Clone Wars – Death Trap

Who my father was matters less than my memory of him.

The Jedi are aboard the Venator Class Republic Cruiser Endurance about to meet up with another ship. They are going to give some young clone cadets lessons in the “field.” A young Boba Fett (we assume because of his similarity to the Boba of ep. 2, voiced by Daniel Logan who portrayed him in the movies), is talking to his clone brethren who immediately recognize him as an outisider and call him “soft,” because he claims he wasn’t there on other missions because of a broken arm.

The cadets, other than Boba who calls himself “Lucky,” idealize the troopers. One says, “The only difference between us and them is experience. It’s not like they’re Jedi.” This is of course the last thing pubescent Boba wants to hear. However, all of the cadets are visibly quaking with excitement as Mace Windu and Anakin talk to them about activities aboard the ship. Unfortunately, a request from the bridge cuts their instruction under Masters Windu and Skywalker short. As they walk off Mace attempts to give Anakin a lesson of his own, but Anakin impudently states, “It’s our job to instruct and inspire…When I show off it is instructive… and inspiring” – Anakin

While the Jedi are unavailable, the cadets have target practice with “spare droid parts.” Essentially, the activity is skeet shooting in space. The first few young clones fail to destroy the disks, but the petulant young Boba manages to hit the target in response to a clone commenting that “experience” is what counts. Boba shows of his experience again byt shooting three discs in a tri-formation. As the cadets leave, the trooper comments “We’ll have to keep an eye on that one,” ominously.

Boba uses wristcommunicator to contact his partners. They instruct him to plant the device in Windu’s quarters. On his way, he meets a pair of trooper who believe he’s lost. After teasing him a bit, they direct him to Windu’s quarters. Boba  makes it the rest of the way unnoticed and plants a device with a sensor near the door. As Boba leaves, he runs into Windu. When Windu arrives at his quarters, a trooper stops him and tells him that he needs to report to the bridge immediately. Although Mace is frustrated by this, he leaves and hands the trooper something to put his in quarters. When the trooper’s boot passes in front of the sensors, a bomb explodes, sending him flying to the other side of the corridor. Mace resuces him and pulls him beyond the blast door, but the measure is futile because the trooper has been killed.

Anakin and Mace determine that the bombing was no accident and was targeted for Windu’s quarters because navigation was only slightly damaged. Boba contacts “Watcher” via his communicator and says that the attempt failed. His partner orders him to blow the core, but Boba resists because it will harm the troops. His partner insists that it is the only way and reluctantly Boba makes his way towards the core. A trooper is guarding the core and tells Boba that he must go to a safe area but needs another trooper to escort him. While he is contacting another trooper, Boba asks to examine his gun and attacks the distracted trooper, hitting him over the head. He has the trooper cornered and raises the blaster toward him. The trooper pleads, “Don’t shoot! We’re brothers!”  But, Boba responds, “You’re not my brother.”

Boba uses the blaster to blow the core, causing the ship to rock and the back to explode. The ship is damaged beyond saving. The troopers tell the cadets that it is a drill and to head to the escape pods. Boba manages to catch up with the cadets in time and climbs aboard one of the pods. As they’re launching, Boba flips a switch, causing the pod to malfunction and miss the rendezvous point.

Aboard the Endurance, the Admiral refuses to abandon ship. Anakin and Mace receive word that one of the pods has missed the rendezvous point and discern that the saboteur must be aboard that pod. Meanwhile, in the escape pod, the cadets begin to argue because of the dire situation they are in, no food, no locator beacon, no fuel, and no communication. Suddently, Bounty Hunters (one of which was Bossk) show up at the pod, to rescue Boba. Although eh doesn’t want to leave the cadets to die, the bounty hunters threaten to jettison the clones into space if he doesn’t come with them. As he exits the pod, the clones call him “traitor.”

Boba leaves, hoping that he will still get his revenge; Aura promises that he will get it. Anakin finds the missing cadets just as Boba leaves. The clones says he’s nothing like them, but one hopes that he is because that will mean that Boba will change his mind and come back.

Thus concludes the much-anticipated episode with young Boba Fett. Boba will of course return tomorrow in the season finale, attempting again to kill Mace Windu. I liked this episode because there were some clear tensions in Boba’s mind with leaving the cadets and killing the troopers. He didn’t want to harm anyone but Mace. He has a clearly defined sense of morality. I also enjoyed seeing more the lifecycle of clones. Their deep sense of brotherhood is instilled before they become official troopers in the Army. I was surprised by the way they idolized the Jedi. Although the troopers clearly respect the Jedi, they always seemed somewhat equal to me. Additionally, idolatry seems out of character for the programmed individuals the clones are supposed to be (though they show a surprising degree of diversity, remember the farmer episode?). Overall, I think this was a 4/5. I look forward to the explode-y conclusion tonight.