Uncovering The Lost Missions: Crisis At The Heart

It feels good to be back in the swing of things, doing these Uncovering posts! I’ve been majorly impressed and have very much enjoyed this storyline as we wrap up the second storyarc of Season 6 with action, intrigue, and much emotion. But with such a wide variety of happenings happening in this one, who knows where this blog’s going to go? I guess that’s one of the fun things about writing these Clone Wars commentaries.

So enough chatter out of me, let’s find out exactly what’s caused this Crisis At The Heart! OK, I’m not sure I’m ever going to mesh the title into a sentence like that ever again…

Contains spoilers from Episode III and the TCW episodes Senate Spy, An Old Friend, and The Rise Of Clovis

(Original screencap credit: Netflix)

So when we left our heroes, some crazy stuff happened. I mean, I guess it’s not that crazy… Clovis just became the new head of the banks with help from Count Dooku and no one but Clovis knows this. Oh, and Anakin and Padme had a major falling out between them. But whatevz, nothing to write home about– WHO AM I KIDDING, IT’S KIND OF A BIG DEAL!! THINGS ARE NOT GOING WELL RIGHT NOW!

Though nobody would’ve guessed that at the moment; Padme and Clovis were heading out to the big bank on Scipio to instigate Clovis as the new boss. So right after the muuns kick out the original banking clan bad guys who messed with the bank to start with, Clovis steps in humbly, stating that he will be in charge of, but will not control, the banks. And to that simple admission comes much applause from the muuns, Padme, and Bec Lawise, the Sep rep who’d joined them.

All is well as far as everyone can tell. And soon we find Clovis sitting at his big desk in his new, huge, majorly swanky office. It’s a seriously awesome office 🙂 OK that was random, but yeah. Anyway, he was chilling at his new desk when who would call but Dooku. And at first Dooku’s all “Hey bro, what’s up? Liking the new digs, my main banker man?”, which feels majorly weird to me (not that he really spoke anything that casual!) Dooku’s classy, disdainful, snobby, and a big-time Sith jerk, and him being even remotely nice seems totally out of his element. I mean, we’ve seen him butter up associates every now and then and play the occasional charm card on both his enemies and allies, but never have I seen him outright try and have a second of normal conversation! Then again, maybe this isn’t that abnormal and I’ve just forgotten entirely, but something just felt weird about it this time.

Of course, all the pleasantries in the world don’t make up for the fact that he’s then all “So Clovis… think you could cut your Sep bros some slack and charge us a little less? Or at least overcharge the Republic a bit more?” Rush isn’t having it and he’s all “Uh, no! I’m on neither side now and I’m not going to do something majorly unfair!” Buuuut Dooku… he reminds Clovis that the only reason he’s sitting behind the big desk is because of the deal he made with the second-banana Sith, and because of that Dooku’s really the one calling the shots around here.

Poor Clovis then has to make the unfortunate announcement that the Republic’s going to have to cough up quite a bit more cash, and he’s clearly not happy about it. And Padme’s all “WHUT?” and before we know it, the entire Senate’s going crazy over this sudden, incredibly uncool move. You can tell pretty quickly that the Republic is not happy by the shouted words of a handful of senators, particularly at word that the banking clan isn’t doing the same to the Seps. And watching this debacle are Yoda, Mace Windu, and Anakin. Yoda’s all “Dude you might have been right…” and though Anakin doesn’t let in on it, he’s probably thinking “Told you so”. Of course, Anakin’s distrust of him stemmed from more than just the guy’s Separatist ties, but he wasn’t about to admit to that… I mean, you know what happened last episode. But money issues are far from the only bad thing to happen today…

Not too far away from Scipio, Dooku’s got a ruse that will ruffle even more feathers — a little Sep attack that will have Clovis’ name written all over it. Aw dang, the Separatists are definitely bringin’ it today. Before the clones even know it, super battle droids come and crash the party outside the banks, and caught off-guard as they were, Commander Thorn and his troops don’t come out exactly victorious, but the commander gets a second to warn Padme, to which she’s again all “Seriously?! Whyy is everything going crazy like this all of a sudden??”. Like say, the money issues were only the beginning of what was going to go down today. With the clones cleared out, the illustrious Count makes his grand entrance. And he’s seriously giving me chills right now, particularly when he walks on through the carnage, and while he steps over the downed droids, he subtly kicks the downed clones he walks over. I can tell you with great certainty that I would never want to run into him in a dark alley, but who would? Yikes.

So what now? Padme makes a call to the Chancellor and Anakin, and she lets them know of the sudden insanity happening on the banking clan’s turf… and the little fact that she’s more or less trapped there. And then a battle droid drags her off and hangs up, which Anakin is more or less a little freaked out about. Palpatine’s not too thrilled either (evidently) and heads out to update the Senate. And Anakin knows that one way or another he’ll be hopping the first ship to Scipio.

So yeah, Padme’s day was not getting much better, considering she’s dragged to Clovis’ office by a battle droid and a commando droid. And it’s not just Clovis hanging out in there, Dooku and his Sep rep had already joined the party. There is seriously something scary about the fact that for the first time ever, as far as I know, Dooku and Padme are in the same room. And Dooku doesn’t bother wasting any charm on her, he just arrests her then and there. But Senator Amidala’s not so easily taken down and grabs ahold of the battle droid’s blaster… and well, it could’ve worked if it hadn’t been for the fact that the Count’s a Sith lord and stuff. Dooku decides to point the weapon at Lawise instead, considering that his rep wasn’t fond of his politics. Um that was entirely uncool on both mine and Padme’s accounts. She then turns to Clovis and is all “Dude I thought what you wanted was legit! I would’ve never helped you if I’d known!” and he’s all “I didn’t want this to happen! It’s all Dooku’s fault!”. And Dooku’s all “Not to interrupt, but you kinda did make the deal with me, you just didn’t read the fine print.” and Clovis is like “THERE WAS NO FINE PRINT!” to which Dooku says “Uh yeah there was, it was just so fine evidently that you couldn’t read it”. Yeah this is what you get when you make deals with this dude, honestly… if he wasn’t working this Sith job he’d be selling lemons, I’m sure of it.

Whilst this happened, Palpatine returned to the rather ruffled Republic Senate and told them what craziness just conspired, but to make it all better lets them know that General Skywalker and his troops are going to smooth everything out the way it should be. Now I have to talk about this for a second… the entire time Palpatine speaks it seriously looks like he’s smiling a bit! OK maybe it’s just the wrinkles around his mouth giving that appearance, but to me I’m guessing he’s really tickled how well his little plan’s working out at the moment… and that, my friends, is really really majorly creepy. In fact, he’s kinda been smiling the entire episode from what I can tell! He never looks totally happy, but I’m sure not buying his “disappointment” or “concern” or “disgust” or “sadness”… perhaps the Jedi noticed this and that’s why they started wondering if he was really to be trusted and sent Anakin to spy on him in Episode III. But at the word of the Chancellor, Anakin’s sent off, but not before a few wise words from Yoda to keep his little selfish side in check.

Meanwhile, Palpatine takes a second to let Dooku know how awesomely his plan is turning out as everyone will see Clovis as the bad guy and ultimately it’ll be the Chancellor (read: himself) who gets ahold of the banks. And then he lets loose all the joy he was evidently trying to hold back and laughs his creepy evil laugh, in turn sending a chill down my spine.

So the space battle begins! The Republic ships work to bring down the Seps while Anakin and the 501st take it to the planet surface to get to saving the Senator. Our heroes have no idea that the Separatists are rather allowing themselves to be defeated today… but Anakin could care less, his beloved is in major trouble!
And in the midst of this Clovis is completely bummed out, he really didn’t want this to all go south, and he tries to get Padme to understand this as everything starts falling apart around them. Padme thinks the best move for him to make is to turn himself in, but the minute Anakin arrives, he freaks out and puts a gun to Padme’s head to keep the Jedi from doing anything cray. Anakin’s a bit more chill this round, though not without a firm grip on his lightsaber, as Clovis tries to explain everything, and all that while Padme tries to weasel her way out of his arms. And then boom! Along came an shot-down vulture droid and everything literally starts falling apart around them!

So I’m going to leave you guys hanging for a bit and talk about Clovis for a minute. I’m really glad they brought the guy back for this arc, because it lets us see him in a new, more respectable, light. Back in Senate Spy, he came off half as a bad guy and half as a guy who’d been blinded by love, and together he made some dumb choices that nearly killed Padme but let her get the dirt on the Seps’ droid factory. But now we see him as, I believe, probably a decent guy… a decent guy who just made some stupid bad choices. He and Padme once were on the same side, but then the war happened and what has he done since then? Joined the Separatists, used Padme’s name as his password, let his emotions blind him to the treachery his fellow Seps were putting together that ultimately lead to Padme being poisoned. He tried to do the right thing and expose corruption, but he tried too hard with Padme, instigated a fight with Anakin that didn’t need to happen, bought Dooku’s lies and now all of this. So much fail. This guy clearly has a good heart, he clearly wants to fight for what he believes is right, but if he had a) been able to see past his feelings, and b) has been more careful with who aligned himself with, maybe all of this crazy wouldn’tve happened. I have to say, it about broke my heart when a few minutes earlier he said regretfully to Padme “I’ve always been misunderstood… who knows what people will say about me now?” We see through Clovis that we have to be very careful when making choices and how we handle our feelings (and also how to make strong passwords; I’m sorry but that password incident is still kind of funny to me). But ultimately, as we will see shortly, Clovis will redeem himself in a very unexpected way.

So the entire office started slanting and leaning to what could be a seriously nasty fall, with Clovis and Padme headed to the edge! Anakin grabbed them both with each hand. And not only do I love that Anakin has clearly taken Yoda’s words to heart as he holds tightly to both Padme and Clovis, but the same hand that threw punches at Clovis a short time ago, that robotic hand, is now determined to not let him go, even with all the bad choices he’s made. Wow. But despite Anakin’s determination, his grip can’t hold onto them both forever, and neither Padme nor Clovis can get enough traction to climb up. And it’s in that moment that Clovis makes what he felt ultimately would be the right choice. He apologizes to the girl he’d always love no matter how she felt about him, and lets go. Anakin and Padme are equally shocked and saddened by this move, and as Anakin finally pulls Padme up to safety, the two hold each other in the midst of the destruction around them. It’s clear and evident that their relationship has been mended as the battle comes to an end. Ahhhh it’s so sweet and bittersweet at the same time I just can’t…

So back in the Senate building, things are looking up as Palpatine is given control of the banks from here on out, but somehow amidst the cheers of the other Senators… Padme and Anakin exchange this look that questions if this is really the right thing. And we all simultaneously mutter “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”

Whoa I’m finding these blogs getting more and more difficult to end on anything but a mysterious and dramatic note! But perhaps that’s why these episodes have been so great! And certainly the Lost Missions will only get more intriguing from here on out! Which is why my next blog will be a Closer Look at The New Yoda Chronicles: Escape From The Jedi Temple! After that the Uncovering blogs will resume as they should. But yeah… anyway, I’ll let you get back to your life now, or at least let you get back to contemplating this episode yourself 🙂

Keep The Peace,
– Twilight

Uncovering The Lost Missions: An Old Friend

The next episode of The Lost Missions was an absolute breath of fresh air after all of the intensity of the last four episodes. Doesn’t mean that they weren’t awesome, but it’s always good to have a few lighter-hearted episodes here and there, and An Old Friend majorly delivered.

It’s a perfect Star Warsian blend — intrigue, excitement, awkward moments, a couple of laughs, and the always-epic Embo! (I hope I didn’t just go and spoil the episode before adding the spoiler warning… but if you haven’t seen this episode yet, why would you be reading this blog anyway??) Hard to get much better than that, right?! 😀 So onward we go as we dive into a closer look at opener of the next Lost Missions storyline!

Contains spoilers from Episode III and TCW Episodes Senate Spy, Bounty Hunters, Pursuit of Peace, Crisis On Naboo and An Old Friend

(Original screencap credit: the official Star Wars Youtube)

So as we open up, I would try to re-explain the scenario in layman’s terms, but some days, even I get confused over SW politics! I suppose the easiest way to put it is that:

– The war is draining planets of money
– The Banking Clan controls the money
– And the awesome Padme’s coming to their big banking planet Scipio (EDIT: fixed spelling) to get a loan to help these poor planets.

And here come the people who get SWian politics better than I do, yelling at their computers at all I just said wrong. Well, this is a blog partially for SW fans who are learning, give me a break! But yeah, that’s the gist of it. And as we SW fans know, we would never catch Padme doing anything boring; her senatorial work usually results in a lot of excitement, intrigue, and more often than not some aggressive negotiations 🙂 Of course, I’m sure she was hoping today’d be a bit more of a normal day. Just gonna chat with the lanky Banking Clan dudes and as a result, help a lot of people! How hard could it be? Welp, she most certainly didn’t expect that their “special representative” she’d be working with would be a fellow named Rush Clovis… *sings a line of Taylor Swift’s I Knew You Were Trouble*

If you recall, Clovis is tall, dark, and Separatist. He funded that infamous droid factory a few seasons back and evidently is an ex-boyfriend of Senator Amidala’s… anddd he’s still got it bad for her (he also doesn’t understand the meaning of “strong passwords”; how is it that he hasn’t had his identity stolen??). You may also remember how the last time we saw the guy Padme nearly died trying to get important info out of him and his pack of Seps. So naturally Padme’s like “Um, no. Not working with him.” and exits stage right. But well… the boy doesn’t give up easy.

Clovis does what no smart guy would ever do when trying to help out an ex… he sneaks in through her bedroom window. I literally was kinda shocked at that move, I mean, at least he intended no harm, but it would’ve scared me to pieces! But it’s easy to be a tad more chill when you have a blaster. Clovis has to act quickly and explains that they’re both kinda majorly in trouble. The Banking Clan isn’t exactly swimming in moola like they’d like everyone to believe; they’re well, bankrupt. Which isn’t good when you were sort of trying to help people and these lanky guys aren’t really helping anybody but themselves. And since Clovis knows this, he’s kinda almost killed by a bounty hunter just talking to her. Padme’s not one to trust turncoats like him and raises an eyebrow on his claims, but he’s a persistent little booger and tells her that the evidence is in the vault computer. If she can grab it, the two of them can expose the Clan’s doings for reals.

After his departure, she gives the Supreme Chancellor a call and tells him what she now knows. The big cheese’s advice is to “trust an old friend” and get the dirt on the Bankers. IDK man, but he’s still giving me the creeps a bit… he seems to really know something… and I’m rather afraid to find out. But Padme decides she’ll do what she’s gotta do, and she’s awesome that way.

The next day, she asks to see the vault, and at their refusal, questions what the Bankers have to hide. Of course, they can’t let her assume that, and first thing in the morning, she’ll get to see the inside of the vault. And until then, the two have some planning to do…

On another side of town (read: planet), the senator, her handmaiden Tekla, and her temporary compadre have gathered at Clovis’s place to plan. Again, it sounds simple enough: Padme gets in the vault, Clovis sets up an explosive on the city’s power converter, the explosion causes major confusion, and in the midst of that, Padme can grab the info that proves the Banking Clan’s profiteering. Now, I know this diverts from the discussion at hand, but anybody else wonder what the climate of Scipio actually is? It’s covered in snow and we can sometimes see our heroes’ breaths, but nobody’s exactly bundled up, either. The weather of SW planets is a fascinating area of interest to me, because it’s usually not noticeable unless it’s a really hot planet or a really cold planet. Either way, Clovis has a fire going in his cool little fireplace. Of course, is that just because it’s cold, or could “setting the mood” have something to do with it? Ew.

But you have to feel kinda bad for Clovis sometimes… he has no idea Padme’s in any other relationship. And the last time they saw each other, she was faking an interest in him, and now she makes clear her complete dislike of him. It’s a good thing in a way that Padme has her near-death last time around as an excuse to keep the boy at a distance. Poor guy really can’t shake that crush, can he? You can kinda tell in the way he looks at her, how he’s still sorta hopeful but still pretty bummed because he can tell she’s not feeling similarly. And who knows how close they actually were pre-Anakin? I don’t typically let my mind wander in that direction because I love Anakin and Padme’s thing so much, but these episodes beg some questions.

At the crack of dawn the next morning, Padme joins some of the Bankers on the as-promised tour of the vault. Can we pause for a minute and talk about the coolness of the vault? Aside from its huge cool doors, the interior is so practically glowing gold! It’s so so awesome! It’s funny to think that I’d never expected to see a bank in TCW, but what do you know? 🙂 But for the plan to work, Clovis has to casually leave the scene, and since he’s a representative, he sort of, well, can’t. Thankfully though, he has himself a backup plan… Tekla.

Tekla doesn’t get a lot of screentime in the TCW series, but her role is always important when she is on-screen. She’s awesome in a very subtle way (remember her role in Season 3’s Pursuit Of Peace?), and now she’s proving her awesome in a much bolder manner, becoming a huge part of the plan as she walks through the dark city streets with a detonator. Once Tekla’d placed the detonator right on the converter where it needed to be, her job was done. Oh but as you know “simple is never simple”; Embo was watching, and with a probe droid… and his laser crossbow thing. His unfortunately well-aimed shot could not, however, keep the detonator from doing its job, and KABOOM it goes and all the lights go out — including the ones in the vault a few blocks away. Because of Tekla’s bravery and sacrifice, Padme has a chance to reveal the truth and use her little USB thing to get the proof in the Banking Clan pudding (I just realized that turn of phrase made no sense whatsoever).

Once she and the Bankers get out, the senator rocks her acting skills like a boss and shows disdain for their lousy electrical upkeep. It looks like a win for Clovis and Padme, as they now hold the truth in their hands, but well… I guess the Banking Clan is smarter than we thought, and they enter and arrest Senator Amidala without question. Nuts.

A few days later, enter in Padme’s key out: her shining Jedi Knight, Anakin. And he brought R2-D2 along, too. In the privacy of her cell, Padme tries to explain the situation at hand, but the minute she mentions Clovis… Anakin completely freaks out. “What does that loser have to do with any of this?! And why are you… trusting him?!” Now, I admit I did laugh at some of this conversation on a second viewing, I think mostly just because a part of me can’t believe how all-too-evidently jealous Anakin is! But dang, man, I hope he wasn’t serious about the whole “maybe I should just leave you here” bit! It’s interesting, I mean, you’d think being married for like, what, three years, he’d trust her better than anyone. It made me start wondering, is it possible to be so overprotective of someone you love that you’d start distrusting them?

Obviously, we all know Padme is pretty much everything to him now, and he clearly is willing to do anything for her (like say, join the dark side and junk for the chance of saving her). But you know, I thought about it like with an overprotective parent and a kid in some ways. Think about Finding Nemo, where the father is so afraid and so bent on protecting his son that he doesn’t trust his son will be OK on his own. I think Anakin does trust that she can handle herself, but he obviously has some worries about her hanging out with an ex-boyfriend for fear that he could lose her. Perhaps that’s not entirely abnormal for those in these kinds of relationships to feel like that about their significant other’s old relationships, but Anakin’s seriously not happy about it one bit. So… I think it’s safe to say he has some trust issues, somehow, in favor of keeping Padme alive and with him forever. Which eventually trickles down into the events of Episode III where Anakin’s trust in her dwindles when she makes it clear she’s no fan of his new Empire. But for now, Padme manages to calm Anakin a bit and really get him to understand the high stakes beyond just this dumb awkward love triangle. He agrees to help, but for her, not for the slicked-back Sep she’s working with.

Their first stop is at Clovis’s residence, and he doesn’t seem to be anywhere (and Anakin unhelpingly interjects “Perhaps they found what they were looking for and that’s why he’s gone… we can only hope!” :P) But turns out Clovis was just in hiding. And oh boy, when coming face-to-face with each other again, Anakin and Rush bring out the claws! “I’m not giving this information to some pilot!“, “I’m a Jedi Knight and I can help you if you do what I want you to!”. So much for this being more about exposing the Banking Clan than about the awkward love triangle. But nothing brings people together like somebody shooting at you with a laser crossbow!

Enter Embo, one of my fave bounty hunters, and his loyal anooba (I think that’s what he is, but I’m probably wrong). It must be kind of weird for Anakin to be on the run from him, considering the last time they hung out, Anakin and Embo were helping train a bunch of Felucian farmers to fight! OK, so maybe there was also that time when Embo was part of the gang attacking Palpatine, but I really can’t hold that against him. Other than that, I think this is the first time I’ve seen Embo working for the real bad guys (and ironically the same guy he nearly helped assassinate… weird, huh?). It’s another reminder that bounty hunters are willing to do whatever puts bread on the table.

So there they were; Anakin, Padme, and Clovis making a run for it, and the boys still have some tension going on. It’s funny, I guess Clovis is now seeing Anakin as potential competition (perhaps understandably; it’s hard to have something on a pretty decent-looking young Jedi). And Padme’s all “Boys! Boys! Stop fighting over meh!” XD Also yeah, they were making a run for it on a small ship on the snowy slopes around Clovis’s place while Embo kept up on his sled/hat with his canine companion at his side (can I just say I really really want that hat?). Who needs the Winter Olympics when you’ve got this, right? Haha. And escaping from a bounty hunter of his level of awesomeness is no small feat. Padme’s driving, Anakin’s lightsabering, while Clovis just looks lost in the middle of the whole thing.

Interestingly, I couldn’t help but observe that both Anakin and Clovis fit well into the two-guys-fighting-over-one-girl scenario. When Padme gets grazed by laserfire, Clovis rushes to her side to make sure she’s OK while Anakin uses the Force and flings Embo a mile away. This sorta makes Clovis the “sensitive nice guy” and Anakin the “macho bad boy” in the game. In any other show or movie I’d be rooting for the sensitive one, but eh, not so much considering the so-called macho one already won to begin with (and he’s wayyy awesomer).

After a number of close calls, the good guys and the bad guys have officially run out of road, and just as our heroes go flying off the mountainside, Artoo shows up with the ship and saves the day! Embo’s left on the cliff with his anooba sweetly fetching his hat for him (Sue me, I think his dog’s cute! Especially when, at the beginning, he gave his master the probe droid like it was a tennis ball X3), but as Embo finds out in a quick call from Darth Sidious, his job’s done, and Sidious is going to do the rest of the job himself. So… does that mean that Anakin, Padme, Artoo, and Clovis didn’t get away completely scot-free after all?? Uh-oh…

So yeah, this episode was awesome! So much excitement and intrigue with a perfect little dash of levity, and Embo, of course 🙂 Where things go from here, we can only imagine! Though I have a feeling it’ll be pretty awesome! Until next post…

Keep The Peace,
– Twilight