CW 2x06 - Weapons Factory
Now here's an action-filled war story I can get invested in.
Part of what kept me from getting into last week's "Point Rain" action extravaganza was that the scope was so big and very little of it felt personal. If it doesn't involve characters I care about, it's hard to keep my interest. A good example for my point is the first two Terminator films: the first Terminator, with a few brief exceptions, is almost pure action from beginning to end. But it's still a deeply personal story driving it all, the life-and-death struggle of two characters we grow to care about over the course of the movie. Whereas T2, with its bigger, more "epic" action sequences, doesn't rank quite as highly on my personal list. This episode, focusing more on the dual struggles of Ahsoka-Barriss and Anakin-Luminara, was way more compelling to me than 20 minutes of countless unnamed clones and Geonosians blowing each other up.
And so far, as a multi-episode war campaign arc, I'm enjoying this Geonosis arc far more than the Ryloth trilogy of last season - heck, I enjoyed this episode alone more than that whole trilogy. The rest of my review, in bullet-point:
-- So, add another Buffy alum to the CW roster: the voice of Barriss, Meredith Salenger, played the teacher half of the doomed ghost lover pair in one of my all-time favorite episodes of that series, "I Only Have Eyes For You."
-- More kudos for the nuanced facial animation this season: the exasperated look on Anakin's face when Ahsoka storms off from him, sniping "I'm the Padawan, you're the Master." Really, pretty much every facial expression from Anakin and Ahsoka in their interactions was great.
-- Ditto the shared look between Anakin and Ahsoka (including Ahsoka's WTF lip-curl) when Barriss bows to her. Even when they're sniping at one another, there's still that bond/camaraderie there.
-- I did snigger a bit at the shot of all four Jedi punching their wrist chronometers and holding them all together. Morphin' time, anyone? ;)
-- Total flailing, and in an OMGWTFHELLNO way and not an OMGYAY way, when Anakin and Luminara were planting those bombs on the underside of the bridge. Major badassery, though.
-- Loved the shot of Barriss and Luminara watching the bickering Anakin and Ahsoka from a distance, and Luminara warning Barriss about them.
-- Not even a mention of Obi-Wan. Unsurprisingly, I didn't particularly miss him.
-- Anakin really is still feeling his way through this whole teacher thing, isn't he? We have episodes like "Duel of the Droids" and "Storm Over Ryloth" where he gives her probably too much responsibility, because he wants to show Ahsoka the trust he probably feels he didn't get when he was Obi-Wan's Padawan. In the premiere - after another case of Ahsoka acting too big for her breeches - we did see Anakin admit he was probably giving Ahsoka too much responsibility for someone her age. So, in this episode with all his interrupting Ahsoka's briefing and lecturing her in front of Luminara/Barriss he's backpedaling, probably as much to protect Ahsoka as to prove to the Council he's not letting his Padawan run roughshod over him. Here he plays the overprotective guy to Ahsoka just as much as he was to Padmé in "Senate Spy" - unsurprisingly, Ahsoka takes it about as well as Padmé did. ;)
-- When Luminara asks if Anakin worries Ahsoka's not up to the task, and denies it/refuses to elaborate, I know exactly what Anakin's worrying about: that his overprotective routine is going to push Ahsoka, in her determination to prove she is dependable, to do something dangerous and... well, Anakin-ish. ;)
-- Not so much as a cookie crumb for the three Anakin/Barriss shippers out there, nor even so much as a nod to the fact they were both Padawans around the same time. (When Anakin says "you always were thorough," I did think it was to Barriss at first, but was a little disappointed it was to Luminara.) However, I won't be surprised if FF.N sees an upswing in Ahsoka/Barriss femslash after this episode.
-- Kinda digging the Anakin-Luminara partnership/dynamic in this episode. Not in a remotely shippy way, obviously, but particularly given the central drama of the episode, I thought they played well off each other: equals on the battlefield, both front-line generals with Padawans, and the contrast of their attitudes towards the possible loss of said Padawans. There seems to actually be a hint of warmth to their interaction, whereas with others like Aayla it's purely business. Even with his antagonism with the Council I do like seeing that there are Jedi he seems to genuinely like/share a rapport with; it makes his epic betrayal of them all in RotS that much more poignant.
--The focus on Anakin unwilling to accept the possibility of Ahsoka's death in this episode makes me waver in my conviction that their relationship will not be ended by her untimely demise. Either way, this episode really ratcheted up the emotional intensity in the A/A relationship, making it even more obvious how deeply they care for each other and how it's going to so strongly mess Anakin up even further when they are parted.
-- The danger to Ahsoka, and the Anakin-Luminara partnership, brilliantly highlighted the double-edged sword of Anakin's deep personal loyalty to those close to him: the refusal to give up on them at any cost, but also the absolute inability to accept even the possibility of loss. I love that when Anakin shakes his head in response to Luminara's 'are you willing to let her go?' question, it's clearly not in answer to her question, but refusing to even address it.
-- For a second, I thought Anakin might actually hug Ahsoka when he finds out she's not only alive, but saved the day. But of course he's too much a tough-guy to do something like that in front of the straight-laced Master-Padawan duo. ;)
-- How mega-creepy-crawly were the Geonosians in this episode? Straight out of some damn monster movie, which makes me feel a little less squicky about the flame-throwers in the previous episode, and the way Anakin started whacking them willy-nilly when he and Padmé disturbed their hibernation in AotC. In the scene where Ahsoka and Barriss creep through the corridor stuffed with sleeping Geonosians, I was reminded of a combination of the bug-tunnel scene in Temple of Doom and the scenes in Star Trek where Picard's crew are walking quiet as possible past the "sleeping" Borg drones.
-- What was with that sweeping epic/tragic score when Ahsoka and Barriss destroy the factory and Anakin and Luminara realize they might be dead? Definite change from the usual quick bom-bom synthesizer-esque tone, and I can't decide whether I think it was OTT or not.
Overall, much more enjoyable than last week, IMO.