Star Wars The Clone Wars
I feel like one of the biggest things "The Clone Wars" did is bring Darth Maul back into the Star Wars universe. He's making his debut in the series. Here we go.
"Massacre," Season Four, Episode 19
"One must let go of the past to hold onto the future."
Narrator: "Sinister forces on the move! Asajj Ventress has suffered a humiliating betrayal at the hands of her own assassin, Savage Oppress. Having gone into hiding, she now has no choice but to seek sanctuary with the Nightsisters of Dathomir."
After her last encounter with Count Dooku and Savage Oppress, Asajj Ventress flees back to Dathomir. There she's comforted by Mother Talzin and told she will begin a new path as a Nightsister. Unfortunately, Count Dooku has learned of Ventress' whereabouts and has sent General Grievous and a squadron of droid soldiers to Dathomir to take care of his former apprentice.
You all are probably sick of me seeing this, but I genuinely love the character of Asajj Ventress. I love her arc throughout "The Clone Wars." I think she has one of the most believable villains, I don't want to say redemption arc, but semi-redemption arc. Things aren't looking great for Ventress when the episode begins. She is defeated by Dooku. Her secret weapon, Savage Oppress, has turned against her. She returns back to Dathomir, not realizing that her maternal figure, Mother Talzin, is secretly working with Oppress, guiding him to his brother, the Sith, Darth Maul.
It initially seems like things are looking up for Ventress. She feels aimless. Her motivation was revenge against Dooku, that foiled, she feels rudderless. Talzin assures her she will find new purpose here. She will become a true Nightsister and her life will begin again. There is a really cool witchy baptism. I love a dark baptism and this is a good one. It's really neat to see magic on "The Clone Wars" and I love just the greens and the sinister vibes of everything.
Count Dooku is not letting Ventress get away that easily. He finds out she's on Dathomir and sends Grievous and a company of droid troops to Dathomir to take out her and the Nightsisters. As you know, there are a lot of ground battle scenes in "The Clone Wars," but the show does a great job of keeping these battles feeling fresh. And this episode is new different. The magical aspect is new as are the supporting troops that Mother Talzin calls in. She goes to see an older sorceress named Daka, who looks a lot like Chancellor Palpatine. Tell me I'm not the only one who sees it. Daka resurrects scores of fallen Nightsisters. If you've played "Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order" this is going to feel very familiar.
The zombies are really cool. The show really leans in to zombie horror as the burst from their cocoons. The close ups on the camera as they roar. The viciousness with which they rip into the droid soldiers. It's really easy to imagine these droids as flesh and blood people and it makes this fight scene feel extra chilling. Then, we have Talzin using a Dooku voodoo doll to torture the Sith lord. I didn't expect this episode to veer so hard into horror territory, but I'm here for it.
The upturn for the Nightsisters doesn't last. Ventress confronts Grievous and they duel. But Ventress' unchecked aggression is again her undoing, causing her to lash out. Grievous quickly gets the other hand and has to flee. The episode ends in tragedy with every Nightsister on Dathomir being slaughtered except for Ventress and Talzin. Talzin encourages Ventress to flee and Ventress is once again left lost.
This is overall a great episode. If I have one minor complaint is that weird moment between Ventress and a Nightsister named Karis. They share this tender moment and it's just blatant foreshadowing that she's going to get killed particularly after she tells Ventress how much she admires her. It just feel like unnecessary emotional manipulation.
Grade: A-
"Bounty," Season Four, Episode 20
"Who we are never changes, who we think we are does."
Narrator: "Abandoned! After an assassination attempt by his forsaken apprentice, Asajj Ventress, Count Dooku launches a brutal counterattack against the Nightsisters, massacring the entire clan. Forced into exile, Ventress wanders far into the Outer Rim, among the castaways and vagabonds of the galaxy, seeking her new life that was foretold by Mother Talzin..."
After the attack on Dathomir and the slaughter of the Nightsisters, Ventress finds herself on that bastion of misguided souls, the planet Tatooine. At a cantina, Ventress kills a man who is getting a little fresh with her. The man she killed is part of a bounty hunter team and Ventress agrees to take his place after being confronted by Bossk and Latts Razzi. The team is led by a young Boba Fett. Their mission is to go to the planet Quartzite and deliver mysterious cargo to the planets overlord, Otua Blank. When Ventress learns what the cargo is, will she be able to go through with this mission?
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| Ventress looks good in purple. |
It's clear that the through line of this arc is Ventress attempting to find a new path in her life. A path that she chooses for herself and is for her, not for anyone else. I'm not saying that is bad, but I feel like I have to say that just in case it wasn't totally clear to anyone watching these episodes.
It's not a surprise that someone like Ventress would find herself getting in with a group of bounty hunters. Ventress is aggressive. And her particular skill set lends itself to that kind of work. I've made no secret of how much I hate that the Star Wars universe returns to Tatooine so much or planets similar to it. I'm looking at you Jakku. But, it makes complete sense that in this case, Ventress would find herself on the desert planet. Tatooine is where people trying to escape their past seem to migrate to, so why wouldn't Ventress choose to go there.
I definitely felt shades of "A New Hope" in this cantina scene when Obi-Wan slices the arm off the aggressive guy. Let this be a lesson to douchebags at bars. If a lady says no, she means no and you should maybe leave her the hell alone. Ventress fits right into this motley crew of bounty hunters. I enjoy that she has zero respect for young Boba Fett. That is the correct response to this. We get another addition to the Star Wars canon of badass droids with C-21 Highsinger.
These four episodes are really serving when it comes to planets. Quartzite is dope. The underground caverns are filled with luminescent stalagmites. I love that they have to travel underground in this tram that is propelled through these giant rings. The marauders that are pursuing them are riding giant millipede type creatures. I hate bugs particularly ones with a lot of legs but I can't hate on the design here and the impact that it has visually.
This leads to a really great battle. Some standout moments are Latts using her scorpion-like tail to lash out at the marauders that are attacking. Highsinger doesn't let us down. Unleashing a spinning, blaster attack that takes out a number of marauders. The hand to hand sequence featuring the leader of the marauders is choreographed superbly.
The reveal that the cargo in the trunk is a young girl named Pluma who is being trafficked to marry Otua Blank against her will is a surprise. I didn't see it coming. It brings up a moral quandary for Ventress that initially she seems to pooh pooh. She was hired to do this, so she's going to do it. And initially I believed it. It made me a little sick, but it seemed like she was going to turn this young girl over to this gross old alien. But the joke was on me, when it's revealed that Boba is in the trunk bound and gagged.
Ventress doesn't help Pluma and Krimos out of the goodness of her heart. She makes a deal that they will pay her for Pluma's rescue. So she gets her share of the bounty plus a little bit more from Krimos. She is offered a permanent spot on Boba's team, but at the end of the episode it feels like she is finally ready to start making her own way.
Grade: A
"Brothers," Season Four, Episode 21
"A fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished."
Narrator: "A darkness awakes! Count Dooku's bitter betrayal of his former apprentice Asajj Ventress in the creation of a new meance in the galaxy: Savage Oppress. Caught in a deadly game of revenge between Ventress and Dooku, Savage barely escaped the carnage. Beaten and alone, he returned to Mother Talzin, his creator, who gave him a new quest: to pursue his long-lost brother."
Savage Oppress is stopping at nothing to locate his thought dead brother, Darth Maul. He's tearing up diners and manhandling pilots. His search leads him to the planet Lotho Minor, a junk world. Oppress evades Junkers with the "help" of an Anacondan named Morley. Morley, in his betrayal, leads Oppress to his maimed brother, who is an incoherent raving lunatic with a bottom bug like lower half constructed from junk found on the planet. Can Oppress save his brother?
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| Never trust a snake. |
This is it folks. This is what we've been waiting for since Mother Talzin revealed he was alive back in season three. The return of Darth Maul.
This is another great episode from "The Clone Wars." Savage Oppress is stopping at nothing to find his brother and if that means roughing up innocent patrons at an interstellar diner then so be it. Oppress gives zero fucks and I kind of like that about him. Oppress is a weak-ish character personality wise. He's pretty one note. He's angry. He's violent. He's determined to locate his missing brother. That could have been an issue since he is the focal point of the episode, but luckily there are enough interesting things going on that it doesn't work against the episode.
We are taken to another awesome looking planet. It's Lotho Minor, a junk world. I love the design of it. It's like a desert planet but with large towers of junk piled high. Refuse incinerator droids that are basically like large metal, fire belching dinosaurs that Oppress has to try to avoid. Then, there are the Junkers. They are like Tusken Raiders that have some of their limbs replaced with metal appendages made from the junk that they scavenge. A group of them attack Oppress but he makes short work of them. It's amazing to see them get ripped apart by Savage.
Oppress is "helped" along this journey by an Anacondan named Morley. That is not the most imaginative name for a snake alien. He's clearly a snake literally and figuratively and I love that the show doesn't even try to hide it. So, it's no surprise that he betrays Oppress. It seems Morley has been working with whatever is living in the depths of Lotho Minor and feeds on whatever is left over. We got another pretty masterful horror sequence with Oppress grappling with whatever shadowy creature is haunting this planet. It is half humanoid and half metallic spider creature. It's not a surprise when it comes into the light that it's Darth Maul.
This is not the Darth Maul that we remember from "The Phantom Menace." He's a raving lunatic. It seems as if this is where he ended up when Obi-Wan Kenobi bisected him. It's very unsettling to see one of the greatest villains that the "Star Wars" universe has ever seen like this. Oppress struggles to get through to him, but it looks like Maul hasn't forgotten everything. He is still obsessed with getting revenge on the Jedi. At the Jedi temple, Yoda and Obi-Wan feel the return of Darth Maul through the Force and it's pretty clear that Obi-Wan, you in danger, girl.
Grade: A-
"Revenge," Season Four, Episode 22
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Narrator: "Brothers reunited! Darth Maul, the sinister Sith thought to have been destroyed so many years ago by Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, was found alive by his brother, Savage Oppress, and taken back to Mother Talzin on Dathomir. Though Darth Maul's memory has yet to be fully restored, his need for vengeance has awakened, more powerful than ever..."
Savage Oppress takes his newly re-discovered brother, Darth Maul, back to Dathomir. There, Mother Talzin performs surgery both actual and psychic. Restoring Maul's fractured psyche and giving him some nifty new metal legs. Once his personality is back, Maul immediately begins his plan for revenge against Obi-Wan Kenobi. He attacks a planet and sends a message to Coruscant. Obi-Wan heads there to help alone agains the advice of Yoda and Mace Windu. When Maul and Oppress get the upper hand, who will help the Jedi Master?
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| Lightsabers! |
This entire episode is just... chef's kiss. I have to start off by saying that the voice of Darth Maul is Sam Witwer. If you're a genre television aficionado, you probably recognize Witwer from a number of things. He played the "Smallville" version of Doomsday. He was in the American remake of the BBC show, "Being Human." He even has a Star Wars past. He played Darth Vader's secret apprentice, Starkiller, in the no longer canonical "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" video games. So, it's pretty cool that he is the voice of Darth Maul. And, since we barely heard Maul speak in "The Phantom Menace," he gets to create this whole voice and persona from scratch and I think he does a great job. He starts off as the addled Maul, using the Force to hide amongst boxes on Oppress' craft when they land on Dathomir. Then, he morphs into the sadistic, methodical killer in the episode's latter half. It's really great and I'm excited for us to get more of his take.
We get another great spooky, witch scene with Mother Talzin. The sequence where she uses her magicks to clear Maul's mind and use broken droid parts to craft him a new set of more humanoid looking legs is great. Again, ups to Witwer's pained groaning and yelps, which really help sell this. I'm still not sure what Mother Talzin's game is in all this and it feels like Oppress isn't sure about it either and is kind of over it.
I love how Maul jumps right back into Sith mode. He immediately reminds us why he was the apprentice of Darth Sidious. He lets Oppress know that the best way to draw the Jedi is out is to cause the most pain and suffering imaginable. The brothers head to Raydonia. The people on the planet think that the ship landing is a Republic aid ship, but man, are they terribly, terribly wrong. Maul sends the Jedi a holo of him slaughtering innocents to get Obi-Wan to come to Raydonia alone, against the Council's wishes.
Once Obi-Wan gets there, he (and the viewers) are shocked at the damage that has been done in such a short time. When Obi-Wan and Darth Maul face off for the first time in years, it's a pretty one-sided battle. Obi-Wan gets his ass handed to him. It's a shock to see Obi-Wan taken down so handily and a reminder to viewers at just what a certified Sith baddie Darth Maul is. Remember, he killed Qui-Gon Jinn, a fact that he's not shy about reminding Obi-Wan of when he and Oppress are torturing and needling the Jedi Master.
As soon as Ventress picks up the bounty on Oppress, you know that she's going to end up helping Obi-Wan and I think this is really a nice wrap up to Ventress' story in "The Clone Wars" thus far. Obi-Wan and Ventress have always had this really great chemistry, even as antagonists, and it is nice to see that translate to weary partners. The four way lightsaber battle is dope as hell and I could have watched it for a lot longer. I just needed "Duel of the Fates" to be playing and I'd have been all set.
Again, it's shocking to see Obi-Wan turn tail and run. We haven't seen an antagonist like this on "The Clone Wars" up to this point and this cliffhanger is a great way to keep you excited for season five. Well done.
Grade: A+
Next up, you'd think we are going to pick right up with Maul and Oppress and their continuing quest for revenge, but no. Instead, we are getting a four part arc set on the Separatist world of Onderon with Anakin, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan and Rex training a group of rebels how to fight back.
Do you remember watching these when they first came out? Were you happy that Darth Maul came back from the dead? Disappointed? Let me know in the comments.
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