Return Of The Mandalorian (The Book of Boba Fett - S01E05) - Live Action Series

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"I could've made good money off that thing! Open a petting zoo!" SPOILERS.

He's back!

Your brand new Star Wars series may have an issue if the best episode so far is not about the star of the show, but about the Mandalorian. The very aptly titled "Return of the Mandalorian" is basically a season 3 episode of "The Mandalorian" and were it not for the very last minute, when Fennec Shand approaches Din Djarin to hire him, it would have zero connection to The Book of Boba Fett. It's pretty apparent now that no matter what the title of any new Star Wars series is, it's more of an anthology series now and not necessarily putting 100% of its focus on the actual characters in the series. The Bad Batch did that when two episodes were a Rebels prequel - and even though it didn't really fit the concept of the series at all, those two episodes were some of the best in season 1. And now The Book of Boba Fett does it and turns into The Mandalorian for one episode. I have nothing against anthology series or series that crossover and connect various shows set in the same universe, the CW does that with its various DC Arrowverse shows, for example, but it wasn't really communicated like that. And then there's the issue that a pretty mediocre series with only 7 episodes dedicates a full episode to something entirely different. It's also noteworthy that the action and overall comedic timing and cinematography was among the best in the entire season, we got treated to some pretty cool imagery, including a full size ringworld. Director Bryce Dallas Howard put acclaimed movie director Robert Rodriguez to shame here. Give her more to do, and let Robert do his own things. But before I talk more about how I feel about the show let's quickly address the plot. A few very crucial things happen in this episode.

You won't find Master Chief and Cortana on this ringworld...

This episode, while completely irrelevant for The Book of Boba Fett, is a pretty crucial episode for The Mandalorian. After the season 2 finale the question was where Din Djarin will go now and what he will do, now that Grogu is with Luke. This episode answers this question without wasting any time. Mando reverts back to his old bounty hunter self. The opening scene in a slaughterhouse (you can almost believe Rocky will start punching pig carcasses any moment) is pretty much a repeat of the opening scene in the Mandalorian pilot. Din Djarin is after a target, but this time he has to bring in his target cold, his quarry is not cooperative. Din uses his darksaber to eliminate the enemies and he slices the bounty in half. But during the fight his left leg sustains a severe injury and he's no longer in top fighting form. We then find out that Mando is on a huge ringworld, the first time we see that in Star Wars live action. While Star Wars usually has a strong fantasy vibe it's nice to see a staple of science fiction in Star Wars and to show us that the civilization in the Star Wars galaxy does not just live on overcrowded city planets, desert worlds or jungle moons.

She believes aliens riding in the tail of a comet will beam you up and offer salvation, or something like that

Din learns from his client some info he needs. It turns out he's looking for the remaining members of the Mandalorian coven. He finds the Armorer and Paz Vizla in the underbelly of the ring. He's ready to join them again. But you know the old saying, you can never go home again, and the same is true here. While it seems that Mando is trying to get back into his old pre Grogu life it's obvious he's not the same anymore. But before we go there the Armorer melts down Mando's beskar spear, because beskar should not be used for weapons, since it can cut beskar armor. Din Djarin asks the Armorer to make something for Grogu and this is when we learn that Din has not stopped thinking about his little friend, he wants to visit him. And while we don't get to see what it is the Armorer makes, it's hinted at that it might be some sort of chainmail, think Mithril armor for Frodo in Lord of the Rings.

The Empire loves overkill

Of course Din's newly acquired darksaber is a topic of discussion and the Armorer once more clarifies the rules, if you win it in battle everything is fine, if it's handed to you it will only result in bad things. Bo-Katan did not win the darksaber in battle, under her rule Mandalorian fell and we are treated to a very short flashback of the destruction of Mandalore. This is pretty epic and terrifyingly beautiful imagery. The Empire went all in and nuked Mandalore into oblivion.

James Cameron is consulting with his lawyers right now

We also get to see a short sequence with K2 droids sweeping the remains in what is a clear hommage to Terminator 2. But since James Cameron is working for Disney now as well it's all a big family. This short sequence was really well made and emphasized once more that the Empire was brutal and ruthless. While the destruction of Alderaan felt pretty clinical the short sequence here is more visceral and haunting.

Paz Vizla really wants the darksaber

But things with the few remaining Mandos turn sour pretty quickly when Paz Vizla challendes Din for the darksaber, Vizla's ancient ancestor once forged the weapon, so he thinks it's his right to own it. Of course Din wins the duel but then the Armorer is once more proven to be the zealous leader of some strange sect when she once more recites their creed about never removing the helmet, while Paz Vizla reaffirms it by saying he never had his helmet removed (how does he eat?) Din Djarin can do no such thing, in fact he's become a compulsive helmet remover in season 2 of The Mandalorian. And thus Din is cast out and that's it for him and his idea of returning to the coven. We, the viewer, knew this of course, but it was important to show us how Din comes to the realization that he cannot return to his old life and the opening twenty minutes or so were pretty effective in showing us that you really cannot return home anymore.

Behold the next $350 HasLab!

So what now? Din leaves the ringworld on a galactic starcruiser (no, it's not the Halcyon in what could have been some cross promotion) and we find out pretty soon that his destination is Tatooine. Why Tatooine? It turns out Peli Motto, the mechanic with her droids, contacted Din a while ago about a replacement for the Razorcrest. But before some people may begin to hope he may get a Razorcrest 1701-A we immediately learn that Peli has found something very different. An old Naboo starfighter.

Peli once dated a Jawa... that woman is full of surprises...

What follows is a very long, maybe too long, sequence where Peli, her droids, and Din put the disassembled starfighter back together. But this long segment is interspersed with some light humor and funny bits. We learn that Peli once dated a Jawa, the Jawas also turn out to be extremely resourceful when it comes to procuring parts, they really are the mischievous counterparts to the more savage Tusken.

Mando's very own hot rod!

Eventually the old starfighter is flightworthy again, with various custom parts, it now resembles more a hot rod than the elegant versions with a fresh coat of paint we saw in the prequels. What follows is Mando's test flight. And it wouldn't be modern Star Wars without many, many callbacks to the movies. We get to see Beggar's Canyon again and I wonder if they used the same miniature as in the movie. You can almost hear the podracers, but this time it's Mando who is performing maneuvers with his new starfighter. While this sequence doesn't really add anything to the story it's fun and you can see that Mando is really enjoying his test flight.

Traffic control in space...

The test flight ends with a humorous encounter in space with two New Republic pilots, one of whom we know, it's Captain Tarso Neva, Trapper Wolf's companion from The Mandalorian, but this time he's flying patrol with some rookie. It turns out Mando was flying too fast around the galactic starcruiser which is still in orbit so the two rangers basically stop him for a traffic violation. Now the old Naboo starfighter doesn't have a transponder so it can fly undetected, something which raises suspicion. Mando basically promises to fix the headlights back in the garage when Captain Neva recognizes Mando and asks about the destroyed Razorcrest but then Mando activates his turbo boost and vanishes. The new starfighter is certainly very small and maybe not all that practical when it comes to transporting bounties but still extremely capable and useful. I wonder if Din will get a bigger ship in season 3, but he will certainly keep the starfighter, its superior speed and low profile will be useful.

Din won't accept payment, this one is one the house

Back in Peli's hangar Fennec turns up. She wants to hire Mando and offers him a nice sum. Din accepts the offer, but refuses the money, he will do this one on the house. But before he will help Boba Fett he wants to visit Grogu. And this is where we are left off.

As I said in my introduction this week's episode was the best one so far, the bad news is that it was not, even remotely, a Book of Boba Fett episode and instead a full blown The Mandalorian episode. I do understand why Favreau and Filoni do this, they want to create a connected universe of various Star Wars series and I think this approach does make sense. But the problem is that this hasn't been really communicated. It just feels weird when a series about Boba Fett completely forgets about the character and his story and instead dedicates a very substantial 50 minutes to Din Djarin instead. With only two episodes left and the vague hint that episode 6 may feature even more Mando and possibly even Grogu and Luke Boba Fett suddenly feels like an afterthought in his own series. Also, it probably means that the remaining two episodes are really just about driving the Pykes off Tatooine (plus maybe visiting Grogu), maybe in the closing seconds of the season we may get to see Crimson Dawn or whoever it is who is behind the Pykes, but anyone who hoped The Book of Boba Fett may open up a lot more will probably be disappointed. Well, the series did open up, by abandoning Boba Fett entirely and giving us a spectacular ringworld, Din Djarin's journey to self realization, a reunion with the Armorer and Paz Vizla. Again, the episode was excellent but as a Book of Boba Fett episode it was a weird choice.

Bryce Dallas Howard directed her third Star Wars episode and I am happy to say her episode is the best so far. Dear Lucasfilm and Jon Favreau, give her more to do and let Robert Rodriguez return to Spy Kids or Alita 2 or anything really, just not Star Wars. I feel Bryce is a prime candidate for her own series, like Deborah Chow, down the line and I can also see her directing a (Star Wars) movie sooner than later. Her father's talent obviously rubbed off on her.

I liked the humor in this episode, something I cannot really say about the series all the time (or the new movies). Especially Peli had some great lines, the best one is certainly the very self aware meta joke about why Mando gave Grogu away. Yes, they (Lucasfilm) could have made a ton of money with him. But it's pretty obvious after this episode that Din Djarin is not over Grogu and that we have not seen the last of him. At this point it would not surprise me if Luke will eventually tell Din that Grogu's destiny is not to become a Jedi and that Din and Grogu will reunite. Favreau is not stupid of course and abandoning Grogu altogether was most likely never really the plan here, I think, it's all just part of a bigger arc.

I loved the ringworld, I touched on that earlier in this review. Star Wars usually does not put much emphasis on actual science fiction, so seeing this technological marvel in the Star Wars universe was a nice surprise. Star Wars could really do with a few more (hard) SciFi elements. You cannot really say that about tracking fobs though. These things must be magic. I wish they would eventually tell us how a tracking fob is supposed to work. It's been a nitpick before and it's still a nitpick now. Tracking fobs make no sense. Does a fob sniff DNA? Across the galaxy? Across planets? If not... do people have implanted chips? That would be pretty dystopian and it was never mentioned before that people get chipped.

So, in conclusion I was pretty happy to get a new Mandalorian episode a few months early. It had good action, some fun bits and awesome imagery. The good news is that even if you have zero interest in Boba Fett or his adventures you can watch this episode in isolation, since it has almost zero connections to Boba Fett. I still feel this is a weird way to do things, maybe the various Star Wars shows should all have a label or so that informs the viewer that they are all part of something bigger so that no one will raise their eyebrows anymore when The Bad Batch turns into a Rebels prequel or The Book of Boba Fett into Mandalorian season 2.5. Maybe something like Star Wars: Mandalorians - followed by the title of the show.

One final thing: Din Djarin really is the more interesting Mandalorian compared to Boba Fett. He steals the show, literally even, since Boba Fett was not featured at all, and he wasn't needed either. Bad news when you are the main star of the series. I suppose Din Djarin will stay for the remaining two episodes, let's hope he won't eclipse Boba Fett entirely, for Boba's sake.

Okay, one more final thing: I bet Hasbro rubbed their hands in glee when they saw how the episode gives them several excuses to repack old figures with maybe one newly tooled accessory. So get ready for the Heavy Mandalorian aka Paz Vizla, but now with energy shield attachment! Then we need Din Djarin with a darksaber, but without spear. And of course Hasbro now has all the reasons in the world to dust off old Naboo starfighter moulds. I also feel Peli Motto and her droids now deserve a set, her three stooges are always fun, add a newly tooled R5 astromech and we're golden!

I rate this episode a very solid 4 holocrons, as a brand new The Mandalorian episode! The episode was fun, it had good comedy, great cinematography, great action, but maybe the montage with the assembly of the starfighter was a bit too long. It's also a crucial episode for Din Djarin, since he learns that life after Grogu will never be the same as before, he can't return to his old life, he is a different person now. But as a The Book of Boba Fett episode it really cannot be rated, since it has nothing to do with the themes and arcs in the show. Still a very odd choice to do things this way. Future Mandoverse series should really all get a common title or label, so the viewer knows the series may cut away to completely different characters at any time.