Don’t read if you don’t want to know what happens!

Anakin and Amidala meet with Jar Jar to gain an audience with Boss Lyonie, the Gungan leader who is speaking out against the Naboo people.  He is encouraging his armies to march on Theed, but Anakin soon discovers that Lyonie has been possessed by a necklace given to him by Rish Loo.  The belief among the Gungans was that Loo was a magician that used his power for good, but it turns out Dooku is using Rish Loo’s influence to gain easy access to Naboo.

Lyonie confronts Rish Loo, but the magician doesn’t need the necklace to influence Lyonie anymore.  Loo stabs him and flees.  During Lyonie’s recovery, Anakin and Amidala find that Jar Jar looks exactly like Boss Lyonie when wearing his crown and robes.  They convince Jar Jar to impersonate the Boss and tell the Gungans to stand down.  This seems both shady and foolish to me.  Jar Jar is clumsy at best, and trusting him to negotiate a volatile crowd would never occur to me.  On top of that, asking him to impersonate a government official doesn’t exactly sound on the up-and-up.

Jar Jar suceeds. He interrupts Rish Loo, who has been proclaiming Lyonie’s death.  Loo runs away with Anakin hot on his trail.  Jar Jar calls off the marching orders.  Shortly afterwards battle droids arrive and escort Jar Jar to a meeting with General Grievous, who informs him that if he doesn’t attack Naboo, Grievous will.  Jar Jar sends the Gungan General Tarpals to fetch help, which comes in the shape of a plan from Amidala.  She tells him to shut down the battle droids so Grievous is left without an army.

Things go well until Grievous stabs Tarpals and asks, “How does it feel to die?”  The general responds with “Not die…sacrifice.”  He then impales Grievous, and as the other Gungans join in, they subdue and capture him.  Tarpals dies.  Palpatine tells Dooku to trap Anakin and then trade him for Grievous.  Loo lures Anakin to Dooku, who wastes no time in running Loo through with his light saber.  Dooku and Anakin battle, and ultimately Anakin is held prisoner.  Dooku offers the prisoner exchange to Amidala but she initially refuses.  The capture of Grievous could end the war once and for all, but her feelings for Anakin win out and she agrees to the trade.

When I saw that Jar Jar was the subject of tonight’s episode, I was disheartened (and that’s putting it nicely).  Like many adults, I find Jar Jar mostly annoying.  While I can’t say I’m now a fan, I grew a newfound tolerance for him.  What helped in this episode was that for most of it, Jar Jar was acting like someone else.  His humorous moments were used sparingly and came out of a natural nervousness, which worked much better than having him trip all over the place as he usually does.  This wasn’t my favorite chapter of the story, but it was still worth watching.