‘The Book of Boba Fett’ Recap – ‘Chapter 3: The Streets of Mos Espa’

Written by Shae Rufe

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Three of ‘The Book of Boba Fett’. To revisit ‘Chapter 2: The Tribes of Tatooine’, click here.
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If you ever watched Star Wars and thought about the inner workings of the many crime families that seem to run Tatooine… then The Book of Boba Fett is here to deliver the answers to every single question. I really didn’t know what I was in for when I started this series and I have to be honest, I didn’t know I could fall in love with the inner workings of space mobsters, and yet here I am, three episodes in, and literally chomping at the bit for more. Let’s be honest, Star Wars has always hinted at Tatooine being not the best place in the galaxy when it comes to organized crime, we just never got to see that in full detail. We knew Jabba was bad and had a lot of power, but really, that’s all we knew. There are a lot more crime families than we thought, and they all seem to be fighting over Mos Espa. We thought Mos Eisley was the rough part of town, apparently, we were wrong.
 
The tensions are high after the assassination attempt on Boba, and it seems that respect is fleeting. Boba has a thin grasp on his territory and that is garnering some annoyances. One annoyance is a water monger who comes to ask for Boba’s help. Apparently, some ‘kids’ are stealing from him and that just won’t do. It doesn’t help that these ‘kids’ are also infusing their bodies with droid parts, not like that’s anything new to this universe, but apparently in Mos Espa it is. I find that hard to believe. Boba decides to play along, for now, and takes a look into this gang, and even confronts them. Turns out, said water monger is charging way too much for the water and not even giving work out to the workers. So, Boba does the most Boba thing, he hires the kids and pays the water monger what he deems fair for the water they stole.

Boba plans to rule with respect, not fear, and he proves that over and over with the second chances he gives. Back in the Bacta tank, Boba dreams of his home and then of the Tuskin Raiders. We’ve been wondering what happened to the Raiders since Boba is no longer with them. We knew he gained his armor back and we knew he was ruling as a crime lord in Mos Espa, but what happened to the family he made out of the Tuskin’s? Well, they were all murdered by that speeder bike gang while Boba went to collect protection money from the Pykes. It’s a heartbreaking scene when he arrives back to camp and finds everyone slaughtered. It makes sense why Boba is so head strong in taking over Mos Espa in the manner he is. Still, while he dreams of this, he’s physically ripped away from the tank and beaten by the Wookie the Twin Hutts had with them during their last visit. The fight doesn’t go well, and Boba is in trouble when his newest hires show up to help him. It’s actually Fennec who gets the Wookie into the Rancor-less Rancor pit. Boba sends another one of his guards to be healed in his Bacta tank and then discusses retaliation with Fennec.

Truthfully, they don’t have to wait long at all. The Hutt Twins show up and offer him a baby Rancor, complete with its own trainer as an apology for the attempted murder. They’re leaving Tatooine and forsaking their claim on Mos Espa, returning to Hutta, and even warn Boba to leave too. Something bigger and badder is coming, and mostly they just don’t want to deal with any of it. Boba offers the Wookie back, but the Hutts refuse and leave, so Boba sets him free. Then he bonds with the Rancor, the most adorable space chihuahua ever! Maybe it’s time to pay another visit with the mayor, right? Wrong, the mayor refuses to see him. Thankfully Fennec is a woman after my own heart and has no problem threatening violence to get what she wants. The mayor’s assistant runs, and a speeder chase soon ensues, and really it was entertaining, and completely ruined so many foods stands!

As it so happens, the mayor is meeting with the Pykes, and a whole bunch of them just arrived off of a Star Liner. They’re preparing for war, and that can’t be good. Boba is not about to back down however, and he’s just as determined to meet their army with one of his own. Hopefully this doesn’t end badly.

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