– Spoiler Review –
The tension and dread builds in “The Phantom Apprentice,” as The Clone Wars creeps ever closer to its finale, with a showdown between Maul and Ahsoka Tano on Mandalore, offering one of the Saga’s best lightsaber fights, as well as an episode somehow even better than the last; we were never going to be properly prepared for the Siege of Mandalore!
“The Phantom Apprentice” drips absolute dread out of every scene, conversation, and corner, beginning with Kevin Kiner’s excellent score. At the tail end of “Old Friends Not Forgotten,” the bombastic and loud score quieted into something downright spooky as Ahsoka watched her troopers taken out one by one down in Mandalore’s depths, and that musical tone only deepened and expanded in “Apprentice.” It begins with the initial opening, going for a crescendo to throw us right into the end of last episode, Ahsoka’s first showdown with Maul, and it permeates the rest of the episode, building the sense of dread as events lining up with fateful Revenge of the Sith moments become clearer and premonitions get closer and closer to the truth of Darth Sidious’ plans. It’s a masterclass in spooky, tense music, always there, behind everything, much like Sidious and his machinations move into their final places, and it strikes such a strong chord with the final shot, like a warning of how much worse this is going to get. It’s not only the music that oozes the dread and tension throughout, as it’s joined by the animation and sound design too: from the atmospheric and claustrophobic tunnels, the creeping darkness as night swoops in, the clones rounding up the citizens for their “safety” as the victors look on, to how the battle outside the throne rooms sounds like an apocalyptic storm, “Apprentice” is downright chilly and tense, a prime example of creatives firing on all cylinders, as every department adds to the mounting dread in intriguing ways.
Another addition to the dread is Maul himself, thanks in a large part to Sam Witwer’s most intense and spellbinding performance to date as the character. Since his return, Maul might be calculating and shrewd, but there’s always been a tint of madness lingering from his time as Spider-Maul, and it’s slowly creeping out here as a vision of the incoming chaos has unhinged him a bit. He’s been bitten by Sidious’ power twice before, when he last ruled Mandalore and witnessing the death of his mother, and knows his plans were always larger than he could’ve ever imagined, so Maul is both frightened by what’s coming and excited about the possibilities for his growing Shadow Collective. Much of Maul’s dialogue contains the fear of Sidious, but also an appreciation for the vastness of his reach, and anger for being shafted from the grand design. The reason Maul wanted Kenobi, not Ahsoka, was not to hurt his oldest rival, but rather to bring Anakin Skywalker to him so he could kill him and prevent Sidious’ plans from coming to fruition, as he’d rather see his old Master fail then succeed without him. It’s crazy to think Maul has had so many visions now that foretell some of the biggest moments of the Saga, as we first saw in Star Wars Rebels when he learns about Luke’s role in bringing down the Sith (in a roundabout way) and now here he knows of Anakin’s role to be Sidious’ next apprentice. Of course he’s motivated by revenge, so his plans for killing Anakin or having Ahsoka join him to take down Sidious both have less to do with saving the galaxy, but rather cementing his own chance to rule it, but it’s intriguing to think about how things would’ve gone down had Maul succeeded in killing Anakin or taking Ahsoka with him to take down Sidious. Witwer delivers Maul’s lines with such gusto it’s hard not to agree with Maul or feel the same fear he does about what’s coming, and his final moments, screaming after Ahsoka successfully captures him, is his most chilling delivery…ever; it really adds an extra punch of dread to the episode’s final scene. It’s not just Witwer’s chance to shine as Maul this episode though, as Ray Park makes an incredibly glorious return as well in what might be the Saga’s best lightsaber duel of all time. But before we dive into that, and Ahoksa’s mo-cap performer as well, time to cover Ahsoka herself.
Ashley Eckstein has been delivering memorable, heartbreaking, and rousing performances as Ahsoka since 2008 and she continues that pedigree with the character’s big moments in “The Phantom Apprentice.” After she provides some of her usual swagger when first meeting Maul, her conversation with Obi-Wan is only the beginning of great character moments. I had been wondering, having just recently rewatched RotS, if or when Obi-Wan or Anakin ever checked in with Ahsoka after they left her for Coruscant, and it seems at least Obi-Wan does prior to heading off to Utapau; knowledge of what this means also ratcheted up the tension, considering how closely that lines up with Order 66 rocking the galaxy. Obi-Wan tells her what the Council has planned for Anakin, being a spy on Palpatine, and she profusely defends him, and later does when Maul calls Anakin’s destiny into question. The admittance by Obi-Wan, how the Council isn’t always right, is big moment, as it calls directly back to Ahsoka’s words to him before they left for Coruscant, warning them they were playing politics and not being Jedi. Ahsoka’s faith in Anakin is much like Padmé’s and Obi-Wan’s, based in their love for him, and it’s why they aren’t likely to think he could become anything less than the upstanding Jedi they’ve known, despite many warning signs. In the Ahsoka novel, she believes Anakin’s dead since she can’t feel him in the Force, so even after Maul’s proclamations about his fall to the dark, it only adds to her shock and surprise when they connect via the Force in Star Wars Rebels‘ second season opener. Her confidence at this point, as she engages Maul in a duel, makes what’s coming next so hard to watch, as she just finally found such a confidence from her time with the Martez sisters and we know it’ll be shattered shortly as Order 66 throws its wrench into everything. The final shot of this episode was one of my favorites, as it calls back to a moment from beginning of the Martez sisters arc, “Gone With a Trace.” In the episode, she’s standing on the sister’s giant, wide platform, looking up at the distance surface of Coruscant, feeling so far away from what she was and wondering about the path before her being right, and then in “Phantom” she’s standing on a much smaller ledge, with unsure footing, looking up at a smaller hole in the distance, her chance at an escape from what’s coming officially gone. I loved the callback to the visual, where one’s a commentary on her unsure of what her role should be going forward, now this one is about her suddenly unsure of the choice she made, Maul’s raving final words worming their way in and leaving a lingering sense of doubt about whether actually going with him was the right choice or not.
Normally, The Clone Wars’ lightsaber battles have a tendency to awe and amaze, but none have quite had the physicality to them that Ahsoka v Maul does, taking this one to a whole different level, which is all thanks to motion capture stunt performances by Ray Park and Lauren Mary Kim. While a recent feature at Looper, where they spoke with TCW‘s animation supervisor Keith Kellogg, points out they used the mo-cap, “…as a guideline. We had video reference of it, and we were able to take it into our story package and use it,” one can tell the difference with a lot of the little flourishes with footwork and certain style of flips which call back to Park’s performance in The Phantom Menace. Regardless of how they used the mo-cap, it definitely results in one of the better lightsaber battles ever put to screen, as while it might be easy to pick out the uniqueness of this battle from the way it was animated, the weight from those performances added a whole other layer to TCW‘s already great abilities with duels.
Here are a few other things:
- Bo-Katan and Gar Saxon’s battle in the elevator shafts was brief but ultimately excellent, as while we knew both couldn’t die here, they played with the elevator scenario and jetpacks in fun and visually interesting ways.
- When Maul is ordering the heads of his Shadow Collective to go into hiding, there was a human in there I didn’t immediately recognize but was ashamed I didn’t think of it right away when it finally hit me: Dryden Vos! That’s right, we got a quick glimpse of a younger Dryden Vos from Solo: A Star Wars Story!
- Dave Filoni is back with another sketch and I like this one better than the last, as it really matches the mood of this episode.
- UPDATE: The episode guide is finally up! The Clone Wars Download features footage of the mo-cap work from Kim and Park, while the Trivia Gallery confirms Vos’ appearance, as well as the funny way they put him together for animation.
- UPDATE 2: There’s a longer featurette about the fight and mo-cap stuff, which I’ve included below:
“The Phantom Apprentice,” Part II of the Siege of Mandalore, The Clone Wars‘ grand finale, keeps the characters at the center of everything, which includes one of its best lightsaber duels of all time and an impressive display of the entire teams’ abilities by building a tangible sense of dread that lingers far after the episode ends.
+ Dread dripping from every facet: animation, sound, score, writing
+ Lightsaber duel amazes; mo-cap adds intensity, weight
+ Maul’s plans and fear
+ Ahsoka’s confidence and that final shot
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
THE CLONE WARS REVIEWS
Season Seven: Ep. 1 “The Bad Batch” | Ep. 2 “A Distant Echo” | Ep. 3 “On the Wings of Keeradaks” | Ep. 4 “Unfinished Business” | Ep. 5 “Gone With a Trace” | Ep. 6 “Deal No Deal” | Ep. 7 “Dangerous Debt” | Ep. 8 “Together Again” | Ep. 9 “Old Friends Not Forgotten”
Legacy Impressions: Crystal Crisis | The Bad Batch