Summary: Boba Fett sets up in the ruins of the Sanctuary to fight off the Pyke Syndicate. Cad Bane comes to negotiate and Boba refuses. Bane reveals to Boba that the Pykes killed the village of Tusken Raiders and that he killed Cobb. Bane leaves and the Pykes launch a surprise attack and take out the Gamorreans, many of the mods are pinned down, and Krrsantan is overwhelmed. Fennec helps the mods and goes to the bosses meeting in Mos Eisley. Boba and Mando fight back and with reinforcements from Freetown, they are successful. However, the Pykes bring out Scorpenek Droids which overwhelm Boba's group. Boba is only able to fight them off by getting his rancor, and he defeats them. Peli arrives with Grogu after he was dropped off at her place. Mando protects Grogu while fighting. Bane arrives and separates Boba from the rancor. They fight and Boba wins and kills Bane. Mando is beaten by the rancor but Grogu puts it to sleep. Fennec murders the head of the Pyke Syndicate and the mayor. Boba wins over the people of Mos Espa, and Mando sets out with Grogu.
The Good: This was decent entertainment when you look at the episode as a whole. It's a climactic action sequence with lots of high points, impressive visuals, and decent, if unspectacular, directing. If you watch this just from a surface-level perspective, I'm sure that you will have fun here. Looking deeper at this episode, there were small parts that I enjoyed. The new gigantic Scorpenek droids were a cool new addition to the universe, and they function as a direct upgrade to droidekas. It was engaging to see how Boba's group would manage to defeat them. The twist that the Pyke Syndicate murdered the Tuskens made sense, and Boba got a nice moment of inner conflict when Bane revealed this to him. It was a brief scene, but it's nice to see Boba tested with a major decision, something that we haven't seen much of in this show. Grogu's return was welcome, and his reunion with Mando was a fittingly sweet moment. It makes me wish that we were watching "The Mandalorian" this season instead. The Bad: But as I had feared, I cared about almost nothing in this season finale. The story, the characters, the plot, none of it resonated with me at all. Because of that, even though what I watched was entertaining, it never sucked me in or got me to invest in the events that were happening. Excellent TV makes me forget about reality while I'm watching, making it seem like there is nothing more important than the story that I am witnessing. During this episode, I was frequently checking my watch to see when it would eventually end, which is telling of how little I was invested by what was on screen. There were many reasons that combined together to make me not care at all, and I'll jump into them now. The plot was simplistic, uninspired, and filled with illogical decisions and developments that further alienated me. There was nothing about the story being told that I can't get from any other mediocre TV show. The set-up for the climactic battle was terrible. It's baffling to me how Boba simply stationed a handful of people around with no plan or strategy at all. He had a significant disadvantage, and nobody even recommended a strategy? There was no way that any of the fighters he had stationed would win any fight without a plan. The show tries to pass off the stationing of everyone as strategic planning, but that is not the case because none of these locations mattered, and everyone ended up fighting at the same place anyways. If the locations don't matter in the show, why should I care where everyone is stationed? The battle planning is so plainly half-assed and that immediately tells me that I should not try to care about the logistics of this fight that's about to happen, because even the writers didn't care. Furthermore, it's blatantly obvious that Boba's lack of a plan is setting up for a surprise ambush from the Pyke Syndicate. That takes away all tension. The one thing that did surprise me, and not in a good way, was the arrival of the Freetown people. Nothing made sense about this development. For one, how on Earth did these people manage to become competent fighters off-screen? They managed to shoot with accuracy against trained fighters, which made absolutely no sense. Seemingly they chose to fight to avenge their dead marshal. But apparently we discover that he somehow survived anyways! So then I have to ask, if Cobb is alive, why are they fighting? Shouldn't they be prioritizing their own survival? Furthermore, Cobb surviving forces me to heavily question the competence of Cad Bane, which I should never have to do. I thought in the last episode that he intentionally shot Cobb in the shoulder and murdered his deputy to send a message. Leaving Cobb alive was smart because it meant that Freetown would have a leader who would be smart enough to not fight back, and there wouldn't be as much concern of the townsfolk rebelling. But we find out that Bane thought that he had killed Cobb. This is so stupid for a number of reasons. For one, with Cobb dead there is nobody to lead Freetown and prevent them from coming in as reinforcements in spite of Bane's demands. And furthermore, Bane looks like an incompetent moron because Cobb somehow survived! And not only that, his injuries were minor enough that he lasted long enough to get to Boba's bacta tank. That's absurd, and it's completely out of character for Bane to be conveniently incompetent. This is one of the very best bounty hunters ever. If he shoots to kill, he is not going to shoot once in the shoulder without any follow-up shots. Sticking to the topic of Cad Bane, his death was massively underwhelming. For those who have watched "The Clone Wars", you know how important of a character Bane is. To have him murdered so anticlimactically by Boba is a completely unsatisfying conclusion to his story, and a spit in the face to the character. Plus, if you haven't seen "The Clone Wars", then you are given no reason to care about Bane as a character at all! He's no different to any other boring "Star Wars" villain in this show, and that is poor writing. Bane is not written as a fleshed-out character here, and his presence only has impact if you have watched a separate show that I'm sure a good amount of people have not watched. A TV show should not demand you to watch something else to fully understand the story it is telling. That's very lazy and uninspired writing. Let's get back to the big action sequence of the episode. I thought it was fine. The action was okay, but it never hooked me. It had a big budget and was directed adequately, but it just felt hollow. Too many TV shows nowadays have these huge budgets, but they never amount to much; good production is only a positive if the story being told is effective. If the story is not effective, all that you're left with is a pretty-looking pile of dung. It may look pretty, but it's still not any good. Anyways, the action scenes hit a real low point with the arrival of the rancor. I had forgotten about the rancor since it was introduced and it surprised me when it returned. But that's actually a bad thing. Why? Well, I don't give a rat's ass about Boba riding a rancor because that idea never got properly developed. Instead of making this a genuinely impactful story beat, the writers ignored this storyline so that they can have a surprise reveal and an "oh hey" moment for the audience that is completely lacking in substance. Surprise doesn't make for good television, emotional investment does. A surprise without emotion means nothing at all. Furthermore, it is laughable that Boba falls off the rancor so easily after Bane shoots some fire. There was just a massive action sequence with the rancor jumping everywhere, and yet a little bit of fire is what makes Boba fall off? Come on. Then the rancor apparently goes berserk, because of course it does. I thought Boba had to train it to allow him to ride it, but apparently the rancor is still untrained, and Boba was able to ride it anyways for no reason other than the writers wanting him to. This blatant disregard for telling a consistent story is a theme within this episode and is one of the many reasons it fails to deliver. I was again unhappy with Grogu and Mando stealing so much of the limelight from Boba. This is not their show. They should have had cameo appearances and nothing more. Yet, Mando and Grogu fighting the rancor ends up being the big climax of the episode, prioritized over Boba's fight with Bane. Seriously? This show does not have its priorities set straight. What's worse is that the final scene of the show isn't even with Boba. it's with Mando and Grogu. So much for "The Book of Boba Fett", the writers make it clear that Boba never mattered and that Mando and Grogu were the important ones all along. What a slap to the face after I slogged through 7 episodes of boring Tatooine politics with no depth, frustrating writing, and poor characterization. Turns out it was all for nothing and it never mattered anyways. The resolution to Boba's story is one of the most unsatisfying conclusions I have ever seen in television. After the battle is over, the townsfolk suddenly love Boba. To that I ask one very simple question. WHY? All Boba did was fight, and then he brought in a rancor that went berserk through the city. He never protected innocents or showed any regard for the lives of the people who live in the city. Furthermore, he was trained by the Tusken Raiders, who the city people do not like. So what has Boba done to earn their trust? Nothing! This scene is so unsatisfying because it is totally unearned, yet the writers seem to be dumb enough to believe that Boba has done enough to win over everyone. Boba learned nothing about ruling, he learned nothing about his people, and he learned nothing about managing the criminal underworld. This is the entire premise of the show, and he learned nothing. All he did was recruit a bunch of half-assed, terrible side characters who added nothing to the show, and then killed some people. That is not character development, that's just a generic, uninspired story. I hate how this show examined Boba's leadership. He almost never made a decision himself. Any time there is an even slightly interesting decision to make, Boba doesn't even make it himself. Someone else suggests something and Boba just does that. There is absolutely no exploration of Boba's inner conflict or principles. This is as bare-bones as it gets. Lots of little things bothered me too. There is a 4th wall breaking joke where Peli makes fun of Grogu's name and says she won't call him that because it sounds gross, which is what the fanbase said about Grogu's name. This would be a fine tongue-in-cheek joke ordinarily, but it is terrible in this show. In a story that has no thought put into it with zero stakes and zero emotion, the writers instead prioritized making fun of the fans with this one joke. That is really disgusting, and it's a perfect showcase of how the people making these "Star Wars" shows do not have their priorities in the right place at all. Another thing that bothered me was Bane getting impaled and there being not a single drop of blood. Not only is that completely unrealistic and immersion-breaking, but I can't fathom why this is the case. The original "Star Wars" trilogy had blood, and there is literally blood on Fennec's dagger when she murders the leader of the Pyke Syndicate! So why on Earth was there no blood in this one scene? Decisions like these are just inexplicable. Lastly, I was really annoyed that Boba's revenge story was reignited by Bane only to have zero pay-off. Boba never so much as brings up the Tusken village after that scene, and he murders Bane without ever intending to go after the Pykes for what they had done. What a colossal failure of a revenge plot. The Unknown: Not many interesting questions to ask. What's next for Mando and Grogu? How about for Boba? Is the Pyke Syndicate defeated for good? Is Cad Bane actually dead? Best Moment: Mando reuniting with Grogu. The moment wasn't perfect, and honestly felt out of place, but it was the only time during this entire episode where I actually felt something. Character of the Episode: Mando. Conclusion: This was every bit as flat, emotionless, and underwhelming of a finale as I was expecting. The length of this review is telling of how little I enjoyed out of this. It's fun on the surface if you turn your brain off, but use even a little bit of your brain and develop even the slightest of expectations, and you see the boring mess that this episode was. I am disappointed that this show didn't manage to be a fun "Star Wars" experience. I don't think that anyone expected much from this series, and I didn't either. All I wanted was a simple, fun story with an adequate narrative about Boba Fett, but even that was asking too much. All we got was a lifeless story with no substance that only existed to be a bridge between seasons 2 and 3 of "The Mandalorian". When the best parts of the show had nothing to do with the central character or central story, that's when you know that there is a major problem. I hope that we stop getting useless side character-centric TV shows like this because there is no innovation or passion in these projects at all. "Star Wars" is not a particularly high quality franchise, but it should be far better than this tripe. Score: 39
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|