Review of the Jedi: Orders

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

MINOR CAPTAIN AMERICA 2 SPOILERS BELOW

Well damn, that was actually kind of a bummer.

Last time I was talking about how well this arc was using our foreknowledge and expectations against us, but something didn't hit me until watching this episode. This has been a conspiracy thriller and realizing that, I should have seen this kind of depressing ending coming. Because a conspiracy thriller can only end two ways. One is with the hero triumphant and the conspiracy exposed. The other is with the hero defeated and the conspiracy intact. Guess which one we got?

It's also why I'm bringing up Captain America: The Winter Soldier (and apologies if I spoil anything) because that movie and this episode have the same basic plot. Our protagonist, an honorable, duty-bound soldier, discovers a nefarious conspiracy in the ranks of his own organization and after bringing his concerns to a superior finds himself on the run from said organization. Now undercover, he attempts to uncover the truth and prevent the conspiracy from causing more damage. The difference is that Fives fails, though through no fault of his own.

Seeing that movie not too long ago helped put this episode into perspective for me, but before I get too far ahead let's get the synopsis out of the way. Fives is finally being escorted to Coruscant to plead his case to Palpatine about the chips in the clones' heads. But before he can, Nala Se injects him with a drug that causes a mental breakdown. Subconsciously attacking Palpatine, Fives now has to avoid his fellow clone troopers and find someone he can trust. Then hopefully he can expose the conspiracy.

Alien Ramjeet gives Fives a lift to steal a blue French Horn.

Besides Winter Soldier, this episode reminded me of the Ahsoka arc from the end of last season with its Coruscant setting and outlaw protagonist. That setting includes some great little bits of worldbuilding, like a bar exclusively for clones and a fun alien cab driver character. There was also a return to Palpatine's creepy medical facility, with a preview of Darth Vader's rebirth chamber. That was another benefit of the show's maturity, not only could they use more locations per episode but they could also make those locations more detailed and lived in.

Getting back to Captain America, the difference between the Republic at the end of the Clone Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe after the Battle of New York gave me a better grasp on this episode (God, I think I've never typed a nerdier sentence). Both settings are very paranoid at the moment, worried about threats real and imagined attacking and trying not to give them that advantage. But in Marvel, those threats aren't coordinated. They're individual and pursuing their own agendas. In Star Wars, the conflict is much more Manichean. None of the smaller threats have the resources to match the Separatists, so that's what the Republic focuses on and vice-versa. And where Marvel has SHIELD standing outside trying to cover all these different weird events, the Jedi are stuck in the middle and are being manipulated by Palpatine. Their ability to react to things is hampered by this puppetmaster, without their knowing.

"Man, I'm so drunk there's five of you man"
"Dude, that's just four more guys"

I go on that digression because it informs the ending. Fives is not Captain America, but he's trying his hardest. He resists against Nala Se's drug as long as he can, pleading to Anakin and Rex even as his mind collapses, but he ultimately fails. Palpatine's control over his comrades is too tight for him to get through. Again, it speaks to the characterization. Even now, Fives is trying to fulfill his duty. He holds his commitment to the Jedi and his fellows above his own safety. But due to Palpatine's machinations, he's been put in a position where doing that will only lead to his death. And it does.

Fives' death scene at the end is rather affecting. He's shot by Palpatine's security clones while diving for a gun during a Deep Throat-style meeting with Anakin & Rex. As Rex cradles his dying body, Fives only wants confirmation that he fulfilled his duty. That he kept anyone else from being hurt. Anakin and the clones gather round and he passes on. It's a downbeat, somber moment and the fact that we've just spent the last twenty minutes watching Fives struggle against the odds and his own deteriorating mind just makes it worse. A very sad ending to this arc but I suppose for Order 66 to remain hidden, it had to be.

Overall, Orders had a different tone than the previous three episodes. The conspiracy angle of the episode's story made it darker and the necessity of Order 66's secrecy made sure the ending wouldn't pick up. On the bright side, Tim Curry's Palpatine has improved greatly. There's a vocal difference between his Chancellor side and his Darth Sidious side and the Chancellor side no longer sounds like he's imitating previous voice actor Ian Abercrombie. The characterization remains good and the environments still look great. I don't know if the tonal shift really worked and I felt Fives' mental deterioration could have been conveyed stronger. What exactly caused him to attack Palpatine was also unclear, it happens offscreen, and for such an important plot point you'd think it would be less vague. And again Shaak Ti felt underused. She had a well-done bit chasing Fives at the beginning, but she kind of fades into the background for the second half. Given that Anakin is in the episode, I don't understand what narrative function Shaak Ti served that he couldn't have.

Still, for the opening arc of the last season this has been pretty good. It didn't fuck around with potential like Season Five or get bogged down in a bloated story that had been stretched to four episodes like Season Four. Kudos to Dee Bradley Baker as well. He voices all the clones and has done a great job giving them all distinct manners of speaking despite them all sounding the same. That was another thing Clone Wars did well from the beginning, giving the clones individual personalities. It's kind of ironic that the troopers were more individual when they were all the same dude than when they started recruiting people.

See you next week.