"The Travelling Jindas" is the fifth episode of the first season of Ewoks. Written by Bob Carrau and directed by Raymond Jafelice, the episode originally aired on ABC on October 5, 1985.
Plot summary[]
Chores and babysitting[]
Latara is playing her flute outside of her hut, attracting several small animals, when her father approaches, telling her to finish her work. After beginning to scrub the floors, sad that she is not playing her flute, her friends arrive at her window inviting her to join them in looking at Paploo's new raft, unfortunately, she has to work so she declines. She tries to show them a song she recently created, but they awkwardly run away. She begins to play her flute to herself, but her mother approaches her and tells her to get back to work and to watch her brother and sister for her mother is going on errands, just then her young siblings run in and spill the bucket of water all over her.
At King Gorneesh's hut, his wife Urgah is also dealing with bratty kids, screaming if she doesn't get a babysitter, then Gorneesh won't get any food. This causes the King to think of an idea, so he goes and tells Duloks X and O to go kidnap an Ewok and bring it back there.
The Jinda circus[]
At the Bright Tree Village, Latara and her siblings are out picking berries when X and O spot her and plan on grabbing her when they are almost stepped on by a massive beast of burden ridden by the Tribe of Jindas, a traveling entertainment group. They convince Chief Chirpa to allow them to stay the night and perform for them. At the show, Latara's friends notice she has disappeared, wondering where to. Latara, having come up with the idea to go with them, since no one there appreciated her music, went to check out backstage.
The next day, Chief Chirpa thanks the Jindas for the performance and says his farewells, while Latara's friends attempt to convince Latara not to go. Having made up her mind, she makes them promise not to tell anyone, and stows away in one of the beasts luggage boxes. As the Jindas leave, X and O find it a good opportunity to kidnap Latara, if they follow the caravan, but Logray mentions to Chief Chirpa that they most likely will not see them again for they have a tendency to get lost between performances.
Latara's adventures[]
Some time in the caravan's journey, Latara makes herself known to Bondo, the leader of the Tribe, who assures her he will take care of her, but warns her that the entertainment business will have work too, but she still wants to join them anyway. During this conversation, X and O sneak onto the transport and try to grab Latara but fall off into the water because of the bridge they had begun to go over.
Back in Bright Tree Village, Latara's friends decide to tell Logray that she has joined the Jindas. He sends them to find her with a magic seed to get them out of trouble if any occurred.
As Latara washes clothes, Bondo speaks of their next performance that night, just as they arrive. The hardy leader jumps up to see who they are preforming before to discover a herd of tree goats. At the performance, X and O get ready to pose as tree goats, O unsure of the legitimacy of this plan, X shrugs all doubt off and continues with his plan. Bondo then takes the flute Latara has been playing, and places her in front of the tribe's magician, and says she will be performing with him that night.
When Latara and the magician go on, Latara recognizes that X and O are not tree goats, so when the branch they are hanging on breaks, and they fall right in front of her, she asks if they are enjoying the show, accidentally causing their branch to launch them into the air.
The next day, Latara, unhappy she has not been able to play her flute yet, decides she wants to return home, but when she tells Bondo, he reluctantly says they are lost, to which Latara begins tearing up over. Bondo reassures her and says after a while she will love the Jindas, but this does not cheer her up.
X and O, finally catching Latara alone, capture her in a net just in time for her friends to arrive. They witness X and O taking her away, and Wicket gets an idea on how to rescue her. They get Bondo and the rest of the caravan to journey to the Dulok village and play for them, while Wicket and his friends rescue Latara, dressed up as some of the Tribe members.
Rescuing Latara[]
The Duloks allow the performance, although they are very rude during it, and eventually when the magician goes on stage, he asks for a volunteer, suggesting Latara, who declines but, the King forces her to, enjoying the show. She goes up, puts on the harness, looks up and sees her friends, about to pull her up. Excited to escape, she awaits to be lifted, and she is a little, before a not in the ropes gets the pulley system stuck. To stall, Bondo suggests she play a song on her flute, to which she agrees.
During the song, the Ewoks attempt to untangle the ropes, but one of them falls with the rope wrapped around him, and pulls all of the others down, in the ruckus all of their costumes come off and the Duloks are angry to see Ewoks at their show. They chase the Ewoks, but Wicket takes the magic seed Logray gave them, and throws it into the swampy grounds the Duloks are running on. Suddenly vines spring out of the seed, grabbing any living thing nearby, all of the Duloks, and holds them for a while, allowing the Ewoks and the Jindas to return to Bright Tree Village and celebrate.
Continuity[]
A continuity error occurs in the episode: during the Travelling Jindas' show at Bright Tree Village, the Ewoks appear with four fingers on each hand, in contrast with the other scenes. According to most Star Wars canon, the Ewoks had only three fingers on each hand: a thumb, a forefinger, and a ring finger.
This episode was released on DVD in 2004 as part of the Tales from the Endor Woods feature film. It can be found on side 2 of the disc.
Credits[]
| Cast | Uncredited cast | Crew | Uncredited crew | Special thanks |
Cast
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Crew
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Appearances[]
| Characters | Organisms | Droid models | Events | Locations |
| Organizations and titles | Sentient species | Vehicles and vessels | Weapons and technology | Miscellanea |
Characters
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Organisms
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Locations
|
Organizations and titles
|
Sentient species
Vehicles and vessels
|
Miscellanea
|
Sources[]
"A Star Wars CELibration" — Star Wars Insider 27- Castaways of Endor on Hyperspace (article) (content obsolete and backup link not available)
Notes and references[]
- ↑
"A Star Wars CELibration" — Star Wars Insider 27
- ↑ "Star Wars Publications Timeline" — Star Wars Insider 23 dates the events of the Ewoks animated series, which include the events of "The Travelling Jindas," to three years after the events of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, which corresponds to 3 ABY, according to The New Essential Chronology.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 3.21 3.22 3.23 3.24 3.25 3.26 3.27 3.28 3.29 3.30 3.31 3.32 3.33 3.34 3.35 3.36 3.37 3.38 3.39 3.40 3.41 3.42 3.43 3.44 3.45
Ewoks — "The Travelling Jindas"
