The Book of Boba Fett Chapter 7 Review: In The Name of Honor is a fitting, somewhat messy, often cool conclusion

The final chapter ends The Book of Boba Fett with solid action and plenty of surprises (some welcome, others not so much). In the Name of Honor is a fitting conclusion as the strengths are more pronounced and weaknesses Jedi mind-wiped away.

Watching The Book of Boba Fett and Peacemaker back-to-back is interesting. Peacemaker never loses sight of its title character. His emotions, actions and frequent mistakes tie directly into events of the series. The Book of Boba Fett frequently loses sight of the protagonist. There were even multiple chapters where Boba doesn’t say a word.

Chapter 7 mostly focuses on the battle between Boba Fett, Din Djarin and Fennec Shand against the Pyke Syndicate and Cad Bane. The latter’s standoff and climactic fight with Boba brought out the best performance of the season by Temuera Morrison. Despite not seeing their history in live-action, Morrison does a good job of connecting the dots.

Fennec remains the best series regular character on The Book of Boba Fett. She spends the bulk of the episode off-screen. However, when she does pop up, often in the shadows, she packs a punch that lands so much more effectively than Boba.

Din fighting alongside Boba is one of the highlights as well. The mixture of the mod squad and the residents of Freetown (formerly Mos Pelgo) sets up an interesting dynamic but isn’t paid off, which ties into the main issue of the episode.

There are so many awesome scenes within In the Name of Honor. However, those amazing scenes either are set up awkwardly or paid off in an unsatisfying way. For instance, Boba’s terrible strategy to face the Pykes from Garsa Fwip’s destroyed compound leads to the fight featuring Djarin and Boba back-to-back against the Pykes which is thrilling. On the other end of the spectrum, you have an interesting dynamic between a Freetown resident and Drash to take down a terrifying droid. Their bravery and intelligence set up an awesome hero moment that never comes. Another character enters the fray throwing cutting off the character-focused story at its knees.

In spite of those problems, In the Name of Honor is really the only episode that felt like the crime epic teased leading up to the series. Backstabbing, shifting alliances and more finally show up in this episode. We just needed more of it.

With the overview out of the way, let’s dive deeper into the elements that stood out in In the Name of Honor. There may be some minor spoilers. The Book of Boba Fett is available to stream on Disney Plus.

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Boba-Din Fight In the Name of Honor

Boba, Fennec, Din, Black Krrsantan and the mod squad gather at Garsa’s destroyed sanctuary. Fennec heads out to take out the Pyke Syndicate leaders. Boba and Din decide to stay at the sanctuary. A compromised location because of a plea from Drash instead of using the more secure confines of Jabba’s castle. One of many mistakes.

Black Krrsantan, the mod squad and Gamorrean guards are dispatched to different points of Mos Espa. In a pleasantly dark turn, the criminal heads who agreed to Boba’s terms have turned against Boba. All of a sudden the streets go from calm to tense in a hurry.

Pyke Syndicate troops descend on Boba and Din. They decide to meet them out in the open where they’re badly outnumbered. Boba is a terrible strategist. Luckily, Majordomo has an idea to negotiate a truce. Of course, Boba and Din have no plans for a cease-fire. They use the negotiation as a distraction, fly out on jetpacks and begin to take out the Pyke Syndicate back-to-back, brothers-in-arms.

The sequence is undoubtedly awesome. There is one issue Boba, Din and Black Krrsantan take ungodly amounts of blaster fire. At least, Boba and Din have Beskar armor, but it was a strange sight. There were points during this battle where it felt like the sequence was ramping up. Then, a barrage of blaster fire would ground the action to a halt.

Reunions

In the Name of Honor featured a number of reunions.

Boba comes face-to-face with Cad Bane. The connection between the two isn’t fleshed out but doesn’t need to be. Jon Favreau‘s script and Morrison’s performance does a great job of establishing the history between these two characters.

Cad first confronts Boba, Fennec and Din at the sanctuary. He reveals he killed Cobb Vanth and no reinforcements from Freetown are coming. Cad challenges Boba to a duel on the spot. Boba’s trigger finger is itching. However, Fennec being the voice of reason tells him to wait. There will be a time for the two bounty hunters to square off, not now. Cad also reveals The Pyke Syndicate killed the Tusken Raiders Village, which is such an obvious reveal it again questions boba’s competence.

Later, the fight does happen. The fight is awesome. Cad gets the initial advantage. Boba is eventually able to best Cad by combining the melee skills he acquired from the Tusken Raiders.

Grogu returns to Din on Tatooine. Every interaction between them is sweet. The absence of Luke Skywalker in the battle was a smart decision by Favreau, Dave Filoni and Robert Rodriguez.

The end of Cad Bane in just two episodes is disappointing for anyone unfamiliar with his animated roots. Cad dying also robs Cobb of his revenge. In a post-credit scene, Cobb is shown alive in Boba’s Bacta tank.

The Battle for Mos Espa

The battle against The Pyke Syndicate takes a turn after Boba and Din successfully withstand the opening salvo thanks to the arrival of Freetown residents. The Pyke Syndicate sends out a pair of Scorpenek droids. A scorpion-like droid that has an energy shield and plenty of firepower.

Boba and Din take on one of them to start. When their various weapons fail, Boba heads off to parts unknown to try something different. Peli Motto shows up at this precise moment with Grogu. Boba hops on the back of a droid-powered cruiser and a pretty great chase scene unfolds. Eventually, Boba’s able to penetrate the energy shield with the Dark Saber. He hinders the droid but is injured in the process. The tough droid attempts to land a finishing blow on Din, but a timely use of the force by Grogu allows Boba to turn the tables.

Drash and the mod squad as well as the Freetown fighters take on the other Scorpenek droid. Drash and one of the Freetown fighters decide to flank the droid for a killing blow. As they’re putting the plan into action, Boba returns riding a Rancor into battle. The Rancor is able to destroy the droid. However, the battle hurts and angers the beast, which causes Boba to dismount from its back. The Rancor is out of control and even tries to eat Din. Grogu eventually steps in and uses the force to calm the Rancor’s mind.

Again the Rancor scene is cool. However, it comes at the disservice of the small storyline between Rash and this Freetown soldier. Either don’t introduce the dynamic between these two warriors from different backgrounds or introduce another Scorpenek droid, so every group can overcome these amazing droids.

In the Name of Honor Final Thoughts

The final chapter in The Book of Boba Fett does as good of a job as it can ending this season. There were simply too many threads dangling for the series to yank all of them. All of the action scenes were great in this episode. There were just certain moments leading up to the action setpiece or the outcomes of the fights that left a little to be desired.

The Book of Boba Fett never delivered the feeling of a crime epic set in the Star Wars Universe. However, it came the closest in this episode. When some of the illicit criminals turned on Boba, there was legitimate tension unlike anything in the present-day storyline.

I’m not particularly interested in another season of this show. However, if Cobb and Timothy Olyphant are going to be involved more in the series, based on that credit scene, then that could change. Again, that would mean being interested in The Book of Boba Fett for reasons that have nothing to do with the title character.

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