The first season of The Book of Boba Fett, a Star Wars Disney+ series following the life of feared bounty hunter, recently came to an end after seven episodes.

After what appeared to be his death in The Return of the Jedi (1983), nobody expected to see Boba Fett in action ever again. However, after a shocking appearance in season two of The Mandalorian (2020), Disney announced that they would be giving Boba Fett his own series.

The first season came to a close on February 9th of this year, and as much as I loved it, it was a little all over the place. The season showed a wild array of events, such as Boba’s survival of the Sarlacc pit, his time with a Tusken raider tribe, his political conquests with other former bounty hunter, Fennec Shand, and an all out territorial war on the planet with twin suns: Tatooine. There were also a large number of surprise character appearances such as Luke Skywalker, the Mandalorian, Grogu (otherwise known as Baby Yoda), Ahsoka Tano, and many more.

The first season can be accurately split in half. Episodes one through four focused on how Boba Fett survived by using flashbacks and catching us up to modern day. Meanwhile, episode five is all about the Mandalorian and begins a common theme of the last three episodes: as many guest characters and as little Boba Fett as possible. 

After episodes five & six featured Boba Fett for less than five minutes combined, the show got memed and dubbed “The Book of Everybody but Boba Fett” on the internet. It probably could have been done better, but with all the unexpected appearances and twists, the second half of the show was very enjoyable and gave Star Wars fans so many awesome moments with our favorite characters. 

Perhaps there is more to talk about in the last three episodes, but the first four episodes were a fitting calm before the storm. It is important to remember that Boba was nationally accepted as dead for thirty seven years. It was the unlikely survival of a few other characters like Darth Maul and Emperor Palpatine that began to create suspicion that Boba could have actually survived. In the pilot episode, we see the exact moment we’ve all been waiting for: Boba comes to his senses in the deadly Sarlacc pit, still wearing his iconic armor, and uses the blow torch on his wrist to free himself. 

Through the first four episodes, we see flashbacks everytime Boba is resting in his bacta tank (which, in Star Wars, is a tank that exposes someone to bacta, a liquid that accelerates healing processes). We see his journey with the Tusken raider tribe he stumbles across. During his time with them, he begins as a prisoner, earns their respect, gets trained in their fighting style, and becomes one of the tribe. The flashbacks end when we see that the tribe was massacred by what we think was a biker squad, but we later find out it was the Pyke crime syndicate and Cad Bane. Boba honorably burns the corpses and leaves for his own adventures with his new skills, experiences, and weapons as a more mature (and less ruthless) man.

In between the flashbacks we watch Boba and his partner, whom he rescued from certain death: Fennec Shand take over and rule the Mos Espa territory of Tatooine. Boba becomes the majordomo (ruler of the territory) over this land, which at one point belonged to Jabba the Hut. They come to realize that the Pykes, a crime syndicate, has been running spice (Star Wars equivalent of dealing drugs) through the planet and Boba commits to stopping them. He invokes the help of many people including a youthful biker squad, a brutal wookie warrior (Black Krassantan), and his old friend Din Djarin (the Mandalorian) who also called on his old friends, the people of Free City for help. 

There’s way too much in the last three episodes to summarize in one article, but it was chaotic and awesome. From the Mandalorian-only episode five to Luke Skywalker training Grogu in episode six and Boba killing long time mentor and enemy Cad Bane in the finale, there’s so much to take away. The star character appearances happened in this order: Black Krassantan, the Mandalorian, R2D2, Ahsoka Tano, Luke Skywalker, Grogu, and Cad Bane. 

The finale showcased the one and only battle in which Boba and his defenses were victorious. We got amazing moments like Boba and Mando fighting side by side, Boba riding his rancor, Fennec Shand taking out the other Tatooine leaders, the reuniting of Mando and Grogu, and of course Boba Fett (probably) killing Cad Bane; but there is evidence suggesting that Bane survived the altercation. 

To address some of the reviews and common opinions (which are all over the place) I have some final thoughts on the first season. First of all, if I had to rank the episodes in order of best to worst it would go Chapter 7, 6, 5, 3, 4, 1, 2. I believe that through the first four episodes, the show was moving too slow and not gaining enough traction. If it stayed the course I had doubts we would see a season two. Pivoting to the insanity that was the second half of the season was needed and say what you want about the lack of organization and the lack of Boba Fett himself but we all enjoyed that.  

To get an even wider range of points of views, I enlisted the help of the two friends I talked to more than anyone about this show: OLSH senior Michael Urban and junior Peter Sweeney. I asked them which episode was their favorite and why to which Peter answered, “Episode six, because of all of the different characters and the cliffhangers it left.” Michael agreed with episode six, elaborating, “It was very nostalgic, there was great foreshadowing and it had real implications on the plot”. 

When asked what they would change if they could, they both again had similar answers: Peter said he would have had Grogu take Yoda’s lightsaber instead of Mando’s armor; and Michael agreed but added that it would have been cool to see Grogu become a Mandalorian Jedi like Tarre Vizsla before. Michael gave the season a 7.5/10 overall, and Peter gave it a 7.3/10. I finished by asking what they were hoping to see in a potential season two, Michael said he wanted to see Cad Bane’s legacy live on in some way, specifically with an appearance from his droid, Todo; and Peter said most importantly more Boba Fett and specifically that characters like the Mandalorian shouldn’t have as much of a grip on the show. 

Personally, I would give the first season of the show a 7/10. There were a lot of things I liked about it, specifically seeing all the beloved characters back on screen, watching Boba’s time with the tuskens, and those certain moments where he was as ruthless as we have come to expect him to be. I definitely had issues with some things though like how the first four episodes were seriously struggling to keep my attention, in lots of moments Boba was much softer and almost too cowardly than he should always be, and some of the newly introduced characters like the young biker squad from episode two which was memed on the internet and referred to as the Power Rangers were totally out of place. 

I also agree with the take that all the returning characters were more of a last ditch effort to save the show instead of a cool planned storyline (although both can be true). I have three main hopes for the next season: it’s all about Boba, it leaves Tatooine at least temporarily, and we see Boba get revenge on old enemies and revisit unfinished business he has with other characters (and no, I don’t want Mace Windu to be alive, but that’s a whole separate conversation).

With a newfound and once unexpected confidence it can be said that there should be a season two and there will be lots of excitement for it. Season two was nowhere near perfect. The fact that most people’s favorite two episodes (five & six) were the ones with the least Boba Fett should be alarming to the directors and producers, but there is still a lot of potential. At the least, people are more excited than before for Mandalorian season 3 now that we know he & Grogu are together again. No matter how you felt about the first season, I think we can all say it was pretty awesome seeing everyone’s favorite bounty hunter back in action. No information has been announced about season two yet, but fans like myself anxiously await confirmation.