Glory of glories! The Clone Wars has returned! And, in full force, might I add. You won’t find any Jedi Younglings performing circus acts and bumbling pit droids here. No, sir. This is full on Clone Wars at its finest, bringing us everything you could possibly want in what looks to be the most intense collaboration between evil forces I’ve ever seen. If seeing Maul and Savage back in the game wasn’t enough, Filoni and crew decided to take it to 11 and throw in Death Watch and the Black Sun for good measure. Not enough for ya? Well, believe me. There’s more, but I’ll save that for later when I go into spoiler territory.
Last we left the Sith Bros., they were drifting through space, bruised and broken from their encounter with Kenobi. It just so happens that Death Watch stumbles upon their ship and takes in the damaged Sith. Pre Visla and crew patch them up, including some nice, new humanoid legs for Maul, and begin forging a plan to combine their efforts to take down Duchess Satine and Obi-Wan Kenobi. I love The Clone Wars‘ version of Maul. Not the silent killer we remember from The Phantom Menace. No, this is a cold, calculating Maul who is much more than just a crazy dude who looks cool swinging a lightsaber. Sam Witwer’s performance is chilling, bringing an edge to Maul I never thought I would see.
In the 22-minute run-time, a lot of ground was covered. The episode moved at a brisk pace and while mainly being a massive setup for the upcoming episodes, they still managed to throw in an awesome fight sequence towards the end. Our boy Kenobi has quite the storm headed his way, that’s for sure.
**SPOILERS BELOW**
Die-hard fans of The Wars will have a field day watching this episode. There is so much packed into it that I’m surprised it actually all fell in well with the story and didn’t feel at all gimmicky. (Well, maybe a little, but who cares?!) Maul, Savage, and Death Watch, that’s one thing, but for fans of Shadows of the Empire, we get our first look at The Clone Wars‘ take on the Falleen and the criminal organization known as The Black Sun. If we see Prince Xizor sometime down the line, I will be very pleased.
The stand-out moment was when Maul, Savage, and Death Watch confront The Hutts, only to be the victims of a surprise attack by the bounty hunters. Seriously!? I loved seeing Embo and his dog in action, especially when he’d toss around that slick Kung Lao hat. Now, we may not have gotten a full-on lightsaber battle, but this was almost better. Death Watch flying around on their jet packs blasting enemies while the Sith Bros. and the bounty hunters go at it was an incredible sight to behold. I also noticed what looked like a nice prequel callback when Maul had Sugi pinned to the ground, and he swung his lightsaber in the same fashion he did with dangling Kenobi at the end of Phantom Menace. But, that might just be me.
Bo-Katan is the character I’m most excited to see get fleshed out. Lady Boba Fett? Yes, please! Katie Sackoff had more to do this time around in terms of the voice work, and I love how her and Pre Visla play off each other. Just watching Death Watch in action reminded me of a time before Attack of the Clones where, in my head, this is what we were going to see. An army of Boba Fett-like warriors flying around being awesome. That’s not how things turned out, obviously, but I’m glad we’re seeing it now.
This was merely the set up for the next few episodes, which I know are going to blow our minds. Next week can’t come soon enough!
