Star Wars: The Clone Wars - "Kidnapped" Review

Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.

"Kidnapped" began a new three-part arc, one which returns to focusing on the central Clone Wars trio of Anakin, Ahsoka and Obi-Wan. So far, so good, as the this first episode did a nice job of giving all three characters strong moments.

The opening description of the Togruta "Artisan colony" had me a bit wary that this would be yet another storyline about how pacifists react when faced with the Clone Wars, as that road's been pretty well traveled on the show via the Lurmen and the Mandalorians. But it turned out the Togruta themselves were not the focus, as the Separatists quickly captured them and took them to off-cameraville.

New Ashley Eckstein ("Ahsoka Tano") Interview
The idea of Anakin facing an enemy – the Zygerrians – who were slavers, and the anger that would unleash within him, was a compelling one – as was the fact that Anakin has never opened up to Ahsoka about his own time in slavery. It was a well-done touch when Anakin seemed so close to actually killing the captured D'Nars, and Ahsoka had to finally step in and simply say, "Master…", getting him to back off.

I really liked Obi-Wan's fight with the evil Darts D'Nar, because of how one-sided it was – in the bad guy's favor! Our Jedi heroes shouldn't be great at everything and it was clear that when not using any of his Jedi abilities or his lightsaber, Obi-Wan was not as physically strong or adept at one-on-one fighting as D'Nar… though he did get a couple of nice punches in. But mostly, he got pummeled, and it was pretty brutal, especially when that glass shattered beneath him. Of course, Obi-Wan was using this fight as a stalling tactic and it was oh-so satisfying when he finally was able to use the Force again, crushing those droids. And yes, I laughed at that one droid D'Nars activated a bomb on asking, "Sir, how could you?"

Watch a scene from "Kidnapped"

For Ahsoka, this episode mainly focused on her kicking ass, which she did very well. Two moments involving her leaping off that speeder bike sidecar (a fun touch itself) were great: First, when she hopped onto another speeder bike, deftly decapitating a Commando Droid and then when she leapt onto that tank, throwing a detonator into it and blowing it up from the inside. The fact that the Togruta are Ahsoka's people only came up at the very end of the episode, but I suspect we might find out a bit more about how that makes Ahsoka feel as this story continues.

The action highlight of the episode meanwhile was Anakin and Ahsoka's battle with that tentacled creator onboard D'Nar's ship. The fact that the hanger bay doors were open behind them and that they were trying not to fall out, while also fighting this thing, added a nice element of chaos to it all – underscored when Anakin finally killed the creature, but was nearly dragged out with its corpse.

I do wish this show would more actively touch upon what's happened before as we move from one story arc to the next. Sure, the focus wasn't on the Clones here, but some signs of what they just went through in the Umbara storyline would have been appreciated – whether it be a nod to Rex's increasingly disillusioned attitude or a mention of Waxer's death when his old buddy Boil showed up briefly.

Also, the reveal at the end that all of the Togruta had been taken off planet, presumably to be turned into slaves, made me wonder what the point was of Dooku personally coming to the planet at the beginning of the episode. Why bother sweet-talking these people at all, if they were just going to be rounded up and taken away?

That being said, Yoda observing that the gathering of slaves was something that could be a great tool "for the rise of the Sith" was pretty interesting. In this episode, we got some mentions of Jedi in the past having stopped the Zygerrians large slave trade and I would love to see more of the past touched upon and perhaps learn just how specific Yoda's correlation between Sith and slavery is.

Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @EricIGN.

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