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| Captain Rex and his men face their true enemy in AFICIONADO's favourite Season Four episode: The Carnage of Krell. |
Well, we’ve hit
pole position for the Top Five episodes of Season Four of THE CLONE WARS, out
now on stunning Blu-ray and DVD from LUCASFILM ANIMATION/WARNER BROTHERS, and
after the excellence of The General,
which reached yesterday’s second place, the Umbara storyline seemed to stall a
little and feel padded out by episode three’s airborne action in Plan of Dissent. Fortunately, events on
the doom-laden world came to a striking and shocking climax, which made for a
great pay-off for the characters, especially Clone Captain Rex. Full of action,
and suspense, as well as a vital turning point for the series overall darker
storytelling shift, The Carnage of Krell
would prove to be one of the most satisfying milestone episodes not just of Season
Four, but also of the whole series.
And here are five
reasons why it justifies its success…
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| Apocalypse: Umbara. The worst battle yet for the Clones. |
1. Brother versus brother. In one of the story’s most tragic moments, Captain
Rex and his team, fighting against an enemy force they’ve been told is
masquerading as fellow Clone Troopers, discover the terrible truth behind
Krell’s ultimate lies: that they’d been shooting at their own kind all along,
their ranks now further decimated and morale sunk lower with the carnage-so
much so that Rex drops to his knees clutching his head in shocked sorrow and
horror at the events that have transpired around him. Adding to the pain of the
events, Rex has lost another friend to the growing ranks of deceased: Waxer,
one of the last survivors from the second Battle of Geonosis, who sheds a
solitary but audience felt tear at what’s happened: a brilliant little visual
moment-the first tear seen in the animated series-from behind the scenes
veteran Joe Aron.
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| Evil in disguise. General Pong Krell. |
2. General Pong Krell shows his true colours.
He’d shown no liking for Clones, considering them inferior and often defective,
willing to sacrifice them, often needlessly, in battle. Making matters worse,
he orders the unsuccessful execution of two clones for violating his orders
despite wining a key victory for their side. But now the cat is out of the bag,
as his actions in deliberately turning Clone Troopers against each other
reveals him as a wannabe obsessive Sith Lord out to impress Count Dooku with
his aggression and thirst for power, to become his disciple in all ways Sith.
There have been 20 other individuals in the Jedi Order, who, through their own
unique circumstances, have turned their back on their friends and their ways
and teachings, but Krell, not afraid to kill or wreak as much chaos and destruction
as possible in order to become more powerful with the Dark Side of the Force,
is probably one of the most potentially dangerous renegades yet against the
already tarnished Republic if he isn’t stopped…
A special nod to
Dave Fennoy for his brilliant and memorable voice work as Krell in this
episode.
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| Krell goes on the rampage on the surface of Umbara. |
3. Clones versus
Jedi. Now at breaking point with their
ideals and with each other, the Clone Troopers have no choice but to turn
against their Jedi leader, as his true threatening nature is revealed. In an
earlier time in the animated series, such things wouldn’t have been thought
possible for the steadfast soldiers, but thing’s change, resulting in a chain
of events for our heroes and the audiences that will never be quite the same
again…
In one of the season
and the show’s most memorable battles, the four-armed Jedi berserker’s bulking
frame, taunting tongue and multiple lightsaber wielding might prove too much
for a Jedi opponent let alone a squad of psyche damaged Clone Troopers, but
we’re talking about the 501st here, and they mean business, as they
take on their brutal ex-leader in fierce blaster and hand-to-hand battle. In a
sequence directed with whirling dervish skill by Kyle Dunlevy, it’s a bone
cracking, back breaking experience for our heroes, led by Captain Rex, who only
just subdue Krell, not through brute strength nor overwhelming firepower, which
they ultimately just don’t have enough of to defeat him, but by using their
brains to trap him in an all-enveloping cactus plant creature-a natural inhabitant
of Umbara’s darkened climes.
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| Krell: too dangerous to be left alive... |
4. Death sentence. Another one of the
series finest moments as the cracks go ever wider in the psyche of the Clone Troopers
on Umbara, already physically fatigued and brutalized by Krell as both a leader
and opponent and by the technological might of their Shadowmen combatants. Now
that they’re on Umbara, in a situation where they known that their once prized captured
airfield might soon fall back into enemy hands, and that the incarcerated Krell,
too dangerous to take with them, could soon become a thriving Separatist ally,
Rex and the surviving clones, already feeling seething hatred for their once
leader, become vigilantes and decide that the disruptive ex-Jedi is just too
dangerous to be allowed to fall into enemy hands, and that he must be executed.
As Captain Rex
enters Krell’s cell and levels this blaster to shoot him, there’s a moment-a
genuine dramatic moment where we’re not watching animation, where it all feels
dramatically alive- when we actually think, thanks to the previous established
events of EPISODE III’s Order 66,
that he might, just might, actually cold
bloodedly execute the Jedi. Fortunately for him and us the viewers, we know
that Rex is above all this, at least for now, as the final killing blow comes
not from his blaster but that of Krell’s once loyal Clone Trooper supporter,
Dogma, disgusted at the way his almost blind trust and dedication was so betrayed
by the Jedi.
We are relieved
that Rex didn’t pull the trigger (although in the behind the scenes visual
commentary, Dave Filoni reveals that, in the original version of the script, he
actually did!) but also repelled by the overall events that have transpired on
Umbara, a place of nightmares that I don’t think will go away any time soon from
the memories of those Clone Soldiers that survived Krell’s traitorous acts. It certainly
affects Rex further, showing a brutally efficient killing streak in the
following Zygerrian slavers plot, as he gets justifiable revenge against the
evil prison warden on the Kadavo mining station for the savage treatment shown
towards himself, Obi-Wan and the Togrutan slaves.
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| What's next for Rex and the 501st? |
5. Continuing darkness. The Carnage of Krell is probably the
closest the show has yet come to full-on gritty adult storytelling, with writer
Matt Michnovetz delivering the goods yet again with this storyline. We can’t
wait to see what he’ll bring to the table next for our Clone Trooper heroes,
before their own fall from grace with Order
66. Just how much the events on Umbara will further influence and develop the
psyche damaged Rex and the 501st’s decision making in battle, and
test their dedication to the Jedi who they have sworn allegiance too, should
prove very interesting to witness as the shows remaining seasons build up…
A director’s cut
of The Carnage of Krell can be found
on THE CLONE WARS: THE COMPLETE SEASON FOUR Blu-ray and DVD boxsets.
Get STAR WARS: THE COMPLETE SEASN FOUR on Blu-ray or DVD here:
