Why You Can Trust CNET The Book of Boba Fett episode 4 recap: A rescue, a breakout and some revenge
The former bounty hunter battles an old nemesis in Chapter 4 of the Disney Plus Star Wars show.
Boba Fett takes a victory sip as his influence grows.
The fourth episode of The Book of Boba Fett landed on Disney Plus last Wednesday, as the ex-bounty hunter continues his career change to Tatooine crime boss in the seven-part live-action Star Wars show. This comes after the ruthless Pyke Syndicate was seemingly revealed as a real threat to Boba's power on the desert planet.
The Pykes even scared off the Twins, despite the Hutts' eagerness to seize the territory of their late cousin Jabba from Boba. This show is set around five years after Return of the Jedi and shortly after The Mandalorian season 2.
It's time to sample the SPOILER spice and dive into Chapter 4: The Gathering Storm.
Preparing for war
The episode ends with Boba and Fennec persuading (with a little rancor threat) Mos Espa's crime families to stay neutral in the coming war with the Pykes. With that done, Fennec suggests Boba use his considerable reserve of credits to hire muscle to take on their enemies.
After she utters these words, we get a hint as to the identity of that muscle in the form of The Mandalorian's main theme. It sure implies that Boba will recruit our old pal Mando (aka Din Djarin). A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.
The boys in Beskar armor became friendly after Boba and Fennec helped Mando take on the Empire during Boba's quest to retrieve his lost armor.
When we last saw Mando, he handed Grogu over to Jedi Luke Skywalker so the little guy could be trained to wield his Force powers. Mando also took possession of the Darksaber and inadvertently became the leader of the Mandalorians. This episode implies that he's still operating as a bounty hunter, but I guess we'll see.
He also hires towering Wookiee bounty hunter Black Krrsantan, so we'll get more of that arm-ripping viciousness in the coming episodes.
This episode reveals the origins of his badass duo.
Connecting past and present
Much of the running time is taken up with another flashback, which reveals how Boba found the badly wounded Fennec after she was shot by sleazy bounty hunter Toro Calican – he happened to see the flash charge shots Mando and Toro fired to stop her from sniping them. Boba brings her to a mod-parlor populated by low-rent cyberpunk types (like the gang he recruited last episode), where her gut is fixed with droid parts.
The pair break into Jabba's palace (then ruled by Bib Fortuna and under heavy guard) to retrieve Boba's awesome Firespray-class ship, Slave I.
Slaughtering the sarlacc
Boba's memories of escaping the sarlacc are clearly hazy, since he uses his ship to hover over the pit and search for his lost armor – he doesn't remember the Jawas stealing it from him after he crawled out. It also seems like an imprecise way to search, since the sarlacc is all yucky teeth and organs.
Mmm, delicious seismic charge.
Predictably, it awakens and tries to gobble up the whole ship. A quick-thinking Fennec drops a seismic charge and kills the beast. RIP sarlacc, you'll be missed.
This gives Boba the opportunity to climb down into the pit and search thoroughly for his armor, to no avail. All he gets for his troubles is a coating of acid, causing the injuries he's healing with his bacta sleeps in the present.
He also takes a minute to gun down the Nikto speeder goons that apparently slaughtered his Tusken friends, but Fennec doesn't believe they'd have been capable of taking out the tribe (it was probably the Pykes).
Boba takes revenge on the the Nikto gang that killed his Tusken tribe.
No more stupid bosses
We finally learn why Boba decided to switch from bounty hunting to crime lord – he reckons he can do a better job than the people he's worked for.
"I'm tired of our kind dying because of the idiocy of others," he says. "We're smarter than them. It's time we took our shot."
It makes sense, since his father, Jango, was killed by Mace Windu after his boss Count Dooku started a conflict with the Jedi in Attack of the Clones, and Boba fell into the sarlacc pit partially due to Jabba's sadistic showmanship in Return of the Jedi (but mostly because he failed to watch his back).
Observations, WTF questions and Easter eggs
- "I am Boba Fett." He says this twice in the flashback, possibly reasserting his identity after living in the desert for years.
- Boba's ship, Slave I, isn't named in this episode, and the name has largely been absent from merchandise since recent years. It comes as tech companies and society reconsider the casual use of terms like "slave" and "master."
- His relationship with the bantha is quite heartwarming.
- The black sous-chef droid working in the kitchen resembles EV-9D9, who assigned R2-D2 to Jabba's sail barge in Return of the Jedi.
- In further droid trivia, the little one Boba chases around the kitchen is a LEP droid. These appeared several times in The Clone Wars, but this is our first time seeing one in live action.
- Boba is "completely healed" of his injuries in this episode, so we probably won't see any more flashbacks in the remaining three episodes.
- Krrsantan can't resist attacking the Trandoshans because the reptilian race traditionally hunts Wookiees, and he's had many run-ins with them in Marvel's Star Wars comics.
- The tune Max Rebo and his band start to play after Krrsantan's rampage sounds excellent, I'd love to hear a full version.
Join us for more Easter eggs and observations next Wednesday, Jan. 26, when episode 5 of The Book of Boba Fett hits Disney Plus.
