Full Series Grade Episode 6.09: The Disappeared, Pt. 2

This arc was better than it deserved to be.

 

8/10. This episode lost points for me mainly because Mother Talzin seemed like a waste of a good, interesting character whom I was hoping to actually learn more about. Here she's reduced to a throw away villain. Her fight with mace was good, but she deserved more development and more screen time.

The rest of the episode makes up for it though, with Mace and Jar Jar on a grand adventure to save Jar Jar's lady love and the whole thing was a pleasure to watch overall.

 

Another surprisingly good installment in the continuing adventures of Jar Jar and Mace Windu, buddy-cop style! The Disappeared, Part II (wonder why they couldn't think of a better title?) gave us more actions scenes with both Windu and Binks, while also vaguely exploring the consequences of transferring Queen Julia's Living Force to the Great Mother, a surprise guest who was alas spoiled in the Bonus Content trailer.

First of all, I gotta say, this was a wonderfully diverse episode full of multitudes of alien species on the world of Zardossa. IIRC, Mace Windu was the only human to appear in this episode! Although there was that one Ming Po guy, unfortunately not classified as a human, but a Near Human (sigh). With a Zygerrian and a Ming Po beast trainer in tow, the Frangawl cultists sure had some interesting allies. Mace Windu's partnership with Jar Jar continued to be tested as he was forced to deal with the latter's impatience and naiveté, but ultimately he learned to accept that Binks, despite all his faults, did have his strengths, even if they were a bit misplaced, like finding the courage to suicidally charge in front of a blaster cannon. There was certainly no end to the entertainment of seeing Mace Windu curbstomp all his Frangawl opponents, including a pair of vicious gundarks sent to dispatch him by the Ming Po trainer. Thanks to Jar Jar's clumsiness, Mace temporarily lost his lightsaber to the Ming Po, but still managed to hold off the two savage beasts without much trouble. Still, Jar Jar redeemed himself by snagging Mace's lightsaber with his elongated tongue, allowing the Jedi Master to quickly dispose of one gundark, forcing the other to flee in fear. Very cool scene. Even more amusing was Jar Jar clotheslining the Ming Po trainer not once, but twice. If I may use JackG 's GIF here:



Yeah, who woulda thunk that Jar Jar had it in him?

Anyway, the Frangawl cultists apparently planned to take the Queen's Living Force and confer it along with the rest of their Force-sphere to the mysterious "Great Mother", none other than Mother Talzin herself! What a twist! Talzin claimed that although she was not a natural Force-user (insisting that her Allyan magicks weren't Force-based), by absorbing the Living Force from others like Julia, she would possess a power greater than any Jedi or Sith, thereby fulfilling the dark prophecy the Bardottans feared. Apparently, she needed a special device consisting of multiple circular mirrors to focus the light of the eclipsing sun into both the chained Julia and the green Living Force sphere. Interesting. I enjoyed the brief dialogue about this interesting use of the Living Force. Given that Talzin was essntially leaking spirit ichor, and seemingly fading in-and-out of existence, I wonder whether she needed to absorb the Living Force from others to maintain her power? Perhaps after the events of Massacre and the loss of her tribe, she was severely weakened, or perhaps she was using this power to artificially elongate her own existence? Who knows. Hopefully we will find more in Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir.

Mace and Jar Jar shared more entertaining action moments upon entering the Stix Ziggurat complex, defended by mechanical stone guardians. Strange that the two had to rent a couple of eopies to get there (the Frangawls used a train). Why not use their own ship? That should have been faster. But I can suspend disbelief for the sake of the plot, an extended Indy homage. The fight between the two and the stone guardians was cool, and Jar Jar actually destroyed one statue by accidentally firing upon it using a displaced blaster cannon. But that wasn't even the last of Jar Jar's clumsy heroism....

Mace Windu confronts Mother Talzin and it appeared the two would engage in an epic standoff. First, Talzin unleashed her green lightning at Mace, and after Mace dodged and pulls out his lightsaber, Talzin counters by producing a fiery green blade out of thin air. Ah, the wonders of Nightsister spirit ichor...


Mother Talzin in action...firing on Mace Windu, hmmm....clearly, she wants "UNLIMITED POWER!"

Sadly, what we see of the duel onscreen is far too brief, as the episode seemed more dedicated to showing us the further (mis)adventures of Jar Jar as he goes to rescues his beloved "Queenie". To his credit, he easily defeats the cultists using his blaster cannon, and holds his own in fistfight with the Frangawl leader. Eventually, he frees the Queen, just before the device focuses the energy of the sun into the green sphere. Thanks to Julia, Jar Jar escapes losing his Force, but the cult leader is not so lucky. And in true Jar Jar fashion, his clumsiness in knocking down the sphere causes it to shatter, ruining Mother Talzin's plan. I found it interesting that during all this ruckuss, Talzin was able to hold her own in a duel against Windu's Vaapad. She's not an opponent to be underestimated, I guess. After the destruction of the sphere however, she seemingly fades out of existence, screaming like the Wicked Witch of the West. But oh, she'll be back all right. Jar Jar wasn't able to destroy her, even if he foiled her scheme.

As it were, Mace gained quite a bit of respect for the Gungan in the episode, and by the end, had accepted that they were a team and that Jar Jar wasn't a complete liability like we all thought he'd be. Of course, he'd be screwed without Mace, but as much as I normally dislike the Gungan, I have to say I didn't mind that he came out looking like a hero in this episode. Even a most maligned character like Binks has his day in the sun.

Anyway, this was a very entertaining episode, if a bit off the beaten path. My biggest gripe was that they didn't focus much on the Talzin-Windu duel, or even give us many answers as to what the heck Talzin's ultimate goal was besides more power, but overall it was a very solid and enjoyable episode. I gave it an 8/10. The Bardottan arc was definitely a more entertaining viewing experience than I thought it would be, and that's quite the accomplishment for a pair of episodes focused on possibly the most maligned character in all of Star Wars.