Tonight’s episode is all about the Nightsisters, a group of warriors/witches/black magic Druids/ninjas that I really enjoy. I was surprised to see online how many people hated tonight’s episode, because I thought it was visually striking as well as disturbing. Shall we forge ahead?
Spoilers will be revealed!
Asajj Ventress returns to Dathomir after the betrayal of Savage, the assassin that she hand-picked. She is welcomed back by Mother Talzin, who encourages her to abandon Dooku and the Sith way of life so she will be loyal to no one but her sisters and herself. Ventress is feeling pretty lonely and confused, so this is quite appealing to her. Hell, I sort of wanted to join.
Dooku has simmered long enough about Ventress and craves revenge. He orders Grievous to wipe out the entire Sisterhood. Grievous gathers up his droid troops and ships out, eager for a fight.
Ventress repledges herself to the Nightsisters. In a fantastic and dark ceremony, Ventress symbolically dies and is reborn, complete with creepy rolled-back eyeballs. As the Sisters celebrate the rebirth, the droid fighters appear, shooting to kill. Grievous orders them to burn a path through the forest to get to the Sisterhood’s fortress.
Ventress regrets bringing the war to Dathomir, but Talzin wastes no time and orders the Sisters to prepare for the fight ahead. They take to the trees so they are able to fight from above as well as below, and their skill is marvelous. Ventress wields her twin sabers, and other Sisters shoot with energy bows, which made me pretty excited. Grievous sends in the droids as well as defoliator tanks to set the forest ablaze. The Sisters are well trained, but they’re outnumbered.
Talzin requests a small metallic sphere from her room and asks Old Daka (the oldest and wisest member of the Sisterhood) to raise the dead to help in the fight. Daka begins chanting, and the dead fall from grave pods hanging in the forest. They are magnificent and terrifying, all open mouths and green, glowing eyes.
The first defoliator fires, and the Nightsisters retreat. The trees go up in flames, but Ventress sees the army of the dead running out to back her and regains her courage. Talzin takes the orb, which contains a single lock of Dooku’s hair. She drops it into a potion and out pops a voodoo doll. It’s made of a waxy substance and she holds it over the fire. It melts and Dooku begins to break out in blisters on his forehead. Ventress and the dead army clear the way to Grievous, and Ventress challenges him to fight her alone, hoping to win his retreat.
Talzin drives a needle through the doll’s head and then drops it into the potion, and Dooku is powerless with pain. When Grievous loses the upper hand against Ventress, he orders his droids to attack her. She is able to fend them off for a bit as the dead fight for her, but when she is struck in the arm she is carried off by a Sister who is almost immediately killed and tells Ventress, “Doom is upon us.” I guess you can’t really call that foreshadowing, since they’re already in the middle of battle, but it’s certainly not an uplifting thing to say. Dooku tells Grievous to abandon Ventress and stop Talzin. Grievous traces the magic back to Daka and kills her, which drops the dead Sisters, leaving the living Sisters defenseless. They are killed in short order. Talzin is fired upon and killed as well. Ventress is crawling back to the fortress when Talzin’s spirit appears to her, telling her everyone is dead. Ventress begs to not be left alone, but the spirit is already gone.
Who could have predicted I would ever feel sorry for Ventress? She’s done some pretty heinous things, and yet when she shows up broken and remorseful, I find myself hoping things work out for her. This series has always had dramatic moments, but the scenes of the dead army and the voodoo doll torture certainly portend of darker things to come. Only a few more episodes left in this season, and I’m already a bit nervous about what’s going to happen.
So what did you think? Were you a fan of tonight’s episode?
If you missed the previous episode be sure to read our ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Crisis on Naboo’ recap.
