Another emotional gut-punch of the highest quality that shows Dave Filoni should be given the keys to the Star Wars franchise for as long as he wants. He gets these characters, has a perfect ending - and that payoff with Vader witnessing the aftermath of the crashed ship, and hits all the feels of an epilogue-heavy finale that wraps up loose ends after the more impactful penultimate episode. It's a quieter episode - yes, you know Ahsoka, Maul and Rex are going to escape because they have to - but the show finds a time to throw in one last homage that reminds audiences that the Clones were the characters that made this story as special as it was. Seeing Ahsoka look at the helmets of the dead Clones wearing their Tano-coloured armour was heartbreaking and a devastating final conclusion to her arc.
It didn't need to be an epic; and arguably the quieter touch makes this one feel more impactful because of this. We got the last stand of Ahsoka and Rex in the previous episode, so again, their escape was a formality here. I did like Rex being proud of how efficient the soldiers under his command were even though they were trying to kill him. I love that Rex becomes such an instrumental part of Rebels later; along with Ahsoka. It just feels right.
As finales go, Victory and Death is one of the best.
That's probably the best episode that the show has ever done and my favourite episode of anything from 2020 so far. WOW. What a rollercoaster. We've reached the part where we've caught up with Revenge of the Sith and that can only mean that bad stuff is going to happen. I like how Obi-Wan has been able to keep Ahsoka up to date of where we are in it - he's off to Utapau, Anakin's spying on the Chancellor and they can't learn about Sidious from Dooku because Anakin killed Dooku.. on Palpatine's orders. Obi-Wan admitting that the Council aren't always right and getting Ahsoka to speak to Anakin on his behalf was a nice touch too, even if it hasn't happened yet.
This whole arc was building up to the Maul/Ashoka fight and it was as every bit as epic as I was hoping it would be, the animation is legendary and the fact that Maul knows what's going to happen and baits Ahsoka with Anakin turning to the Dark Side was handled really well. These little touches throughout the episode of showing Ahsoka caring for the Clones and them respecting her in return is only going to make the next two episodes all the more emotional, because it's going to get to Order 66. And I'm NOT READY. The idea of a Maul and Ahsoka team-up to stop Order 66 was fascinating - and might still happen - two former apprentices working together. Maul technically tried to save the galaxy too by wanting to bring Anakin to Mandalore to kill him before he could turn to Sidious really worked too - even if it was only Maul acting as the bitter ex and in his own self-interests - after all, Anakin would be the second apprentice that Sidious had since him.
Maul screaming that he would rather die than witness what was coming next and begging for The Clones to kill him rather than take him prisoner was, certainly a morbid end. I love what the show has done with his character too - I groaned when they brought him back the first time but Maul's arc has been as good over the course of the series as Ahsoka has, and as absolutely vital to the show. Revenge of the Sith is going to hit a little differently after this.
Star Wars at its most bland, boring and predictable since The Rise of Skywalker. This whole season has felt like a backdoor pilot: the TV series, falling into the same trap as the hot mess that was Titans Season 2, setting up too many characters' shows and losing interest in its own to the point where it ends with a tease for another series rather than the third season of its own show. It feels like it's ticking off checklists and resorting to lazy fanservice (in hindsight it's about what we should have expected with a script written by the director of Iron Man 2) instead of trying something new or different like with The Clone Wars' animated series, Rebels' later seasons, or The Last Jedi. The Mandalorian feels like a supporting character in his own show, and the big Deus Ex Machina with Luke Skywalker confirms that the franchise is far too reliant on one character to truly move forward: what was supposed to be the series' big moment just left me cold and soulless, completely empty. I knew this was coming the moment they teased another Jedi apart from Ahsoka and brought back Boba Fett, but did it have to be this uninteresting?
The bit where we got to see Mando's face in front of everyone was a cool culmination of his arc and all, and easily a high point of the episode for me with the right emotional beats working that features a terrific bit of acting from Pedro Pascal that feels like he's been waiting the whole show to to get to grips with. It's easily a series highlight. And the stuff where Moff Gideon was able to almost manipulate Bo Katan and Mando into a fight and coming to blows was a good thing that played to all three characters strengths. But what followed was a colossal let down that flat out killed my interest in Season 3 if this is the direction of where this show is headed, it just feels like Star Wars is playing it far too safe right now, focusing on the same one character in a way that is determined to tie everything together. I also love the subtle nuance where we get to see the brief personalities of the minor Empire pilots and their troopers that adds a bit of depth to the world and explores how the characters react to the changing events around them. That stuff is good!
Good to see everyone is enjoying this more than I am. It's not for me! And that's fine.
And with one episode left to go, The Clone Wars delivered another perfect episode that finally reached the moment that we were all expecting it to reach: Order 66.
Refreshingly avoiding the all-too easy option of repeating excessive scenes from the movie such as the montage of all the Clones turning on the Jedi and not featuring Obi-Wan and Anakin or any of the other Jedi at all full stop, The Clone Wars reminds us at the end what the show has always been about, Ahsoka and Rex. Their story. I'm not lying when I say that this episode full on wrecked me - there was no point in trying to hide Order 66 because we all knew it was coming, and instead, keeping the focus on these two characters rather than going for something much bigger led to a much more impactful moment with the scene where Rex gets his orders from the Darth Sidious being one of the strongest moments that the show has ever done. You can feel the emotion. You can see him trying to fight it and failing. And then there's that moment where he, like the entire army of the republic, switches into cold-blooded hunter the moment the Order is given. I mentioned last week about Revenge of the Sith hitting a little differently on a rewatch; it's not just that: Rebels is going to hit a little differently on a rewatch, a show which I fully plan on revisiting too.
The little touches designed to play to audience's emotions like having the clones in their Tano-coloured helmets salute Ahsoka, and the show reaffirming the bond between Rex and Ahsoka moments before Order 66 happened added up to this emotional gut-punch of a moment even further. We've all seen Revenge of the Sith, we all know this moment was what this season was building towards - yet it doesn't stop it from being arguably, the most emotional moment in the whole series and one of the most emotional moments in the entire franchise, thanks in no small part due to the fact that the writers know that we know what's coming next. The music played a huge role here, which is appropriate - arguably Order 66 wouldn't have had the same impression without that John Williams fanfare in Revenge of the Sith, and the little touches of silence before it lead create a sense of eeriness and fear. I was worried throughout the episode constantly for Ahsoka even if Rebels fans know her fate, and Rex's, after The Clone Wars.
The scenes that the show did include from Revenge of the Sith were chosen perfectly - the council meeting to reaffirm the fact that the Chancellor was involved in something dodgy and to remind us of where we were in the film's timeline (honestly, overlapping this show with the events of the film was the best decision ever - Claudia Gray's Lost Stars did something similiar with the original trilogy and that too worked perfectly so it's not without precedent in the Star Wars universe), and that scene where Ahsoka saw the vision of Anakin turning on Mace and joining Sidious, completing his tragic fall from grace, hit perfectly - especially using the voices of both actors who have played Anakin to sync it up. It was a big, operatic sequence that succeeded on every level.
And then there's Maul. Maul unleashed is Maul at his best, even once defeated the show never stopped reminding us how deadly he was; I love that Ahsoka was smart enough not to give her his lightsaber. We've seen this part so many times where the hero has to trust the villain to escape and the villain inevitably betrays them. Letting Maul go to unleash chaos was exactly what he did - in brutal, visceral fashion, tearing through the Clone army using only the force.
Good ending, finishes an excellent third season.
Nothing short of a masterpiece. Hands down, the best show currently airing.
That whole Church scene was amazing, real highlight of the episode.
That's another stellar episode of Doctor Who - maybe Russell T. Davies' best script for the show? It's a perfect bottle episode (dare I say the best bottle episode of television apart from Breaking Bad's Fly?) A great slice of Twilight Zone-esque brilliance at its finest. Lesley Sharp is terrific. This run from The Unicorn and the Wasp to Journey's End is pretty much perfection.
Excellent way to end the season, this one has been the best since the first.
you know, if i was watching a show five seasons in and still moaning about it i think I'd probably have given up by now but that might be just me
Best show on television right now, a real rollercoaster in every sense. My MVP changes from week to week - and for all the Lost comparisons there's tons of Leftovers DNA here.
Turn Left is a trial run for the brilliant Years and Years - Who at its darkest and most dystopian? Terrifying. This is another 10/10 in a row here, Russell T. Davies firing on all creative cylinders, Catherine Tate (her best performance) & Bernard Cribbins are phenomenal here. "The Stars are going out" is more chilling than it has any right to be. A depressing reminder that it can always get worse.
Rivals Blink in terms of scare factor, this two parter's terrifying. "Hey, who turned out the lights?" The River Song mystery being introduced so early comes as a surprise, but Alex Kingston has an instant chemistry with David Tennant from the word go - it's completely believable. Hits all the right beats, makes you care about even the side characters who you've met for seconds - I always seem to underrate these two when making lists, but they're just so good! Possibly one of Tennant's better performances as The Doctor in this pair of episodes, too.
This show just keeps getting better.
Well that was an awesome episode.
Definitely an improvement over the first two episodes. So many fun one-liners and the fish puns were brilliant.
Excellent finale to a criminally underrated series.
What an episode! Eva Green being excellent as normal.
Awesome finale and a great DC reference at the end. Can't wait for more.
Welcome back Black Sails! Excellent episode. Yay, Blackbeard!
Quite a comedown after the brilliant Stolen Earth and the weakest of the post Unicorn and the Wasp era episodes, but there are some great ideas in this and it aims big and succeeds in resolving the massive cliffhanger the only way RTD knows how: deus ex machina. The departure for Donna never fails to be emotional even when Rose's send-off is a bit too melodramatic, but as a way to close off one of the best eras of the show, Journeys End does so in style. The Russos blatantly nabbed the whole Infinity War "50% of the population" thing from this.
Murray Gold is at his peak here - Song of Freedom is top-tier. Love the Sarah Jane/Davros reunion too, it's well overdue.
The Stolen Earth is the Doctor Who event: the first part of a culmination of everything Russell T. Davies has brought to the show. Big, loud, bombastic & ends with multiple cliffhangers on a sprawling, galaxy-wide scale where the heroes lose. Infinity War, only better.
I'm not too keen on this one.
It's better than The Lazarus Experiment, Stephen Greenhorn's last Who episode, but not by much - and suffers from just not being as good as the rest of Series 4, which - because it's so good, makes the weaker episodes stand out all the more - put this in Series 3 and it's a solid middle of the road episode. It'd probably be one of the better ones of 2 or 7. Jenny needed a bit more development as the show never gives her any room to breath and it struggles to quite get the Doctor/Donna/Martha/Jenny/both factions balance right in this episode, even if I like the dynamic between Donna & Martha (which is refreshingly not combative in the way that Rose/Sarah Jane was) and the reveal about the war only lasting 7 days, 7 days being "generations" to the clones was a pretty effective moment - the emotional beats in this episode did a good job at landing, thanks in no small part due to Tennant's brilliance which makes up for the revelation about The Doctor's daughter being a clone being something of a copout - I remember the days of the speculation back in the runup to this episode as it aired! Not sure all of it stuck the landing.
On the plus side, this is the last (and only) not-as-good episode of Series 4! There's nothing but great episodes from here on out.
Love the dynamic between The Doctor, Martha and Shakespeare in this episode. Shakespeare being treated as one of the rockstars of his age feels appropriate, and The Doctor quoting Shakespeare back at Shakespeare will never not grow old. A few sketchy moments with the writing aside that have not aged well, The Shakespeare Code is still a fun romp in a mostly consistent season.
One of the greatest series finales that I've seen. Well done, Banshee! You'll be missed.
Yay for the Firefly reunion!
Well, this was disappointing. Far too convoluted and went nowhere.
Welcome back HTGAWM! Missed this show. The premiere was excellent and I can't wait to see where this goes now.
Welcome back Halt and Catch Fire! Excellent start.
Think this episode has pushed me in the camp of Season 4 > 3 as much as I love 3A. Love the attention they're giving to the characters - it's spent the past few episodes addressing the complaint about not spending enough time with the bridge crew and it's moving in a clear direction. Plus, it's always great to see Jett Reno show up!