Summary
“Chapter 3: The Streets of Mos Espa” develops the main plot a little more while continuing to devote a surprising amount of time and effort to one-note beasties from Star Wars past and present.
This recap of The Book of Boba Fett season 1, episode 3, “Chapter 3: The Streets of Mos Espa”, contains spoilers.
Being a crime boss isn’t easy. The daimyo of Tatooine has a laundry list of responsibilities, and that includes spinning plates to keep various vassals happy, not all of whom are reasonable. This is what Boba Fett realizes at the beginning of “Chapter 3: The Streets of Mos Espa” when a broker for the vapor farmers tells him to his face that nobody respects him. When a man who sells water is a bigger gangster than you, there’s an issue that needs to be resolved. Boba has to get out among the locals and make his presence felt.
The Book of Boba Fett season 1, episode 3 recap
As it turns out, the problem is that Boba is oddly socially conscious. The water salesman is being taken advantage of by a gang of humans who modify themselves with droid parts, and who it’s hard to see as anything other than the Star Wars version of hipster Millennials. They’ve been stealing the water because the broker grossly overcharges for it, and they can’t get a legitimate job to buy what they need. Boba decides they can all work for him, forces the broker to take less than half of what he’s owed as compensation, and threatens him into cutting his prices. Boba Fett: Anti-Capitalist isn’t the direction I was expecting this show to take, but here we are.
And then it’s back to the bacta tank, as we see past-life Boba nobly leave the company of the Tuskens on the back of a bantha, still wearing his honorary ceremonial garb and giving a stern nod of solidarity as he departs. He’s looking for the Pyke Syndicate in Mos Eisley. He’s collecting protection money on behalf of the Tuskens, but the Pyke representative explains that they’re already paying a biker gang for protection of the same area he’s now laying claim to. They’re happy to work with whoever, but not both parties. You know what that means.
The bikers are one step ahead of him, though, and when he returns to the Tusken camp (on the bantha, which seems a terribly inefficient mode of transport for emergencies — what happened to all the speeder bikes captured last week?) he finds it demolished and smoking. Sombrely, Boba burns all the remains and personal effects he can find and sets back out alone, presumably with revenge on his mind.
Unlike the previous episode, The Book of Boba Fett episode 3 doesn’t linger in the bacta tank and the past all episode, since he’s quite literally pulled out of his reverie by Black Krrsantan, the Wookie enforcer in the employ of Jabba’s cousins, the Twins. He sets about Boba with his electrified knuckle dusters until Boba’s new interns and his Gamorrean bodyguards intervene, and eventually, Fennec is able to trap him in the rancor pit. While Boba deliberates over how to respond, the Twins arrive in person with an apology, a gift — Danny Trejo personally delivers Boba a new rancor — and a message: The territory of Mos Espa has already been promised to another Syndicate by Mayor Mok Shaiz. They’re leaving Tatooine and advise Boba does the same, and they don’t even want Krrsantan back. Boba instead releases him in yet another display of possibly ill-advised mercy.
So, let’s talk about rancors for a minute. As previous episodes did with the Tusken Raiders and the Gamorreans, “Chapter 3: The Streets of Mos Espa” goes to some lengths to humanize what has always previously been considered a one-note Star Wars monster. This rancor is a calf and is wearing blinders because, as Danny Trejo explains, they imprint themselves on the first human they see. Everyone knows rancors for fighting because they’re good at it, but they’re also emotionally complex creatures who form strong bonds with their owners. The example Danny Trejo provides — that the Witches of Dathomir used to ride them — gives Boba an idea, and he decides that he wants to learn how to ride this one.
There’s no time for that yet, though, since the Mayor’s schedule is apparently full for the foreseeable future, so Boba, Fennec, and the mod squad go to see him in person. His majordomo tries to do a runner, setting up a fun chase through the streets, and when he’s eventually cornered he reveals that Mok Shaiz is working with the Pyke Syndicate. Right on cue, several arrive in Mos Espa, preparing for war. Boba tells Fennec that they’ll be ready for the upcoming fight.
