Star Wars: Clone Wars, “Unfinished Business”, Review!

The Battle of Anaxes is reaching its conclusion!  The algorithim predicting Republic movements have been found with missing trooper Echo, he has been recovered, and can now turn the droid data against them if he can be trusted!  We get a reverse shot of the Republic hangar with purple skies.  Echo is taken to the command center where Mace Windu reviews the twelve battlefields on Anaxes.  Echo, in trooper armor, volunteers a plan and General Windu wants to hear it.  He enters his control arm and details the plan where the general attacks the assembly complex.  Echo wants to use the Bad Batch to enter the comm vault on a Separatist dreadnought.  The Bad Batch is preparing for the mission at their ship, the Havoc Marauder, Tech is worried that Echo was under Separatist control for a long time.  General Skywalker reminds Wrecker that it is a stealth mission.   

STAR WARS: CLONE WARS -- “Unfinished Business” -- Disney/Lucasfilm.

Echo reassures the troopers that he will make the droids think their ship is another droid shuttle.  Very cool it reminds me of Return of the Jedi (1983).  The Marauder finds its way in the Separatist fleet.  The ship turns upside down to dock at a port underneath the dreadnought. The assembly plant is a circular base with a dome-shaped complex.  The droids have brought out J-1 semi-autonomous proton cannons and Vulture-class droid starfighters for the battle.  The cannons fire on Republic gunships and starfighters.  Mace Windu calls in Gold Leader and his Y-Wings!  The Clone Gold Squadron was first seen in “Downfall of a Droid” (2008).  The Y-Wing attack on the assembly plant is exactly like a Ralph McQuarrie painting of the Death Star attack!  Admiral Trench is informed by his Super tactical droid about the battle, the droid replies almost like Cylons in Battlestar Galactica, “As you command.”  

Anakin and the troopers enter the dreadnought corridors.  They enter the comm vault which has a massive cone cylinder at its base like Master Control Program in Tron (1982). Echo accesses the interface set up by Tech with his control arm.  Tech realizes that they have to fake a signal from Skako Minor.  Mace Windu and Obi-Wan Kenobi leap into action with Clone jet troopers.  The troopers were first seen in Battlefront (2004) so this is their first Clone Wars appearance.  Mace Windu announces to the droids, including a few Super Battle Droids, that he has destroyed 100,000 of them and offers to have them reprogrammed.  The droids open fire and other troopers rappel down.  It would be more tactical if the jet troopers attacked from the air and flanked the droids.  Trench sends his troops to reinforce the assembly base.  Echo says he will send a feedback loop to disable all of the droids.  Rex and Anakin have trust in Echo.  Anakin informs Master Windu.  They defeat the droids and then hordes of more battle droids march in.  Echo sends the feedback loop that crackles up the comm vault!  The droids are shortened out on the battlefield.  This looks like the end of Phantom Menace (1999).  

Trench sees the overload of his droid army.  The Super tactical droid has tracked down the source on the ship.  Trench has a fail safe plan.  Echo has discovered that it is a bomb that could destroy most of Anaxes!  He has Echo try to deactivate the bomb and races after Admiral Trench.  Tech informs General Windu about the bomb and he has Obi-Wan evacuate the base!  Mace heads to the lower levels where there is a generator and finds the bomb, but it is guarded by a ray shield.  He uses the Force to enter the code given by Echo.  Trench sends a pulse that electrifies Echo, but Rex pulls him free.  The rest of the Bad Batch fights the droids.  Anakin takes care of Trench’s guards and dodges an energy web fired by Trench that wraps around his last droid commando.  Trench misunderestimates Anakin as a Jedi and gets his mechanical arms severed!  Trench is one of the long running nemesis of the Clone Wars.  One of the weaknesses of the show was that they kept adding villains; Asaaj Ventress, Maul, Cad Bane, Admiral Trench, without any resolution so this is great.   

STAR WARS: CLONE WARS -- “Unfinished Business” -- Disney/Lucasfilm.

Anakin gets a detonation switch that he hopes to bring to Wrecker.  The Bad Batch strongman gives a corridor of droids the Wrecking Ball.  Crosshair sets reflective mirrors in a corridor and Wrecker is stunned to see the droids he destroys with one shot!  Wrecker wipes away a tear at Anakin giving him the detonation switch.  Three of the Separtist ships are destroyed!  Mace Windu gives commendations to Rex, Echo, and the Bad Batch.  The troopers offer a place for Echo.  Of course, we are left to the fate of the Bad Batch with Order 66, the four part episodes in Season 6 starting with “Orders” (2014) had a control chip activating the order and the mystery was almost uncovered.  It is possible with the Bad Batch with mutations could alter how the control chip worked.  There was a clone trooper, Cut Lawquane, who left the war behind and was raising a family in “The Deserter” (2010).  Maybe the Bad Batch are saved by Echo who was removed from all of the Republic conditioning and can help the others.  The Bad Batch, those who survive or not driven insane by the control chip, would leave the Republic and possibly take up lives as bounty hunters!  

Five Lightsabers out of Five! 

#StarWarsCloneWars, #UnfinishedBusiness, #Admiral Trench, #MaceWindu, #ObiWanKenobi