounty hunter.
Hopefully Krrsantan will battle Boba and Fennec at some point in this series, or perhaps he'll end up joining them.
Deleted scene stars
Before Boba bar-brawls the Nikto swoop gang into unconsciousness, the goons are hassling a pair of human bar patrons – Camie Marstrap and Laze "Fixer" Loneozner. This couple is a bit of a Star Wars deep cut, since their only live-action appearance was in a deleted scene from A New Hope.
Camie and Fixer were friends of Luke when he was growing up on Tatooine and showed up in a scene set at Tosche Station (a repair station run by Fixer) that would have introduced Luke's ill-fated buddy Biggs Darklighter much earlier in the movie. Camie refers to Luke by the unpleasant nickname "Wormie," hinting at the bullying dynamic between the characters.
In Jason Fry's novelization of The Last Jedi, the exiled Luke dreams of what his life might have been like if he'd never left Tatooine. He's married to Camie, but is aware that his destiny lies elsewhere. Presumably she stopped calling him Wormie at some point.
We get a glimpse of young Boba in the bounty hunter's vision.
Observations and Easter eggs
- The Night Wind assassin says "E chu ta!" when Boba is about to have him executed. This is a general Huttesse insult, and hints that the Hutts hired him.
- Apparently word that Luke Skywalker killed Jabba's rancor failed to spread, since the assassin freaks out when he's dropped into its empty den.
- The train heist is a little bit like the one seen in Solo, but is most likely inspired by the Western movie trope.
- During Boba's trippy quest to the tree, he sees himself being consumed by the sarlacc, his childhood on Kamino and picking up his late father Jango Fett's helmet on Geonosis (his young self is played by Attack of the Clones actor Daniel Logan).
- Boba should probably have more questions about the hallucination-inducing lizard.
- The forging of the Tuskens' gaffi stick is kinda like the Jedi making their lightsabers.
Join us for more Easter eggs and observations next Wednesday, Jan. 12, when episode 3 of The Book of Boba Fett hits Disney Plus.