Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 2 episode 3 review

After last week’s action-packed episode of Clone Wars, we are treated to a slight respite in the action as returning to the Jedi council with neither the abducted Jedi master or the Holocron, Anakin de-briefs the council to the situation, still insistent that the mission was a success.

However, with the Holocron still missing, the Jedi council led by Yoda is given the task to try to find the force-sensitive children contained within the now active Holocron, using the force instead to try and track down ‘children of the force’. The idea is to help the children before Bane and Sidious get their hands on them.

With two children deemed to be at risk, Yoda assigns Anakin to Naboo to protect a Gungan child and with some trepidation (not by Anakin, but by this reviewer as there was real fear that there was a potential Jar-Jar cameo coming up), Obi-Wan is assigned to Rodia to protect the child Master Rodal was supposed to be helping.

However, Obi-Wan is too late. As usual, Bane is two steps ahead of the Jedi and already on Rodia, slowly convincing the parent of the young Jedi that Master Ropal has assigned him to take the child. With a race on between Bane and Obi Wan for the child, the Jedi loses out to the cunning Bane as the child is abducted from under his nose.

With one child captured from the Jedi, Bane turns his attention to Naboo, once again beating the Jedi there. However, his winning streak comes to an end as he is trapped by Ahsoka, and while the diminutive Jedi is full of spirit, she is once again beaten by the clever Bane and his fantastic Jet Boots.

Double teamed by Anakin and Ahsoka, eventually Bane is finally captured allowing the rather cute Gungan force child to be returned to her parents.

With the action returning, Bane, in custody, is interrogated by Obi-Wan and Samuel L (sorry) Mace Windu. And while Bane taunts them into torturing him the fear of his ‘boss’ is really the motivating factor in the entire process, as the first attempts by the Jedi in making Bane confess where he has stolen the children away to fails.

With no Holocron, no kids and wiped navigation records the Jedi’s trial is left cold. Anakin once again shows a tendency towards the dark side by suggesting they make Bane talk by using the force forcefully to get a ‘confession’ from him. However, a cool looking mind meld-like Jedi mind trick is instead tried, with Bane eventually conceding and caving in.

Anakin is then assigned to report back the Jedi’s findings to the chancellor (aka Darth Sidious) on what they have found. And while this simple admin seems unimportant, the debrief holds a lot of importance as Palpatine ignores Ahsoka and twists the knife a little further into Anakin, turning him again just that little more towards the dark side, as well as gaining all the knowledge he needs of the Jedi’s plan to get the children back.

Walking into an obvious trap with Bane, Obi-Wan and Mace head off to the ‘outer-rim’ of the galaxy hunting for both the Holocron and the kids, being taken first to Bane’s satellite where Bane’s trap is sprung as his base, filled with traps and laser walls, keep the Jedi at bay while Bane escapes once again to live another day. Which is great, as really his is, indeed, very cool.  

Meanwhile, in another part of the outer rim on the familiar lava planet Mustafar, Sidious has children there waiting to turn them to the dark side. Spouting an evil monologue, he fills in his droids (and, of course, the viewers) to his plan to create a dark side army using the children in his experiments.

As we return to the Jedi temple, Ashoka and Anakin are going over Bane’s ship for clues. Finding volcanic ash and a data log of where Bane ‘hasn’t been’, the Jedi team find that the evidence and trail will lead them to the children on Mustafar.

With the young team jetting off, Mace and Obi Wan escape Bane’s satellite , things explode and with a little nod to Indy Jones with a last minute great little closing door routine, the two senior Jedis escape, relatively unscathed with the Holocron now back in their possession.

With Sidious about to do unspeakable things to the Jedi children, Anakin, R2 and Ashoka appear just in time on Mustafar where they are met with a collapsing base and two nurse droids who would put the mothering skills of Mary Poppins to shame.

With the base destroyed, the children rescued, and the Omicron back in Jedi hands, the mission, although tricky, is a success, wrapping up this three part season premiere nicely.

However, with Bane still out there, the Jedi will have to deal with this troublesome character later on and his growing fan base eager to see what comes next for this cunning creation.

Read our review of episode 2 here.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is showing every Saturday on Sky Movies Premiere and Sky Movies Premiere HD.