Spoiler: Recap
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Anyway, we are told the infamous duro bounty hunter Cad Bane is on Coruscant and has gathered together a crew for his nefarious ends. I know this guy, I've seen clips of him on the Internet but he wasn't on the pilot movie was he? Because the episode seem to treat him like a houshold name, like I should already know how dangerous he is. which is weird. Anyway. Bane's craft lands on the Senate parking lot and Senate Guards tell him nd his gang to sod off but Bane's sniper take them out. The Bounty Hunter has two commando droid impersonnate the guards (they pretend to have been shooting at war protestors which I guess is business as usual near the Senate). These droids barely feature in the episode which confuses the hell out of me because because of them I operated under the assumption the hunters were hired by the Separatists but it doesn't seem so so that's weird (and make their actions that more reckless). Bane's crew enters the building. There's him, the two commando, a female sniper (whose design I had already seen, and a quick Qwant search told me her name was Aurra Sing), a weequay (so Hondo's policy of not getting involved in politics is a cultural thing?), a couple IG droids and a diminutive fish man. Taking on what ought to be the most secure place in the galaxy.
We cut to Padmé's office. She's with Anakin who has a two weeks' leave and so thinks she should take some vacation too so that they could go to a place no-one will recognize them, away from the war and the politics to be husband and wife. Cute, this show continues to make a better job than the prequels at what they were trying to do. She says she's got to much important work. He asks her if the Republic is more important to her than their love and says that, in his eyes, nothing goes before their love. Nothing. Careful, Ani, your Vader is showing (even if it's more AotC whiny-Anakin-Vader than Vader-Vader). He then tells her how Obi-Wan told him his lightsaber was his life once he finished his and hands it to her. That's supposed to be a romantic gesture, but, frankly, I'm not sure what letting her handle his phallic symbol for thirty seconds is going to prove. IT's not like he can give it to her and she seems to find the whole situation more awkward than anything. This is not helped by her good friend Bail Organa barging in (knock, man!) leaving only enough time for Anakin to hide under Padmé's desk and for her to hide his sabre behind her back. He tells her they've got to go to this super-duper meeting right this instant and they leave. Wow, a plot device to separate Anakin from his slightsaber, I did not see that coming. [pikachu face]. It pains me to know that he will never invest in a hand-strap.
Meanwhile Bane and his crew made their way to whatever the place where guard changes is called and toss a grenade at them, somehow taking out every single senate Guard in the building without setting off one thousand alarms at once. Also one guard beg Sing for his life and she kills him, And then she didn't wash her hands, because she's eviiiiiiil. How did they even get that far? How did they even know the security's schedule and itinerary, not to mention the layout of the place? Bugger if I know. God the security is terrible. Aquaguy then gets to work on the power grid and is told to shut down the whole thing. Again without triggerring an emergency response from the GAR, somehow. Padmé, Bail and 3PO are meeting with some more Seanators (including Senator Chichu from Pantoria and Padmé's rodian uncle. I think. I thought the guy was the head of state of Rodia, not the Senator) in the atrium to discuss how to stop Palplatine's upcoming Enhanced Privacy Invasion bill (I hope that's what the opponents are calling it because else I'd be disappointed in Sidious' manipulating skills). I think Filoni and Co had a couple things in mind when they thought of that law, but politics. Bane and his henchmen enter and take everybody hostage. Padmé starts planning a afight until Organa reminds her they don't have weapons. One gran Senator utterly fails to read the room and tries to leave. Bane shoots him dead. You know between this and the Jar Jar episode I think Malastare's next Senator is going to have trouble finding a life-insurance policy. Orn Free Tah, having apparently read the script enters Palpatine's office and patches him to Bane who says that he has control of the east wing of the building and that if Palpatine wants to see his Senators alive again, he'll have to agree to his demands. So what great and terrible mission is the bounty hunter on? What prize is grand enough to risk attacking the heart of the Galactic Republic herself, no doubt making him the most wanted criminal in the Galaxy? To free Ziro the Hutt.
To. Free. Ziro. The Hutt. Z.I.R.O. .T.H.E. .H.U.T.T. *screams into pillow* Jabba's pink effeminate incompetent uncle with a shrill voice.
Why? Why are you bringing this guy back? Were you so confident in the charcater you literally called a Zero? Was the pilot movie, such a smashing success that you had to bring him back for the first season finale? What went on? What is the rationale behind this decision?
So, moving on, Palpatine tells Bane the obvious: the Republic isn't going to take his crap laying down. this makes him rant like a maniac proclaiming he has complete control just as the man from Innsmouth shuts the power down. This locks Palpatine in his office (the hacker triggered the security system) with Orn Free Tah (Tah's presence and his general not-being in danger in this situation are probably why he doesn't go full Sith on the interlopers). This also signals Anakin's that something very bad is going on. Naturally he decides to Die Hard the **** out of this situation rather than use his wrist-mounted communicator to ask for help. Not that it would help as Palapatine tries to call in the Jedi but Bane is apparently scrambling all communication from the Senate. Which nobody seems to notice. Also, I guess Palpatine was trying to stay in character when he called the Jedi but I would have assumed he'd go for a platoon of clones. The bounty hunters search the Senators for communication devices which propmts Amidalal to tell Organa she's got something they mustn't find. Anakin made his way to the atrium just as Bane is creeping on PAdmé (guess he likes them with hair, visible pupils and not blue). Bane shoots at him and recognize him (let me guess, anachronic order?) which forces him to flee. Bane sends the Weequay and one IG droid after him. Now he tries to call for help but to no avail (why did they want the senator's communcation devices then?) and hides in an office. The Weequay finds a female-looking droid in an office and leeaves her alone. Random. Slywalker takes his communicator apart and plugs it into a big desk thingie which lets him talk to Palpatine. Nice, I like when they show his mecanic side. Palpatine explains that it's up to him since no-one can get in and that he must go to the control room and turn the power on. The bounty hunters overhear the conversation and barge in just after he's hidden and the Jedi mind tricks the weequay into leaving without beeing seen, huh, so they can do that. Also why not mind trick him into dropping his gun as he leaves?
The two bounty hunters separate, the weequay goes upstair an the droid downstair. Anakin, alone and weaponless is faced with a choice. What would you do in his place? A) Leave and find another way to the control room. B) Take on the guy you know he can mind control. C) Take on the literal killing machine with your bare hands. D) Obi-Wan Kenobi. If you've answered C) then congratulations! You just might have what it takes to make it as a general of the Grand Army of the Republic! Somehow punching metal works gret for Ani who manages to clobber the droid's head with its own gun (rendered unusable by the droid bending the canon) and flees before the weequay gets there. Oh come on you could have beaten that guy! Just force push him down the stairs, it's like you've never played JEdi Knight. the weequay notices the abscence of lightsabre cuts on his late partener and informs Bane that the Jedi has lost his weapon. bane sends Sing and the weequay after him. Padmé tells Organa she has the sabre, dodges the question of how that happened and ask him if he thinks they should use it themselves or try to find a way to give it back to its owner. Before he can answers, Bane orders everybody to piepe down and calls Palpatine again. He wants him to make a pardon disk for Ziro, give it to Tah who will be taken to collet the hutt and, once Ziro is with him, he'll release the hostages. Why didn't he say all that last time?
On his side of things, John McClane found the control room but the hackers retreats inside of it as he sees him and as he tries to open it, Sing and the weequay attack him. More precisely, the weequay points his gun at him, he Furce pulls it in his hand (see? you could have done that earlier) but Sing shoots him out and the hacker opens the door and tazes him while he's distracted. They cuff him and bring him to Bane who taunts him about how unimpressive he is without his saber (gotta side with the bounty hunter here, Anakin really should invest more skill points in his Force Powers) and has him tossed with the Senators. The remaining IG fetches Tah who is nhappy to have been picked (I thought you'd be glad to be leaving the hostage situation, but hey you do you) And Palpatine creepily tells him everybody's got a job to do. They fly to the prison where apparently they've been warned in advance (seriously? By who? The terrorists or the people trapped with no communication devices) since they co-operate with the one droid pointing a gun at a Senator and have already brought Zero the Hutt for realease. He complains that the sun is too bright and they should have done that at night. I hope somebody kills him fast. IG and him leaves. Ziro wants to head to the Outer Rim immediately, but IG is ordered to rendez-vous at the Senate so that's where they're going. Bane puts some bombs arounf the Senators and the Jedi which creates a laser cage, if they touch the lasers they go boom. Cad Bane then calls Palpatine and says he's leaving, if the pursuit starts before nightfall the Senators die. The bounty hunters leave. At the same moment troopers sent by Orn Free tah arrive and "rescue" the Chancellor, see, was it that hard? They confront the bounty hunters but they have to let htem go becaus eof the bombs. They all leave with Ziro. And then Bane decides to trigger the explosives anyways before he's even reached his spacesship because he's not very bright. Anakin wakes up with the senators and almost blows his and Padmé's cover because he sucks at the secret lovers thing. She claims to have found his lightsabre where he "dropped it". And he cuts a hole in th efloor just as the bombs go off. The explosion is big enough to make a hole in the roof of the twenty-meter tall atrium and create a huge column of smoke but not big enough to harm the people one level down with a big hole in the roof/floor. Go figures. Padmé congratulates Skywalker on another daring rescue while Cad Bane demands to be paid.
We end the season on that note.
Spoiler: My thoughts
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So first off, that the finale is not the conclusion of a three/four-parter epic about a Separatis grand plan or Sidious manipulation the Jedi somehow is baffling to me. Why would we care about these thugs (seriously, they're not bounty hunters, they're hired guns) springing this third-rate villain from prison?
Second, Cad Bane doesn't really strike me as a mastermind here, his plan isn't too shoddy but his sudden burst of random supervillainy really undersell his air of professionalism. Not to mention that apparently he wasn't hired by someone like who could protect him from the fallout of this Dooku or even the Hutt Cartels but just decided to free Ziro on his won and expects him to pay him. The shows wants me to fear him, but meh.
Ziro, thankfully, had very little screentime.
Anakin getting separated from his saber was such a plot contrivance it hurts. I hope later season have Organa having figured out that PAdmé and him are together so that somehing comes out of it.
That being said, it was a fun episode, nothing was egregiously bad and I hope Bane shows up again (with a more sensible plan). This is the only episode so far without the Separatists as the villains which is an intersting variation. I just wish it wasn't the finale.
Re: Fyraltari watches The Clone Wars (2008) for the first time
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