Tales of the Underworld: Episode 5: A Good Turn
What is it ? : Colby is with his criminal mentor, Lazlo, who is leaving for an operation at Colby's old neighbourhood, Colby wants to accompany him, but Lazlo tells him to stay behind and watch the store. Later Lazlo's ship comes in damaged, and Lazlo dies, Colby decides to get revenge taking Lazlo's hat as his own.
Colby arrives back in his old neighbourhood, and stands at the store window although the store is now abandoned when his old friend Niro. Niro is now a deputy marshall and addressing him by his old nickname of Cad, and warns Colby to not cause trouble, Colby introduces Niro to his girlfriend Arin, and asks if it was Niro who killed Lazlo, but Niro tells him no, that would have been the marshall.
Colby vows revenge on the Marshall, but Niro tells him that they are making improvements in the neighbourhood, and Colby should leave unless he wants to help. Arin convinces Colby to leave.
Later in their starship, Arin tries to convince Colby to not go after the Marshall, hinting at her being pregnant, and saying if the marshall could take down Lazlo, then he might also kill Colby, but Colby dons Lazlo's hat and leaves.
He arrives back at the store, smashing the window and throwing a grenade inside, which causes police droids to arrive.
At the police station, Niro speaks to the marshall who asks if he managed to get through to Colby, but he tells him Colby was always stubborn. They are alerted to the explosion, and Niro asks the marshall if he's going to kill Colby, which the marshall responds isn't his choice.
The marshall arrives at the store, spotting destroyed police droids, and Colby asks if he's the lawman, identifying himself as Cad Bane. The two reach for their blasters as Niro and Arin arrive, Niro calls on Colby to not shoot, but this only distracts the marshall who is killed, his own shot going wild and hitting Arin.
Arin tries to convince Colby to flee, but he refuses to leave her, allowing Niro to grab his own blaster, calling on his old friend to surrender as more police arrive, Colby refuses despite Arin pleading with him. Reaching for his blaster only to discover that Arin has removed it. He calls her a traitor, and she tells him that if she hadn't acted they would have both died.
Colby is put in handcuffs, and Niro asks him if it was worth it, to which he replies, "it will be."
High Points : I'm actually struggling to find high points in this episode, while everything is done very competently, the animation is great, the voice acting well done, there's nothing which stands out. I have to admit really enjoying the Niro part of this story, and Cad Bane's origin story keeps getting in the way. The story of the street kid, who was caught and put on the right track, and begins helping out his old neighbourhood as he becomes a marshall is an interesting one.
Low Points : I know they're trying to show that Cad Bane is a bad guy to the core, despite having friends around him, and all the opportunities to not do the wrong thing, he chooses that he's going to be bad. But this story of a bad guy trying to avenge another bad guy isn't very interesting.
So what do you really think ? : While the episode is fine, as I mention above, I'm not compelled by Cad Bane as a character, he's always been a shallow, I'm evil and cool and only dangerous because the writers want me to be evil and cool. He doesn't get smart dialogue, he doesn't make smart decisions, why should I care about this character.
Final Words : So only one episode to go, and it's very obvious what's going to happen since we know Cad goes onto appear on Clone Wars, Bad Batch and The Book of Boba Fett. I really can't help but think these episodes have missed an opportunity to flesh out Bane as a character. If we'd discovered that all he was doing was to channel support back to his old neighbourhood and do some good there, it might have made him more interesting. Or even if we'd seen where he gets his skills from, because he's this amazing gunfighter, but this is chronologically the first time we see him with a blaster, so have no idea if he was trained, or if this is just supposed to be all natural talent.
We don't even discover where he gets his name from, apparently Niro knew his nickname was Cad back on the streets as a child, and Bane is either just something he summons up out of nowhere, or is actually his real surname. Not even a cliched "I'm your Bane Marshall!", leading to him using the name.
Score : 8/10
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