Warning! Spoilers ahead for The Book of Boba Fett episode 1.
Disney+'s The Book of Boba Fett's premiere has been generally praised, yet it also ends in such an odd way — but why? Riding on the success of The Mandalorian, Lucasfilm debuts its next Star Wars live-action TV show starring the fan-favorite bounty hunter. After being presumed dead for years, Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) apparently survived being thrown into the sarlacc pit in Return of the Jedi and is now trying to establish himself as Mos Espa's newest crime lord.
Like its parent series, Book of Boba Fett is created by Jon Favreau. It was surprisingly announced at the end of The Mandalorian season 2, and for a while, there was confusion as to how it would relate to Din Djarin's (Pedro Pascal) story. Set after his initial encounter with the lone gunslinger and Grogu, Boba Fett, with his trusted assistant, Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) returned to Tatooine to kill Bib Fortuna (Matthew Wood) and take over Jabba the Hutt's palace.
Book of Boba Fett episode 1, titled "Chapter 1: Stranger in a Stranger's Land" showed Boba Fett establish himself as the new crime lord in Mos Espa. From the get-go, it's clear that he wants to do business differently compared to his predecessors. Instead of ruling with fear, he attempts to do it with respect. But after his visit to Garsa Fwip's (Jennifer Beals) cantina, he and Shand were ambushed by unknown men, hinting that not everyone is thrilled with his burgeoning regime. As the series tackled his current mission, it creatively found a way to also reveal what really happened to him on the heels of Boba Fett’s sarlacc pit fall through his dreams. After being ambushed, Boba Fett returned to his bacta tank, effectively restarting his dream and revealing that he was able to win the trust of the Tusken Raiders by saving one of their own from a four-armed unknown sand creature. From there, the episode abruptly ended with a shot of the character drinking water in the flashback. It's a weird way to wrap up the outing, especially since it decided to stay in the past timeline.
Despite the awkward cut, the decision to end Book of Boba Fett episode 1 this way actually makes sense. Although it left much of the current storyline hanging, it did properly resolve the long-standing question of how he survived his fall into the Sarlacc pit and beyond. Simply showing that he was able to climb out of the sand creature wouldn't have satisfied viewers' curiosity about this particular Star Wars mystery since The Mandalorian also established that he lost his armor following his near-death ordeal. Now, Book of Boba Fett can move on from this point in the character's story, transitioning into revealing how he's able to survive the next several years in the dunes. The show's storytelling jumping back and forth in time through Boba Fett's dream can very well continue in the upcoming episodes, however. As he told Shand, his night visions are back, and since he seems to be in constant need of being in the bacta tank, The Book of Boba Fett can use this opportunity to reveal more of his past.
As the Disney+ series delves deep into Boba Fett's journey after his surprising survival from the Sarlacc pit, expect that there will be some parallels between his past storyline and his ongoing one. The Book of Boba Fett episode 1 was aptly titled to both timelines as the bounty hunter found himself in brand new environments. This could be Lucasfilm's storytelling approach moving forward, which could make for a more interesting overall narrative.
The Book of Boba Fett airs every Wednesday on Disney+.
