Summary
“Chapter 4: The Gathering Storm” delves into the origin of Boba Fett and Fennec Shand’s alliance, and the flashbacks catch up to the present day.
This recap of The Book of Boba Fett season 1, episode 4, “Chapter 4: The Gathering Storm”, contains spoilers.
I feel bad about slagging off the bantha in last week’s recap. I still think it’s a terribly inefficient way to travel, but “Chapter 4: The Gathering Storm”, continuing this show’s determined efforts to rewrite Boba Fett as a kind of Star Wars Steve Irwin, manages to wring some cuteness out of the giant, wooly creatures. In the end, they’re like most of us — they just want a bit of food and to be left more or less alone. I can respect that.
The Book of Boba Fett season 1, episode 4 recap
Boba is still chilling with his bantha buddy because, as of the flashback featured in this week’s cold open, he’s still out for revenge after his Tusken friends were needlessly slaughtered by that biker gang who were stiffing the Raiders out of Pyke Syndicate protection money. It’s while casing Jabba’s Palace that he meets Fennec Shand for the first time, finding her unconscious on the ground and slinging her over the back of the bantha. He takes her to — where else? — the parlor frequented by the Mod Squad, where a man with a go-go-gadget arm rebuilds her innards out of droid components. On the one hand, it’s interesting to learn that Fennec is now part droid. On the other, are we really sticking with this whole alternative body-mod neon Vespa aesthetic? People hated it last week.
Anyway, we promptly learn why Boba was surveilling Jabba’s place — he needs to retrieve his Firespray gunship (presumably Slave IV at this point?) and he wants Fennec’s help to do it in exchange for saving her life and not turning her in for her considerable bounty. A significant chunk of The Book of Boba Fett episode 4 is devoted to this. It’s nice to see such an iconic location approached from a different angle, and to see Fennec’s fun toys, and to laugh at the ridiculous sitcom sketch that Boba shares with one of the palace’s bunny-like kitchen LEP droids. Actually stealing the ship produces a decent firefight, some impressive visual effects, and some obligatory Fennec Shand ownage. And thus begins a beautiful friendship.
Of course, Fennec decides to stick with Boba and help him settle some scores. They massacre the biker gang from the gunship and then return to the Sarlacc Pit so that Boba can retrieve his armor, but after some more nice visual effects and a dangerous descent into the creature’s acidic core, he realizes it isn’t there. Since we already know how he retrieved it thanks to The Mandalorian, this really marks the point where the flashbacks catch up with the present-day shenanigans. And sure enough, Boba opens his eyes in the bacta tank, and his droid informs him that he’s finally fully healed. Looks like we’re done with the dual narrative structure moving forwards.
At Garsa’s Sanctuary, Black Krrsantan, drowning his sorrows, takes some issue with nearby Trandoshan gamblers and starts throwing them around the place. When Garsa herself tries to talk him down, we get some not-so-subtle backstory about his time fighting in the Pits as a gladiator, and he sulkily rips the arm from one of the Trandoshans. But at least he settles his bar tab. As predicted, Boba employs Krrsantan, and then proposes a deal to the other crime bosses of Tatooine to form a united front against the Pyke Syndicate. Since the Pykes are only threatening Boba’s territory, they’re not keen on the idea of putting themselves at risk, but they do agree to maintain their neutrality if the Pykes approach them. Will they? Almost certainly not. But since war is inevitably coming, it’s worth the effort.
