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.

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 I-class assault ship, Obi-Wan Kenobi boards the Crumb Bomber, planning on taking the city of Nabat as a landing zone for the ground assault forces. However, Wat Tambor anticipates this, and Tactical droid commander TX-20 readies the proton cannons, while using captive Twi’leks as a “living shield” to further protect them.

Obi-Wan and Clone Commander Cody brief Ghost Company on their mission, and while they must retake the city, they cannot destroy the Twileks’ home, and are only allowed to use blasters and droid poppers. Above, the Acclamator assault ships are attacked by the proton cannons below, and Mace Windu tasks Obi-Wan with taking the cannons out so that the transports can land. The Crumb Bomber lands with the other gunships, and Obi-Wan and Ghost Company utilize droid poppers to take out the droids in the bunkers.

Upon losing contact with the droids on the village’s outer perimeter, TX-20 sends 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 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.

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 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. 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. Cody and his men create a diversion, while Obi-Wan, Waxer and Boil rescue the Twi’lek prisoners, and 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 Obi-Wan to help. TX-20 targets Obi-Wan and Numa, but the Twi’leks return, overrun the tank, and tear TX-20 to bits.

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. 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”.

Cast

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

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" and "Liberty on Ryloth", as well as the comic "Headgames", in which they made their first appearance.

The Tactical droid laugh before he was about to kill Obi-Wan was very much like 'Terminator' theme.