“A failure in planning is a plan for failure.”

I’m of two minds about “Evil Plans,” the latest episode from The Clone Wars. On the one hand, parts of it were quite entertaining, the animation was exceptional, and there were some very dark and ominous moments. But the episode also felt a bit uneven and awkwardly paced. Some of the juxtapositions in the episode, while understandable, didn’t help matters. But more than anything, this felt less like a self-contained episode and more like a collage of smaller moments, leading to an important link in a much larger story.

Essentially, this is the story of how bounty hunter Cad Bane acquires the floor plans to the Senate Building — plans he will put to effective use in Season One’s finale, “Hostage Crisis.” I really like the idea of going back and expanding on prior episodes, building continuity as the series goes forward — a notion established in the Season Three premiere, “Clone Cadets.” But I think there’s been something missing behind the execution of this concept. The new episodes just haven’t featured the same self-contained quality that the originals managed to convey.

Such is the case here — despite some truly noteworthy scenes.

The episode opens promisingly with a scene between Padmé and Anakin. Padmé is stressed about a social party that will drum up votes for one of her causes and Anakin quite lovingly and tenderly reassures her. It’s a subtle scene, but it does wonders for the relationship between these characters. They haven’t had a whole lot of screen time together — either in The Clone Wars or in the movies — and moments like we see here are important to continue to emphasize their very natural and constructive love for one another.

To help ease Padmé’s worries, Anakin sends C-3PO and R2-D2 on a desperate mission … to buy fruit for the party’s dessert cake. This then is the impetus for putting putting the two droids in harm’s way (unknowingly by our heroes, of course). Shortly after an amusing scene in which Threepio barters (rather poorly) for the fruit, he’s captured by Bane’s droids, who mistakenly thinks that C-3PO is the one who would hold the information he needs.

And this is where the episode gets a bit … uneven.

C-3PO is, essentially, tortured by Cad Bane. The imagery of the scene is incredibly rendered. The atmospherics of Bane’s lair — the smoke and dust lingering in the red-tinted air — are foreboding and ominous (I mean, just look at the picture at the top of the review; great stuff, to be sure). The implications of using torture to acquire information aren’t lost on the audience. But it’s a little difficult to share the same emotional connection to Threepio as we would to, say, Satine of Mandalore, who was likewise tortured. The best part of the sequence is Threepio’s amusing retort to Bane about etiquette.

Furthermore, C-3PO’s torture scenes are juxtaposed with a whimsical, frivolous sequence in which R2-D2 enjoys the comforts of a “Maintenance Spa For Droids.” It seems clear that Artoo’s scenes are meant to be an emotional counterbalance to the darker Threepio scenes. But is the audience really meant to laugh at the fact that Artoo is having a relaxing spa experience while his buddy is being relentlessly tortured? I think Threepio’s dry wit did a better job of providing the necessary balance.

Still, once Artoo leaves the Spa and notices that his friend is missing, he’s immediately concerned. In fact, when Bane’s droids return to the area to hunt for Artoo — after finally realizing that Threepio didn’t have what they wanted — our favorite little astromech proves that he’s willing to sacrifice himself to help is counterpart. It’s a great moment tucked into the episode and, much like the scenes with Padmé and Anakin, nicely underlines a key relationship in the Star Wars mythos.

Ultimately Bane does get the information he wants from R2-D2 and so he heads off to Tatooine to deliver it to Jabba the Hutt. The whole sequence in Jabba’s palace works very well — from the nostalgia it evokes to the continuity to creates to “Hostage Crisis,” to the bravado Bane shows. It’s a great sequence — but it also feels like it’s part of an entirely different episode to the one we’ve been shown thus far. This is further reinforced by what transpires once Bane’s scene is concluded. After he accepts a new job from the Hutt’s, it’s back to Coruscant and the resolution of C-3PO’s mission (he does return with the fruit in time, and Padmé’s soiree is a success).

But this, ultimately, is the fundamental problem with the episode. It’s got some great scenes. There’s humor and tension. The character moments are important. Even the settings are well-done (the street-slums of Coruscant are suitably gritty and dangerous). But it all feels disjointed and unevenly strung together.

Overall Grade: C+

“Evil Plans” is the rare case where the total is less than the sum of its parts. This episode of The Clone Wars does a lot of things quite well, but the final presentation is somewhat lacking.

Featured Article: The Clone Wars Episode Timeline
Topics: Anakin Skywalker, C-3PO, Cad Bane, Coruscant, Fantasy, Jabba The Hutt, Padmé Amidala, R2-D2, Sci-Fi, Tatooine, Todo 360, TV Reviews
Filed under: Clone Wars

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