This week’s episode, Defenders of Peace, is the second part of a two episode arc. It picks up where last week’s episode left off, with Anakin wounded and in the care of the pacifist-to-a-fault Lurmen. He’s accompanied by fellow Jedi Aayla Secura, his padawan Ahsoka Tanno and two clones, Captain Rex and Commander Bly.

Much to the dismay of both the Jedi and the peaceful Lurmen, a Separatist war ship arrives planetside, intent on testing a new weapon designed by the evil Lok Durd (voiced by Star Trek’s George Takei).  Durd has developed the “defoliator”.  It’s a piece of artillery that destroys all organic matter but leaves machiner (namely battle droids) free from harm.  Their aim is to test it on the small Lurmen village that hid the Jedi.

Predictably, the Jedi can’t let this happen and do all they can to protect the village, despite their moral protestations.

This was another great installment of the series.  It felt very much like a mix between Seven Samurai (with the small group of Jedi defending a small peaceful village of farmers from Separatists) and an old school war movie like The Guns of Navarone (with the Jedi and the clone troopers leading a daring covert operation behind enemy lines into a heavily fortified Separatist compound.)

I really like how the writers seems to be relying on older war films and serials to guide them through this series in a really, really great way.  They’re able to mix humor for the kids (my boy was laughing hysterically at the antics of the droids) with classic film references and strong, well-animated action sequences for the adults like me.

The episodes are getting much more epic in scope as far as the wider galactic conflict is concerned and it’s really working well for me.

My favorite moment of this episode?  The infiltration of the Separatist base under the cover of night.  It was an incredibly well designed and laid out action sequence and it did all the cool stuff you love to watch Jedi and clones do.

As for next week, that episode, at least design, costume, cinematography, and lighting-wise, looks like the best episode so far.  It’s called Trespass and there’s a preview for it here on the Star Wars website.