Double Header this week!
Oh man this fucking arc. I know I criticized the Onderon arc for feeling dragged out, but you could make the argument that the story could cover multiple episodes. This D-squad bullshit? No, this didn't need to be a four episode arc. This should have been a one-off. You remember those Clone Wars? One off episodes? Because you've done ONE this entire season, AND IT WAS FOR THE PLOTLINE WE ACTUALLY CARED ABOUT YOU STUPID, STUPID SHOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ugh. Anyway, we return from Winter hiatus with Missing in Action, the 100th episode. Insert underwhelming "yay" here. Col. Gascon and his droid squad are still stranded on Abafar but have escaped the Void salt flat. They've made their way to a crappy little frontier town to find someway back to Coruscant. Gascon sends R2 and the other astromechs to scout the area while he and the pilot droid who's name I forget but who really cares find food. After some hijnks involving a Russian alien's diner and eating out of the trash, Gascon finds a clone trooper named Gregor. Except he's not a soldier, he's a dishwasher. And he doesn't know what a clone is. Why? Our old friend amnesia.
More after the break,
Elsewhere, R2 and the droids discover the town is being patrolled by battle droids. Uh oh. They report back to Gascon and he comes up with a plan, recruit Gregor and hijack the Separatist's shuttle. They show up at Gregor's roach-infested apartment and shake him up. R2 identifies Gregor as a Clone Commando who escaped one of the Republic's worst losses. He has no idea how he escaped or how he ended up on Abafar, just that the Russian alien found him and made him a dishwasher. I got to say Gregor gets over his amnesia relatively quickly, that's rather convenient. They raid the diner for Gregor's armor when the Russian dude shows up. In the ensuing fight the highly trained commando gets knocked down and the fat diner owner is taken down by droids. Smooth Gregor.
The Russian alien says the Separatists are going to blow up an orbiting Jedi cruiser with some explosive stuff they mined. How he knows this isn't explained by the way. So Gregor, Gascon and the droids head to the Separatist base with a two-fold plan. Steal the shuttle and stop the Separatists. Gregor provides cover fire and the droids head in. But I've got to say, the ensuing battle isn't very interesting. It's mostly just kind of boring. Gregor got over his slump pretty easily and is blowing shit up, but it's just not very involving. It does have the one funny moment of the episode.
Gascon and the droids get to the ship but there's no time to pick up Gregor. They have to leave him behind. Sad music plays and they mourn his sacrifice, vowing to keep watch for his return. End episode.
Overall, a pretty underwhelming 100th episode and episode by itself. This story really doesn't have the legs for this expansion. Gregor as a character had some potential and he's certainly more interesting than Gascon and the droids, but the writers blow through that potential far too quick. And because he actually has some character potential, they kill him before the episode ends. I know they left the door open for him to return but this show isn't great about picking up loose plot threads. The rest is just not very good. The comedy isn't funny, the setting isn't very interesting and the plot is just plodding forward.
All in all, wasted potential and just more of the same. Let's move onto Point of No Return and get this shit over with.
Huh. That was a surprising improvement.
Point of No Return begins with Gascon and D-Squad landing on the Jedi Cruiser over Abafar in their stolen shuttle. Only something's wrong. There doesn't seem to be anyone on board. Seriously, they land on the ship and there is nobody around. They head up to the command deck and find the place staffed by holograms. And battle droids!? Turns out the Jedi cruiser has been stolen by the Separatists, filled with a ton of that explosive crap from Abafar and turned into a giant bomb.
While fleeing, D-Squad runs into the droid crew of the cruiser. They hid in the stolen shuttle, figuring they could escape with D-Squad. Gascon learns from them the Separatists' target. An important strategy conference attended by all the Republic's top brass. Looks like the mission has changed, D-Squad has to stop the bomb. Unfortunately they've been overheard by Separatist buzz droids. R2, Gascon and the droids chase after it into a gun bay and are swarmed by buzz droids. This is a really effective scene, coming across like something out of a zombie movie or Aliens rip-off. R2 sets some of the buzz droids on fire, creating a perimeter around his squad. It won't hold for long though. BZ, who's basically been Gascon's Segway the entire arc, sacrifices himself by opening the airlock sucking all the buzz droids and himself out into hyperspace.
Gascon gives BZ a short eulogy which is surprisingly heartfelt. A nice little well-written and well-acted bit. But they still have to stop the bomb. Gascon lays out the plan, he'll take the droids to the shuttle while R2 resets the detonator to go off early. Battle droids come in to stop them and a short fire fight ensues. Pinned down, the shuttle will have to leave early. The cruiser drops out of lightspeed and the pilot droid takes off, leaving R2 behind. R2, being the true hero of Star Wars, takes on the battle droid leader, another of Kalani's cousins, by himself. And because R2 is awesome, he beats the guy and resets the detonator just before the bomb ship hits the conference. What follows is the best explosion in the entire series. It. Is. Magnificent.
Anakin, who was at the conference, learns from Gascon that R2 sacrificed himself. He sends a salvage team out and they find R2's trashed body. But they fix him up and give him and the rest of D-Squad the hero's welcome they've earned. End Episode.
Overall, damn. Why wasn't this the 100th episode? The plot setup was simple but engaging. The action was unique because of our droid protagonists and exciting to watch. The threat of the bomb kept the story moving forward at a good clip. The stupid unfunny comedy was dropped. And the dramatic moments actually had some weight and emotion to them. Damn good episode.
You know, this combined with Secret Weapons would have made a good two-parter. It was all the stupid Abafar bullshit that dragged the story down. If they had cut that out and focused on those two episodes, it would have made for a tight, tense two-parter. But as is, it's one good episode at the start followed by two episodes of crap and ending with an exciting finale. I still think this didn't need four episodes.
All in all, a damn good finale to a really roller-coaster arc. Do yourself a favor and skip the first three, but I recommend Point of No Return. A solid B+ episode.
See you next week.
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