Sound Off: "R2 Come Home" and "Lethal Trackdown"

Following up to Season 2 #20, where Young Boba Fett made his first appearance in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series, tonight was the final two episodes of the season.

StarWars.com posted episode guides for Season 2 #21 (video commentary) and #22 (video commentary):

Episode #21 features:

• Reappearance of Jango Fett’s helmet
• Boba Fett, son of the notorious
  bounty hunter Jango Fett, infiltrated a
  Jedi cruiser in an attempt to assassinate
  General Mace Windu, the man who killed
  his father.
• [Mace] recognizes the helmet: it is that of Jango Fett, the man he killed on Geonosis. He realizes that Boba Fett was one of the clone cadets aboard the Endurance. He Force-pulls Anakin away from the booby-trapped helmet, just as it explodes, shattering the bridge.
• Some distance away, this explosion is watched intently through a pair of electrobinoculars. Boba Fett sees his trap sprung.
• Mace reflects upon the scorched remains of Jango Fett’s helmet.

Episode #22 features:

• A restless Boba Fett leaves the cockpit of the Slave I and checks on the bound and gagged Republic hostages. He loosens the gag on Admiral Kilian and offers the older officer a drink of water. Kilian tries to appeal to Fett’s sense of decency, which agitates the boy.
• [Anakin] Skywalker suggests that Mace be proactive in tracking down Boba Fett, but Windu has no inclination to make a priority out of a personal vendetta.
• Slave I touches down on Florrum, and Aurra Sing gets reacquainted with Hondo Ohnaka, someone she has dated in the past. Hondo is pleased to see her, and greets Boba, telling the boy that he knew his father as an honorable man.
• Hondo leads Boba, Aurra and Castas to a bar, where Castas parts company to make a long-distance call on a public holo-transceiver. The Klatooinian calls Fong Do, a Nautolan, and reports that his working arrangement with Aurra Sing has gone sour. Aurra overhears this conversation and shoots Castas dead before her former partner is able to sell her out. Fett witness this with great misgivings.
• Boba is eager to face Mace Windu, whom he assumes is aboard the shuttle.
• Boba emerges from the shadows and holds a gun to Plo Koon’s head. Plo hardly seems worried.
• Boba fires at Ahsoka, forcing her to deflect the blast. That frees Aurra to fire off a pair of rocket darts from her boot, but Plo Koon slams the table up, blocking the projectiles. Aurra stands and draws both her blasters, unleashing a barrage on Ahsoka. Plo knocks aside Boba, and Force-pushes the table between Ahsoka and Aurra. Master Plo cuts apart Aurra Sing’s weapons, and orders her to surrender. Boba Fett throws a bomb into the fray, letting Sing escape.
• Sing runs away, and Boba tries to follow, but Plo Koon Force-pulls him back. To Fett’s shock, Aurra keeps running, leaving him behind.
• Plo tries to get Boba Fett to reveal the location of the hostages, but Fett refuses. Hondo Ohnaka advises Fett to do so, as it is what Jango would have wanted.
• Boba Fett and Bossk are marched into a Republic prison on Coruscant. Fett is unrepentant. The shackled boy sees Mace Windu, and says he will never forgive the Jedi.

Adam Rosenberg’s commentary on MTV.com has some nice observations:

Boba Fett may one day become the most feared hunter in the galaxy, but for the time being he’s still just a young boy who has a bone to pick with a very powerful Jedi Master. The Mandalorian armor-wearing badass we meet in the Original Trilogy is very clearly a “works alone” kind of guy; the “Clone Wars”-era Boba is not.

…

Those who were expecting (hoping?) that Boba Fett the hunter would rise from the ashes of Boba Fett the child, armor and all, before the end of season two, prepare to put those fanperson hopes aside. It’s not a bad thing; I wouldn’t buy it if the bounty hunter-in-training all of a sudden became a cold-hearted killer. He’s going to have to be put through a lot more hell before he embraces his inner badass. I’ll say though… he’s off to a mighty good start with the dual blasters he wears on his belt. Sure, they’re almost the size of his thighs, but hey… he’s still just a kid.

…

Best of all, Anakin learns the truth about Jango, Boba and Mace’s connection with them; this adds a lot of subtext to Boba’s future associations with Darth Vader in the Original Trilogy.

Update: TheForce.net posted a review the day after the episodes premiered:

One of the best images of the episode was the Jango Fett helmet that the bounty hunters left as a calling card. It was great to see Mace putting it all together, because you could feel the tension in his voice and you could see his brain’s servos working as he figured out the threat. When we first actually knew that the bounty hunters were present, it was through a binocular shot as Boba watched Mace “die.” I thought it was cool how they kept the menace unseen and then finally revealed it through a “watching shot” like that. The music that followed as the bounty hunters discussed their hostages further added to their malevolence and increased the tension as viewers pondered their fates.

…

Castas definitely fit the mould of a belligerent money-grubbing coward. You could also really tell that Castas despised Boba. This was evident when we saw Boba’s over eagerness to enter the downed ship. He’s still learning about balancing enthusiasm with a healthy degree of caution, and to that effect, he’s almost crushed by debris. Aurra gives him a look that says, “Sometimes I don’t know why we’re in this together.” Castas’s line about splitting the money in Boba’s absence was great — you can tell that this kid is playing with the big boys (and girls) now.

…

Even though this was an R2 episode, one of my favorite scenes did deal with Boba Fett. It was when Mace and Anakin discussed Jango and Boba. I love hearing TCW characters reference events from the movies, and I particularly enjoyed hearing Mace talk about the Battle of Geonosis, because he almost sounded regretful when he mentioned Boba seeing Jango die. Then, as soon as Boba was mentioned, we heard the angelic music from Death Trap — I can’t get enough of that music.

Update 5/1: BigShinyRobot.com and IGN (“R2 Come Home” and “Lethal Trackdown”) also posted reviews.