Merry Christmas to all! I hope everyone is having a spectacular holiday and hopefully most of the kids got what they wanted. As promised before, as a Christmas treat, the reviews of R2 Come Home and Lethal Trackdown will be posted. Just so that everyone knows, they will be in separate comments, as each review is extended.

While Death Trap wasn't quite as promising as a lot of fans were expecting, R2 Come Home definitely made up for it. The episode was stunning both in action and in visuals, and we really did see Boba's true power. We started off seeing Admiral Kilian's starship Endurance crash on Vanqor's surface, answering the question that many a fan were wondering: Did the ship really crash? The scene was explosive and fast-paced, and even though it only happened for a couple of seconds, you really got the feeling that the ship's crew was pretty much doomed. This sequence was followed by Mace and Anakin returning to Vanqor to search for Kilian. Any keen-eyed viewer will remember that Vanqor was actually the mainly-featured planet in the Season 1 episode Dooku Captured (the debut episode of Hondo Ohnaka). The desolate landscape is very similar to what we saw in that episode, but this time we see more of just flat landscape as supposed to cave entrances popping up here and there. Cutting to the flying scene, both Jedi land on the planet. Anakin, as we've seen before, trusts Artoo with his life, and he immediately begins giving him orders. Mace comments on how Anakin treats his droid like another human being. Anakin comically replies that Artoo just has a lot of personality, which we've seen in episodes like Duel of the Droids. They proceed into the destroyed starship, and this is where things really start to get creepy. The ship is completely destroyed on the inside, and you can barely tell what any piece of junk used to be. You can tell that the sets are done in much more detail now that, say, at the beginning of Season 1. If this episode were Ambush, then we'd probably just be seeing a bunch of distorted gray shapes that kind of just piled up on either side. Then the atmosphere grows more tense as we see tons of dead bodies, but they aren't crushed by junk. They were shot.

Alright folks, I gotta be going now. But I promise that I will continue this review and do Lethal Trackdown's review later today or tommorow. See ya!

Okay, guys, I'm back. Sorry for the delay, but I had to go find one of my son's missing presents. Oops. Anywho, here's the continuation of the review:

That part I was not expecting. I knew Aurra was evil and all, but leaving dead corpses lying around for the Jedi to find? That takes a serious black heart. The shots also seemed to aimed around the heart, and it looks like the poor clones who got shot didn't put up much of a fight... or they could've been held hopelessly and then killed. Man oh man is this series getting mature. And the episode gets even cooler. As they find more dead clones, they proceed to the deck of the ship. Oddly enough, there are absolutely no bodies here. I myself was quite puzzled by this, as Kilian, Commander Ponds, and at least one other clone should've been there. But my god, nothing could've prepared me for what happened next. Lying perfectly unharmed on top of a broken table was Jango Fett's Mandalorian helmet. Even my son couldn't stop me from jumping up at that. Wow! I honestly wasn't expecting that! I expected Mace and Anakin to take the helmet back to the ship and inspect it, and perhaps start gaining clues. But cunning Aurra and Boba wouldn't even let them do that. Anakin, being as unaware of the trap as you could possibly be, picked up the helmet. Now, get ready for the biggest explosion in the Clone Wars since Weapons Factory. The helmet beeped for a couple of seconds, and Mace was muttering something under his breath, building up the tension. Then he said clearly, "Boba!" Mace pulled Anakin away just as the helmet blew up and sent the two Jedi at least twenty feet backwards. Almost immediately my heart lurched. I had been waiting to see something severe happen to our Jedi heroes for the longest time, and this time it finally happened. The thing is, with the Clone Wars happening before Revenge of the Sith, we already know what's going to happen. So that takes the twist out of quite a few near-death scenes. We already know that Anakin and Mace survive, so they can't die here. Anyway, when I was originally watching this episode, I had a near-flashback to the Season 1 premiere episode Ambush, when the crew was incredibly shy about showing anything that would come close to killing our heroes. Look how far we've come! Now we're blowing up ships and Jedi with Mandalorian helmets! My gosh! The scene that followed showed Aurra and Boba along with their henchmen Bossk and Castas (he's new). Then we get the idea that our Jedi are not dead ("Gee, really?")
It was a bit unbelievable that Mace and Anakin had actually died in that blast, so I knew that we were going to see them alive. In fact, the crew did a really good job of portraying Mace and Anakin as in grave danger. As soon as I heard how Anakin was speaking (with difficulty), I knew that it was all up to Artoo to save the day. And he did! He intentionally screwed up Aurra and her crew: closing doors, dropping junk and boxes, and even a grenade at one point. Woo hoo Artoo. Now, my job is to give you my thoughts on the episode, and I believe that I've done that. But one thing is for sure: I can only tell you what to expect in an episode, not what to think of it. And there is no point of watching an episode if you already know what happens in it, is there? So I am going to leave my review off right here, and just tell you that this was a fabulous episode. And believe it or not, the finale was even better!

IGN Rating: 8.2/10
My Rating: 9.3/10

i've never seen anyone in star wars gagged. it was asurprise to me. i did not expect a clone to be gagged either.