Spoilers: but really, we already saw the man’s face and his armor.
Boba Fett? Boba Fett? Where?! Ever since Disney and Lucasfilm first announced that they were making a show titled “The Mandalorian,” fans were hoping for the day the very first Mandalorian would show up on the screen. After an all-too-brief cameo at the end of the season premiere, Temuera Morrison finally gets to don the iconic armor.
After Ahsoka told Mando last week to take The Artist Formerly Known as Baby Yoda to the planet Tython to contact other Jedi, Chapter 14, “The Tragedy,” starts with the galaxy’s best father and son duo already landing on the planet. What’s that on the horizon? It’s the Slave 1, baby! If “Star Wars” excels at anything, it’s iconography. Just seeing the silhouette of Boba Fett’s ship is enough to let you know exactly what’s coming, and episode director Robert Rodriguez shows the ship the same respect and reverence that Dave Filoni showed for Ahsoka Tano in the last episode.
Despite this being an abridged episode, Boba Fett gets a lot to do and say. In his first scene alone, Boba gets more characterization than in the entire original trilogy. As many suspected, Boba Fett is pretty angry to see someone else have his armor, and he wants it back, not because of some creed or cult, but because it belonged to his father. That’s right; this episode finally confirms that Boba’s armor is the same one Jango Fett wore in “Attack of the Clones” before Mace Windo chopped off his head. In fact, everything about Boba in this episode has strong Jango-vibes, aside from being played by the same actor and being as badass a fighter as Jango was in his fight against Obi-Wan, he even gets his own Zam Wessell-like sidekick (a returning Ming-Na Wen). But before we see Boba completely lay waste to an entire stormtrooper squadron using just a staff, he finally gives fans an answer as to whether Jango and Boba are Mandalorian at all, and the answer is a resounding yes.
You see, when Boba first debuted in the 1978 animated “Star Wars Holiday Special” as Darth Vader’s right-hand man, the concept of Mandalorians didn’t exist. When George Lucas and Dave Filoni actually brought Mandalorians into the canon, with “The Clone Wars,” we learned from the Prime Minister of Mandalore that Jango Fett was a regular bounty hunter who acquired a suit of Mandalorian armor, and not a member of the Mandalorian race or culture. “The Tragedy” disproves when Boba shows Din Djarin that his chain code has been encoded in the armor for 25 years. We’ve heard this term before, all the way back in the very first episode of the show, and it seems like it is the galaxy equivalent of a social security number, or some specific physical description of a person. When he sees Boba and Jango’s code in the armor, Din Djarin recognizes that Jango Fett was a foundling, same as him.
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The bounty hunter and father of millions of clones may not have been born into the Mandalorian race, but he belongs in that culture just as much as our favorite brainwashed cult member. As an extra tidbit, Boba reveals that his father fought in the Mandalorian Civil Wars, the conflict that resulted in the exile of what would eventually become the Children of the Watch, Din Djarin’s cult.
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The other big development in the episode is a continuation of what we were teased last week: Grogu’s potential fall to the dark side. After getting captured by the Dark Troopers and brought to Moff Gideon, Grogu is seen having the time of his life using the force to beat up two stormtroopers — including force choking them like he was Darth Vader.
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It now seems clear that the show is building up to greater internal conflict for the former Jedi youngling, who did manage to meditate for a while on the ruins of Tython, so it is likely we’ll see whoever picked up the call appear before the end of the season. In the meantime, we’re getting a Mandalorian team-up, with Boba Fett fulfilling a vow he made Din Djarin to help protect Grogu, showing he’s actually an honorable man, like his father was — or at least as “The Clone Wars” told us was.
‘The Mandalorian’ Launches Second Season With Confident, Action-Packed Episode [Review]