Review of the Jedi: The Lost One

Join the Serial Wordsmith for a special four-day finale to his recaps and reviews of the last season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Yes those of you that read the header, with only four episodes left I've decided to ditch the weekly format. For the next four days there will be a new Review of the Jedi each day as we spiral down to the series finale. And we begin with the arc I've been most excited for, the Search for Sifo-Dyas.

Now granted part of that excitement comes from the fact that I'm a huge nerd, nerds like when loose threads of continuity are explained, and Master Sifo-Dyas is nothing if not a loose thread of continuity. To refresh your memory, while tracking down Jango Fett during Attack of the Clones Obi-Wan found himself on Planet Kamino. Strangely enough, the Kaminoans were expecting him. They had grown an entire clone army for the Republic supposedly under the orders of a Jedi Master named Sifo-Dyas. Obi-Wan informs them that Sifo-Dyas has been dead for some time and that no one in the Republic has authorized this army but the Kaminoans seem unconcerned. They direct him to Jango Fett, the template for the clones, who's never heard of Sifo-Dyas. He was hired by a man called Tyrannus. Before we could learn more the rest of the movie happened and war had broken out. The Jedi had bigger priorities.

To make a long story short, Sifo-Dyas is the great unresolved mystery of the Prequel Era. The circumstances of his death and how the clone army was arranged are key to how Palpatine destroyed the Republic. Basing a story around exploring that would make any Star Wars fan excited, but beyond that using it as the series finale for The Clone Wars is a thematic slam dunk. There's been a dark cloud having over this series from the beginning because we all know where it leads. Revenge of the Sith and the creation of the Empire, all of the characters we've grown to love either dead or turned evil. Kind of a bummer. So ending the series by focusing on what caused all that darkness makes sense, like we've come full circle, and it also fits with how downbeat and morally murky the show itself has become. Finishing the story on the Sith homeworld isn't just engaging, it feels like a natural stopping point. But we have a while until we get there and a lot of shit to pull into the light in the meantime. Without further ado...


The story begins with the Jedi picking up the distress signal from a long abandoned ship. Plo Koon investigates and finds Sifo-Dyas' lightsaber, confirming that this was his ship. This causes the investigation into his disappearance to be re-opened but after eight years the trail is pretty cold. The Jedi Council reviews what they know, that Sifo-Dyas was last seen on Felucia and was believed to be killed there, but find that his file has been classified by the Supreme Chancellor. Yoda goes to talk with Palpatine about why it was classified while Anakin & Obi-Wan go to Felucia. Neither investigation turns up much and in fact just adds to the mystery. This structure is honestly the weakest part of the episode as it's rather repetitive. Our heroes look into a lead, find nothing but more questions, follow those and so on. All the conflicting details that arise; how many people Sifo-Dyas was with, whether they were Jedi or not, where exactly he was when he dissappeared, are intriguing in a very Third Man way but the execution could be better. The way the different clues unfold just ping-pong the characters from location to location, giving them a single clue that goes on top on the previous clue until the picture is complete. It's a very unnatural way to construct a mystery.

"I could have told you this eight years ago. Why didn't you ask then?"

Eventually we find out what actually happened. Sort of. Turns out Sifo-Dyas and Chancellor Valorum's (dude Palpatine got fired) aide were sent to negotiate with the Pykes, an alien drug cartel, sometime before the Battle of Geonosis. The Pykes were paid by Tyrannus to kill Sifo-Dyas and have been keeping the aide prisoner for eight years. They explain all this to Anakin & Obi-Wan and agree to release the aide in exchange for the Jedi forgiving the Pykes for Sifo-Dyas' murder. Now is as good a time as any to mention the atmosphere in this episode is superb. From the wrecked ship in a sandstorm at the beginning to the aide's, who's now gone crazy from isolation, creepy cell and the Pykes' planet. In fact, the Pykes in general are fascinating. We saw them briefly last season when they helped out Darth Maul but we get a better look at them here. They have these great big heads and modulated voices that gives them a very uncanny quality, and their habit of avoiding pronouns and skewered morality makes them truly alien in comparison to many other species on the show. I'd really like to see more of these guys.

Don't make me force choke you again bitch

There's one last reveal before the episode ends. Dooku shows up to do what he's done all season, cover up some loose end of Palpatine's conspiracy, and the Pykes accidentally out him as Tyrannus to the Jedi. After a rather perfunctory lightsaber fight, really unnecessary as the mystery was engaging enough  without an action beat, the Jedi put the whole picture together. Dooku, working as a Sith Lord, paid the Pykes to kill Sifo-Dyas so he could steal his identity and prepare the clone army. The only question left is why? Why would a Sith Lord on the opposite side make sure his enemy has an army to fight him? The Council decides to cover up the truth about Sifo-Dyas so not to affect public support for the war and the army. Anakin is clearly upset with this news, another sign of his growing dissatisfaction with the Jedi, but Yoda declares the matter closed. Though he fears it isn't the end.

The Lost One is probably the best episode of this last season so far, but I'm not sure how well it works. The plot is entirely dependent on the mystery of Sifo-Dyas and while it lays out the basics, if you came into it blind I don't think the mystery would grab as much. It helps that unlike other mysteries the show has done, the audience is just as much in the dark as the characters. That allows the viewer to follow along and discover things with the characters, which is more engaging since we don't know the ending already, instead of before where our foreknowledge of future events gave the viewer a more omniscient perspective on the story. As mentioned the execution of that mystery is kind of clunky, but it isn't boring.

The caveat to all that is that this episode, maybe more than any other in the series, depends on knowledge of the greater Star Wars universe. For the story to have any impact, the audience has to know who Sifo-Dyas is and why he's important. And while for most viewers that could be assumed, I still feel like it's a detriment to the episode's quality since episodic television like this series rely on accessibility. My only other gripe is that the episode is fairly self-contained for what's supposed to be the first of a four-episode arc. They start with the mystery of Sifo-Dyas and it's more or less solved by episode's end. There is the dangling question of why Dooku made the Clone Army for the Republic, but that doesn't seem like enough to build three episodes off of.

Overall, a satisfying Third Man-esque adventure that answered one of the franchise's biggest mysteries. Good atmosphere, cool aliens and especially good music. I haven't mentioned it before because the music has always trended more functional than showy, but it sticks out this episode in a good way. It's eerie and fits the noirish tone perfectly. A solid, well-executed episode.

See you tomorrow.