This weeks episode, Destroy Malevolence, was the end of this three part arc as well as the Clone Wars debut of Padme and Threepio.

I’ve been saying it everytime I’ve seen a new episode, and it’s a good thing if I can go on saying it, but this episode was the best so far.  I know last weeks was good, and the two before that were good, but this has been the best.  If they can keep making them better on a rising curve, then we are in for some total bad-assery.

Last episode ended with Anakin and his squadron of clone pilots disabling the ion cannon on Grievious’ ship, The Malevolence, which is left in shambles and racing from a trio of capital ships led by General Kenobi.  Destroy Malevolence opens (essentially) with Count Dooku admonishing Grievous for his failure and reminding him that the Separatists require The Malevolence to reach the rendezvous point in one piece, which is why he’s organized some insurance.

He faked a situation that would put Padme on a diplomatic mission that left her hyperdrive path directly in the way of the crippled ship and then explains to Grievous that once on board, the Jedi will cease their attack and they’ll have a valuable hostage.

Predictably, Anakin insists on racing to her aid, sneaking aboard The Malevolence with Obi-Wan.

Basically, a whole bunch of cool shit goes down, including a great showdown between Obi-Wan and Grievous and some cool business between Anakin and Padme.  Threepio also gets into some trouble that’s somewhere between Attack of the Clones and Empire. (I laughed more than I wanted to, but not harder than the kids.)

I’m still really impressed by how much better the pacing of the episodes in a 2-commercial break format works than the scotch tape approach they took with the movie.  As much as I loved seeing Clone Wars on the big screen (repeatedly) I sort of wish that I had seen it on TV instead.  And, quite frankly, I think the Destroy Malevolence arc would have made a better movie.

I just hope you guys are actually keeping up with this series, because it’s been getting better and better.  As a reminder to catch up, the last two weeks of episodes are available for free at www.starwars.com and this episode will be available tomorrow on iTunes.

So, I’ll see you next week (which might be a little late since I’m traveling). And next week’s episode looks rad.  The preview was very “clone-commando” centric, which pleases me greatly.

So until then, May the Force Be With You.