TV REVIEW: FTN reviews Clone Wars SO5EO20 The Wrong Jedi

Before I saw Inception everyone was talking about how mind blowing it was, so when I saw it, it was over hyped and I just thought it was pretty good instead of mind blowing. Well, this lightning has struck again. I don’t get to watch the Clone Wars live since I have to be at my day job when it airs, but all day long my Twitter and Facebook feed were blowing up about how amazing this episode was. When I finally saw it, it left me a bit disappointed. That’s not to say it was a bad episode, it was great actually, but I was waiting for a huge mind blowing moment that sadly never came.

Ahsoka is put on trial for the crimes we all know she didn’t commit while Anakin heads out to find evidence that would exonerate his Padawan. Tarkin makes sure that her trial becomes a Republic affair as he doesn’t trust the Jedi to try one of their own. If only Tarkin knew, since the Jedi were convinced of her guilt as well. I wrote about this last week, but I couldn’t help but feel that the Jedi Council pretty much threw Ahsoka to the wolves. The trial in itself was pretty funny in that there wasn’t much talk of evidence; it seemed to consist of pleas of innocence or guilt from the opposing sides.

Anakin meanwhile scours the lower levels of Coruscant for Asajj Ventress, whom he and Ahsoka believe was the one who set Ahsoka up. Anakin and Ventress face off with Anakin conducting aggressive negotiations with her. During the battle Ventress has to resort to defending herself with a couple of poles, which when Anakin finally does win the duel and starts to question her, left both my wife and I wondering why he never asks her why she isn’t using her lightsabers. Ventress is the one who has to mention that they were stolen, leading Anakin in another direction, Barriss Offee, the one who helped Ahsoka discover the nano droid plant. Over the weeks I had been wondering whom the rogue Jedi was behind the plot, and I even thought it could’ve been Maul. I was kicking myself for not even thinking of Barriss, of course it’s the one who sent Ahsoka to be captured! Things like this I am usually pretty good at picking up on, but this one just slipped right by me, though I wished she had had some sort of connection to Palpatine just to bring things full circle.

After one really sick duel with Barriss, Anakin finally gets her to talk and is able to help free his Padawan. So after all is said and done, the Jedi Council try to bring Ahsoka back into the fold with some eye rolling speecehes about how this was a test and would make her a better Jedi, not that the speeches were bad, but I would’ve been thinking ‘Man, f**k you guys! You didn’t have my back and I’m supposed to fall for this outright ass kissing?!’ While they were talking I was hoping Ahsoka would tell them all to go to hell and to save the fake speech for someone who gives a rat’s ass. Sure enough that’s what she did, though in a more civilized manner than I could ever have conjured up had that been me, but I tend to tell it like it is.

As Ahsoka leaves the Jedi Temple Anakin runs her down to try to change her mind one last time, and it’s to no avail. He tells her he knows what it’s like to want to walk away from the Jedi Order, a clear allusion to his relationship with Padme, to which Ahsoka responds ‘I know’. I was thinking it as she said it, and my editor in chief, Marc, mentioned it as we were recording The Empire Talks Back podcast yesterday, that it was obvious Anakin was not able to hide his marriage from Ahsoka. If there is to be a new season I wonder if that will play any role going forward? It’s also obvious that we can all assume Ahsoka survives Order 66 as she wouldn’t have been present when the clone troopers turned on the Jedi, which still makes me wonder, what the hell happens to her then. If we don’t get a new season to deal with this, I am expecting an Expanded Universe work to come in the future to fill us in on what she has been up to after she left the Order.

Overall this was a great episode, though I was a bit let down with Barriss being the main villain who is not acting in concert with anyone else. All I can say is, Disney, you better be giving the Clone Wars a new home on Disney XD or I will be at the front of the riots.

4 out of 5 nerds

Follow Christopher on Twitter @AUDone44 and The Nerd @nerdfollowing. Also tune in to the new podcast, The Empire Talks Back, featuring our head nerd Marc Savage, with the ever hard working Bash and myself as co-hosts.