Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Season 1 Episode 16: The Hidden Enemy
What is it ? : Anakin and Obi-Wan have organised an ambush on Separatist forces on the planet of Christophsis, however the droids ambush them knowing full details of their plan. Realising they probably have a traitor in their midst, they assign the Clone Commanders Rex and Cody to investigate, while they head off to challenge the leader of the separatists.
Rex and Cody use R2-D2 to discover the transmissions are coming from a particular barracks, and they interrogate the squad who uses that barracks, discovering one particular Clone who seems to like breaking the rules. However the leader of the squad reveals information he shouldn't possess, revealing it to be him.
Obi-Wan and Anakin discover Asajj Ventress is in charge on this planet, and fight her until they discover a fresh invasion force is arriving and they flee.
Meanwhile, Rex and Cody are having problems catching the traitor as he's got all the same training as them, and has planned ahead. The armory of the base gets sabotaged, but Cody and Rex outwit the traitor and capture him.
High Points : This is another excellent episode, which tells a good amount of story in very little time. The cityscape the story takes part in, wouldn't look out of place in cyberpunk, and while being a city planet like Coruscant, manages to look and feel completely different. The only problem is apart from the two armies, it's totally abandoned, it would have been nice to see some people cowering among the ruins, otherwise battle looks a little too clean.
The Clone traitor has fairly well explained reasons for rebelling against his training, after all he has been born into slavery, although it comes a little from nowhere, and none of the other clones even seem to have considered it.
While Obi-Wan and Anakin do initiate the main storyline, and do go off for a fight with Ventress, they are almost completely sidelined, with Cody and Rex being the main characters in the story, and we get a good glimpse into the psyche of the Clone Troopers, which I really enjoyed.
Low Points : Star Wars has never been great for it's names, with Darth Sidious, The Rancor, and General Grievous, all notably bad examples. However the brief introduction of General Loathsom made me laugh out loud. If your surname is Loathsom, you really can't be expected to enter a non-evil line of business, you can hardly imagine his a baker with a shop named Loathsom Cakes.
The Clone Trooper who is briefly considered to be the traitor, is shown to collect droid fingers as a memento of his kills, and it told he's sick for doing it. This is obviously referencing that some soldiers in wars have been known to collect finger bones. However, really is his habit actually any worse than the kill markings that Clone Pilots have been shown to mark their vessels with, and certainly not a particular mark of a sick mind.
And as noted above, Anakin and Obi-Wan head off to the Separatist base to challenge their leader, and basically walk into the enemy base unopposed. This is a trap set by Ventress, but their activity has no connection to the main storyline at all. They don't capture the traitor, they don't discover any important information, they have a fight and come back. Which is pretty much the role of the Jedi in the Clone Wars, they have fights with the enemy leaders, while the Clone Troopers get on with the real war.
So what do you really think ? : Really liked this episode, once again it focused on non-hero characters, if only they'd just cut Anakin and Obi-Wan down to an appearance at the beginning and end, and left out their trip to see Ventress completely.
I don't know if they'll deal with the Clone Troopers feelings about being born into slavery at all in the future, but I found the introduction of it absolutely great and really do want to see more.
Final Words : Some great ideas introduced here, and promotion of minor characters to starring roles, something I've been wanting throughout the series. Two great episodes in a row, I hope it continues.
Score : 9/10
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