Season 3 Episode 8

“A failure in planning is a plan for failure.”

In the middle of a routine shopping trip on Coruscant, C-3PO is abducted by the bounty hunter Cad Bane. Bane is looking for information about the Senate building on behalf of Jabba the Hutt. Finding C-3PO devoid of useful information, Bane and his accomplices kidnap R2-D2 and extract the vital data, before memory-wiping the droids of the incident, and letting them on their way. The floor-plans and security details of the Senate building are part of a plot engineered by the Hutt families to free their imprisoned brother, Ziro the Hutt, who holds potentially damaging information about Hutt activities.

Evil Plans Commentary, Preview and starwars.com Episode Guide.

Concept Art and Trivia

The loudmouth jogan fruit vendor that swindles Threepio is named Droogan. According to the script, he is a Khramboan. Production notes for this episode name the green shopkeeper droid GL-916, and the speeder used by HELIOS-3E and Todo 360 as a RGC-16 landspeeder.

This episode takes place some time after “Holocron Heist,” which saw the destruction of Todo 360. Todo was rebuilt off-screen by Anakin Skywalker after the episode “Children of the Force,” in an attempt by the Jedi to learn more about Bane and his whereabouts. The plan goes wrong and Todo escapes. The episode immediately after this one is “Hostage Crisis.”

The pink droid spa attendant is SN-D1. The purple one is named BO-N1.

The torture droid working for Bane is named J0-N0. Its design is based on 8D8, a smelting droid seen in Jabba’s palace in Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi.

The signage outside the droid spa promises “oil changes, rust removal, memory flushing, polishing, motivator repair, de-fluttering, restraining bolt application and removal, general maintenance overhauls, junk removal” while the signs inside promise “recharge, repolish, repair” and “refit.”

Senator Aang is a Roonan, a species developed as a background alien in the Senate in Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. That he is a member of the Military Oversight Committee, and that Padmé is trying to persuade his vote, are clues that this episode takes place before “Senate Murders.”

Among the inspirations for the tone and pacing of the droid spa sequence was the scene where Steve Zissou gives the audience a tour of his boat in Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic.

C-3PO makes mention that he was previously the protocol droid for the chief negotiator Manakron system. This supports George Lucas’s original character notes that had C-3PO be over a 100 years old at the time of Episode IV A New Hope. Nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker did not build C-3PO from scratch, but rather rebuilt an older droid that had previous protocol assignments.

The baker droid is voiced by Duff Goldman from the TV show “Ace of Cakes”; the Food Network show had previously based an entire episode on creating an R2-D2 cake for The Clone Wars season two wrap party.

The droid that yells “Murderer!” at Todo and the assassin droid was voiced by Matt Lanter, the voice of Anakin Skywalker.

This episode finally reveals who hired Cad Bane for the liberation of Ziro the Hutt: it was the bosses of the Hutt crime families. The design and characterizations of some of the five Hutt families were inspired by mob bosses from classic cinema, including those played by Edward G. Robinson and Marlon Brando.

I’m at a loss with Gorga and Oruba.

Todo 360’s ironic farewell of “thanks for the memories” is a nod to the 1938 hit song of the same name made famous in The Big Broadcast of 1938 and as actor-comedian Bob Hope’s signature song.

The nuna drumsticks make a return appearance as the most commonly served food during The Clone Wars.