Review: “Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett” S01E04 – Chapter 4: The Storm Comes – Jon Favreau does some jigsaw puzzles

This week, we get to watch showrunner Jon Favreau do some jigsaw puzzles as he puts together some of the puzzle pieces from The Mandalorian and Return of the Jedi, finally bringing The Book of Boba Fett into the now-time in Chapter 4 Series. The final flashbacks bring crossovers back to The Mandalorian and show us how Boba Fett found and rescued Fennec Shand and how he got the Slave I back.

This tells us that Boba Fett had an early urge to reclaim the Slave I, which is comfortably parked in Jabba’s palace. With the many guards, however, he had first backed down and retreated into the dune sea until he saw a bright ray of light. He finds Fennec Shand badly injured. We know the scene from a slightly different perspective from “The Mandalorian”, more precisely from Chapter 5: The Gunslinger. She is rescued (fortunately the troupe with the colorful carts is only shown briefly – I was worried…) and from then on she is in Boba Fett’s debt.

That’s the introduction to the episode – the main focus then is on the conquest of the Slave I, which is quite well told and also very nicely directed by Kevin Tancharoen, a director with plenty of Marvel experience (including “Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD” and “Marvel’s Iron Fist”). Sneaking into Jabba’s palace actually gets quite amusing, with a somewhat chaotic duel between the Boba-Fennec team and the droids in the kitchen. At the end, a droid from the LEP series (we know it from “The Clone Wars”) turns itself off for safety – it’s quite funny.

After the Slave I has been taken, Boba has to do a little something on Tatooine, whereby I especially like the renewed encounter with Sarlacc quite a lot. Okay, the downside is of course that Jon Favreau now uses the digitally reworked version of the Sarlacc that George Lucas later had inserted in “Return of the Jedi”, but the rest certainly fits. For once, Jon Favreau doesn’t use the Legends line of the “Star Wars” universe here – there Sarlacc is destroyed by Kuat of Kuat. It’s up to Boba Fett to take the final step here.

What I quite liked is that Jon Favreau addresses the changes in Boba Fett in the episode. In the fan world, not all fans agree that Boba Fett is now a lot friendlier than you remembered him or might have wished for. But that’s exactly what he and Fennec discuss in a lengthy conversation. In principle, she accuses him of exactly what the fans say: too weak, that’s not the old bounty hunter. He, on the other hand, says that the Sand People made him stronger – the way he is now. It’s a different Boba Fett, but I’m sure the character has more potential this way. Clever to pull the discourse into the episode.

Otherwise, it’s clear what the series (or the season) is headed for: Boba Fett will stand in the way of the Pyke Syndicate and gather his team in the palace. From now on, this probably also includes Black Krrsantan – the Wookie still has a small argument with a few Trandoshans, whereby one briefly wonders why he reacts so aggressively to the species. But it probably has something to do with the fact that there has been a long-standing enmity between the peoples. Don’t forget: Boba Fett was also given a Wookie skin as a gift by a Trandoshan at the beginning of the series. At the end of the episode we hear the theme of the Mandalorian, which will probably be added in the next episode. From then on, both series will probably run in the same now-time – I’m curious.

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