Clone Wars Debriefing: "Hostage Crisis"

[lazypadawan]

Bow chicka wow wow

The episode opens with new baddie Cad Bane and his team of bounty hunters and mercenaries pulling a surprise attack on some Republic soldiers. Aurra Sing (voiced by actress Jaime King) picks off the soldiers and Bane ruthlessly breaks the neck of a survivor with a loud crack that will upset many parents. Hardcore! They all go into the Senate building.

Meanwhile, Anakin, who is supposed to be on a "meditative retreat," is basically begging Padmé to go off with him somewhere where they'll be anonymous, just "husband and wife" instead of a Senator and a Jedi. Padmé says she has important work to do. Millions of fangirls think to themselves, "Is she out of her freakin' mind? I'll go with you, Anakin!" Anakin tells Padmé nothing is more important than his love for her, proving it by handing her his phallic symbol, er, lightsaber. She comments that it's heavier than she thought it would be. Uh oh, send those kids out of the room ;). Anakin and Padmé start making out. Desk!sex appears imminent, until Threepio and Bail interrupt. Anakin hides under a desk while Padmé goes off with Bail and Threepio to work on the Invasion Of Privacy Act. This is not to be confused with the No Freedom Of Speech Act, the Taxation Without Representation Act, or the Yay Nanny State Act.

Cad Bane announces via hologram to Palpatine and Orn Fee Taa he is taking Senators hostage and demands Ziro the Hutt be released. His co-horts take a handful of Senators hostage, including the small purple chick from the "Trespass" episode, Padmé, Threepio, and Bail. It must be a Sunday or something, because the Senate seems to be otherwise deserted. One of the senators, a Gran, decides to try and walk out, only for Cad to shoot him in the back. Hardcore!

The Senators are searched for their weapons and Padmé's all nervous because she still has Anakin's lightsaber. Bail asks her how the heck she got a Jedi's lightsaber and she quickly changes the topic.

Anakin is still inside the building and he spends a good amount of time fighting and running from the bad guys, unarmed. Eventually, thanks to a small goofy little creature working for Bane and Aurra, Anakin's pwned and is dumped unconscious in with the captured Senators. Padmé hovers worriedly over him and when he comes to, she has to quickly bat away his hand from her face.

Meanwhile, poor Orn Fee Taa is stuck with having to go with the bounty hunters to spring Ziro out of prison. Once Ziro is out and on his way off of Coruscant, the Target Squadron of red and white clonetroopers spring into action. They break all of the windows in Palpatine's office (not the last time those windows are going to be broken) and seize the Senate building.

But Cad has set a trap around his hostages. If anyone moves out of the circle, the place goes kaboom. A timer is set anyway. Padmé uses Anakin's lightsaber to cut off his binders, then he cuts a big circle around the hostages, saving their lives when the explosives go off. Cad and his buddies get away, leaving them foils for Season Two.

What's there not to love in this episode? There's no Obi-Wan, Artoo, or Ahsoka, but there's long overdue romance, plenty of action, and great new characters. Cad Bane has only gotten started and they were very smart bringing in long-time cult favorite Aurra Sing. The episode brings Season One to a rousing conclusion but makes you sad it will be months before we see more. The teaser for Season Two looks amazing!

Comments

[jawajames.livejournal.com]

clearly Anakin shows off his ability to not be rational here:
Does he use the force to sense Bail Organa's (and Threepio's) approach (or a detonator going off in the building, or that fish-dude is going to taser him)? nope. he gets as surprised as Padme.
When he gets the comlink working, does he call for help? nope, it's "have no fear, palps, i'm on the case"
When attacking the IG droid, does he go for the quiet kill? nope, it's "let's bludgeon the droid with his own bent up rifle" - then again, the Jedi never seem to use the force to simply shut off droids.. always have to slice them up.. or beat them with something.

You'd think that some of the responsibilities of commanding small fleets would have rubbed off on him on the importance of responsibility and rational thinking.

[ladyaeryn.livejournal.com]

You expected Anakin to be remotely be thinking about anything else when making out with Padme? LOL. As far as talking to Palps goes? External communications weren't working, who was he going to call? I might grant you the taser thing, though it's not exactly like Anakin didn't already have his hands full at that moment with two other bounty hunters. He's powerful, but not omnipotent. (If I were to question anything in that scene, it's that he doesn't try to mind-trick the fish guy into opening the door, since a previous scene established you don't need eye contact to do it.)

We see even while he's commanding fleets he makes reckless bold choices - the kamikaze stunt at Ryloth, for instance. As of RotS, he's still not totally levelheaded, otherwise he'd never have gone for Palpy's bullshit so easily. That's one of his fatal flaws - that he doesn't grow out of that trait.