Star Wars: The Clone Wars – The Disappeared part 2 review

The Jar Jar and Mace Windu adventure concludes, as fans learn the differences between the Force and magic.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Lost Missions episode, “The Disappeared Pt. II,” directed by Bosco Ng and written by Jonathan Rinzler, is significantly more entertaining and creative than its predecessor.

A selection of new characters keeps the plot fresher than in “The Disappeared Pt. I.” The city is more convincing than the queen’s palace, and very pretty, from the starry sky to a bushel of plants with tiny flowers like reflected stars. The city is dark but not muddled, and the bright sky and the cultists’ white uniforms are a good way to keep the screen interesting while still providing atmospheric shadows. Mace and Jar Jar develop a fun mentor-apprentice relationship, and even the queen gets a bit more to do than “Pt. I” suggested she would.

The music in this arc, written by Kevin Kiner, is also praise-worthy, emotive and brassy, at times driving and at times melancholic. Even scenes between just two characters have scores fit for a battle. Fight scenes between Mace, Jar Jar, and a variety of creatures and cultists were good to begin with, but the scenery makes them even better.

“Pt. II” even shows more variety of female characters, including Mother Talzin and a cultist. The latter has a brief but memorable appearance with an animal companion – creature design has always been a highlight of The Clone Wars, and the beast is both creepy and cute.

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This episode is full of vivid images, from a desert monorail to the epicenter where the story ends. The final fight scene is short, but paced well and lets Talzin show off a new kind of saber. The ending also features my least favorite things about the episode: Talzin’s exposition to the queen is an awkward monologue.

Regardless of its execution, “The Disappeared Pt. II” establishes a distinction between magic and the Force, something which fans had been wondering about. Talzin is one of the few Clone Wars-era villains for whom a lengthy ceremony and primitive sun-focusing device would make sense – anyone else, I would think, would shorten the process with less ritual, but we know that Talzin’s world view is all about mysticism and tradition.

Mace also discusses the Force a bit, and while by the end of the episode it’s shown that he doesn’t quite understand Talzin’s magic, the conversation does contain more solid information about the Bardottan’s Force-sapping spheres.  

The episode doesn’t so much improve Jar Jar as give viewers distractions if they don’t want to pay attention to him, but it contains beautiful scenery and enough information about the nature of the Force for fans to mull over if they wish.

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Rating:

4 out of 5