"I used to bring Qui-Gon here as a boy."
In the wake of Qui-Gon's death, Yaddle follows Dooku as he confronts his destiny.
Tropes:
- The Bad Guy Wins: Though Sidious loses a powerful apprentice in Darth Maul, he quickly replaces him with Dooku by the end of the episode, and Master Yaddle, the only one who could potentially expose him, is killed by his newly christened apprentice.
- Broad Strokes: This episode intends to bridge the gap and firmly establish Dooku's fall, but does somewhat come off mildly contradictory to Star Wars: Master and Apprentice, where Dooku's whereabouts have been a great mystery on everyone's minds. Here, he walks freely as an unassuming presence. His next appearance is again after a long disappearance that has the council perplexed. The one thing that is spot on is his admiration for his apprentice and his quirks even from a young age.
- Call-Forward:
- Kamino's location was deleted from the Jedi Archives in Attack of the Clones. Here, Dooku is the one responsible for that, using Master Sifo-Dyas's access codes.
- Obi-Wan is mentioned, but doesn't make an appearance, with Dooku noting they should meet at some point. They won't run into one another until the events of Attack of the Clones.
- Dooku meets Palpatine in their secret hideout in The Works on Coruscant, the same location as their rendezvous at the end of Attack of the Clones.
- Palpatine dismissing Qui-Gon's death at Maul's hands as a necessary loss is what the future Emperor himself would say to Grievous about Dooku's death 13 years later in Revenge of the Sith.
- Palpatine bluntly tells Dooku that he will always question his loyalty, as is the way of the Sith. In "Nightsisters", he would demand Asajj Ventress's execution to demand proof of his loyalty.Dooku: You question my loyalty?
Sidious: Always. - Yaddle urging Dooku to do the right thing by reporting Palpatine/Sidious to the Jedi as the other Sith Lord only for him to kill her on the future Emperor's orders to prove Dooku's loyalty to him is what Dooku's own (former) Sith apprentice Ventress would command Savage Opress note to do in "Witches of the Mist" to prove his loyalty to her.
- It's subtle, but this episode explains why Ahsoka will tell Din Djarin that, besides Grogu, the only other member of the little green species that she ever met was Yoda. Since she would have been very young when this episode takes place (about four years old), it makes sense that she wouldn't remember (or might never have met) Yaddle.
- Palpatine/Sidious observes a duel involving a potential new apprentice for him note , something he will do again in the future in Revenge of the Sithnote and Return of the Jedinote . He also laughs during the duel between Dooku and Yaddle, he will do the same in the last instance with the duel between Vader and Luke.
- Cassandra Truth: It's hinted that part of the reason Dooku turned against the Jedi Council is because he feels Qui-Gon's death could've been avoided if they had believed him more about the appearance of a Sith Lord.
- Character Death: Yaddle’s fate in the current continuity is finally revealed, killed by Count Dooku during the end of Episode I.
- Death by Looking Up: Yaddle nearly meets her end at the bottom of a very heavy hatch that Dooku causes to fall on her. While it doesn't kill her, the effort of stopping it leaves her ripe for a killing blow from Dooku.
- Death by Secret Identity: Yaddle discovers Dooku's turning Sith and that he's meeting with another Sith Lord, which dooms her.
- Double-Meaning Title: A threefer, actually - much emphasis is given at the beginning of the episode to Qui-Gon's encounter with Maul on Tatooine (since this was the first sighting of a Sith Lord for a thousand years), and the episode follows Dooku as he fully commits to the Dark Side and becomes a Sith Lord himself under Darth Sidious, the de facto Sith Lord of the entire Skywalker Saga.
- Downer Ending: Dooku kills Yaddle, cementing his role as a Sith Lord. Palpatine's plans will also go completely undetected until he creates the Galactic Empire thirteen years later.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: By the time this episode takes place, Dooku has already betrayed the Jedi Order. Even so, he is not happy about Palpatine letting Maul kill Qui-Gon and doesn't hesitate to tell him so. This is especially notable since (at least by the time of the Clone Wars) Dooku is usually too afraid of Palpatine to outright criticize him.
- Fade Around the Eyes: The episode ends with this on the smiling face of Palpatine/Sidious with his yellow eyes being the last thing shown before the credits.
- Failed a Spot Check: Yaddle's ship was following Dooku's very closely, meaning he probably would've seen the ship had he looked behind him on his way to meet Sidious.
- Foregone Conclusion: Dooku's role as head of the Confederacy in the Clone Wars ensures that Yaddle's pleas to turn away from Sidious were doomed to fail.
- Hero Antagonist: Yaddle becomes Dooku's enemy in the episode's climax once she discovers his dealings with Sidious and he commits to the Sith.
- Hope Spot: Yaddle manages to survive being crushed by using the Force to lift the hatch, complete with the Force Theme backing her up, but then she collapses from strain and is helpless when Dooku delivers the killing blow.
- Interquel: The episode takes place between scenes in The Phantom Menace, with the majority of it taking place between Maul's defeat and Qui-Gon's funeral.
- I Warned You: Dooku asserts that he's been warning the Order about the coming darkness for years, but has never been taken seriously.
- I've Come Too Far: Despite Yaddle's plea to help her bring Sidious to justice, Dooku is too disillusioned with the Republic and the Jedi Order. Even worse, for a flicker of a moment, Dooku genuinely seems to consider siding with Yaddle, but concludes he's in too deep to back out now—a sentiment his successor will echo well over three decades later.Dooku: I'm afraid...
Yaddle: I know you are.
Dooku: I'm afraid it is too late. - Mundane Object Amazement: Dooku mourns Qui-Gon at a tree in the temple the latter used to visit as boy, noting that Qui-Gon—having been born on heavily industrialized Coruscant—had never seen anything like it and was fascinated with it.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Dooku is struck with this after seemingly crushing Yaddle to death, falling to his knees in shock at having murdered a fellow Jedi. He quickly gets over it once Sidious dubs him his new apprentice and has far less compunction killing Yaddle for real a few moments later.
- Not What I Signed on For: When he meets with Sidious, Dooku angrily voices his displeasure over Qui-Gon's death at Maul's hands, even accusing the Sith Lord of allowing it to happen. Sidious brushes this off, candidly pointing out that they both lost their apprentices, though he clearly isn't all that bothered, viewing Maul's "death" as nothing more than an inconvenience, compared to Dooku's sorrow over losing someone he regarded as a surrogate son.
- One-Woman Wail: The score of this episode makes liberal use of a woman's voice droning mournfully, hammering in the dark tone once Qui-Gon dies.
- Properly Paranoid: Dooku is offended when Palpatine bluntly says he still questions his loyalty. Given the sheer magnitude of what Palpatine is trying to pull off, and how early on he is in his schemes, it's not unreasonable for Palpatine to be careful. He only just got chosen as Chancellor and is still quite a way off from his absolute power, and the betrayal of a prospective apprentice - or even just a full-time apprentice - would be devastating to his plans at this point in the timeline.
- Redemption Rejection: Yaddle offers Dooku the chance to help her arrest Darth Sidious and return to the Jedi Temple to answer for what he's done, but Dooku sides with the Dark Lord and ultimately kills her after a duel.
- Rule of Symbolism:
- After talking with Qui-Gon, Dooku and Yaddle walk off in separate directions—Dooku walking into a darkened section of the hallway while Yaddle's side is illuminated by sunlight.
- After Qui-Gon's death, Dooku visits the tree in the temple garden as it was Qui-Gon's favorite as a boy. The tree is losing its leaves as the darkness of winter approaches.
- The confrontation is the Last Stand of Dooku before he fully commits to the Dark Side. Yaddle tries with all her might but ultimately cannot stop what is to come, evidenced by how she puts up a good fight lifting the hatch (note how the light also blinds Sidious), but ultimately fails, leaving Dooku in darkness.
- As Dooku finds himself between Yaddle and Sidious, symbolizing his internal struggle between the light and dark, he's standing closer to Sidious. Over the years, he's been steadily drifting closer to the dark side and further from the light. Before Yaddle even makes her plea, Dooku's already chosen Sidious.
- When Dooku closes the hatch on Yaddle to kill her, he also cuts off the major light source coming from outside, filling the hanger he and Sidious are in with darkness. Symbolically, this is the moment he fully falls to the dark side, and he is much less hesitant to kill Yaddle afterward when she escapes the hatch unable to defend herself.
- She Knows Too Much: Yaddle follows Dooku to a private meeting with Darth Sidious following the events of The Phantom Menace and overhears everything about Dooku's involvement with his plans. When Yaddle reveals herself, Sidious orders her killed as a test of loyalty and to keep her from informing the Council. After some hesitation, and prompting from Sidious, Dooku complies.
- Simultaneous Arcs: The opening of the episode takes place during The Phantom Menace, specifically beginning after Qui-Gon's first run-in with Darth Maul. The episode then timeskips to show Dooku dealing with the fallout of Qui-Gon's death.
- Slasher Smile: The final shot of the episode is Sidious sporting a triumphant and wicked grin after Dooku finishes Yaddle.
- Synchronous Episodes: This episode takes place during The Phantom Menace.
- Time Skip: After Qui-Gon's talk with Dooku, there's a jump ahead to after his death, with his funeral being held on Naboo. Dooku has other plans for the day, however.
- Villain Has a Point: Both Dooku and Sidious rightly believe that the Jedi blindly serve the corrupt Galactic Senate while letting people suffer at the hands of their elected officials. The point is so compelling Yaddle can find no counter argument. In the middle of their duel, Yaddle outright concedes to Dooku that he was right about "so many things".
- Villain Protagonist: By this point, Dooku has already defected to the Sith and begun enacting the plan to forge the Empire. However, he hasn't fully committed himself to the Sith mindset until his murder of Yaddle.
