The latest chapter of The Book of Boba Fett promises a midseason showdown, but viewers will have to wait to see what mysteries unfold. Meanwhile, “The Streets of Mos Espa” takes Star Wars fans on an uneventful, low-quality ride through the streets of Mos Espa. While this third episode manages to toss a few bones to diehard fans, it acts as little more than a setup episode for what’s to come. Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) faces more predictable obstacles in the pursuit of running his newly acquired territory. His troubles continue to be conveniently resolved, despite facing cliched setbacks.
As if in direct response to my mention of the absence of B’omarr monks, this episode opens outside of Jabba’s Palace with one of the beings skittering across the grounds of the Tatooine oasis. Inside the palace, 8D8 (voiced by Matt Berry), the high position droid amongst Boba Fett’s ranks, briefs Fett and Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) on the extent of their territory. He describes three enclaves that were broken from Jabba’s original dominion. The Trandoshans control the city center of Mos Espa, the Aqualish oversee the workers’ district, and the Klatooinians head the starport and upper sprawl. It appears Bib Fortuna, who had originally taken over Jabba’s business, never had complete control. It’s up to Boba Fett to tie up the loose ends after having killed the overly ambitious Twi’lek.
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A vassal without an appointment (a running theme in The Book of Boba Fett) is granted audience to the Daimyo. The new character is played by none other than Stephen Root. Known for his range, Root portrays Tatooine water monger Lortha Peel, with an off-world accent that doesn’t match the local manner of speaking. Mister Peel speaks to Boba Fett with an audacity that Fett shouldn’t accept. Despite having the reputation of being a ruthless bounty hunter, Fett must contend with the disrespect of everyone around him as if fear shouldn’t exist by default for his position alone. Obviously, somewhere along the way, Fett is going to gain everyone’s respect, but for now, we’ll have to accept the fact that he’s just going to uncharacteristically take a lot of guff. Somehow, Peel manipulates Fett into bullying a group of locals who aren’t playing fair business, but Fett realizes he’s been fooled. Fett approaches the group with a lack of intimidation, giving them the opening to respond as if he’s the new store manager instead of a killer. For some reason when he removes his helmet, the group of four are suddenly struck with a tinge of fear. When Fett learns of the unfair gauging they endure, he hires them. If there’s a characteristic Boba Fett never had before, it’s empathy. Now he feeds stray cats. On cue, Lortha Peel appears from the shadows, exclaiming unhappiness with the way Fett dealt with his problem. Fett brushes him off, having acquired a new plot device.
After the opening titles, Boba Fett is back in his bacta pod, dreaming of Kamino and then his time with the Tuskens. He’s dressed in his Tusken best black robes and mounts a bantha as he poses for a shot that pays homage to the great Star Wars concept painter, Ralph McQuarrie. Fett leaves the Dune Sea to do business with the Pykes (the oceanic aliens with who Fett brokered a truce in “Chapter 2”). There he learns that the Pykes no longer want to pay for protection because they are also paying the Kintan Striders for protection. These are the Nikto speeder bike gang who’ve been raiding moisture farms for their water. Fett heads back to the Tusken camp only to find them slaughtered. Guess who did it! That’s right, the Kintan Striders. You can tell by the way they signed their dirty work with their mirrored hockey sticks logo. The scene is a far cry from the image of which it’s supposed to remind us. Just before Luke Skywalker races home to find his aunt and uncle slaughtered by stormtroopers in what is arguably one of the most impactful scenes in the original trilogy, he and Ben find a Sandcrawler surrounded by dead Jawas. “There’s nothing for me here now,” Luke tells Ben, and the reluctant hero heads off to Alderaan.
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The flashback is disrupted as Fett’s bacta pod is flushed. He’s suddenly attacked by Krrsantan the Wookiee who somehow snuck into his quarters. Doesn’t the Ring security camera Luke had to contend with still work on Jabba’s door? An awkward scuffle ensues, and the Wookiee is about to best Boba in his skivvies when everyone finally noticed that a giant, armored walking carpet is committing a home invasion. Fett’s new speeder crew, his Gamorrean guards, and Fennec manage to corral Krrsantan into the throne room where he conveniently stands directly atop the trap door that drops him into the empty rancor pit. This capture felt very much like Fett’s “death” in Return of the Jedi. The reputation of the character is thrown to the floor, and because of the five-second rule, we’re supposed to swallow it anyway.
After seeing Santy in the empty pit, we cut away to new visitors. The Twins (are they conjoined?) show up on their litter to offer a gift of apology. Danny Trejo is the new Rancor keeper, and Boba Fett is now the proud owner of a new monster for his empty pit. No longer necessary to the plot, as there is a bigger syndicate to worry about, the Hutt brother and sister go back to Hutta, leaving their Trejo and Felucian beast to Fett. In the dungeon, Trejo gives us some background on Rancor behavior. Legends claws its way back into the new Disney canon as we learn that the Witches of Dathomir (first appearing in Kevin J. Anderson’s Jedi Academy Trilogy) rode Rancors like horses. Fett tells the new Rancor keeper that he wants to ride this one because he’s ridden beasts ten times its size, a reference to the reptilian creature he rode in his animated debut from the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special.
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8D8 interrupts Fett in the Rancor pit to tell him he can’t get an appointment with Mayor Mok Shaiz (Mayor McCheese to Gen-Xers), so Fett brings his entourage to Mos Espa for a walk-in. The mayor is nowhere to be found, and Mok Shaiz’s Majordomo (David Pasquesi) sneaks out to lead a speeder chase that looks like it was made for a low-budget SyFy series. Fett’s new biker friends give chase on their brightly colored Vespas dressed for an ’80s dystopian rock video. The Majordomo’s speeder makes turns without any adherence to the laws of physics, cutting corners as if a child were handling the vehicle in a playset. After several fruit stands are knocked over into a pile of tropes, they catch the fellow. He willingly reveals that the mayor is working with the Pykes. Boba Fett has it confirmed when one of his new employees witnesses them debarking a star-liner at Mos Espa Spaceport.
We finally see where this is going. The flashbacks will tell us what we are dealing with in the Pyke Syndicate while the present storyline brings us to a showdown with them. We can only hope it goes deeper. Dare we dream of a mention of Crimson Dawn soon?
