‘The Book of Boba Fett’ Episode 2 – “The Tribes of Tatooine” Review

The Book of Boba Fett returns to our screens with a second episode that continues the set up of the season. This is a spoiler review, so please check out our previous coverage of the series HERE.

We return to Tatooine in The Book of Boba Fett with Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) and Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) figuring out that the assassin belongs to The Order of the Night Wind and was hired reportedly by the mayor Mok Shaiz. Visiting Mok Shaiz, he has the assassin killed, while offering some advice to Fett, running a family is more complicated than bounty hunting. He pays the two the reward for bringing in the assassin and sends them to Garza’s sanctuary.

Shand and Fett enter the sanctuary with the Gamorrean guards, and Garza (Jennifer Beals) tells him the Twins have laid claim to their cousin’s bequest. Fett doesn’t believe it, but then we hear drumming, and Fett walks outside with his entourage. The twins are here! With a Wookiee gladiator? The brother of the set does most of the translated talk and says they want Tatooine, which Fett won’t give up. As a result of the conversation, the Twins “walk” away, to return to the topic later. Fett and Shand proceed to talk about potentially killing the Twins – only they’d need permission – and return to the palace.

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Now let’s take a pause here and analyze the present day, because the rest of this episode for The Book of Boba Fett is set with the Tuskens in the past. Steph Green is the director of the episodes and she manages the first nine minutes very succinctly. There’s danger, but exploration of the plot. I will say, and this is just a pet peeve for Star Wars in general. I wish if a character speaks in the main setting of a scene, it was translated on screen. Too many times there are missed opportunities for better characterization drowned out. I get it’s best practice to not crowd the scene up, but it’s frustrating.

Other than that, I love getting to see Hutts back on screen. There’s always been potential there for great stories in the crime world, so I’m glad they’re back. With how short this part of the episode is, it’s now even more clear we’ll see past and present come together on screen for Fett. Will be interesting to see how it continues to play out. Also, music by Ludwig Göransson is still absolutely perfect. Man he deserves all the awards and more. Alright, now to the past!

We come into the dunes of Tatooine now where the Tuskens are teaching Fett to fight with their gaderffii. A repulsor train comes through and is spotted. The Tuskens try to hide, but many die. While the Tuskens and Fett burn the bodies, Fett sees speeders go by. He tells the Tusken chieftain (Xavier Jimenez) he will go, and that he will help defeat the train. He follows the speeders, with his training gaderffii, and a rifle. We see into the bar where several aliens are roughhousing and drinking. Fett comes in, and starts to use the rifle like he was training with the Tuskens on the aliens, and breaks it. From then on, he beats up the rest of the group with the gaderffii.

He gets a beer, and walks out, taking the four speeders the aliens traveled on. Fett returns to the Tusken raiders’ camp and says to the chieftain this is how they will defeat the train. What follows is a training sequence with the raiders learning to ride, and jump between the speeders. It’s a cute scene, where you cheer for the raiders to learn, and Morrison is clearly having the time of his life in it. He does some other training, including showing one of the kids (Wesley Kimmel) how to send a signal using a mirror to warn the other Tuskens.

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When the train comes in, what follows is one of the coolest action scenes Star Wars has had in live-action in quite awhile. The Tuskens set the plan in motion, and Fett and four other speeders (we’ll talk about that in a bit) take off towards the train. I hate to cut a cool action sequence short. But for the sake of recap, they manage to bring the train down! They pull out the staff of the train, and it’s the Pike Syndicate who’s been managing the train, running Sansanna spice from Kessel.

The Pikes thought the Tuskens were uncivilized raiders. Fett tells them the dunes are no longer free for them to pass. He then sends them off towards the peak of the sun. That night, Fett and the Tuskens are in the main tent. The chieftain gives Fett a lizard, as a guide, which proceeds to crawl up his nose. Fett goes on a journey to a tree, where he breaks off a branch. In this dreamlike journey, we see footage from him in the sarlaac pit, as well as more footage from Attack of the Clones.

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When Fett stumbles back into camp, he greets the chieftain, who takes the lizard back, and sends Fett off. It was an initiation ritual! Fett is dressed in the black of the raiders. He is taken to a weaponsmith, where the warrior (Joanna Bennett) he has been training with is. Together, but mostly Fett, they make his own gaderffii. He returns at nightfall, the Tuskens surrounding a fire. There, they do a warrior dance, and it feels like Fett is truly a part of the Tusken raiders now.

What a phenomenal episode. Once again, great job in directing goes to Green. Music, action, props, placement, it all flows so effortlessly, and really is stunning. I hope this continues throughout the series. Morrison absolutely looks like he’s having a blast on screen. And the main Tusken actors are doing great work with their body language. I wish they were credited in the main credits with the concept art because clearly they’re going to be a main part of the story. Just because we can’t see the actors’ faces doesn’t mean they’re not working just as hard as the rest of the main crew.

As far as the speeders, it’s glaringly obvious the number of speeders Fett takes, versus the ones attacking the train is off. For such a simple thing, I wish that had been caught by somebody. Maybe they took more speeders after the initial training? But the aliens have four speeders, and the training is all done with four speeders, and there are five speeders used in attacking the train. It’s nitpicky but really could have been a simple thing to catch.

Overall, this episode of The Book of Boba Fett is fantastic. I wish this had been the first episode of the season because it’s phenomenal. Everything serves the story of elevating others while accepting their influence on who you can be. The theme of earning respect flowing throughout is one I love to see. Boba Fett as a character has changed for the better, and Morrison’s performance, Green’s directing, on top of Favreau’s best script yet for Star Wars makes it so. – Katie Rentschler

Rating: 9.5/10

The Book of Boba Fett episodes 1-2 is now streaming on Disney+. New episodes air every Wednesday on Disney+.