As quickly as it came, The Book of Boba Fett has now completed its seven-episode run on Disney+. The series shone a spotlight on the former bounty hunter's time in the sands of Tatooine following Return of the Jedi while exploring his pursuits as a crime lord in the present day. After a slow start, a slew of iconic characters ventured into the series in differing roles, sending fans into a frenzy.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Book of Boba Fett.
The Book of Boba Fett's season finale is an interesting situation. Having been derailed by the overarching narrative established by The Mandalorian in the previous two episodes, "Chapter 7 - In the Name of Honor" had to find a way to tie everything together for the titular character... who fans had barely seen in weeks. This required the story to take a hard right to get back onto the main road, with little room for error.
Ultimately, the episode did as promised: it featured the war between Lord Fett and the Pykes over Mos Espa. Clocking in at an hour in length, "Chapter 7" did manage to provide some good moments - Din and Grogu's reunion, Boba and Cad Bane's standoff, and the crime lord riding his rancor being the standouts. However, the overall impression from fans is that there could have been much more.
Few expected another scenario where Luke Skywalker would arrive to save the day in tear-inducing fashion. That being said, "Chapter 7" only really managed to deliver on its basic premise, largely failing to wow fans in any significant way. The Rotten Tomatoes score for the season finale reflects this, as the episode is the lowest rated of the season by a wide margin.
Book of Boba Fett Finale Gets Lowest Rotten Tomatoes Score
Rotten Tomatoes revealed the critic ratings for each episode of The Book of Boba Fett, and the season finale comes in dead last. Below are the critical approval scores of each chapter from the series, for comparison:
"Chapter 1: Stranger In a Strange Land" - 82% (57 Critic Ratings)
"Chapter 2: The Tribes of Tatooine" - 90% (21 Critic Ratings)
"Chapter 3: The Streets of Mos Espa" - 59% (17 Critic Ratings)
"Chapter 4: The Gathering Storm" - 86% (22 Critic Ratings)
"Chapter 5: Return of The Mandalorian" - 100% (20 Critic Ratings)
"Chapter 6: From the Desert Comes a Stranger" - 89% (19 Critic Ratings)
"Chapter 7: In the Name of Honor" - 47% (17 Critic Ratings)
Interestingly, The Book of Boba Fett follows a trend that the first two MCU streaming titles experienced. Both WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's season finales also found themselves with the worst Rotten Tomatoes ratings for their respective series.
Boba Fett Slips On a Tomato Peel
The critic rating for "Chapter 7" is, frankly, atrocious.
Other than "Chapter 3," the rest of the episodes in The Book of Boba Fett had scores that were respectable at worst and exceptional at best. It comes as little surprise to see that the recent episodes centered around Din Djarin and Grogu have ratings as high as they do and that "Chapter 2" was widely considered to be the strongest episode of the series until the narrative expanded into Mando's territory.
Unfortunately, there's one common thread for the three lowest-rated episodes of the series - they were all directed by Robert Rodriguez. The executive producer and director has widely been panned for his style, particularly when it comes to shooting action sequences. There's a distinguishable manner in which the fight choreography was filmed in his episodes that separates them from the rest, something that undoubtedly plays a major role in the poor scores.
The Mods introduced in "Chapter 3" weren't met with much enthusiasm at the time, and it was near-universally agreed that the speeder chase on Vespas with the Mayor's majordomo was point-and-laugh material. While it wasn't all bad in "Chapter 7" (Mando and Boba's jetpack sequence was a beauty), the overall pacing and structure of the Mos Espa "war" had rough execution - one of the Mods' 180 spins has become a meme in less than 24 hours.
It's a shame that the series ended on more of a wet fart than fans had hoped.
Grogu's decision between lightsaber and beskar chainmail was made off-screen, a bizarre exclusion given the magnitude of the choice. The Pykes ultimately being the top threat facing Lord Fett came as a disappointment as well, as the syndicate lacked the charisma to be the primary antagonistic force. Killing off Cad Bane was a bold move as well, though there are indicators that fans may not have seen the last of the Duros hunter.
Pinning the blame solely on Rodriguez certainly isn't fair. While he gets the credit for the direction, the story was ultimately decided upon by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, and the scripts were written by the former. With everything being said and done, The Book of Boba Fett didn't leave much of a mark on the galaxy far, far away as a whole, and the season finale begs the question of what the aim was in the first place.
All seven episodes of The Book of Boba Fett are now streaming on Disney+.
