Director: Steph Green

Writer: Jon Favreau

Starring: Temuera Morrison, Ming-Na Wen, Matt Berry, David Pasquesi, Jennifer Beals, Galen Howard, and Robert Rodriguez

Rating: ★★★½

After the very strong opening chapter to The Book of Boba Fett, chapter two feels a little disappointing. The dual narrative from the first episode continues here, with a lot more time focused on Fett’s (Temuera Morrison) time with the Tuskens of Tatooine. After proving himself to the tribe at the end of chapter one, Fett is becoming part of the tribe.

This episode also furthers the plot of the story in the ‘present’ where Fett is starting his rule after Jabba’s death. Something that was hinted at previously comes to light here, not everyone is willing to accept Fett as the new ruler. A pair of Hutts arrive on Tatooine to challenge his claim to the throne. The post Mandalorian story feels like it’s building up to something big happening later in the story.

The focus is the past, where Fett proves himself further to the Tuskens by planning to stop a train that’s killing the tribe whenever it passes. He teaches them how to use technology and in return they teach him more of their ways.

While the first episode was very slowly paced, it split it more evenly between the past and present, which made the episode feel shorter, here the majority is set in the past and it feels even slower. It’s also a longer episode, one of the longest episodes of live-action Star Wars so far, and it really suffers for it. Knowing that the flashbacks are going to end up with Fett heading into his story in the second season of The Mandalorian makes this episode feel very inconsequential, and with so much time spend in the past, it feels like wasted screentime which could be spent on the present.

That’s not to say that there’s no value in seeing how Fett got to where we saw him in The Mandalorian. It’s still interesting to watch him grow as a character, learning new skills and the world building is great. There’s more development here to the Tusken Raiders than there is at any point in the main films. In The Phantom Menace they are reduced to essentially terrorists who attack the pod race, here they are more developed and a lot more interesting. You can feel the influence from the Fremen from Dune here a lot more than before.

The action when they actually attack the train is excellent. It’s hard to believe that you’re watching a TV show. It looks great and it’s exciting to watch. Fett also gets to show his more dominant side when dealing with the train’s leader. He’s ruthless, but willing to be fair.

The Book of Boba Fett continues to add to the Star Wars universe and while it doesn’t reach the same heights as the fantastic first episode, chapter two adds a lot to the lore and is clearly setting up what will hopefully be a fantastic rest of the season.

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