The Box

"The strong survive, the noble overcome."

- Moral

"The Box" is the seventeenth episode of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series' fourth season. It aired on February 3, 2012.

Official description
"The disguised Obi-Wan accompanies Cad Bane and Moralo Eval to Serenno, where they enlist in a brutal competition with other bounty hunters from around the galaxy to determine who will participate in a plot to kidnap the Chancellor."

Synopsis
The trio consisting of the disguised Obi-Wan, Moralo Eval, and Cad Bane arrive at Dooku's palace on Serenno, where the Count himself welcomes them, although the latter chastises Eval for his delay. From the Count, Obi-Wan and Bane learn that a contest is about to take place, and the two of them are invited to participate. The participants already on site include some of the galaxy's most successful - and thus notorious - bounty hunters: Next to Bane and Obi-Wan's disguise template, this includes Embo, Derrown, Twazzi, Sixtat, Jakoli, Mantu, Kiera Swan, Sinrich, and Onca (whose brother was just moments before murdered by Bane for his hat). Unarmed, all of them are to face a life-and-death challenge in the Box, a huge floating structure designed by Eval and filled with deathtraps; and only the first five survivors will be chosen for the task Dooku has in store for them, in return for a handsome reward. Meanwhile, in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, Anakin Skywalker's suspicions about Obi-Wan are in the meantime confirmed by none other than Master Yoda himself, who apologizes for the deception but also makes it clear that due to Anakin's temper it would become too dangerous for Obi-Wan to involve himself in the mission.

Once they have been transferred into the Box, the contestants meet their first challenge: Dioxis seeping from a pit in the floor, and a number of column platforms which provide a conventient but only temporary refuge from the gas. With the aid of his helmet's breath filter systems, Obi-Wan descends into the pit, where he finds a tunnel leading them to the next challenge, a room with laser spike-tipped horizontal columns emerging from the walls which claim Onca, Kiera Swan, and Sinrich. However, Obi-Wan notices that the columns emerge in a certain pattern, thus serving as step-ladders to an escape route in the ceiling if the pattern is interpreted correctly, and leads his fellow contestants out of the chamber. The next contest involves a ray shield cage, whose walls slowly close in on the contestants, fitted with a likewise ray shielded turn-off switch. The only way to pass the switch shield would be a shot of a deadly serum which would shield its user against the shields' energy. By allowing Derrown to inject himself with the serum because the physiology of his race would allow him to survive the serum's effects, Obi-Wan once again manages to get the others out, save for Mantu and Jakoli, who are killed off by a ray shield emerging from the floor.

The contestants proceed to the final challenge: A chamber whose floor is brimming with pop-pout flamethrowers, a small holographic target, and one single sniper blaster. The test is to hit the target three times in succession, every miss meaning that the platform the contestants are standing on is made smaller, therefore eventually plunging them all into the inferno below once the platform is fully gone. Sixtat takes the first turn, but fails and is killed off. Obi-Wan comes next and successfully hits the target, but then Eval, who is supervising this challenge personally and has grown jealous of 'Hardeen's' success since Dooku would likely put Hardeen in charge of the mission instead of him, decides to raise the stakes by demanding five hits and leaving Obi-Wan only one single column to stand on. Obi-Wan hits the target four times, but then the rifle's power runs out, and Eval deviously decides to finish him.

But as Obi-Wan is plunging to his doom, he is saved by Bane, who along with Dooku challenges Eval to face Obi-Wan in personal combat. For this purpose, all flamethrowers but those along the walls are deactivated, and Eval and Obi-Wan are lowered to the floor for the fight. Eval fights dirty by first calling in several probe droids, which Obi-Wan destroys, and then changing the floor into a small maze, but Obi-Wan eventually smashes Eval's control bracelet. The two face off in a fistfight; Obi-Wan brings down Eval but refuses to kill him under the pretense, "With all due respect, I just wanna do my job and get my money." Nevertheless, he and his surviving compatriots are declared winners of the challenge and are entrusted with the Count's plan: to kidnap Supreme Chancellor Palpatine as he goes to visit Naboo and hold him hostage in exchange for the release of the Separatist leaders who have been captured by the Republic in the course of the war. But instead of Eval or Kenobi, Dooku assigns Bane to act as the strike team's leader.

Cast

 * Corey Burton as Cad Bane, Count Dooku, and Sixtat
 * James Arnold Taylor as Rako Hardeen/Obi-Wan Kenobi
 * Stephen Stanton as Moralo Eval
 * Matthew Wood as Derrown and MagnaGuard
 * Tom Kane as Narrator and Yoda
 * Dave Filoni as Embo and Jakoli
 * Matt Lanter as Anakin Skywalker
 * Ashley Eckstein as Kiera Swan

Behind the scenes
The concept of The Box is inspired by the 1997 film, The Cube.