The Book of Boba Fett Episode 3 is short, sweet and full of Easter eggs

The Book of Boba Fett Episode 3 is short, sweet and to the point — the point being, setting up the possible big baddies of the newest Star Wars series on Disney+.

In the third episode, Boba hires a gang of local youth bikers, has more short and sad flashbacks to Kamino and his time with the Tusken Raiders, gets a new pet, is beaten up by a Wookiee and learns a bit more about the mess Mos Espa and Tatooine have been in since Jabba’s death.

“The Streets of Mos Espa” may be shorter than the first two episodes and much lighter on character development, but it sets up key plot points for the rest of the season and get fans theorizing ahead of the next week’s episode.

*Spoilers ahead for The Book of Boba Fett, Episode 3*

Flashbacks to Kamino, Mos Eisley

There’s something likable about loner bounty hunters taking long baths to sort their stuff out (looking at you, The Witcher). We’re seen Boba Fett in a Bacta bath at least once in each of the first three episodes of his series.

This is when we get flashbacks to Boba’s past. The flashbacks are shorter in Episode 3; we’ve actually seen the bit with kid Boba on Kamino already. Still, since Kamino was destroyed in The Bad Batch, it’s nice to get more looks at Boba’s childhood home that he will never be able to return to.

More important to the story is the flashback to Boba’s final moments with the Tusken Raiders. He rides to Mos Eisley to talk with leaders of the Pyke Syndicate about solidifying the deal made in the previous episode, where the Pykes are to pay the Tuskens in return for traveling across the Dune Sea.

But the Pykes tell Boba they already pay the Kintan Striders biker gang for protection. Boba says he’ll take care of the bikers, but returns to the Tusken camp to find it burned down and all of the people slaughtered. After burning the dead Tuskens with their sacred gaffi sticks, he leaves the camp with revenge in mind.

Employing the local misfits

At the beginning of the episode, local water monger Lortha Peel (Stephen Root) requests the assistance of the Daimyo Boba to get rid of a local gang of young criminals who have enhanced their bodies with droid parts. The monger says the gang has been stealing his crops.

When Boba and Fennec confront the gang outside a cantina, they’re drinking (probably) stolen water near their sweet speeder bikes. Between the bike colors (red, yellow, green and blue — all four possible colors for a lightsaber) and their cybernetic body parts, the gang brings an intriguing mid-century sci-fi vibe to the episode.

During this exchange, Boba learns that, well, adults just don’t understand what’s really going on in town and these kids are acting as sort of a Robin Hood outfit. Jobs are scarce and inflation is terrible, so they steal what they need and want.

Instead of fighting them, Boba gives them jobs with him. Lortha Peel isn’t happy, and Boba angers him more when he gives him the number of credits he thinks the water is worth rather than what the monger is charging.

The Hutts and the Pykes

Boba is rudely and violently awakened from his Bacta bath by Black Krrsantan, the massive Wookiee gladiator who’s apparently now working for the Hutt twins. He’s there to kill Boba, and their fight is brutal — Boba has to at least cracked a couple ribs. But thanks to the intervention of the local youths he just hired, the gang and Fennec are able to trap Krrsantan in the empty Rancor pit.

Later, the Hutt twins return with a gift for Boba and an apology for sending the Wookiee to kill him: a Rancor calf being cared for by a character played by Danny Trejo.

The two men and the Rancor have some sweet moments in the pit, where Trejo explains that Rancors imprint on the first human they see when they are young. This Rancor is depressed, Trejo says, and is blindfolded to avoid imprinting. The Trejo character then removes the blindfold and the Rancor supposedly imprints on Boba, who has asked to be taught how to ride the creature.

During the exchange with the Hutts, the twins seem a little too quick to change their minds about fighting for Tatooine. They tell Boba that the mayor of Mos Espa has lied to him and them and that the area has been promised to another crime syndicate they don’t want to mess with.

All signs point to the Pykes, who arrive en masse in Mos Eisley at the end of the episode. There’s also an epic chase scene through the streets of Mos Espa involving Boba’s gang racing after the mayor’s majordomo, who tells them the mayor is working with the Pykes.

The episode ends with one of the mechanically enhanced youths telling Boba that the Pykes have arrived ready for war over the territory.

So many good Easter eggs

• Who is Drash, the leader of the youth gang? Credits name Sophie Thatcher’s character as Drash, the youth who rides the blue speeder bike and is outfitted with a sleek droid arm. Fans have been theorizing about her since her brief appearance in a teaser video. Some have pointed to similarities between Drash and Ailyn Vel, Boba’s daughter with Sintas Vel in the Legends lore. Others think she could be Arden Lyn, another Legends character who was a Dark Jedi who froze herself in a Force trance about 25,000 years before the events of the Skywalker saga. Though either character would be cool to see in this series, it seems more like Drash is a new, unique character (but still very cool).
• Stormtrooper helmets and Pelli Motto: When Boba rides his bantha into Mos Eisley, there’s a shot of a bunch of stormtrooper helmets impaled on spikes in the ground. And in the background, you can see Pelli Motto and her pit droids walking by. The same helmets were seen in The Mandalorian season 1, and Pelli Motto (Amy Sedaris) is the scrappy mechanic who helps Din Djarin repair his ship.
• Oh, Dank Farrik: “Dank Farrik” is slang and possibly a curse phrase that’s been heard several times in The Mandalorian. In The Book of Boba Fett, Boba tells the leader of the youth bike gang, “you better fight as good as you talk Dank.”
• Jabba’s painting: Blink and you’ll miss the painting of Jabba the Hutt that one of Boba’s youths crashes into and rips in half. If you pause the episode at the right moment, you can see the painting is of Jabba on his throne, surrounded by Bib Fortuna, his Kowakian monkey-lizard Salacious B. Crumb and even Boba Fett to his left. The painting is a nod to the raucous and dangerous denizens of Jabba’s palace circa Return of the Jedi.

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