Review of the Jedi: The Unknown

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

And we're finally back! A year after I finished reviewing Season 5 of Clone Wars, Season 6 has come to us through the magic of Netflix. And with a new season, new reviews!

We pick up with our intrepid Jedi and their clone troopers on a huge space station circling a planet. They've been trying to capture it from the Separatists for days now only to be deadlocked. Neither side can gain new ground but can hold what ground they have. Anakin is being aided by twin alien Jedi with weird flowing hair and Irish accents, but during their latest assault one of them is shot dead by Tup, a clone under Anakin's command. Why? Because Tup's been having a mental breakdown and it seems Order 66 triggered ahead of time.

Now this is a clever turn of events. We had assumed that Order 66 was just a secret executive order, something Palpatine could order as Commander-in-Chief without having to go through the Jedi Officers. But it turns out that it was actually a response programmed deep into the clones' subconscious. Which fills a pothole from Revenge of the Sith, why the clones just immediately turned on the Jedi without batting an eye. They couldn't control it.

The only thing worse than evil alien spiders
is cyborg evil alien spiders

But it's the reaction of the Jedi and the Separatists to Tup's sudden betrayal that seems like it will drive this arc. Anakin, Tiplee (the other wavy-haired Irish alien Jedi) and their commanders come to the conclusion that Tup is the victim of a new Separatist weapon, something that will turn clones against the Jedi. I like this, Anakin has a reputation as a hothead but here he exercises some quick critical thinking to find what's wrong with Tup and how to deal with it. He's still wrong but at least he's acting logically with the info he has and decides to send Tup to Kamino for examination. That will both keep him from spreading what he has to other troopers and put him where he could be fixed the quickest.

On the other side meanwhile, Tup's action filters up to Count Dooku and he knows exactly what happened. So he calls Palpatine and they both decide they need to cover this up and quick, otherwise the Jedi might learn about Order 66. Quick thing, Palpatine's regular voice actor Ian Abercrombie passed away during Season 5 and so they replaced him with Tim Curry. And while we only heard him briefly around the end of Season 5, I felt his public face Palpatine needed work. But here, in evil emperor mode, Curry shines. That's unsurprising for Tim Curry but still I thought I'd mention it.

With that hair,  I'd shoot her too.

The rest of the episode is pretty straightforward. The Separatists attack the shuttle bringing Tup to Kamino and capture him. And then Anakin, along with Rex and fellow clone Fives, go a dangerous mission to rescue him. They succeed of course but that's not why I bring it up. No I bring it up because these two action sequences are outliers in Star Wars. They're both mostly in Zero-G and for series that mostly takes place in outer space, Star Wars has never really done scenes with Zero-G and spacewalks. That's to their advantage here though as it gives this episode a unique look, along with these sequences being shot with long shots and sweeping camera moves instead of the usual quick cuts. It's another indication of how Clone Wars isn't afraid to do new things within its franchise.

There are some minor nitpicks. This very much felt more like the first part of a story than a complete story in and off itself. Despite extensive use of arcs, this is has only been a problem a few times on Clone Wars. I wonder too if this wasn't a change for the move to Netflix which focuses more on binge-watching than week-to-week hits of story. I know I can just load up the next episode at any time but as a single story it still feels slight compared to what we're used to. I also have an issue with the return of Admiral Trench, the Separatist alien spider. In his first appearance Trench was built up as a tactical genius, requiring Anakin to think outside the box and use a cloaked ship to break his defensive line. It also appeared he'd died at the end of that appearance. So to have him pop up here with some cybernetic replacement limbs and no explanation for his survival felt a little unceremonious.

But those are just nitpicks. The Unknown was a good first chapter, presenting our heroes (and villains) with an unfamiliar problem. It looks like we're going into a cat-and-mouse mystery, with the clones trying to uncover the source of Tup's betrayal while the Separatists try to foil and misdirect them at every turn. The Zero-G fight scenes were unique and memorable, and the characters acted intelligently given their situation.

All in all, not spectacular but a solid return for the series and a promise of good things to come.

See you next week.