Hostage Crisis

"A secret shared is a trust formed."

- Moral

"Hostage Crisis" is the twenty-second and final episode in Season One of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series. It is the twenty-second episode of the series overall.

Official description
To free crime lord Ziro Hutt, bounty hunters seize control of the Senate Building and take hostages&mdash;completely unaware that Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker is still inside.

Plot summary
Cad Bane and his crew of bounty hunters, along with a few droid enforcers, arrived at the Senate landing zone, where they meet a host of Senate Commandos, who were not happy with their unauthorized arrival and tried to arrest him. However, three commandos are sniped by Aurra Sing from long-range and the rest of the bounty hunters overwhelm the members of the squad. A commando droid fools security into thinking that the Senate Commando squad had taken care of a group of protesters against the war before promptly taking their uniforms. Aurra Sing and the rest of the bounty hunters then meet the group on the landing platform.

A few levels above, in Senator Padmé Amidala's office, her husband, Anakin offers to take her to somewhere in the galaxy for a few weeks, where no one will recognize them, but Padmé is too focused on her work. Anakin then gave his lightsaber to Padmé to show that he trusts her with his life. However, he has to hide, as Threepio and Senator Organa are about to enter. Padmé quickly took the lightsaber off of her desk and hid it in her sleeve. Organa informs Padmé that they must meet in the lobby to discuss the Enhanced Privacy Invasion Bill. Meanwhile Bane and his crew take out the rest of the senate commandos and then go down to the control panel room and subdue the droids there, leaving Robonino to get the power down. The bounty hunters then leave to talk to some senators. Suddenly, once all the senators are gathered, the bounty hunters surround and take them hostage. Senator Philo attempts to leave only to be shot by Bane in the back. He then communicates with Chancellor Palpatine, demanding the release of Ziro the Hutt from captivity. Palpatine refuses to do so. Unfortunately, Bane proves his point by locking down the entire building, severing all communication with the outside. He then took every person's comlinks, but before he could search Padmé, who is holding Anakin's lightsaber in her sleeve, Bane noticed Anakin in the upper levels. Bane shot at him and then orders an IG-86 sentinel droid and Shahan Alama to get him.

Anakin manages to elude his pursuers and hot-wires a terminal to communicate with Palpatine. The Chancellor advises Anakin to get to the central power core to contact for help. Anakin managed to disconnect and hide before the bounty hunters find him, and then used a mind trick to convince Alama to check the other two floors. As the hunters split up, Anakin followed the IG-86 sentinel droid and managed to bash it into submission. Alama came back down to check and found the droid's mangled remains. Noticing no lightsaber slashes, he quickly figured out that Anakin wasn't armed. He reported this to Bane, who then sent Sing to assist Alama in the search.

Anakin managed to locate the power core, but a panicked Robonino shut the door behind him. Alama then come up behind Anakin. Though Anakin grabbed his gun, Sing then attacked Anakin, and Robonino shocked him into unconsciousness.

Bane then gave Palpatine instructions to give a pardon chip to Orn Free Taa to be transported to the prison where Ziro was being held. HELIOS-3D then came in to take the Senator. They arrived at the prison and shipped Ziro away.

An unconscious Anakin was dragged into the lobby, where the bounty hunters started to plant bombs that will go off if their laser detectors are triggered. This enabled the hunters to leave the Senate unhindered, despite an attempt by Orn Free Taa, Palpatine and Clone Commander Fox's detachment of the Coruscant Guard to have them arrested. Anakin woke up and Padmé gave him back his lightsaber, playing it off as that Anakin had dropped it. He then managed to save everyone by cutting a hole in the floor and dropping everyone one floor down, just before Bane triggered the bombs anyway for the clone troopers' interference. Padme then thanked Anakin for his daring escape.

Cad Bane had liberate Ziro from prison, and they escaped successfully. Ziro congratulated Bane on a job well done, but Bane stated that it was time to pay, pointing out that he doesn't work for free.

Cast

 * Corey Burton as Cad Bane, Ziro the Hutt, Shahan Alama
 * Matt Lanter as Anakin Skywalker
 * Catherine Taber as Padmé Amidala, BD-3000 luxury droid
 * Phil LaMarr as Bail Organa, Orn Free Taa, Philo
 * Ian Abercrombie as Sheev Palpatine
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Clone troopers, Robonino, Onaconda Farr
 * Matthew Wood as Commando droid, HELIOS-3E, Senate Guard #1, #2
 * Tom Kane as Narrator, Captain Jayfon
 * David Acord as Senate Commandos, Assistant droid
 * Anthony Daniels as C-3PO
 * Jaime King as Aurra Sing

Behind the scenes
According to USA Today, "Hostage Crisis" had 3.3 million viewers&mdash;the series' highest ratings since the premiere.

In one version of the script, Senate Vice Chair Mas Amedda was to be in the executive office with Palpatine. However, the character was changed to Senator Orn Free Taa, as his character model already existed, and would not require more work to produce.

The text on the back of Robonino's backpack reads "PATSFAN-01" in Aurebesh.

This marks the first time the LEP servant droids are seen in the service of the Republic, as all previous appearances had them as Separatist droids&mdash;albeit non-combatants.

Clone Commander Fox's appearance in the episode was not confirmed until its Decoded airing.