Review of the Jedi: Conspiracy

Join the Serial Wordsmith every Saturday as he recaps and reviews the last season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars

When we last left our intrepid star warriors, a clone trooper under Anakin's command had Order 66 hit him early and he shot a Jedi. Oops! Now Dooku and Palpatine are scrambling to nip it in the bud before their big secret is revealed. They lost their chance last episode but it's a four episode arc, so let's see how they do this time.

The episode opens with Tup, the crazy clone, and Fives' shuttle arriving on Kamino. The doctors take Tup's unconscious body away for examination and OH SHIT, IT'S SHAAK TI! FUCK YEAH! Sorry, it's just she's my favorite background Jedi and she was barely in this series during its TV run. I'm just happy to see her. Anyway, the Kaminoans immediately take Tup away but Fives gets sent off to the examination room too. They tell him it's because his test will help with them find out what's wrong with Tup but really they're putting him in quarantine in case he goes nuts too.


I'm not sure if the episode just moves fast, but again it feels very slight compared to what we're used to. But unlike last week's The Unknown, Conspiracy has a lot of different things going on at the same time which contributes to the fast pace. See after their initial scans on Tup turn up nothing weird, there's an argument about what the next move is. A Robo-Doctor suggest a level 5 Brain scan but it may kill him. The Kaminoans are against the scan, thinking it'd be easier to just terminate Tup and autopsy him. But Shaak Ti thinks the problem is psychological not medical and the scan is worth the risk

I see you, you son-of-a-bitch.
You're going to steal my screentime aren't you?

This is where Dooku comes in. The Kaminoans are actually working for the villains, they actually already know what's wrong with Tup, and now it's their job to hide from the Jedi. They're just going to kill Tup in the name of science and Order 66 will remain hidden. Nala Se, Tup's doctor, makes an interesting comment here. She calls the Jedi a cult and says they are "too spiritual" for her taste. This kind of explains why the Kaminoans are working for Palpatine. It implies they're the overly science-minded, aesthetically uncreative aliens we see often in science fiction, people who would naturally be at odds with the more mystical Jedi, so aiding Palpatine in his quest for a more orderly, secular government would make sense. It's little touches like this that add more layers to the setting, suggesting greater depth than they have to time to show.

Meanwhile, Fives is going kind of stir-crazy. Dude actually starts arguing with the Robo-Doc about the differences between clones and droids, but he's really worried about Tup. He saw the doctors doing weird science stuff to him and Tup having a seizure (I think, I'm not a doctor either). This leads into a cool stealth scene as Fives pulls a Captain Kirk Logic bomb to enlist Robo-Doc to give the brain scan, fakes an intruder alert so they can get into Tup's room, and successully hides when Nala Se arrives to kill Tup. This short action beat actually justifies why Jango Fett was the template for the Republic's army. You can make any idiot a soldier, but only a Mandalorian commando will Batman his way into a locked room to give his bud a brain scan.

Nope, nothing going on behind me.
Definitely not an illegal biopsy. Definitely.

Said scan finally reveals what activated Order 66 early, Tup has a brain tumor. That's kind of clever. A tumor is such a mundane thing that when the audience is operating in a fantastic setting like Star Wars, it would be the last thing we'd guess. But Fives and Robo-Doc remove it too late and Nala Se comes back to hide that fact. But Fives' distraction was so obvious that soon Shaak Ti shows up to see what the hell is going on. Unfortunately in the commotion, Tup dies. And the episode ends with Palpatine ordering Tup's body and the Tumor to the Republic Medical Center on Coruscant, outside of the Jedi's control. Evil smile, and cut to black.

Conspiracy felt like an improvement over The Unknown. Not as action-packed, but the focus on about five characters made for a stronger story. Fives and Robo-Doc had good chemistry that made their early bickering fun and their later team-up more natural. The Kaminoans were suitably evil, but I like how they have to hide it behind this fake gentility and smug intellectual superiority. It makes them unique villains. And I already mentioned Fives' Batman routine, which was the highlight of the episode.

There were a few lowpoints though. As much as I liked it,  I think we needed another scene of Fives and Robo-Doc. Their transition was bickering to buddies felt too fast, even with the Kirk logic bomb, and just one more scene of the two would have improved its naturalness. Capt. Rex shows up at the beginning just to immediately go back to Anakin, even though Anakin sent him on this mission at the end of The Unknown. So what was the point of his being there? Wouldn't it have saved a couple bucks worth of animation for Anakin to assign Rex to take Tup only for Fives to step in and ask to do it for personal reasons? That's why Fives came along anyway. And as much as I liked seeing her, Shaak Ti was really superfluous here. The most she does is suggest Tup's problem is psychological, tell the Jedi Council that, and bust in on Fives struggling with Nala Se. I get Fives is this arc's main character, but why bring a character in if you don't actually do anything with her?

Still, Conspiracy was a nice smaller focus story. It built off the foundation of The Unknown and fit its title, making all the characters jump through hoops around each other. Whether to hide the secret or expose it, unwittingly or not. If this was a two-parter, it would feel like a satisfying ending.

All in all, a good second chapter in the arc. It further complicated the proceedings and revealed some flashes of depth in the setting. Plus, Shaak Ti.

See you next week.