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Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Season 2 Episode 15: Senate Murders

What is it ? : A political intrigue episode, with a vote about to happen in the Senate to stop expansion of the Clone Army, the Senator responsible for organising the vote is assassinated, Onaconda Farr, a rodian Amidala calls Uncle. Amidala investigates the murder having no faith in the police investigation, and speaks to the delegation behind the moves to extend the Clone Army, the delegate from Kamino, Halle Burtoni, and Senator Mee Deechi who deems their activities to be unpatriotic.
They do however reveal that they'd had Farr followed, and he attended a secret meeting at the Docks, so Amidala and Bail Organa go there to look for evidence and run into an ambush. The Police aren't happy about them running their own investigation, and when they return to question Mee Deechi about the ambush, they find him dead, so the Police place them in protective custody. Farrs assistant refuses, then returns moments later to say that Halle Burtoni has attacked her, and the Police arrest Burtoni as the poison used on Farr and Mee Deechi turned out to be Kaminoan.
Amidala realises that a poison keyed to Rodian Physiology had been placed in all of their drinks, but only Farr had died, not his assistant, who is outed as the murderer.
Because of the intrigue and murders, the Senate votes for more power for the Army to protect the people against the continuing corruption of the Republic.

High Points : The story moves along well, and there are enough villains to distract you from the actual murderer, so the ending comes as a surprise.

One possible positive point is the Police Detective in charge of the case, he seems positively annoyed by Senators running off and investigating things for themselves, and has his own theories, which aren't right, but then again for the majority of the episode, neither are the heroes. I like the idea of someone just doing their job, and being annoyed at politicians just jumping in thinking they can do his job better.
However, I do say that it's only possible this is a positive point of the episode, and it will very much depend on how the character is treated if he returns.
If this character is treated as a professional, who just doesn't want untrained amateurs endangering their own lives and blundering around into gunfights and ambushes, which would make him an antagonist but not a villain, then I really want to see more of him. But if he's treated, as is possibly indicated during this episode, as a jobsworth incompetent idiot who won't get his job done except for intervention from the heroes, then I really don't have time for that kind of stereotype.

Low Points : While I'm giving this episode a fairly good rating, and it doesn't do anything too much wrong, it has a number of niggles and flaws which make it far from the best the series has to offer.

Firstly, after a Senator is assassinated, why aren't the Jedi involved? We see Yoda at the ceremony for the deceased Senator, and in Attack of the Clones when Amidala had an assassination attempt made on her life, the Jedi were called in rather than the Police. So just who is responsible for the Senate security, the Senate Guard? The Police?, or The Jedi?, or just whoever is necessary for the plot (The Star Wars lived in universe isn't looking so lived in anymore).

I asked this last episode, why the hell do the Ambassadors, Senators, and other Politicians from other planets, cultures and species not have some kind of diplomatic immunity? Why is a common Police Lieutenant interfering with the running of the government of the entire galaxy?

Kamino now has a Senator, based on it's providing the Clone Army, who is advocating for expansion of the Clone Army, doesn't this strike anyone in the Senate as a conflict of interest?

So what do you really think ? : While this episode had a number of niggles, I still quite enjoyed it. The major point of distraction came from my eldest son and I noticing a number of parallels with current US politics as we watched, and when Amidala was being accused of being anti-patriotic because she wanted to block expansion of the clone army, we did start chanting "Lock her up, lock her up."

Final Words : An episode which could have been so much better, whose only defense for the flaws is "it's for kids", which doesn't carry water with me.

Score : 7.5/10

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