Episode: The Clone Wars 3.07 – “Assassin”
Original Air Date: October 22, 2010
Screencaps from The Clone Wars Screencap Gallery.
Reports of Aurra Sing’s death have been greatly exaggerated.
Returning to Coruscant, Ahsoka must part ways with Anakin Skywalker; the Jedi Council orders him to assist in a civil war while the Padawan is forced to return to her studies. Needless to say, after the adventure and excitement of fighting beside Anakin in the war, she is less than thrilled to be hitting the books instead of Separatist droids.
Ahsoka then begins to have visions of Aurra Sing. In what appears to be a dark forest, Sing grabs the young Padawan by the throat and threatens “She will die!”
Shocked by what she has seen, Ahsoka seeks out the advice of Yoda, who explains the nature of visions to her and tells her to meditate on them. As her visions increase, Ahsoka begins to see more parts of the vision and with more clarity. It quickly becomes apparent that Sing intends to assassinate Padme Amidala, and Ahsoka becomes determined to stop this. Visiting Yoda again, the wise Jedi master reminds her not to put all her faith in what she sees, as the future is always changing.
Ahsoka warns Padme of what she has seen and Padme permits her to join her security detail for conference on Alderaan. The M.O. of Sing then, apparently, becomes clear — assassinate an important politico before she accomplishes something for the greater good. After a false alarm on the ship (the result of another vision), Ahsoka discovers the room where the attempt will take place and manages to deflect the blast from Sing’s gun. However, the bounty hunter gets away and the threat remains.
A clever trick by Padme and Ahsoka then brings Sing out into the open, where the real purpose and perpetrator of the plot is revealed.
I liked this episode. The pacing doesn’t experience much action at the beginning, but draws you in with Ahsoka’s visions and builds suspense for the moment when Sing strikes. The writers also did a good job of making the episode less predictable. When I saw how much time was left in the episode, I knew something else was going to happen, and it made me excited to see what. After the first attempt, Ahsoka doesn’t have any visions, and you know Sing is still out there, so the question becomes “how will she try again?”
This season seems to have more allusions to the original films than past ones, and this episode had quite a few. For one, Ahsoka’s first vision, with the dark forest in the background, harkens to the swamps of Dagobah where Luke experienced his vision of Vader. Also, while en route to Alderaan, Ahsoka and Padme play Dejarik, the holographic chess game from Episode IV where C-3P0 advises R2 to “let the Wookiee win.” Lastly, a couple of classic sounds make their way into the episode, such as Leia’s theme from the original trilogy and the stun blaster sound effect.
The series rolls along with good episodes, but I’m beginning to wonder where it’s going. The season’s tagline is “secrets revealed,” but I’m not sure if it merely refers to these smaller secrets such as who’s behind Mandalore’s corruption or who’s trying to assassinate Padme, or if there is some larger secret yet to be revealed? Only time will tell.
Rating: 4 / 5 Stars
About the Author
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has this to say about John Rabon:
John got started on the path to geekdom thanks to his brother's collection of comic books and Star Wars toys but was cemented into the geek class forever when LeVar Burton took Reading Rainbow viewers on a backstage tour of Star Trek: The Next Generation. A love of Monty Python soon followed, and it wasn't long before he was starting to collect his own comics. The rest, as they say, is history. But really, who are they to say something?
Since discovering the BBC some years ago, John has become an obsessive Anglophile. In fact, he even likes the food they serve over there! As such, some of his favourite programmes include: Doctor Who, Primeval, Coupling, QI, The Mighty Boosh, The IT Crowd, and Shaun the Sheep.
Upon choosing a university, John enrolled in the University of South Carolina, which was nice enough to give him a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and a Master's in Teaching. Feeling that he hadn't been put through enough academic torment with student teaching, John decided to enroll in law school at Campbell University.
Hobbies, when he can find time for them, include: writing, video games, reading, and wasting time in the pub.