“The first step to correcting a mistake is patience.”

We last left our intrepid Jedi fleeing a scuttled Separatist cruiser.  They were unable to regain the Jedi Holocron or capture Cad Bane.

But what’s this?  One of the clone troopers is bleeding green?  Ahsoka tries to stop Bane but he steals a V-19 and makes it to a hyperspace ring before they can shut them down.

After Anakin makes his report to the council, he, Yoda, Mace Windu and Obi-wan Kenobi meditate with the Force to determine Bane’s next move.  They know he’ll be after Force sensitive children, but not why.  They come up with four places, but only three are likely.  Kenobi is dispatched to Rodia and Anakin and Ahsoka head to Naboo.  Obi-wan is too late and Bane is able to take a child, but Ahsoka and Anakin trap him on Naboo.  Under the combined Force mental persuasions of Windu, Skywalker and Kenobi, Bane breaks and tells them where the Holocron is and the children.  It’s a trap however and while they recover the Holocron, they lose Bane and any trail to the children.

Anakin pulls some tech wizardry and finds that while Bane’s ship’s navigation computer was wiped, his fuel computer was left intact, giving them an idea of where he could have gone based on the amount of fuel used.  Pretty smart, I was impressed, it being a cartoon and all.  They find he could have gone to Mustafar so they pack up and head to the volcanic mining planet.  There, Darth Sidious is prepping a Rodian and Nautolan baby for…something.  He’s there via hologram as two droids do all the work.  The Jedi arrive, fight the surprisingly ninja-like med droids as the mining facility falls apart around them, save the children and win the day.

This isn’t the end of Cad Bane, obviously, but I think it might be the last we see of him for a while.  The second season was subtitled “Rise of the Bounty Hunters” hopefully meaning we’ll see more of them.  Boba Fett is still young, but EU stories actually have him meeting Skywalker, Wat Tambor, Asajj Ventress and other Clone War characters.  We may yet see him.  Imagine a bounty hunter that looked like a clone trooper.

“Children of the Force” had a bit of a dark edge to it as three Jedi Masters used their combined powers to bludgeon the mind of a bounty hunter.  Did the ends justify the means?  Anakin nearly balked at the idea, and in the end Bane outwitted them.  It seems yet again the Jedi thinking rather two dimensionally in the long view, regardless of their adaptive skill in battle and their command of the Force.

A lot of action this time around and very light on the one-liners and shtick.  Four green lightsabers.