Original Air Date: February 5th, 2010.
Production No.: 121 (Season 1, Episode 21)
Written by Paul Dini
Directed by Brian Kalin O'Connell
Series Writer: Henry Gilroy
Staff Writer: Scott Murphy
Key Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Duchess Satine Kryze, Senator Tal Merrik, Clone Commander Cody, Clone Captain Rex, R2-D2
Cast:
James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi
Matt Lanter as Anakin Skywalker
Anna Graves as Satine Kryze
Greg Proops as Tal Merrik
Phil LaMarr as Orn Free Taa
Dee Bradley Baker as the clone troopers and Orn Free Taa
Jon Favreau as Pre Vizsla
Tom Kane as Narrator
Corey Burton as the service droid
David Acord as the ship's captain and rabbit droid
Ian Abercrombie as Chancellor Palpatine
Episode Brief: As the Jedi and their clones defend Duchess Satine from assassination attempts, Anakin discovers that Obi-Wan and the Duchess have a history together.
Full Synopsis:
"Fear not for the future, weep not for the past."
Newsreel
A royal welcome! Sent to investigate
allegations that Mandalore was joining
Count Dooku's Separatists, Obi-Wan
Kenobi was reunited with an old
friend, the Duchess Satine of Kalevala.
While Satine claimed Mandalore's
intentions were to remain neutral
during the war, an attack on the capital
city led Obi-Wan to the discovery of a
terrorist organization known as
Death Watch.
Now the Duchess travels to the Senate,
so she can plead her case against her
involvement in the war, as the Jedi prepare
a defense against her opponents...
ACT I
The luxurious vessel Coronet soars gracefully from Mandalore into deep space. Inside its darkened cargo holds, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker brief their clone contingent led by Clone Commander Cody and Captain Rex. All aboard are to remain vigilant for any sign of the Death Watch. Even R2-D2 commits his scanners to the cause.Kenobi and Skywalker are called to attend the Duchess, and Skywalker senses a touch of anxiety within his old mentor, something Obi-Wan is reluctant to talk about. In the Duchess' opulent throne room, where she is attended to by other Senators and servants, she immediately begins verbally sparring with Kenobi. She did not ask for Jedi protection, and finds the notion of fighting for peace distasteful. Their debate becomes heated, increasing the discomfort in the room among the Senators, but they put aside their argument in time for dinner. The Coronet leaps into hyperspace.
Back in the darkened cargo hold, two clones -- Mixer and Redeye -- sweep the pallets for any signs of a security breach. They are both silently attacked by a horrible, spider-like assassin droid, and their squadmates remain oblivious to the danger.
ACT II
As they make their way to the dining chambers, Anakin asks Obi-Wan about his history with the Duchess. He reveals that when he was younger, on an extended mission with Qui-Gon Jinn, he spent a year on Mandalore protecting the Duchess from insurgents who threatened her world. When Satine returned to rebuild her world after a devastating civil war, Obi-Wan was assigned elsewhere, and had to leave despite his feelings for her.
Kenobi's wistful reflection is cut short when Captain Rex reports in. R2-D2 is frightened by something in the cargo hold, and Redye and Mixer have gone missing. Anakin volunteers to head to the lower decks to help investigate while Kenobi bears the brunt of diplomatic duty. Artoo and Anakin discover an empty container. Whatever was inside was released, or escaped. Skywalker orders his troops to fan out.
Stirring in the shadows appears to be Redeye, walking as if in a trance. As Anakin gets closer, he sees that a huge, spider-like assassin probe is animating Redeye's corpse like a puppet. Discovered, the droid hurls Redyeye's body like a missile. Anakin dodges, and ignites his lightsaber, ready to take on the pick-footed terror. The clone officers arrive with their troops, and riddle the droid with blaster bolts.
A second assassin probe takes advantage of the distraction and scurries towards the turbolift shaft. Skywalker calls Obi-Wan via comlink, warning him of the loose droid. The probe charges into the dining room, slicing through guards. Kenobi cuts it down before it can get at the Senators.
Each assassin probe has tiny pits along its cranial dome, filled with smaller spider-like probe killers. Dozens of the crawling droids emerge to continue their mission in both the cargo hold and the dining room. Anakin, Artoo and the clones crush, blast, slice or zap as many as they can. Kenobi and Satine also defend themselves, with the Duchess producing a small hand-held droid deactivator from her robes.
With the droids destroyed, Anakin focuses on learning how the killer was smuggled aboard. According to the cargo manifest, someone used a Senate stamp to approve shipment of the crates containing the droids. That means one of the four Senators aboard -- Orn Free Taa, Kin Robb, Onaconda Farr or Tal Merrik -- was behind the shipment.
Kenobi hatches a plan, using a single mini-assassin probe, to expose the traitor. Kenobi carries the droid under a glass serving tray to each Senator in turn, theorizing that it is programmed to kill anyone except the one who programmed it. The droid remains passive when exposed to Senator Tal Merrik. Merrik knocks the droid from Obi-Wan's grasp, pulls a blaster, and holds it to Satine's head. Using Satine as a shield and hostage, Merrik leaves the dining hall.
ACT III
Kenobi radios Skywalker with the update on Merrik's treachery, but Skywalker is preoccupied hunting down the third and final assassin probe. The large droid and its tiny spawn attack Rex and Cody. Anakin cuts off its legs and Rex jumps on the droid's head, peppering it with blaster bolts.Merrik forces his way onto the Coronet's bridge and coldly murders the crew. The ship drops from hyperspace, and Merrik contacts Pre Vizsla via hologram. He reports his success to the Death Watch leader, but requests reinforcements to cover his escape. Darting in from space are a trio of droid boarding ships that plunge into the Coronet's hull, disgorging squads of super battle droids. Anakin leads the clones and Satine's guards in defending the corridors against these invaders.
Kenobi races to the bridge and finds Merrik and Satine. The evil Senator has wired the ship's engines to explode and carries the detonator with him. Satine begs Kenobi not to risk any more lives on her behalf. Merrik backs his way off the bridge and into the corridors, Kenobi following closely, looking for an opening in Merrik's guard. Satine, fearing that all is lost, proclaims her love for Obi-Wan, a sentiment that Kenobi echoes.
Merrik is distracted by what he deems a disgusting display of sentiment. Satine stamps her heel into his foot, wriggling out of his hold and grabbing Merrik's blaster. Satine, staunch pacifist, now has Merrik at gunpoint. Merrik doesn't believe she'll fire, for to do so would undermine the very pacifist ideal that is embroiling Mandalore in controversy. And yet, if Kenobi steps in to kill Merrik, the Jedi will be proven as a cold blooded killer in the eyes of the woman he loves. Merrik relishes the stalemate, until he is fatally stabbed through the back by Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber. Free of any ideological struggle, Anakin states pragmatically that he killed a bomber set to destroy the ship.
The clones report their defeat of the droids. The Coronet continues undisturbed to Coruscant, where Satine is greeted by Chancellor Palpatine.
Trivia & Details
- Anakin identifying Obi-Wan's anxiety over meeting with the duchess while traveling aboard a turbolift is a mirror of a similar scene in Attack of the Clones, with the Jedi roles reversed.
- This was the first episode of the Mandalorian arc produced, well before the adjacent episodes. The figure of Pre Vizsla does not use his final character design in holographic form. If his serape was removed, he would be revealed to be wearing clone armor!
- Nuna has been served as an entree once before in "The Deserter."
Memorable Quotes:
"War is intolerable. We have been deceived into thinking that we must be a part of it. I say the moment we committed to fighting, we already lost." -- Duchess Satine Kryze.
"Senators, I presume you are acquainted with the collection of half-truths and hyperbole known as Obi-Wan Kenobi?" -- Duchess Satine
- "Just like that swarm of venom-mites on Draboon, remember?"
- "How can I forget? I still have the scar." -- Obi-Wan and Satine
"This morsel may prove too much even for the legendary appetite of Orn Free Taa." -- Obi-Wan
- "This may not be the time to ask, but were you and Satine ever..."
- "I don't see how that has any bearing on the situation at hand!" -- Anakin and Obi-Wan
- "I'll take care of this, Obi-Wan. You, go find your girlfriend."
- "Right... Uh, no! Anakin, she's not my -- " -- Anakin and Obi-Wan
"Come on, then. Who will strike first and be branded a cold-blooded killer?" --- Tal Merrik to Obi-Wan and Satine, before being killed by Anakin Skywalker.
