A Long Time Ago, During the Clone Wars: "Holocron Heist," "Cargo of Doom" & "Children of the Force"

 Star Wars The Clone Wars

I feel like the second season of "The Clone Wars" is really where it becomes a must-see, fantastic addition to the "Star Wars" canon. I'm not sure what it was that changed. The writers stayed the same, but the show just feels more confident. Starting with season 2, each season had its own theme. Season 2 is "Rise of the Bounty Hunters." And now that we've left season one basically in the past, aside from episode 22 which will pop up down the road, I'm even more excited for this re-watch.

"Holocron Heist," Season Two, Episode 1

"A lesson learned is a lesson earned."

Narrator: "Jedi trapped on Felucia! Clones are surrounded by droid forces. Their only hope to escape on Republic gunships waiting to land on the embattled surface. Jedi cruisers have managed to blow a hole in the droid defenses, and have sent gunships to the rescue."

After their narrow escape on Felucia and Ahsoka ignoring orders, the Jedi Council decides that she will be put on security detail at the Temple. She ends up at the Archives. Unbeknownst to the young Padawan, Darth Sidious has enlisted bounty hunter, Cad Bane, to break into the highly protected vault and steal a holocron. Can the Jedi stop the bounty hunter and protect the holocrons?

Jocasta Nu. That's all.

This episode was written by Paul Dini of "Batman: The Animated Series" fame. This isn't the first episode that he has written, but I have never mentioned it and he is a great writer. So, now I have and this episode is great. 

The episodes in season 1 could sometimes feel interchangeable. The focus was the Outer Rim worlds and they could feel very same-y-same. Season 2 switches that up right away. It opens with a lot of action with Obi-Wan, Anakin and Ahsoka in a pitched battle on Felucia. It's a fantastic action sequence but the action quickly shifts to Coruscant. We haven't spent a lot of time on Coruscant so its nice to get some extended time there especially in the seedier parts of it. Which is where we meet Cad Bane.

Bane will be a primary antagonist this season and this is a great introduction. Not only do we meet Bane, but his co-horts. We get another sassy droid, which you know I really enjoy. Todo is voiced by Seth Green and he's a lot of fun. It's a bummer that he gets blowed up at the end, but it probably wasn't feasible to get Seth Green to voice this little droid all season. 

This episode is a lot of set up, but its a lot of great set up. Bane is a credible threat who will do what he needs to do to get the job done. Kill a Jedi. Blow up his droid companion. Leave his shapeshifter cohort out to dry. He gets away with the holocron at the end but it can only be read using a Kyber crystal that is in the possession of Jedi Bolla Ropal. If Bane gets his hands on that, he'll have the names of all the Force sensitive children in the galaxy which means so will Sidious. Not the younglings!!!

Grade: B+

"Cargo of Doom," Season Two, Episode 2

"Overconfidence is the most dangerous form of carelessness."

Narrator: "Stolen secrets! Villainous mercenary Cad Bane was hired by Darth Sidious to steal a holocron from the vaults of the Jedi Temple. After fleeing the scene of the crime, Bane hunted down and captured Master Bolla Ropal, who has a crystal which holds secrets of the Jedi Order. As a Separatist fleet arrives to help the bounty hunter, Anakin Skywalker races in to cut off their escape and stop Bane from delivering the stolen holocron." 

Anakin and Ahsoka try to head Cad Bane off and get the holocron back. Bane has captured Bolla Ropal and he refuses to help which leads to his demise. The Jedi find that Cad Bane isn't the easy opponent they may have thought the bounty hunter would be. When Ahsoka again rushes off to confront Bane by herself, Bane uses her as a bargaining chip to unlock the holocron. Can Anakin and Ahsoka stop Bane from departing with the information before the ship they're on blows up?

Casual murder.

This is an amazeballs episode of "The Clone Wars." It may be the best episode of the series so far. Everything about it works. The action scenes are well choreographed and original. Bane continues to cement his position as a top tier "Star Wars" villain. The tension continues to ratchet up and there feels like real danger with actual consequences. 

I'll start with the fight/action sequences. Right from the start we get an awesome moment when Ahsoka, Anakin and the Clone Troopers use the AT-AT's to space walk. It's bad ass move that I'm surprised we haven't seen before. The main action sequence is a battle between the droid troopers sent to support Bane and the Jedi but Bane turns off the gravity. Anti-gravity lightsaber battle?! It is so freaking cool and I kind of wish it had gone on a little bit longer, but there is a lot going on in this episode. I don't think we've seen either of these things before on the show, but if I'm wrong, let me know and chastise me in the comments.

Next up is Cade Bane. This episode really shows you how ruthless Bane can be. He brutally murders Ropal and shows zero remorse. It is almost like he is switching a droid off. Even the droid troopers sound kind of sickened and disgusted when they let Bane know that Ropal is dead. It is really a chilling, gut wrenching scene and I again had to remind myself that this is a show for children. We get more of Bane being a bastard and showing that he is more than a match for the Jedi when he's captured Ahsoka, torturing her and stealing her silk bead Padawan braid.

Finally, this is the perfect middle episode to a three part story. Bane successfully manipulates Anakin into opening the holocron and though it looks like he seemingly died, we know better. And Anakin and Ahsoka should too, since Anakin senses him in the Force. That is maybe the weakest part of the episode that Anakin just kind of lets that go. But it's such a minor quibble in an otherwise stellar episode.

Grade: A-

"Children of the Force," Season Two, Episode 3

"The first step to correcting a mistake is patience."

Narrator: "A thief hunted! In a daring assault, Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan, Ahsoka, boarded the warship of cunning bounty hunter Cad Bane to recover a stolen holocron containing a list of the galaxy's Force-sensitive children and future Jedi Knights. After a desperate chase and duel with the villain, Anakin and his troops defeated Bane, but we were forced to evacuate his doomed vessel without the holocron..."

The Jedi and Clones quickly realize that Denal is actually Bane in disguise. He gets away with the information and Sidious charges him with capturing four Force sensitive children and getting them to Mustafar. The Jedi split up and Bane is captured on Naboo but not before he has gotten two of the children. Can the Jedi foil the plot, retrieve the holocron and rescue the children all while keeping Bane in their custody?

Bane the badass.

If you thought the last two episodes where too laid back, well, this one has kidnapped children who are going to be brainwashed and enslaved and possibly killed. Is that enough tension for you?!

There are a lot of fun moments in this episode. A couple of things that I really enjoyed were how the Force was used in this episode. Watching Mace Windu, Yoda, Anakin, and Obi-Wan communing with Force to try to figure out what younglings Bane was targeting was really cool. You see Force pushes and chokes and the mind tricks but this is a new way. It was nice to see Anakin kind of treated like an equal. He is usually being dressed down but here he is actually a part of the team. Plus, just casual mentions of Anakin seeing the future. Then, there is the opposite end of the spectrum with Anakin, Obi-Wan and Mace combining their Jedi mind tricks to compel Bane to tell them what they want. It was super close to torture and it made me very uncomfortable.

This is another fast moving episode again with real stakes and little bread crumbs sprinkled on that will be picked up. Of course, Anakin wants to clue the Chancellor in to what is going on with internal Jedi business. I'm kind of surprised they didn't push back more. Bane tricks Windu and Obi-Wan and gets away so he can antagonize them another day. The Force children being captured and experimented on to turn them into Sith agents was again, pretty chilling and even more chilling that the Jedi saved them but have no idea that was what Sidious was planning. 

Grade: B+

Next up, Anakin and Obi-Wan are headed back to Felucia and then they take on the Zillo Beast.

Three really great episodes with many more to come. I can't stress how excited I am for "The Clone Wars" going forward. Are you? Let me know in the comments.