The Book Of Boba Fett Just Explained What Happened After Jabba's Death
This article contains spoilers for the new episode of "The Book of Boba Fett."
Advance apologies to all the Bib Fortuna fans out there, but how the heck did Jabba's former majordomo — a sycophant who fell hook, line, and sinker for Luke Skywalker's Jedi mind trick in "Return of the Jedi" — first seize and then maintain control of his recently deceased boss' criminal empire on Tatooine? It's a question that's been hanging in the air since Boba Fett casually strolled into Jabba's palace, shot Bib dead, and plopped himself down on Jabba's throne in the "Mandalorian" season 2 finale.
The first two episodes of "The Book of Boba Fett" didn't exactly rush to give an answer to that query. Most of their runtime was instead spent on introducing the various players (all of whom could switch from being enemies to allies in the blink of an eye) that Boba will have to contend with as Tatooine's new Daimyo while also flashing back to his experiences right after he escaped the Sarlaac. I've argued that the show could've been more effective with its storytelling up to this point, to the degree that it might've benefitted from merging its first two episodes into one. Still, to creator Jon Favreau's credit, "The Book of Boba Fett" has begun to weave its loose plot threads into a more tightly wound tapestry with its third episode, "The Streets of Mos Espa."
Money Makes the World Go Round
In the show's present-day, "The Streets of Mos Espa" saw Boba's palace droid 8D8 bring him (and those watching at home) up to speed on what happened after Jabba's sail barge mishap left a massive power vacuum on Tatooine, and, more specifically, Mos Espa. With no one around to stop them, the Trandoshans took over the city's center (which accounts for why we keep seeing them leering at Boba when he and Fennec Shand make their way into town), the Aqualish seized the Worker's District, and the Katooinians assumed control over the starport and upper sprawl.
As for Bib Fortuna? He did what any scheming ex-lackey would do: He lined the pockets of those around him to secure their alliances, including that of Mos Espa's mayor Mok Shaiz. This also retroactively explains why Shaiz would send his own majordomo to meet Boba, under the expectation that he would follow Bib's lead and continue to bribe him with tributes to keep his loyalty. Boba, on the other hand, has other ideas about how he intends to rule, and his actions only look to further stir things up in the series' next four episodes. But then again, this wouldn't be a "Star Wars" TV show if everyone just chilled and Boba kept the status quo going, would it?
"The Book of Boba Fett" episode 3 is now streaming on Disney+.