We pick up this week with Part 2 of the Onderon story arc. Our heroes and their rebel buddies from last week are going around the capital city and messing up the droids' business. The new douchebag Separatist king (who looks like a young Derek Jacobi) is understandably pissed about this and drags his predecessor out of jail to get some answers. Gotta say, I didn't think the old king would still be alive. Wouldn't it make more sense to kill him? Anyway the old king doesn't have answers about the rebels because he's been in jail, but King Derek Jacobi just thinks he's full of shit. Jacobi says call the rebels off or else.
Meanwhile, our heroes (Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka and Rex) and the rebels led by Steela, Saw and Lux return to their hidden base. They're celebrating their success but Obi-Wan warns them about perception. They need to get the public on their side if they're going to win back their planet. Anakin and Rex say they've been trained enough and can handle things on their own. Ahsoka's staying behind to supervise the rebels but the rest are heading back to Coruscant.
More after the break,
Thinking on the perception issue, Lux comes up with a plan to rally the people. They're going to attack the droids' main power station. But it's heavily guarded, so our heroes are going to need to hijack a tank. They set up a sting to draw the droids out and action ensues! Lasers are shot! Lightsabers are ignited! Things blow up! Our heroes' plan goes off more or less without a hitch and they take care of the rest of the droids easily. King Jacobi isn't mad though, he sees this as an opportunity. Our heroes return to their secret base to celebrate their victory. Ahsoka figures with the public now on their side, the rebels will have to nominate a leader to represent them. Unsurprisingly, they nominate Steela. Saw gets all pissy about this for some reason and Steela goes off to calm him down because he's her brother. Would have been nice to know that last week.
Our episode ends with King Jacobi calling Count Dooku. Instead of doing the smart thing and using the rebels' attack to turn public opinion against them (the power station they blew up served the whole city, not just the droids) he's using it to bitch to Dooku for more droids. Dooku calls him incompetent but say he'll send more droids. He'll also send a new general, a dude named Kalani.
Overall, Front Runners was better than last week's War on Two Fronts. While that episode had to set up all the characters, the situation, and the overall arc of this multi-part story this one didn't have any of those issues. Conflict established, we can move onto the action. And that was this episode's main strength, the action. Focusing on the one mission to blow up the power station gave this episode a strong narrative thru-line and opportunities for nice set pieces. This episode's battle against the droids was much more interesting and fun to watch than last weeks'. As for the rest, it was okay. Mostly more setup for the rest of the arc. King Jacobi hasn't distinguished himself much as a villain, but he's got a least one more episode to prove himself.
All in all, good action piece. Continues the Onderon story and ups the stakes at the end. Here's hoping this Kalani dude will shake things up.
See you next week.
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