Season 3 Episode 9

“Love comes in all shapes and sizes.”

Cad Bane has broken Ziro the Hutt out of prison. The Hutt Council demands that Ziro tell them where he’s hidden vital — and incriminating — information: a journal detailing the criminal activities of the Hutt families. Ziro makes another daring escape with the help of his estranged (and strange) lover, Sy Snootles. Bane is back on the Hutt’s trail — but he’s not the only one. The Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi and Quinlan Vos need to find him too.

A chase through the swamps of Nal Hutta leads the pursuers to Ziro’s enormous mother, Mama the Hutt, who points them to Teth. It is here, in the secret grave of Ziro’s father, that the fugitive Hutt has hidden the diary. When he retrieves it, Snooty reveals her true spots. She’s a deadly woman scorned and a bounty hunter for hire!

Hunt for Ziro Commentary, Preview and starwars.com Episode Guide.

Concept Art and Trivia

The character of Quinlan Vos is known to many Star Wars fans from his appearances in comic books published by Dark Horse Comics. The design of Vos stems from a background extra barely glimpsed in Mos Espa in Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. Dark Horse applied this design to a new character featured in the Star Wars: Republic comics, Quinlan Vos. George Lucas took such an interest in the look and personality of Quinlan that he included him in the script to Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. Obi-Wan Kenobi mentions a “Master Vos”, and there was a plan to include Vos on Kashyyyk during the Order 66 sequence, though that was never photographed. This is Vos’ first appearance in The Clone Wars.

In the comic book, Quinlan Vos is depicted as a rather unorthodox Jedi — one prone to bending rules and spending much time in deep undercover in dangerous, seedy parts of the galaxy. He has a unique Force talent of psychometry — the ability to read impressions off of objects so he can see who had previously handled them. In this episode, he uses this ability to detect Ziro’s presence from a discarded drinking vessel. In the script, he was to use it again while tracking down Ziro in the swamps of Nal Hutta.

The five Hutt family leaders are are Oruba, Marlo, Arok, Gorga and Jabba. As Jabba is not present on Nal Hutta, Gardulla serves as his representative. This was a change made relatively late in production. Jabba’s protocol droid, TC-30, was changed to Gardulla’s, MF-80.

Among the sources of inspiration for the enormous Mama the Hutt was Pearl, the obese vampire in Blade (1998).

The small hovering droids in Mama’s house — the Ran-D housekeeper droids — are an homage to to the tiny robots built by ILM in *batteries not included (1987).

The dance number in the episode was inspired by the opening scene of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), where Willie Scott and a troupe of chorus girls entertain gangster Lao Che and his henchmen.

For those who like to inventory such things: the creatures on Nal Hutta included a slightly redesigned peko peko bird, different in appearance from those found on Naboo; a dragonsnake; and a type of fish first spotted in Duchess Satine’s aquarium earlier this season. The DJ at the Hutt gathering is named Rang Thang.

If you listen closely when Ziro dies, he mutters “What a World, what a world!”, a nod to the death of the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz (1939).

Marlo the Hutt wears a Sha’rellian toop, a small creature that lives on his head giving him the appearance of having hair. Mama the Hutt has a stack of these as well.