It’s a bit of a mixed bag on today’s edition of the Hondo Caravan.  We’ve got one more episode in the Youngling arc, an arc that makes me want to take a nap, and then the return of the Brothers Sith.  Buckle in, kids.  It’s going to be a gif filled ride.

A Necessary Bond
Turns out there’s more bad news, folks.  Ahsoka and the Younglings didn’t escape quite yet.  Apparently they haven’t even made it back to the ship yet.  It gets worse.  You’d think that getting to the ship would be the hard part.  Instead, merely getting on the ship is tricky especially when it appears to be crashing and burning.

In the previous episode, Obi-Wan was off fighting Separatist forces led by General Grievous.  At the time, it felt like a superfluous plot line to just have Obi-Wan in an episode again.  In this episode though, the Separatists invade Hondo’s planet and take possession of it.  Apparently Dooku did not take too kindly to Hondo taking him prisoner a few seasons ago.  Ooo.  Grievous just tossed Hondo across the room to the floor.  I can hear Jawa James shouting ‘Nooooooooo!’ from the past all the way across the country.  As expected, some of Hondo’s pirate underlings have seen the light and have agreed to work together with the Jedi to get out of this sticky situation.

“I may be a pirate but I do not like taking children into battle.”  I’m just going to leave that quote from Hondo there with no extra commentary.  I bet you can figure out the quiet and pent up rant there all on your own.

I must admit, these kids are pretty good for never having used these lightsabers before.  Obviously, this means something will happen to one of them.  I also really appreciate the strange sort of friendship that seems to have sprung up between Hondo and Katooni.  I’ve got head canon: Hondo’s going to somehow save her from Order 66 and she’ll become a pirate.  She’s too cute to die, okay?

I’m fairly sure it wasn’t the intention but every time Grievous does the four/six legged crab scuttle, I laugh hysterically.  You know what else makes me laugh hysterically?  Hondo verbally tallying up his bill for saving the Jedi Younglings to Obi-Wan.

Secret Weapons
Oh.  Oh boy.  My facial expressions are mirroring Mace Windu’s right now.  He’s giving a briefing to a bunch of droids who are going to be carrying out some mission for the Republic.  Add in a six inch high alien Colonel and some misfit pit droid and I’m already not terribly entertained.  This is making up for having two strong story arcs in a row, isn’t it?

I don’t think that even Artoo can save this.  Although I must admit that him putting up his two side leg things when the Separatist droids confront them was pretty funny.

I’m sorry.  I didn’t pay that much careful attention to this episode.  It didn’t really catch my fancy so I did my ironing instead.

A Sunny Day in the Void
The main titles are blue for this episode.  I’m immediately suspicious.

Aww crap.  This is a two-part episode.  I thought that them retrieving the encryption module would be all there was to this episode.  I did not anticipate more of the droids and this cranky miniature alien.

There’s some strange ice field that’s damaged the ship and forced them to land on a strange planet that I think Colonel Alian said is called Void.  Hence the title.  Oh.  Okay.  This episode is really not helped by the fact that only the alien and the one droid can speak Basic.  Everyone else just beeps.

Bored now.

At least the animators got something out of this episode.  I bet the plain background on the planet made their lives a heck of a lot easier.

Missing In Action
Wait a minute.  This is a three part episode?  ARE YOU #$@%&$! KIDDING ME?

The droids and the Colonel Short Stuff continue to bore me but the addition of the plotline with this might-be-might-not-be-a-clone guy is somewhat interesting.  Spoiler Alert: it turns out that he is a clone who lost his memory after a battle.  Good thing trainers like Skirarta engrained the Republic Commando train in pretty deeply into their recruits.  Without an RC on their side, there’s no way the team would’ve made it out.  Captain Gregor’s sacrifice play was unnecessary though.

Point of No Return
Aha.  Ahahaha.  It’s a four part arc.  Someone save me.

Okay.  I can be a professional about this.  The team escapes the planet and makes it to a Jedi cruiser above the planet but it is strangely empty and seems to be crewed only by holograms.  You probably can guess what happened before the droids did: this one’s a decoy!  It’s been hijacked by Separatists and looks like it’s going to be their Trojan Horse.  I mean Bomb.  Trojan Bomb.

All together now, folks:

Okay.  I’ll admit it: the exploding cruiser was really pretty even if it did wreck a heck of a lot of havoc on the rest of the fleet.  I’m very impressed with by how rainbow the explosion was.

Revival
I find it hilarious that I was so unimpressed by the resurrection of Maul last season and now it’s an actual relief to return to after all those droid episodes.

It really was inevitable that Maul and Savage would start having an internal power struggle and Maul would confirm himself as the Master in this situation.  I’m curious about something though: did Maul become allergic to shirts all of the sudden?

Poor Hondo though.  He can’t seem to catch a break this season.  First his plan to get rich failed, then Dooku tried to take over his base, and now Maul is stealing all his pirate gang.  (Were there no other pirate gangs in the galaxy that Maul could co-opt instead?)  Come on, Hondo: go back to Coruscant and get Katooni to be your mini me.  That would go way better than the mess you’re currently in.

Alas poor Adi Gallia. 🙁  I seem to recall fandom tying itself in a knot of anger over the continuity snarl that her death caused.  I honestly couldn’t care less about continuity.  I’m way more upset that, you know, an awesome female Jedi of color like Adi died.  I never got quite as attached to her as I did some of the other Jedi of that era (like Barriss) but she’s an awesome character.

What this arc does do is reaffirm what an amazing swordsman Obi-Wan Kenobi is.  Not many people could hold their own against both Maul and Savage at the same time, much less force them into retreating.  Heck, Kenobi even continued his tradition of Zabrak maiming and cut off one of Savage’s arms.  Chosen One or not, I don’t think that Anakin ever had a chance of beating him during their Mustafar duel.

Eminence (DC)
Awww yes.  We get Death Watch Mandalorians again!  Unfortunately, they’re the ones to find the escape pod with Maul and Savage and for some strange reason, they take them back home like burnt up stray puppies to fix up.  I have a feeling that this will end poorly.  Bo Katan is the only one with her head on straight.  Death Watch working together with the brothers to defeat both Kenobi and Duchess Satine is totally going to backfire.  No wait.  I take that back.  She exchanged a smirk with Pre Vizsla.  Maybe she’s not thinking properly either.

Okay, I have to admit: I’m absolutely on board with them working Black Sun into the show even if this isn’t exactly how I see them.  If nothing else, you have to be impressed with how Maul took out like six Falleen with one throw of his saber.  It turns out that Maul is actually creating one giant crime syndicate army.  This is definitely different.  The Mandalorians seem to be the odd group out of this equation.

I might not be Maul’s biggest fan but I can appreciate his sass in this episode.  “So the only thing you can tell me is that we’ll find Jabba in Jabba’s Palace.”

Pre Vizsla and Bo Katan seem to be spending a lot of time with their helmets off this episode.  This usually wouldn’t strike me as odd but I don’t think we ever saw Bo Katan without her helmet before now.

Darth Maul, Crime Lord.  There’s something about that title that just doesn’t quite ring right.

I’m so relieved that the droid arc seems to have been an anomaly.  We are back with excellent quality episodes in Season Five, yesssssss.  Don’t forget to check back later this week for the FINAL Hondo Caravan post.  (Or at least the finale regular Hondo Caravan post.  After Season Five, I won’t be behind anymore.)  As always, you can follow my real time thoughts on Twitter @chaosbria or the hashtag #HondoCaravan where I will likely be having an emotional meltdown over the finale.  Until then!