“The Zillo Beast Strikes Back”

The Most Dangerous Beast is the beast within.

Chancellor Palpatine is supposed to be a dark lord of the Sith in hiding who is masterful at planning his takeover and can foresee the formation of his Empire. However, he occasionally let’s all this power go to his head. Particularly by letting a godzilla-sized monster onto the city planet of Coruscant. Even without the Force I can tell you this is a bad idea. This episode teaches us two things: 1) Nature always gets mad when you try to rob its special adaptations/resources (in this case, the Zillo Beast’s heavy armor plating, think Avatar or Pocahontas or anything made by Miyazaki) 2) don’t trust creepy looking old men (I’m looking at you, Mace i-got-my-fucking-arm-chopped-off-by-an-old-dude-bc-i-wasn’t-paying-attention-and-then-died Windu, who is also a proponent of the Save the Zillo Beast Campaign – that’s twice you let the old creepy guy kick your purple lightsaber wielding ass.)

This episode picks up with the doctor who invented the bomb that brought the Zillo Beast to the surface studying its scales. She tells Palpatine that she can’t study the scales well enough to synthesize them without hurting the Zillo Beast. Palpatine suggests killing it because its not sentient (or so he thinks). The doctor protests but Palpatine threatens to replace her with someone who will. She reluctantly agrees to do it and decides the best way is to synthesize a toxin from the fuel on Malastare.

Unfortunately the doctor does not make enough fuel, and the Zillo Beast escapes. The clones positioned outside of the lab do nothing but annoy the beast with their laser-fire. Meanwhile, the Jedi, Palpatine, and Senator Amidala are having a conference in the Chancellor’s office. He has told them that he plans to kill the Zillo Beast and synthesize its scales to create better armor. Padme is upset because none of this has come before the senate. Palpatine defends his actions by saying that some things must be kept secret during a time of war. Anakin, playing Palpatine’s lap dog, agrees with him, but tries to stay on the fence by saying that he sees both sides. Padme is disappointed in Anakin (but she already knows he loves dictatorships because they had that conversation in Ep. 2 so she really shouldn’t be surprised).

The Zillo Beast, whom Palpatine believes to be non-sentient, heads straight for Palpatine’s office in the senate building that has a great big window perfect for smashing through. Palpatine, Padme, Anakin, R2D2 and C3PO escape in Palpatine’s shuttle. Unfortunately, the Zillo Beast grabs the shuttle. Meanwhile, Yoda, Mace, and Obi-Wan plot to fly in and distract the Zillo Beast. Anakin cuts the shuttle in half, sending them all plummeting toward the slanted roof of a building. Anakin, Padme, C3Po and R2D2 are ejected from the front half of the shuttle as it slides down the roof. Mace and Obi-Wan rescue Palpatine but Force-grabbing the front half of the shuttle. However, despite the Jedi and clones annoying the Zillo Beast with laser-fire, it notices that Palpatine has escaped. It attempts to catch him but he is pushed out of the way by his guard. Anakin saves Padme by using the Force to pull her up from the ledge of the roof. Side note: Palpatine has a lot of fucking restraint. His life was in danger yet he never used the Force to help himself, though, arguably, he could’ve used the Force to convince the clone to sacrafice his life for him.

The doctor flies in with more poison made from Malastare’s fuel, killing the beast. HOWEVER, because Palpatine failed to realize how close he was to destroying Coruscant or at least killing many citizens and clone troopers, he decides the best idea is to clone the Zillo Beast. Palpatine has some serious lust for power. My guess is, if they bring the Zillo Beast back, he will have been cloned by the Kaminoans and be somewhat tame like the clones of Jango Fett. I suppose it will be his first pre-death star “super weapon.” I give this episode 4/5 lightsabers. It was really good, and i was genuinely worried at some points. Also, i liked that they included the sentiency of the Zillo Beast as a major point in the story. This speaks to efforts at environmentalism and respecting animals, after all, this is at heart a children’s show and it’s good for them to learn something. I’m concerned that they will just drop this story line since next week’s episode has to do with Boba Fett, but, again, it does take time to clone something. Also, I suspect the “beat within” mentioned in the quote at the beginning is Palpatine’s lust for power and his inability to control it (power corrupts…).