Hello and welcome to Clone Wars Conversations with @Doctor Starwars! I'm excited to begin this series, which focuses on the legendary and popular TV show known as Star Wars: Clone Wars. We will be speculating, discussing, and reviewing one episode each week on Friday. I hope you have fun and enjoy it. Before we begin, I will issue a SPOILER ALERT for those who have not watched "Cat and Mouse" yet. If you haven't, GO watch it. Anyway, as said before, we will be discussing the first episode chronologically, "Cat and Mouse". So, let's begin.
Synopsis: Obi-Wan and Anakin must deliver supplies to Christophsis while the planet is under Separatist control. They encounter Separatist Commander Admiral Trench and get more than they bargained for...
Summary: So, Christophsis is under attack and has been blockaded by a Harch admiral known as Trench. He is a tarantula-like master tactician whom I would go as far as to call him "Clone Wars Thrawn", because of his creepy genius and ability to survive so much, as you'll find out eventually.
Anyways, Bail Organa's troops on the surface of Christophsis are in grave trouble. They're running out of supplies for their relief mission and, Trench's forces and beginning to run them over. Bail sends a plea to the Resolute, a plea heard by Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and Republic admiral Yularen.
But things are not going well for the Galactic Republic in space either. Trench's blockade is growing stronger and Anakin's forces are also getting brutally pummeled. Anakin begins to realize that hope that the Republic would win was fading each second of this battle. He prepares to launch a desperate attack one that would almost certainly cost him his life by running into Trench's flagship, the Invincible.
But at the last second, the Negotiator, Obi-Wan Kenobi's flagship pops out of the realm of hyperspace. Obi-Wan, supported by Yularen protest Anakin's desperate plan. A reluctant Anakin then orders his troops to fall back and retreat behind Christophsis' moon.
Obi-Wan then reveals that he has the prototype of a secret weapon that Trench's forces won't see coming. Literally. Yes, he had a stealth ship, equipped with a powerful cloaking device. Anakin is quite excited to blow up Trench's flagship, but Obi-Wan reminds him that their main goal is to restock Bail's supplies on Christophsis. With that, they prepare to depart.
Meanwhile, back on the Resolute, Admiral Yularen makes a shocking discovery. He recognizes Trench's emblem on the Separatist ships and joins Anakin as the Jedi is about to depart. He proceeds to tell him about how Trench has supposedly perished years ago in battle and how convinced he is that Trench is now in command of the blockade fleet. With this new revelation, Yularen joins Anakin as a volunteer advisor.
Trench then orders his droid bombers to bomb Bail's command center, wanting to add more pressure to the Republic fleet.
An even more desperate Bail Organa contacts the fleet once more. Obi-Wan then realizes that he must face Trench's forces, but Admiral Yularen deduces that this is a trap.
After narrowly avoiding an inadvertent collision with the bombers, and having received a message from Obi-Wan regarding Bail's peril, Anakin decides to attack Trench's ship directly, hoping to divert Trench's attention from the planet. The ploy is successful, but Anakin's attack is thwarted by the Invincible's thermal shields.
After seeing Anakin in action, Trench realizes that this pilot is no clone, he is a Jedi. Trench, hoping to trick Anakin into attacking him, commends Skywalker's bravery in challenging him, but he warns he has faced and beaten ships armed with cloaking devices before.
A puzzled Skywalker and Yularen think about Trench's words and wonder how and if he had faced cloaked ships before. Obi-Wan confirms Trench's ominous words and that in these previous cases, Trench used tracking torpedoes to destroy the enemy whether or not their ship was cloaked. Anakin then theorizes that Trench locks the torpedoes onto an enemy ship's magnetic signature.
Anakin then comes up with a plan.
Sensing a way to use this against him, Skywalker attacks again. This time Trench is able to lock onto the stealth ship's magnetic signature and fires tracking torpedoes, but is forced to lower his shields to do so. With the torpedoes locked onto them, Skywalker flies straight at the Invincible. Realizing his mistake too late, Trench orders the shields be raised, but their recycling time takes too long for that.
As Trench watches in horror, Skywalker flies the stealth ship inches past the Invincible's bridge, and seconds later the tracking torpedoes slam into the superstructure, destroying the Invincible.
An amazed Kenobi and Yularen congratulate and commend Anakin on his successful mission. Now that the Separatists are leaderless, they will be much more vulnerable. With that, Cody and Kenobi launch an attack, while Anakin gives the supplies to Organa and his men.
Cool Behind the Scenes facts: Jedi Master Kep-She was supposed to be mentioned as the Jedi who broke the blockade during the Battle of Malastare Narrows. However, Kep-She's name was cut from the final episode but was still mentioned in the trivia gallery of the episode section on StarWars.com.
Early in the production, the team was going to call Trench Admiral Taranch, an obvious nod to his tarantula inspiration, but eventually settled for Trench. But, his intelligence record that Yularen looked up (See sixth picture), Trench's named is still spelled Taranch.
My viewpoint: I thought this episode was quite intriguing. We get a new creepy, spidery genius who's Dooku's' lackey and we get to see Anakin doing some pretty dope stuff. In fact, one of the things I enjoy about Rebels and Clone Wars is character development and watching our character (Anakin, in this case) grow in wisdom and strength. Oh, and I HATE Trench's voice. It's so annoying and it gives me the jitters for some reason.
That's it for now! Thanks for taking the time to read this post. If you want, tell me what you thought about the episodes or something you want me to add in the comment section!
Doctor Starwars out.
