What Was The Best Episode Of Season 2?

I've added a poll to the sidebar. One week of voting. Just thought it'd be fun. If you disagree with my choices...oh well. My blog. I make it up. You might, though, let me know what you think I missed in the sidebar.

I'm hoping to update with a new poll each week on Mondays.

Quick thoughts

So I posted the final reviews for Season 2 below. Great season, and I can't wait to pick up the Blu-Ray discs in October. I'll try to post thoughts here and there when I can. Thanks for being patient everyone. I love comments on the reviews, so comment away, even on older stuff. I read all the comments for sure.

Season 2, Episodes 21, 22, and 23 - The "Fett Trilogy"

Okay everyone. My apologies. I've had quite a bit going on, what with my recent engagement, my wedding approaching quickly, and having two plays going on in New York City last month. (More hints at the identity of CloneWarsFan...) It's been a fine time, but I've neglected you good people.

Instead of trying to write up three separate posts and continuing to delay, I'm going to review all three of the final episodes of Season 2 at once, as they comprise a "trilogy arc" much like Malevolence or the Mandalorian episodes did.

The three episodes in question (Lethal Trackdown, R2 Come Home and Death Trap) give fans of the prequel trilogy a payoff that they've been waiting for since 2002. We finally see young Boba Fett attempt to enact revenge on Mace Windu as it was foreshadowed in Attack of the Clones.


Excellent material and especially for so iconic a character. Boba Fett's spirit has been throughout this season, as Bounty Hunters and Mandalorians have been hanging from the ceilings and stealing Holocrons throughout. Still, though, I can't say I found these episodes to be the series strongest. Primarily because Fett gets a bit of the Anakin Skywalker treatment, and it's treatment that doesn't fit quite as well. If you'll allow me to explain...

In these episodes, we see a distraught kid who has fallen in with a group of assassins because he believes its the only way to avenge his father's death. That's perfectly fine. This kid is, while occasionally showing flashes of rage and darkness, primarily a good kid who is confused and feels bad about what he's doing. That, shall we say, is not what is exciting about Boba Fett. It might be a logical extension of the story, but it's not, maybe, the most thrilling way to re-introduce the galaxies most dangerous Bounty Hunter. Hell, when did you ever think you'd see Boba Fett...apologize?

It sort of reminds me of Transformers 2. Wait, wait, hear me out.

What is the best darn thing about the Transformers? Optimus Prime. What is one of the few really awesome things about these Transformers live action movies? How great Optimus Prime looks and that they use his original voice. So what happens in the nearly 3 hour Transformers 2? Optimus Prime [SPOILER ALERT] spends about 2 1/2 hours of the movie ... dead? Great. That's what I paid to see.

Same goes for Boba Fett. I think his childhood is a perfectly reasonable subject to explore. But why spend nearly half of our time with him watching him fret? His moments of verve and cool calculation are what we want to see. Why deny us that pleasure in an effort to add not-so-necessary complexity?

That isn't to say that there isn't some really strong animation and worthy moments within these episodes. The first, Deathtrap, shows Boba infiltrating the Republic Fleet in a way that is almost too perfect: he walks right in as a clone. It's solid set up for the next episode.

The strongest, in grand Star Wars tradition, is the middle chapter. R2 Come Home not only has some wonderful sweeping visuals - the crashed Star Destroyer is quite a sight - but it's an homage to, of all things, Lassie. It's explosive, inventive, and excels at staging a patented "daring escape."

The final episode, which brings us full circle for the season, is called Lethal Trackdown. It's essentially a sort of police procedural, headed up by Ahsoka Tano and Plo Koon. It's a bit of a pedestrian affair, and neither Plo Koon nor Ahsoka have really matured much as characters, but it was well-written and staged just the same.

The final moments, featuring the aforementioned apology and also a threat, seem to bring us back where we started. It's also sort of a non-cliffhanger. We don't know what's going to happen next exactly... but we do know where this is all headed, so it's not a nail biter.

While, as you can tell, I didn't feel like Season 2's final episodes were as fantastic as the strongest episodes of this season... I can say without a doubt that the season as a whole was breathtaking new Star Wars. If the Fett Trilogy wasn't as canonical as I'd hoped, it certainly showed that the standards I have are increasing. Some episodes of the series are so strong that average episodes stick out a bit more.

Overall, I'd say that Deathtrap was an average ** 1/2, RS Come Home as *** 1/2 and Lethal Trackdown was basically somewhere in between or ***. So...

Rating (out of five): ***

Delay

Hey everyone!

I will do full recaps of the end of Season 2 shortly! I recently got engaged! So, obviously, that's been taking up a lot of my free time!

Season 2, Episode 19 - The Zillo Beast Strikes Back

Immediately following the spectacular episode The Zillo Beast is this mini-sequel: The Zillo Beast Strikes Back! In the spirit of Toho, this episode shows us the beast rampaging through Coruscant itself. It's as if the planet has finally found it's true purpose. Sure, a city-planet looks cool in a movie. To a giant lizard, though, it might as well be made entirely of targets.

The episode continues on the course of the previous one, showing us the unethical and expedient logic of Palpatine, as he attempts to corrupt the Republic around him. What a wonderful turn of events that only the Zillo Beast seems to see him as a direct threat, and makes a very real attempt to kill him. The Zillo Beast vs. Palpatine dynamic drives the action, and gives the overall story arc a whole lot more than just watching Zillo go nuts.

I definitely enjoyed the whirling action and the unethical machinations of Palpatine throughout. Great visuals pervade and the way we begin to feel for the beast is reminiscent of Godzilla in all the right ways. Perhaps only the smallest little nitpick would be that the Zillo Beasts armor is established to be weapons grade as of the last episode, so watching Yoda hack away at it with a lightsaber to no effect, and watching guards just shoot at it blindly, seemed somewhat lazy.

All in all, though, a great follow up and excellent episode

Rating (out of five): **** 3/4

Season 2, Episode 18 - The Zillo Beast

Okay. Yeah. That was awesome. Where to start?

First of all, the Zillo Beast is an episode that introduces us to the Star Wars equivalent of Godzilla. It's like someone got their chocolate in my peanut butter.

One of the facts that makes Star Wars such an enduring universe is how adaptable it is by nature. It's a mythology of spare parts and mash-ups. That's why Clone Wars episodes that quote the films themselves are less, perhaps, in the spirit of Star Wars than episodes that appropriate new material.

The issue I had with Bounty Hunters was that it took a four hour epic and crammed it into 22 minutes. Godzilla, to me, often seems full of filler in between Man In Suit rampages. The Zillo Beast never feels like there's less of what you'd want. It's filled with action on a mammoth scale, but it doesn't let the spectacle stomp all over the story.

Taking place on Malastare, populated with Dugs, the Zillo Beast addresses some honestly complex issues for our heroes. Malastare's leader Doge Urus drives a hard bargain with the Jedi, knowing that the Republic needs their fuel rich mines to fund the war effort. When the use of a highly volatile weapon - the Electro-Proton Bomb - uncovers an ancient sleeping creature, the Dugs insist that it be killed. The Jedi resist the taking of the life of the beast, the last of its kind. But is the life of a single creature worth alienating the Dugs and their necessary allegiance?

Anakin eventually finds a way to split the difference (the beat itself could be used for weapons research) but that doesn't solve the problem of disturbing a practically unstoppable force.

Inevitably, the Beast goes on a classic rampage, complete with Wilhem scream, tossing tanks, and stomping on troopers. The creative team makes The Beat both sympathetic and terrible. By the time the Beast is brought down, in a perfect moment, we see the hubris of the Republic leadership promise more carnage (see: the next episode). It's classic Godzilla. The folly, as always, is ours.

By taking time to highlight the ambiguity of the Jedi's place in the war, and infusing that with a joyful explosion of beautifully cinematic nostalgia and mayhem, The Zillo Beast is a fanboy's dream episode. One of the best of the series.

Rating (out of five): *****

Season 2, Episode 17 - Bounty Hunters

Bounty Hunters begins with a dedication to director Akira Kurosawa, whose work has been an inspiration to the Star Wars universe since the very first film. This episode is an homage to one of his most well-known and imitated works, The Seven Samurai.

Anakin, Ahsoka and Obi-Wan find themselves marooned in a remote area of Felucia, in the middle of a conflict between pirates, a local farming community, and some hired guns (the Bounty Hunters in question). Obi-Wan isn't eager to get too involved in the dispute, but when push comes to shove, and their old "friend" Honda Ohnaka shows himself; the Jedi partner with the Bounty Hunters to protect and train the less-than-imposing Felucians.

The episode itself is fun, light, and the action sequences especially stood out. The new Bounty Hunters we meet are Embo, Rumi Paramita, and Seripas. All three are welcome additions to the growing cast of the Clone Wars. Embo, especially, makes a smashing impression as a silent, Samurai inspired bad-ass.

Bounty Hunters did, though, feel a bit truncated. Some of that is simply knowledge of the source material. The Seven Samurai is a nearly four hour epic. At 22 minutes, a single Clone Wars episode can pack a lot of punch, and even show us the Cliff Notes of a classic, but there's not enough time to really feel the learning curve of the farmers or the hard-won camaraderie of our heroes. The Felucians go from terrified to bringing the full Ewok seemingly overnight. It's not that it's a bad story, it's just hard to make it believable in the time allotted.

Still, raise your hands if you wouldn't watch The Adventures of Embo?

*looks around the class*

That's what I thought.

Rating (out of five): *** 1/2