We open on a familiar green Lucasfilm Ltd. logo, which transitions into a burst of even more familiar John Williams fanfare as The Clone Wars logo zooms away against a starfield. Just like The Clone Wars all began, with a few episodes pinned together for feature length, its last four-episode arc is being framed as another movie.
And that statement of intent is matched by the show itself. Everything feels bigger, from the hero moments to the emotions to Kevin Kiner's music. Seeing Obi-Wan Kenobi, the 501st legion, and Ahsoka Tano each get their big action moments, the cumulative effect is that this feels like a victory lap for the show.
After some classic clones on droids action, the episode brings wayward Jedi Ahsoka briefly back into the lives of her beloved older brother figure Anakin and uncle figure Obi-Wan. Old nemesis Maul is on Mandalore, and Ahsoka and her Mandalorian ally Bo-Katan Kryze request help from the Republic to end his reign of terror. The emotional centerpiece of the episode is the scene where Ahsoka sees that Rex and his 501st have colored their helmets in tribute to her, their former commander. The irony is clear: the noble clones choose to poignantly honor their Jedi sister-in-arms, when most of them will painfully soon have their free will taken away by Order 66 and be forced to kill their Jedi colleagues.
I mentioned before that Ahsoka gets a big hero moment, and it's a tribute to Jedi idealism. She ignites her lightsabers and rampages through Shadow Collective Mandalorians, but only incapacitating them and tending to target their jetpacks. To quote Snoke, she "has the spirit of a true Jedi".
Canon Connections:
- A couple Star Wars Rebels tie-ins: in the newsreel segment, there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance from Caleb Dume, the future Kanan Jarrus, with his master Depa Billaba. And Ursa Wren, mother of Sabine, helps to defend Mandalore.
- Obi-Wan heroically saves the life of his friend Commander Cody, who during Order 66 will try to kill Obi-Wan.
- Kiner pulls out the Star Wars theme, the Rebel fanfare, and the Force theme to great effect.
A compelling and cinematically-scaled episode that begins to draw the curtain on this show. 9/10.
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