The Book of Boba Fett brings back another major Star Wars character
If you tuned into this week's episode of The Book of Boba Fett expecting to see, well, Boba Fett, you might have been surprised thinking you stumbled into season 3 of The Mandalorian instead. While Din Djarin's (Pedro Pascal, remaining masked as usual) appearance was hinted at during the last episode, it was a bit of a surprise to see how much of Boba Fett's fifth episode spent catching up with the galaxy's most famous Mandalorian.
While Mando entrusted Grogu to the care of Luke Skywalker in the season finale, his adopted son still weighs heavy on his mind. After completing a bounty hunting job in trade for the Armorer's (Emily Swallow) location, Mando finds her in hiding along with one of Clan Viszla, who eyes the Darksaber in Mando's possession as ominously as one can while wearing a helmet. Mando still has the Beskar spear gifted to him by Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) but since the weapon presents a danger to Mandalorians, Mando offers it up to the Armorer to be made into a gift of sorts for Grogu. Despite the fact that his quest to return Grogu to the Jedi is essentially complete, Mando doesn't believe in the Jedi's way of severing attachment since it is counter to the way of the Mandalore. The little green guy will always be a part of his clan no matter what.
As the Armorer forges the spear into Grogu's gift, she gives Mando a little history lesson on his other weapon, the Darksaber, telling him both of its origins and the history of Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) trying to wield it without winning it in combat (Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels fans will recall that it was a Jedi member of Clan Viszla that formed the weapon and Sabine Wren later gifted it to Bo-Katan so she could lead Mandalore).
Lucasfilm 'The Book of Boba Fett'
In flashback, we see that Bo-Katan's failure led to the Empire's destruction of Mandalore and it feels like a lot of weighty information in what is essentially supposed to be Mando's cameo appearance on another character's show. The Armorer tries to train Mando in combat with the Darksaber, but he falters a bit in wielding it which does not go unnoticed Paz Viszla (voiced by Executive Producer Jon Favreau), who is skulking about. He challenges Mando to a fight which Mando thankfully wins. But when the Armorer finds out that Mando has removed his helmet (for a very good reason, I might add!), she basically declares that he's no longer a Mandalorian. She gives him a new quest to atone so I assume that season 3 of the Mandalorian is going to involve that or Lucasfilm is going to have to rename the show.
Anyway, Mando takes the Darksaber and the gift for Grogu and catches a commercial flight to Tatooine, which is about as weird to witness as it sounds. Traveling commercial has its drawbacks but Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris, always delightful even in that wig) told Mando she had a new ship for him and if it looks a little familiar, we find out it actually comes from the Queen of Naboo's old fleet (A shout out to Padme Amidala at last!) It's a bit of a wreck but with a fair amount of work by both Peli and Mando, he soon has a sleek new ship he takes out for a test ride at Beggar's Canyon, where you will remember Luke got all that experience for his famous Death Star run. Is it fan service? Yes! Was it still fun to see? Indeed!
Mando gets a little carried away on his test run and gets flagged by two New Republic X-wing pilots, one being Captain Teva from season 2 (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) and the other Lieutenant Reed (played by Max Lloyd-Jones, who doubled for Mark Hamill in the season 2 finale). Teva recognizes Mando from his exploits last season but let's him go after Mando uses his new ship to get away. Turns out X-wing pilots hate paperwork as much as the rest of us do.
As much fun as it is to get an extended visit with Mando, the episode eventually ties back into Boba Fett's ongoing story when Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) appears to hire him on as extra muscle for Boba. Mando volunteers to do it on the house but first says he has to visit a little friend. Can we hope to get a Grogu appearance in the next episode? Or is Mando's little friend someone else besides our favorite little frog egg-eating force user?
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