The last time we had an episode dealing with Mandalore of the Deathwatch, things didn’t go so well for audiences. Coming back to the scene of the crime, the cast and crew of The Clone Wars gave us another chance to see how cool the Deathwatch can really be.
The Republic and the Separatists decide to have their first official face-to-face meeting and Mandalore is where they’ve agreed to hold the meeting.
Surprisingly, Lux Bonteri (whom Ahsoka befriended the last time she went on a mission with Padme) arrives and throws the talks into chaos. Getting captured and sentenced to death by Count Dooku, Ahsoka comes to the rescue, but Lux has other plans. He knocks Ahsoka out and drags her to the backwater hideout of Deathwatch, whom he’s contracted to kill Dooku.
The episode’s story is fairly by the numbers, but the action in this episode was pretty spectacular. Pre Vizla’s ancient black lightsaber is always a very cool centerpiece to a fight, throw in Ahsoka’s double-saber technique and you have all the makings of a fantastic fight sequence. This episode brings Deathwatch to the forefront of terrorist organizations in dire need of being eliminated. They’re going to be causing problems in the future, mark my words.
But something tells me that this terrorist portrayal of Mando warriors is going to be controversial with the set of fans who are completely devoted to Karen Traviss’ vision of them.
Perhaps my favorite element of the episode was everything Artoo Detoo was given to do. It was all perfectly timed comedy and brought a smile to my face the entire time. From his bit hiding Ahsoka’s lightsabers to cobbling together an army of misfit droids to help turn the tide of the battle with the Mando’s, it was all just preposterously well executed.
There’s a deep measure of love in the direction of this episode. Dave Filoni took directing duties for this episode perfectly, and you can tell with the maturity of action and nuance to the comedy.
Much to do was made of Katee Sackhoff’s turn voicing a female Mandalorian, but she wasn’t a very major part of this episode at all. That makes me feel like they’ve got bigger plans for her coming up. Either that, or it was just a fun cameo she had. Jon Favreau (as Vizla) had much more to do and has become much more sinister and evil since his introduction. The only thing he was missing was a mustache to twirl.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the lighting and effects in this episode. It’s taken another leap forward. The backlighting, the atmosphere in the rooms, and the way the colors of light change naturally from room to room were all orchestrated with the greatest of care. The wind effects and its interaction with the snow were much better than the last time we saw that environment on the snow. (In particular, the fur around Ahsoka’s hood was fantastic.) But the moment that stood out the most was the low-light fighting in the middle of the third segment’s climax, lit largely by the hand flamers and lightsabers.
Overall, this was a very fun episode. I might still be more enamored by the Slavers Arc, but this was a solid stand-alone. And any chance to see Ahsoka on her own is a good time, if you ask me. In fact, it’s been interesting to see how, in a lot of ways, she’s being brought up by both Anakin and Padme.