Wow. What’s up, my know-it-alls. I’m gonna need a minute.
The Book of Boba Fett Chapter 6. I don’t even know where to start, man. Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau, you’re doing the Lord’s work. I’m just unbelievably taken aback by this episode, and it’s because it’s everything we thought. Legitimately. We’d all been telling ourselves there’s no way they do this, that and the other, and we know how last week ended.
Spoilers, by the way. If you haven’t seen this episode and you don’t want to be spoiled, get out right now. I don’t know how to do non-spoiler stuff. I just know how to talk about the thing I enjoy and what it meant to me. That’s your warning, bro.
And if you think I was kidding: Grogu, Luke, Ahsoka, Cobb Vanth. All the everythings. Let’s get into it.
Cobb Vanth Draws the Line
We start with the Pykes doing a deal of some kind. I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be spice, money and spice being exchanged, and that’s when someone shows up who we haven’t seen in a long time. Cobb Vanth, the marshal of Mos Pelgo, which we learn later on they’ve renamed Freetown. I think that’s pretty cool.
He basically tells them this is my area, this is our area, and if you’re gonna run spice through here, the answer is no. Take off, go do what you’re going to do, leave my place alone. And of course, like idiots, they go for the guns. He takes out three of them and leaves one guy standing, and he tells that one guy flat out that he needs to think about this. Just go. So the dude takes the money but leaves the spice, and Vanth kicks the spice over, and boom. Chapter 6, “From the Desert Comes a Stranger.”
Favreau and Filoni’s Corner of Star Wars
Then we jump right into it. Filoni doesn’t even mess around.
One thing I’m realizing before I go any further: Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni aren’t stupid. They’ve built their own little mini kingdom inside the Star Wars slash Disney realm, and that kingdom is this corner of the Star Wars world. They’ve taken on the mission of being our correspondents, our connection point, our in. They are us, and I mean us as in the greater population of Star Wars fans. They wanted to see a certain story told, and by that I mean an era of stories.
This whole thing plays out like a backdoor pilot, the same way Ahsoka’s episode in The Mandalorian last season was, in my opinion, a backdoor pilot to an Ahsoka show, which we know we’re getting. Yes, this is more of a Book of Boba Fett episode than last week. I think we actually get Temuera Morrison in a scene. But the vast majority of it is, in my opinion, a backdoor pilot to a young Luke Skywalker Jedi temple series. And they proved they can pull it off.
A Bench, a Droid, and a Temple We’ve Seen Before
The very next scene is the Mandalorian. His little ship comes out of hyperdrive over what looks like a large green planet, and we get the crotch cam again, which I think is just going to be the cam for inside the cockpit of this thing. He’s flying through the little mountains and whatnot, and there’s a little droid there to greet him. It’s R2. Totally cool. I love it. And he’s basically like, hey, what’s up, my friend, I’m here to see the little guy.
So R2 leads him back to where a very familiar structure is being built. I say familiar because it’s the temple we saw destroyed in Episode VIII. It’s being built by these little spider robots climbing all over the thing.
He’s literally asking when he’s gonna get to see the kid. R2 talks to one of the little spider droid guys, and next thing you know R2 just shuts down. Just, I’m done. And Mando’s like, hey, what’s going on here? The robots bring a couple of stones, they bring some bamboo, they put leaves on top. What is this, a bench? How long am I going to wait? And sure enough, he sits down. They built him a little bench. Here’s your waiting room.
That Was Mark Hamill
Then we get what we’ve all wanted. We get to see Baby Yoda again. Grogu’s training, sitting cross-legged across from Luke Skywalker.
And he looks amazing. I feel like after the public reaction to the poorly done, I’m sorry, the loosely executed deepfake from before (I don’t say poorly, I think poorly is a bad word), Disney was like, what, people have a problem with how we did the thing? Here’s all the monies. Make that look amazing. And they did. This Luke doesn’t miss a beat.
Oh my God. I saw no uncanny valley. Now, I’m sure there are gonna be real picky people out there, probably in the comments eventually, saying you could totally see it, uncanny valley, blah blah blah. Bro, I didn’t bump into it once. And I’ve bumped into it a bunch of times in other places, even in these shows. I didn’t bump into this at all. That was Mark Hamill.
Okay, that’s not entirely true. The more I think about it, there are some scenes where you can see the face, and the nose seems like it’s poorly placed. I don’t know if that’s right or not. Either way, it’s brilliant. The thing looks stupid amazing.
I will say the performance is a little more Luke Skywalker fully realized. It’s in the same vein as when he rescued Grogu originally, but there’s a gravitas, a weightiness to it. He’s very sure, and our Luke in the past very rarely showed that. It reminds me of Luke when he first shows up at Jabba’s palace, when they have Han in the carbonite. This guy has fully embraced his powers and he’s literally being the teacher.
Frogs, Force Ripples, and a Prequel Memory
Grogu, of course, is getting a little distracted. Luke is meditating, and Grogu notices these little one-eyed frogs, so he uses the Force to pull one to him. And Luke is like, Grogu, really? Sure enough, he drops it. Then Luke goes, wait a minute, let me show you something, buddy, and he lifts every frog in the pond. Grogu is amazed.
Then they’re walking together, and it’s so funny, because Luke’s walking at his normal stride and Grogu is trying to keep up, and every so often Luke just gives him a little hop along. It’s like when you’re walking with your kids hand in hand and you go whoop and lift them up.
Finally Luke asks him, do you want to remember where you came from? He puts his hand on his head, and it’s cool, you see these little Force ripples. And then we get a really validating prequel scene. Three Jedi defending a really young Grogu, in what’s probably his original droid pram thing, and they’re fighting clone troopers, the whole bit. It’s really interesting to see. I would really love to see what would happen if Boba Fett met Grogu, legit, with his memories and everything.
Ahsoka, and the Gift He Can’t Deliver Himself
We cut back to the Mandalorian, who wakes up on his bench ready with his gun, and there we get to see Ahsoka Tano. I was like, stop it. Ahsoka looks so good.
She leads him around, shows him the place, tells him this is going to be the temple where new Jedi will be trained. Then she shows him: look, there he is, right there. And he says, but I really want to see him. And she asks him why. For you, or for him?
He says, well, he was a foundling. And she says maybe he’s a Padawan now. You can tell he’s at war with it. He gets the concept, I guess, that it means a student or something. I love the actors doing the Mandalorian’s body work, because they’re so good at conveying things. He’s got to really think it through, and he decides, okay. Here. You give it to him.
So she says okay. And then Grogu sees what looks like a little ship leaving, and he reaches for it.
I was crying this whole episode. Everything made me want to cry. It’s just beautiful and well done.
The Second Time Luke Carries a Little Green Dude
Luke gets back to training him. He asks him to jump, and he can’t really jump, so he instructs him a little bit. And finally he says, here, get in the bag, let me show you something.
And then Luke is running through the woods carrying Grogu on his back. Oh my God. It’s the most touching thing in the world if you’re a Star Wars fan. It’s the second time Luke’s carried a little green dude on his back. He’s running, he’s jumping, and finally he does a little flip that’s a total callback to the flip he does on Dagobah. It’s beautiful. He goes up a tree and shows him: look, this is the Force, this is all the stuff you can feel.
God. Dave Filoni, you son of a.
This episode is a complete love letter, and it’s also, in my opinion, a pilot. This is what a Luke Skywalker series could be. The construction of a new temple. Finding recruits. That’s how you bring in some of the intrigue. And I’d be shocked if in a Luke series we don’t get Leia, even if it’s an image of some sort. You probably could get her daughter to body play her.
Luke brings him back down and shows him the little training ball, and it proceeds to shoot at Grogu, and next thing you know Grogu is flipping. He’s Yoda flipping everywhere. Across rivers, over stones, by trees. Flip, flip, flip, flip, flip. It’s great. It’s all I ever wanted.
That’s when Ahsoka shows up and tells him the Mandalorian came by and left a thing for the kid. Luke says it’s gonna be rough. She says, I know. She goes to leave and he asks, am I ever gonna see you again? And she says, we’ll see. Who knows.
Earlier she’d told Mando she’s a friend of the family, and I was like, oh, that’s awesome. They purposely show us a scene where she and Luke are already very, very comfortable with one another. But I need to see the scene where Luke and Ahsoka meet for the first time and she tells him about his dad. Because at one point she does say “so like your father,” and I’m hitting my chest. Why are you hurting me? Why are you doing this? It’s brilliant.
Back on Tatooine, a Stranger Walks Out of the Desert
Finally we get back to Tatooine and Boba Fett’s palace. The little pig guy’s there to meet him, and it’s, okay, Fennec Shand sent for me, and the Mandalorian gets taken to a meeting. They’re all there. This is the first time you see Boba Fett in his own series in two episodes.
They’re going through the plan, and the problem is they need more muscle. Between Black Krrsantan, the mods and now Mando, they have enough experience to lead this thing, but they need foot soldiers. And the Mandalorian says he might have that under control.
So he flies out, and what’s really cool is you see these Jawas driving around with the dragon skull, the big giant sand worm thing, on top of their crawler. It’s huge. It takes up almost the whole ship.
He goes back to Mos Pelgo and sees Cobb Vanth, who has a deputy, and the deputy’s all spit and vinegar. It’s really funny. They sit down in the bar, and by the way, the entire framework of the bar is the rib cage of that big giant worm thing. All right, I see what y’all are doing.
It’s good stuff. They talk, the bartender says it sounds like city folk problems, and eventually the Mandalorian leaves and Vanth says, all right, let’s call the town together and have a conversation.
Before they can do any of that, out of the desert comes a stranger. This guy walks straight out of a Clint Eastwood movie. An alien Clint Eastwood movie. He basically says, whatever Boba Fett’s offering you, we’re going to match it. The deputy says the marshal ain’t for sale, and Vanth’s like, bro, I can answer for myself, do you mind?
The dude lifts his head. Big old cowboy hat, little breather things. He’s an incredibly scary man. And sure enough there’s a shootout, and he dispatches Cobb Vanth and the deputy. Then he tells the townspeople, who are standing in the doorway of the bar, that so long as the spice runs with no issue, the Syndicate doesn’t care about you. Everyone will be left alone. Let us run our spice and do whatever the heck you want.
Then we’re back at the little casino bar place we’ve been seeing. Two Pyke guys walk in with another one of those money cases and put it on the counter. The Twi’leks, the man and the woman, come up and ask if they can take their helmets to clean them, and they say nah, we’re good. They walk out and leave the case behind. Big explosion. The Pykes have clearly made their move.
The Armor or the Lightsaber
Then we cut back, and this is probably both the sweetest and the saddest scene ever, because you can already clearly see the early mistakes Luke is making. I say mistakes, but the truth is we just don’t want this choice to have to be made.
It’s Luke and Grogu sitting together inside the newly completed temple. Luke opens up the package and says the Mandalorian wanted you to have this. It’s exactly what we thought: a little beskar chainmail shirt.
But then he says, so you have a choice. You can have that, or. And he takes out a tiny lightsaber. It’s Yoda’s saber. He says this used to belong to my master, the one who taught me.
You’ve gotta make a choice, kid. If you choose the beskar armor, you can go on and be with the Mandalorian. If you choose this, you’ll be the first student in this temple, and I’ll make you a legendary Jedi. And you’ve got to remember, you probably won’t ever see the Mandalorian again, because a short time for you is a lifetime for others.
I was just blown away.
The Verdict
The Book of Boba Fett Chapter 6 is a 10 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index. No question. 10 out of 10.
This definitely sets the stage. I think we have enough setup here for a Luke show, and I want to see that. The other thing is you got a whole new musical palette. They aren’t just showing you the show. They’re showing you the music of the show, and the setting of the show with that whole bamboo forest deal.
And legitimately, I don’t know what Grogu is going to pick, because of course they cut right there, at the choice.
It’s a great episode. 10 out of 10 for sure. I’m excited. We’re heading toward the end.
So there you go, now you know, and if knowing is half the battle, then you’re halfway to being the know-it-all you want to be.
Armor or lightsaber: what does Grogu pick, and did Luke make the right call putting it to him that way? The conversation lives in the comments on the video above. Don’t forget, everyone loves a know-it-all.
