I'd say Maul's plan cost an arm and a leg.
Spoilers to follow...
So, I wondered how I was going to do this, and I decided what I'd do is watch the episode online (since I like the commercial-less edit they do), avoiding all reviews that may or may not have gone up, and just write down my initial thoughts.
Revival follows Darth Maul and his brother Savage Opress as they make their way to a planet of pirates led by Hondo Ohnaka. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Adi Gallia are in hot pursuit.
First off, I never saw Hondo's debut episode, but I really want to now because he's a scream. Jim Cummings (and I can tell it's him without even looking it up at this point) does a masterful job with the boisterous pirate lord.
The second notable thing is this episode explains in-universe why Adi Gallia was replaced with Stass Allie between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. In this case, Savage Opress (the always wonderful Clancy Brown, whom I can also usually tell at this point when it's him, though he surprised me with Mr. Krabs) literally charges her and impales her on his horns. Yeah, and you thought this was a kid's show. It also seemed like a very throwaway moment; it was over and past disturbingly quickly, which says something about war in general but also calls to mind the ignoble deaths of Order 66. I still have the PS1 Jedi Power Battles game (where Adi Gallia reverse-gripped a red lightsaber for some unknown reason), so seeing her go stung more than I think it would for some other viewers. But then, who knows?
Darth Maul is played expertly by Sam Witwer, but he does kind of seem out of character. Granted, we got so little of him in Phantom Menace, but the sheer level of calculation doesn't gel with that little information. Then again, if George says this is how it is, than this is how it is. It is clear that try as he may, Maul does not have the chess prowess that his old master does.
Speaking of whom, probably my favorite single shot of the episode is the final one, where after meeting with the Jedi and convincing them that Maul is of no concern, Palpatine goes back into his office and flashes the camera the first truly evil look I've seen from him in this series (although for all I know he could have been giving them every other episode in seasons 1-3). It gave me the most delightful chills.
I was generally surprised when Obi-Wan hacked off Savage's arm, though when Maul's leg got shot off I kind of rolled my eyes. The fact that they kind of bleed Nightsister magic now seems like it could be taken to a few interesting places.
Oh, and the dynamic between Maul and Savage? I had to laugh, because the yellow one clearly got far more than he bargained for.
Those are my two cents. I'm off to read what everyone else thought.
You're lucky that you still have the first 3 seasons to look forward to watching!
ReplyDeleteBut no, Palps wasn't giving his mustache-twirling look every other episode...he's been used pretty sparingly throughout, but I expect that when Sidious bursts into action later this season (from the looks of it), it'll be all the more dynamic.