Well, that was exciting!
After a week which had a rather aimless race through the woods, we got the big reveal of the Master, and some extremely fun lightsaber battles.
Osha wakes up to find a dead Jedi next to her, and the sounds of battle across the field. Through the trees, she sees the flicker of the red blade of the Master make quick work of the Jedi. In one EXTREMELY COOL move, he impales a Jedi on his lightsaber and then Force pulls ANOTHER Jedi onto the blade. He head butts lightsabers with his helmet, which causes them to short out. The Jedi seem badly outmatched, even though they outnumber him 10 to 1. As Yord gasps while getting Osha away from the fight, “He doesn’t obey the rules of combat!” (Oh my! Where are my Jedi pearls to clutch?)
Mae sees the chaos outside and decides to get away before the Master unleashes his wrath on her. But before she can leave, Jecki enters Kelnacca’s Hut to arrest her. Mae fights her off and tries to flee. Wait, wasn’t Mae going to surrender herself last week? Why is she running now? Is the threat of her Master enough to make her change plans again? Jecki, ever the eager student, is relentless and pursues her.
While they fight, Jedi Master Sol takes on the dark attacker. So far, he’s the only one who can put up any resistance. (That doesn’t speak well to your abilities as a trainer, BTW.) That is, until the Master disappears during the fight, reappearing by Jecki and Mae. He scoffs at Mae, telling her she could learn this Padawan. After all, she knows how to be loyal. Jecki tries to fight off the Master, and she does very well! (Apparently, she was the only one to pay attention in Sol’s lightsaber classes.) But, the Master is too much for her, and after some very impressive lightsabering, he kills her.
As Yord is leading Osha away, she appears to hear Mae’s cry for help in her mind. Even though Yord is insistent, and following Sol’s direct order to get her out of there, she has to turn back. As they pass through the trees full of hungry, giant umbramoths, Osha has an idea. She tells Yord to ignite his saber to get the moths to follow them.
Sol has caught up to the Master and re-engages. He whacks at the Master with his saber until the helmet breaks off, revealing…
Qimir!
Now, there was a lot of speculation online after last week that Qimir was the Master. After all, Qimir was on the planet and close enough to float into Kelnacca’s clearing. And they were all correct.
Qimir taunts him, saying that he is what the Jedi would label a Sith. He blames Sol for Jecki’s death, saying “you brought her here.” Qimir wants freedom. Freedom to wield his power how he likes without having to answer to the Jedi and their rules. As he says, if you don’t believe in rules, how can you break them? It’s just then that Yord and Osha come back to the clearing. Yord leaps in to fight and promptly gets his neck snapped by Qimir.
Enraged, Sol starts to pummel Qimir, and he is about to slice off Qimir’s head with his saber, when Osha screams at him to stop. Osha still believes in the Jedi, believes that they don’t kill unarmed or defenseless people, even if that person just murdered ten Jedi. (Osha, come on. This would save us so much hassle.) Sol thinks he’s past saving. “His mind is twisted by darkness!” “At least I’ve accepted my darkness,” retorts Qimir. “What have you done with yours?”
Osha wonders what he means by that, and starts to question Sol about what he’s hiding. It’s just about then that the umbramoths show up. Osha turns on Pip’s flashlight and sticks him to the back or the Master. The moths descend on Qimir, and in the chaos, Mae and Osha escape.
Once safely away, the twins finally have their reunion. But, like most things with family, it doesn’t really go like they’d hoped. Osha blames Mae for the fire that killed their family, plus the Jedi she killed. Mae is insistent that Osha has been brainwashed by the Jedi, and that they destroyed everything. And I would really like for Mae to get more into that, but she instead knocks out Osha. Mae then slices off her braids with a lightsaber, and it’s pretty clear what her next step is going to be.
“Osha” then finds Sol, and heads back to the ship with him. Sol, who got injured in his fight, doesn’t think anything is amiss. However, Bazil (Yay, Bazil’s back! And unharmed!) found Pip, and brought him back to the ship. He smells Pip, then smells after “Osha,” and he knows something is wrong.
This leaves Osha lying in the forest as Qimir approaches. Nice work, Mae. I really believe you when you say how deeply you care about your sister…
Now while the action was fantastic (I am seriously going to put a pre-order down for any Sideshow collectible that has the Master shishkebob-ing two Jedi at once), I am still confused by Mae and her whipsawing motivations. One minute she’s going to surrender to the Jedi, the next she’s plotting to kill Sol. One minute she has renounced the Master and his dark ways, the next she’s pledging fealty. One minute she’s overjoyed to see Osha, the next she’s knocking her unconscious and leaving her with the Master to fend for herself. And yes, each shift is spurred by a plot development, but there’s so little hesitation on her part.
Still, the action was really good. And unlike a few recent Star Wars shows I can mention (*cough,* Obi-Wan, *cough*) the lightsabers are once again deadly. (Remember when the Grand Inquisitor got disemboweled by a lightsaber, only to be back in three episodes? Change your batteries!) And to its credit, the show is not afraid to kill anyone. I grumped about Carrie-Anne Moss and the Wookiee getting killed before they could show off their Jedi skills, but this show also had no mercy for sweet young Jecki and Yord.
So, it’s a welcome improvement after last week. And I am still hoping we learn about what dark secret Sol is hiding, and whether or not he figures out that it’s Mae in his ship and not Osha. (Bazil! Help him!)
Episode Rating: 4 out of 5
