This episode follows Ahsoka Tano and her effort to prevent her visions of Padme’s assassination at the hands of Aurra Singh from coming true. My faith in this season had been a little shaken over the last couple of episodes and I was wondering if this episode would pull us out of the slump that we’ve been in and I have to say, it really did. With a vengeance.
This was perhaps one of the best episodes of the show I’ve seen.
Ahsoka is once again on her own, without Anakin’s guidance and faced with a terrible dilemma. This episode echoed in a very clever way the trials Anakin and Luke go through in Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, and The Empire Strikes Back and it’s a very classic Star Wars story. She needs to interpret visions that may or may not be true and act on them in a definitive fashion that won’t make things worse.
As it turns out, Aurra Sing didn’t die in the Slave I crash from last season and Ahsoka seems to be the only one who can sense it. She accompanies Senator Amidala to Alderaan for a conference to protect her after Yoda advises her to act on her visions in whatever manner she deems best.
This is perhaps the most self-referential episode of Clone Wars in regards to the film saga and that’s probably what I loved most about it. This was dripping in classic Star Wars situations, locations, music, themes, visuals, and so on.
The visual continuity of Ahsoka’s premonitions matches those Anakin had in Revenge of the Sith perfectly, though the visions Ahsoka has are much less emotionally intense, probably since she doesn’t have the fear of loss of Padme that Anakin did, and she wasn’t being manipulated by a Sith Lord. She follows the same course of action for these visions as Anakin did, and that’s to consult Master Yoda, who is even in the very same meditation chamber. The lighting in the scene matched the film perfectly and provided the exact right mood and atmosphere. She also visits Padme in her apartment (an exact replica of the apartment in Revenge of the Sith) to tell her of the danger.
Ahsoka decides that the best course of action is to accompany Padme to her conference on Alderaan. On the way there, there is a scene that is reminiscent of Episode I and Episode IV. Ahsoka is unsure of herself and a little scared. In very much the same emotional tones (both in voice and lighting), Padme reassures her much the same way she reassured Anakin during his first space flight away from Tatooine. While they do this, they pass the time on the way to Alderaan in exactly the same way as Artoo and Chewbacca on their way to Alderaan in A New Hope: playing Holochess. This was a very wonderful touch.
My favorite piece of classic trilogy incorporated into this episode, however, was the inclusion of Princess Leia’s theme into the score during their arrival to Alderaan. I’ve always found that piece of music melancholy and tied to the fate of Alderaan and using it here on the planet is bittersweet. It offers sort of a sad and sweet introduction to the planet on the show.
It was intrigued to see Ahsoka dealing with an assassin on her own based solely on her own premonitions. Since she didn’t have the attachment and emotion Anakin and Luke did when they dealt with theirs, we actually see visions of the future handled properly. There was less action in this episode than the last two combined, but because the story was well written and supported the action, it really meant much more and was much more exhilarating than the firefights and power struggles on Mandalore. The stakes were high emotionally and I was invested that much more in the climax.
And this episode actually build on Anakin and Ahoska’s relationship further, though Anakin was only in it for a few minutes. Ahsoka saved Padme’s life. Padme is the thing in the galaxy most dear to Anakin and Ahsoka saved her from dying and captured a notorious and dangerous bounty hunter in the process. He is indebted to her. And since he’s already showing the same sort of emotional attachment issues to Ahsoka as he has to Padme and his mother, her eventual fate is only going to drive him that much closer to the dark side of the force on the road to the events of Revenge of the Sith.
My favorite moment with my son (the real Anakin) was when Anakin and Ahsoka were trying to find out who hired Aurra Sing to assasinate Padme and he turned to me and said, “It’s Greedo.”
“What?”
“I bet it’s Greedo that hired Aurra to kill Padme.”
“It’s not Greedo.”
“Dad, trust me. It’s Greedo. Or Ziro. It’s Ziro the Hutt. I knew that all along.”
The bottom line is that this was a great episode, Katie Lucas did a great job writing it, the team did an excellent job pulling it off, and I did an impressive job enjoying it. This might just have been my favorite episode from this season.
Next week, I’ll fill the gap in episodes watching the Blu-ray of Season 2, which comes out Tuesday, and in two weeks I’m terribly excited to see Cad Bane torturing See Threepio.
To catch up on season one, order that here. You can preorder season two here.