5x16 The Lawless

8.7/10.

Here's what I loved about this episode. We finally got to see The Chancellor become The Emperor (It's never been clear to me whether the show has outright acknowledged this or merely hinted at it.) There's a risk in a show like Clone Wars where, with so many characters wielding lightsabers and using force powers, you might dilute the specialness of the biggest players on the scene, and the specialness of the franchise's primary heroes and antagonists. But Clone Wars firmly avoids that with Palpatine here.

There is a pure and overwhelming display of power from Palpatine here. The way he neutralizes Maul's death squad guard while barely moving a muscle, the way he effortlessly tosses his opponents around the room, and the way he seems firmly in control even while fighting both Maul and Savage at the same time really drives home what a powerful force-wielder Palpatine is. There's also a cruelty to him here that is striking even knowing where the character goes to in the franchise's future. Much credit goes to Ian Abercrombie (who, passed away prior to this episode airing) for imbuing such menace into his delivery. The way that Palpatine declares, "you have been replaced" and "you are no longer my apprentice" to Maul is simultaneously fiendish and gutwrenching, particularly as he unleashes the Sith lightning on his former protege.

The best lightsaber battles in Star Wars have meaning behind the action, and this fit that ideal to a tee. The otherwise unflappable Maul being clearly shaken by his master's reappearance; Palpatine's initial impressed tone that quickly curdles into disdain, and the death of Savage (which adds even further stakes to this battle) all make those visual and auditory elements that already serve to heighten the tension into something undergirded by story and character. There's something disturbing, even haunting, about Maul having to say goodbye to his brother and being at the mercy of Palpatine once more.

As Obi Wan points out, Maul didn't choose this life, and while he's done terrible things, he's also seen many terrible things and had many terrible things done to him as well. It's too much to call him innocent, but he is as much a victim of Palpatine as any, and here he's once again beaten by his abuser. That's unexpectedly powerful stuff from a show whose last quartet of episodes devolved into goofy kiddie fare.

The Obi Wan half of the episode was still good, but not quite as good. As with Obi Wan's prior adventures in and around Mandalore, it's nice to see Obi Wan seeming a little more like Anakin here -- going behind the council's back and acting alone in order to help the woman he loves. I certainly wouldn't want the two characters to become clones of one another, but it continues to give an added dimension to a character who could otherwise easily fall into being a monolithic wise old monk. There's humanity beneath Obi Wan's staid exterior, and that's always nice to see.

But I didn't really like how Satine was used here. I don't mind the character dying (well, actually, I do, because I really enjoyed her as a character, but I understand the narrative necessity of this sort of thing). The problem is that whereas in prior episodes, Satine was a full-fledged character with her own goals and distinct personality, here she was mostly just a prop for Obi Wan, something to motivate him and impact his journey. Sure, that can be said for many secondary/tertiary characters on television (and it's arguably as true for Savage here, though he at least gets to be more active in the proceedings), but the villain killing the woman the hero loves in a way that only serves to motivate the hero is a tired trope and something of an ignominious end for one of the more interesting recurring characters. The show also seemed to underplay Obi Wan's reaction to her death, which you can sort of chalk up to his Jedi detachment, but still felt off. I didn't need him to scream or cry, but he seemed mostly unfazed, even quipping, shortly after Maul kills Satine, in a way that blunted the impact the death was supposed to have.

The rest of the episode, featuring the return of Satine's nephew to help her contact the Jedi, Obi Wan's first unsuccessful attempt to rescue Satine, and his later collaboration with Bo Katan to get back to the Jedi and possibly mount a Republic Invasion, had some solid action and excitement with clear goals and well-directed combat to keep the thrill-quotient up. The reveal that Katan is Satine's sister is a little contrived for my tastes, but there's interesting places for the show to go with it.

Overall, this is a landmark episode of Clone Wars that, in many ways, feels like a culmination of much of what the show has built over the past five seasons, and even the unrealized potential of The Phantom Menace. It's built on so much of what we already know about the characters from their prior televised and cinematic adventure, and the convergence of all of these elements (give or take the Katan reveal) feels organic to previously established character motivations, while still advancing the ball and giving the series further room to grow. That's no small feat, and even if elements like Satine's death feel kind of cheap, overall this arc represents the best sustained run of quality from Clone Wars in the series history, and a high water mark in terms of capitalizing on the groundwork previously laid by the show.