Broken Frontier

If you thought the one-hour season two finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars would be all about young Boba Fett, you’d only be sort of right. Yes, following the events of “Death Trap,” the heir apparent baddest bounty hunter in the galaxy is still out for revenge against Jedi Master Mace Windu, who killed his father Jango right in front of him. But the real star of “R2 Come Home and” and “Lethal Trackdown” is Aurra Sing, a close friend of Boba’s father who has taken the troubled youth under her wing.

In “R2 Come Home,” the first half of the season finale, Anakin Skywalker and Mace are on the planet Vanqor investigating the remains of the Endurance, which Boba destroyed in the last episode. Stalked by gundarks as the ship continues to fall apart around them, Mace and Anakin discover several clones who look to have been assassinated after the crash. They also find an oddly familiar helmet—Jango’s—on the bridge. Mace eventually realizes that it’s a trap (where’s Admiral Ackbar when we need him? He’s good at pointing those out), but it’s too late. Anakin picks up the helmet and triggers an explosion, pinning the two Jedi under heavy debris. It’s up to Anakin’s stalwart astromech R2-D2 to save the day, fending off gundarks and bounty hunters as he races to Mace’s starfighter to fly to the Jedi temple for help.

Artoo is often regarded as the unsung hero of the Star Wars saga, and he simply rocks in “R2 Come Home.” The creative way in which he dispatches one gundark is a definite stand-and-cheer moment, and it’s fun watching him outthink Boba and the team of bounty hunters: Aurra, Castas and Bossk. In the end, after he and Anakin are freed from the debris, Mace is impressed with Artoo’s courage under fire, and finally understands why Anakin trusts him so much. As for us, we’ve known he’s awesome for years now.

In “Lethal Trackdown,” Boba and the bounty hunters (an awesome band name, by the way) take three Republic hostages they recovered from the Endurance to Florrum, where Aurra reunites with the infamous Hondo Ohnaka, who is apparently a former lover. Castas opts to leave Aurra’s crew and attempts to sell her out, so she shoots him right in front of Boba. Some role model she is.

Meanwhile, Anakin’s Padawan Ahsoka Tano and Plo Koon—director Dave Filoni’s favorite character—scour Coruscant’s underworld to find out where Aurra and her crew have taken the hostages. In a suitably badass scene in a bar, Ahsoka and Plo find what they’re looking for, but Plo understandably worries that Ahsoka is picking up some of Anakin’s less savory attributes, particularly his lack of subtlety.

Ahsoka and Plo track the bounty hunters to Florrum and, after a brief scuffle, Aurra bolts and leaves Boba behind. The episode culminates in a showdown between Ahsoka and Aurra, who tries to make her escape aboard the Slave 1. Ahsoka, displaying some admirable lightsaber skills, slices off one of the ship’s stabilizers and brings it down. Aurra seems to have died in the crash, but since we never see a body, we can probably expect to see her and a repaired Slave 1 in the third season at some point.

If you are expecting Boba, at this point in Star Wars history, to bear any character resemblance to the bounty hunter we know and love, you’ll probably be disappointed with the season finale. He’s still young, he’s still naïve and he’s still morally conflicted. Not to worry, we certainly haven’t seen the last of Boba on The Clone Wars.

Like most of the season, these two episodes are dark. Characters are assassinated, defenseless hostages are brutally beaten and—while this might not seem as bad as the first two—we see a droid pulled apart by hungry gundarks. Some scenes might be a bit too intense for younger viewers.

“Lethal Trackdown” ends on a pretty upbeat note, with the rescue of the remaining Republic hostages and the arrest of Boba and Bossk. But judging by the teaser for season three, Ahsoka’s going to be facing some pretty serious trials. Since we know the character is either dead or in hiding during the events of Revenge of the Sith, next season could be a major turning point for this series.

Overall, the Clone Wars season two finale is pretty amazing, completing a three-part story arc that surpasses just about anything we saw in the prequel films. If that doesn’t convince you that it’s worth watching, I’ve got four words for you: Kowakian monkey-lizard cockfighting.