Welcome back! I’m Ryan Zasso and I’m here once again to bring you reviews on all the latest episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars! Below are my thoughts, opinions, and observations about last week’s episode, Prisoners.
Moving right into the episode, within the first five minutes, we are thrust right into the action. Anakin, Padme, Kit Fisto, and Jar Jar Binks are held prisoner and interrogated by our evil villain, Tamsen. In this episode, Tamsen’s evil meter is raised to the max when we find that he has plans to claim the throne of Mon Calamari, and basically succeeds. He leaves Padme to die, tortures Kit Fisto and Anakin with electric eels, sticks a few Mon Calamari and Quarren with exploding knives, and attempts to have Lee Char publically eaten by some shark-like aliens similar to himself. So yes, Tamsen’s evilness factor has definitely risen from the somewhat menacing military commander we saw in the first two episodes. Another dramatic character change we’ve seen from the last two episodes was Lee Char himself. He says, “The failure is mine, not the republic’s”. Rather than trying to find his foothold on the situation and his place as the leader of Mon Calamari, he has fully accepted personal responsibility for the fate of Mon Calamari and has finally stepped up to be a decisive ruler of all the people of the planet. The quote above shows how far he has come from relying on the Jedi and Captain Ackbar, and that he actually can become Tamsen’s match and reunite the people of Mon Calamari.
While watching this arc unfold, I find that the Quarren are so much more than just the enemies, they are also what Lee Char needed to find a good conclusion to the arc. Right at the beginning of the first episode, we’ve had hints that the Quarren, while constantly at odds with the Mon Calamari, were still interested in peace. Mostly on the part of our main Quarren, Nosser Ri, who slowly begins to see the wrongdoing of the separatists on Mon Cala. And in the end, sees Lee Char as a wise leader instead of someone who inherits the throne. But I think it was necessary for Nosser Ri to maintain his position until the time was right. Without the struggle, Mon Cala might’ve been under the rule of an inexperienced leader who would’ve had no support of half the planet’s population which I think would’ve made matters worse by creating an unstable government. I think what Nosser Ri saw in Lee Char just before he betrayed the separatists, was someone who would lead justly. In my opinion, it wasn’t just the separatist’s plans for the planet that caused Nosser Ri’s turn. The conflicts within the Quarren people as Lee Char becomes the leader he is supposed to be makes this episode more character driven then the previous episodes and really is at the core of what makes this episode work so well. (Plus some really cool action scenes.)
After the Qurren have turned on the separatists, there is a frenzy of fighting with all the species of Mon Cala, clones, and Gungans, against the droid army. And personally, I thought the climax of this episode was so much more fulfilling then any of the fights from the previous two. Instead of all out warfare that lasted the entire episode, we actually had a great build up to what would be the fight that ties up the arc and unites the people once again. Though, I was a little surprised to see how graphic Tamsen’s death was. I’m not really too sure how necessary it was to show half of Tamsen floating down to the sea floor. But other than that, I thought the climax was well done and really fun to watch.
And thus concludes my very late review of Prisoners! All in all, this has been the strongest episode of season 4, both character wise and with action scenes. I know we can expect much more coming up in the rest of the season! Thanks for reading, and may the Force be with you…always.
–Ryan
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