If I were going to put together a list of my five favorite episodes, there’s a very strong possibility that “A Necessary Bond” would find its way up there. I liked this episode a lot. It had everything you’d want from classic Star Wars, it had echoes of older episodes of The Clone Wars, it was funny, suspenseful, thrilling, and pulled everything together in a package that brought a smile to my face and the face of my kids. In fact, my son turned to me just after the mid-point of the third act of the episode and said, “This is one of the best episodes ever.”
This episode sees the younglings escaping from the clutches of Hondo Ohnaka, only to find that Floruum has been taken over by Grievous and the Separatists. They’re compelled to join forces and fight off their common enemy.
I loved that there were so many bits of dialogue and situations that echoed the classic trilogy lines. Perhaps easily my favorite moment (and one that should provide David Tennant with untold amounts of joy) is when Huyang gets knocked off the ship by Artoo, Return of the Jedi style. In fact, every single bit of chase and action sequence in this episode built higher and higher and higher until they truly reached a fevered pitch.
The comedy of the episode was great, too. I love the droids and their terror at the “miniature Jedi,” and I love that they sent Artoo in to bluff the droids. It was a great scene and it had my kids rolling in laughter and me chuckling.
And I love that the Slave I had a part to play in all of this. It makes me confident we’ll see Boba Fett on the show taking back possession of his father’s ship.
The younglings have been one of the single best additions to the show since it began. It’s almost a shame they’ve only lasted four episodes. Over the four episodes, each one was given a personality and a background that by the end of the arc you were rooting for them all individually and together. My two favorites were the Ithorian and the Wookiee. Though that’s not fair to the others, because I liked them, too.
Knowing now that the events of the season premiere happen AFTER this episode make Hondo’s actions over the course of this arc make so much more sense. Why they chose to air the episodes out of order is a bit perplexing because it would have really amped up the stakes through the season as a whole. But I guess bouncing around the chronology is how they do things on The Clone Wars.
The thing I hated most about this episode is that it sees the end of the younglings arc. I want to see all of these younglings in more adventures together, or in pairs, or a few at a time, or assigned to their Jedi masters. I’d love to see a show about Gungi and maybe a couple of these other kids trying to survive with their masters or together during the dark times after Order 66. It would be very cool.
Now that this arc is over though, I can’t wait to see the story started back at the premiere continued on.