The space western genre has always been synonymous with Star Wars, and you could certainly say it’s “very strong with this one,” in speaking The Book of Boba Fett Chapter 2 . Packed into “The Tribes of Tattooine,” which was directed by Steph Green, we have a saloon brawl, a train robbery, some montages of learning how to ride, and some nifty blacksmith work. Ultimately, this all leads to our space cowboy Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones) getting accepted by the native tribe, in this case, the Tusken Raiders.
As with the previous episode, this chapter is heavy with flashbacks, but rather than jumping back and forth between them and present day, it devotes just shy of 15 minutes to Fett and Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen, Mulan) working to uncover who was behind the attack on their lives. The rest is spent on his time with the Raiders – not the football team, these guys have the kind of accuracy even Derek Carr can only dream of, and that needs to be discussed as well. Seriously, in this big action set piece, these Tusken Raiders are sniping people on a fast-moving train, through tiny windows, and seemingly never miss. In fact, those on the train shooting back at them never seem to miss either. Nobody misses; it’s like the polar opposite of stormtroopers. If the Empire or Rebels could have recruited either of these groups, they would have gained control of the Galaxy so much faster.
Back to the present-day stuff though, the setup is there for a really exciting power struggle directly from the Hut family, and their hired muscle – a Wookiee, whose death stare rivals Shand’s. The introduction of this total badass, and the mention of the need for permission to kill a Hut, is the most exciting thing in the episode because you know it’s going to lead to an epic showdown at some point. That’s not an indictment on the backstory of Boba Fett developing new skills, and a fresh outlook on life gained after time with the Tusken Raiders, it’s just that it promises to fit the mold of the mobster story you expect from the series.
After his encounter with the Hut’s, we rejoin Fett in the past as he trains to fight with the gaffi stick – their primary weapon, and what he’s wielding when we first see him in The Mandalorian. When their training is interrupted by a deadly attack from occupants of a passing train, Fett takes it upon himself to train the Tusken Raiders on to how to bring it down. After he beats the piss out of some thugs at a bar to commandeer their speeders, he returns and begins a training montage. It is one of at least three montages that we get throughout. Pacing plagued the first episode despite its shorter runtime, so this is one way to handle that.
The actual train sequence looks fantastic, and it is both explosive and comical at times, much like the lighthearted tone of the show as a whole to this point. The primary Tusken warrior (Joanna Bennett, CSI: Cyber) that beat down Fett in the first episode, takes front and center, laying waste to everyone in her way. After helping them put an end to something that has clearly terrorized them for a long time, Fett has earned their respect and is fast-tracked to being accepted as one of them. For a character like Boba Fett to have the transformation required for the narrative of this story, it had to be shown at length to feel earned, and these first two chapters were largely devoted to that.
Favreau and his talented team of writers and directors have proven that they know Star Wars better than most and can be counted on to have a clear vision for where they ultimately want to take these characters. From where we leave off in the flashbacks, it would seem that Fett is likely to come upon Fennec Shand soon and launch into the events from The Mandalorian. Then, we can really be enveloped in what everyone is hoping to see more of, but expect these earned allies to come into play in the future. Soon things will start coming to a head, and Fett, Shand, and their loyal Gamorrean guards will have to draw a line in the hot Tattooine sand if they want to stay in power, and it’s not a bad idea to have some feared sharpshooters on your side.
