Innocents of Ryloth

"The costs of war can never be truly accounted for."

- Moral

"Innocents of Ryloth" is the twentieth episode in Season One of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series. It is the twentieth episode of the series overall.

Official description
To sabotage a powerful Separatist weapon, Obi-Wan and a small clone force enter an occupied town, and discover that its residents are being used as a living shield.

Plot summary
Aboard an Acclamator-class transgalactic military assault ship, Mace Windu tells Obi-Wan Kenobi as he boards the Crumb Bomber that when he takes the city of Nabat they'll have their landing zone for the ground assault forces. However, Wat Tambor anticipates this, and Tactical droid commander TX-20 readies his five proton cannons, while using captive Twi'leks as a “living shield” to further protect them, estimating that the Jedi will not risk a heavy attack.

Obi-Wan and Clone Commander Cody brief Ghost Company on their mission, and while they must retake the city, they cannot destroy the Twi'leks’ home, and are only allowed to use blasters and droid poppers only. Above, the Acclamator assault ships are attacked by the proton cannons below, Commander Ponds states to Windu that the fire is penetrating their shield. Windu tasks Obi-Wan with taking the cannons out so that the larger transports can land. The Crumb Bomber lands with the other gunships, and Obi-Wan and Ghost Company move towards Nabat. Droid gunners on the outskirts of Nabat pin down Ghost Comapany. Obi-wan and two troopers, Waxer and Boil, utilize droid poppers to take out the droids in the bunkers.

After losing contact with the droids on the village’s outer perimeter, TX-20 sends two recon droids to find out the Jedi’s plan, while Obi-Wan dispatches Cody, Wooley, Waxer and Boil to scout ahead. Waxer and Boil head south, while Cody and Wooley go to the courtyard. The latter discover the Twi’leks being held hostage in the cannons' immediate vicinity. Obi-Wan, saying to windu via hologram, that the hostages will make this difficult but not impossible, hits upon a plan to disable the guns without letting the hostages come into any danger, but unfortunately a recon droid broadcasts their conference to TX-20, who recognizes Kenobi and begins researching his opponent who is known for deceptive movements.

Waxer and Boil stumble across the young Twi’lek orphan Numa, who at first is fearful of them. After they remove their helmets, Numa relaxes a bit; she calls them both “Nerra”, and takes a ration bar that they give her. Waxer and Boil move out to finish their scouting, Waxer doing so reluctantly, but Numa follows the two clones. Waxer is still worried about her, while Boil tries to keep him focused on the mission. Numa somehow gets ahead of them and leads her to a shattered building that was once her home. Waxer and Boil, moved by the losses the war has inflicted upon the child, take it upon themselves to keep her safe.

TX-20 reveals his plan: to use starved gutkurrs to take out the Republic forces. Back at the Republic camp, Cody has noticed Waxer and Boil’s absence, and broadcasts a transmission to contact them. Seeing the Republic troops on the move, TX-20 orders the gutkurrs released. The two clones receive the transmission, and realizing that they are severely late, they try to brainstorm possible excuses. However, the gutkurrs suddenly appear, and the two clones and Numa rush back into the house. Numa shows the clones an escape passage, and they run into the underground tunnels just in time.

Meanwhile, Ghost Company is attacked by the gutkurrs. Obi-Wan uses the Force to lure the creatures into an alley bordered by a bridge. Cody and his men fire at the bridge, and the gutkurrs are trapped, while Obi-Wan leaps out. Though the clones defeat the creature, TX-20 knows that they are very thin. Suddenly, Waxer and Boil emerge from a hatch in the street nearby, with Numa in tow. Obi-Wan converses to Numa in Twi'leki, who agrees to lead them to the prisoners while Cody and his men create a diversion, with Obi-Wan, Waxer and Boil freeing the Twi’lek prisoners. After Obi-Wan frees the prisoners, Numa is reunited with her uncle, Nilim Bril. However, a battle droid reports the rescue attempt, and TX-20 turns his AAT around.

Obi-Wan takes control of a proton cannon, and with the help of Waxer and Boil, he manages to destroy the other cannons. However, a blast from TX-20’s tank destroys their cannon and knocks the three to the ground. Numa runs to her clone friends and huddles close to Obi-Wan, even as he tries to push her out of the line of fire. TX-20 targets Obi-Wan and Numa, laughing evilly and gloating that Obi-Wan has lost. Incensed by the threat to Numa, the Twi'leks rush out of hiding, swarm over the tank and tear TX-20 to pieces with their bare hands - a possibility the hyper-intelligent droid has not foreseen, as evidenced by its last words, "does not compute... does not compute...!"

The Acclamator transports land, and Mace Windu commends Obi-Wan on his victory. However, their new objective is much harder: to take the Ryloth capital of Lessu and free this world. Waxer and Boil say goodbye to Numa. As the army heads toward the capital, Numa calls “Nerra!” out to Waxer and Boil again, and Obi-Wan translates: “Nerra” means “brother”. Smiling, Waxer and Boil turn and wave back at Numa, before moving out toward the sun, intent on freeing this world.

Cast

 * Dee Bradley Baker as Clone troopers
 * James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi
 * Corey Burton as Commander TX-20, Nilim Bril
 * Matthew Wood as Battle droids, Wat Tambor
 * Catherine Taber as Numa
 * Terrence Carson as Mace Windu
 * Tom Kane as Narrator

Behind the scenes
Production-wise, this is the first episode to feature the Tactical droids, which were created to provide a non-organic commander that would then need to be eliminated later, such as the likes of Whorm Loathsom, Lok Durd and Mar Tuuk. The Tactical droids were also featured in "Jedi Crash", "The Hidden Enemy" and "Liberty on Ryloth", as well as the comic "Headgames", in which they made their first appearance.

TX-20's laugh before he is about to kill Obi-Wan is very much like the Terminator theme.

When Obi-Wan Kenobi orders Cody to send in Waxer and Boil to destroy the bunker, Boil is sitting next to Obi-Wan Kenobi, but when he is saying "let's take them out", a clone trooper with no markings on his armor is sitting next to Obi-Wan Kenobi instead.

Commander Cody hands Obi-Wan his lightsaber after he defeats the Gutkurrs, just like he did during the Battle of Utapau in Revenge of the Sith''.