Following the destruction of Raxus Secundus and the supposed death of General Grievous at the hands of the Crimson Razors, Dooku grows desperate enough to awaken a deadly warrior from stasis.
Tropes in this episode:
- As You Know: In the flashback scene at the start of this episode, Dooku gives Sidious a recap of all the augmentations and enhancements that the Sith gave Grievous to turn him into the perfect Jedi-killing machine. Out-of-universe, this is for the convenience of the audience. In-universe, however, Dooku is saying stuff that his Sith master should already know about. Lampshaded by Sidious:Sidious: I am well aware of all of this. Do not waste my time, Tyranus. If I had a desire to bandy meaningless words, I'd return to the games of the Senate!
- The Bus Came Back: Brother Tasleon makes his return in this episode after his last appearance back in Episode 8.
- Call-Back: The line "It is better to die for the Emperor than to live for yourself" (which was first said by the Atlas of Steel's captain way back in Episode 4 as a Mythology Gag) makes a comeback in this episode when the captain of an Imperial Cruiser utters it in response to Grievous threatening his life and demanding he shut down his ship's self-destruct sequence. Much like how it was used in Episode 4, it is uttered by an Imperial captain just before his ship self-destructs by overloading its Warp core as part of a Taking You with Me.
- Character Action Title: The true Grievous is the eponymous dreamer mentioned in this episode's title and he makes his debut by being awakened from stasis after three years.
- Continuity Nod:
- Operation Durge's Lance, which first appeared in issues #74-76 of Star Wars Insider, is briefly mentioned by the imposter General Grievous when he recognizes the Imperials attacking Raxus Secundus are using a similar strategy that he utilized during that particular military campaign.
- Tasleon takes out the imposter Grievous by luring him onto an Imperial warship and then setting the ship to self-destruct, which was similar to how Obi-Wan nearly killed Grievous in The Clone Wars episode "Bound for Rescue".
- Deadly Force Field: The true Grievous ultimately defeats the Imperial fleet sent to destroy Hypori this way. After buffeting the Imperials with Space Mines and fire ships, he waits for the Imperial ships to enter Hypori's atmosphere to carry out Exterminatus. As soon as the fleet enters the atmosphere, he activates the planetary shields, causing the Imperial ships to collide directly into the shields and end up crashing down onto Hypori's surface.
- Did You Actually Believe...?: Brother Tasleon asks this to the fake General Grievous prior to their battle aboard the bridge of the Imperial Cruiser.Tasleon: Did you really think we were retreating from you? Do you think you will find our forces fleeing back towards whatever territory you imagine we are protecting?
- Distant Prologue: The episode opens with a flashback to three years ago in the aftermath of the Battle of Hypori where Dooku talks with Sidious about Grievous being more dangerous than the Sith had expected, hence why he had Grievous locked away in suspended animation and replaced with a less powerful imposter. The episode then cuts to the present day during the scouring of Raxus Secundus, where the imposter Grievous is killed by the Crimson Razors, causing Dooku to awaken the real Grievous from his forced hibernation.
- Evil Versus Evil: The episode has General Grievous (both the real one and the imposter) versus the Crimson Razors.
- Flashback: The episode opens up to a flashback scene taking place around three years prior to this episode, mere hours after the First Battle of Hypori where the true Grievous made his battlefield debut and curb-stomped Ki-Adi-Mundi and the other Jedi. Dooku is communicating with Sidious through a hologram where they discuss how they've put the true Grievous into stasis due to him being too dangerous and intend to replace him with an imposter.
- People Jars: It's revealed that Sidious and Dooku have been keeping the true Grievous in suspended animation inside a bacta holding tank hidden away on Hypori for nearly four years.
- Point of Divergence: It's explain by the narrator that in the canonical timeline, the imposter Grievous would have perished on Utapau at Obi-Wan's hands as seen in Revenge of the Sith, while the true Grievous would've died alone in a hidden underground bunker when his life support systems shut off in response to the droid shutdown order at the end of the Clone Wars. However, with the destruction of Raxus Secundus and the early death of the imposter Grievous thanks to the actions of the Crimson Razors, Dooku has no choice but to awaken the true Grievous, thereby diverting from the canon timeline.
- Power Misidentification: When Brother Tasleon uses a teleportation device to disappear in a flash of light at the end of his duel with the imposter General Grievous in Episode 31, the fake Grievous initially assumes Tasleon turned invisible and starts sweeping his lightsabers around in hopes of striking his "invisible" opponent.
- Quantity vs. Quality: This is how the Space Battle above Raxus Secundus between the fake Grievous's CIS fleet and Thune's Imperial fleet plays out. Individually, Imperial warships are vastly superior to their CIS counterparts in terms of size, firepower, armor, and range. However, the fake Grievous's fleet contains far more ships than Thune's fleet (partially thanks to the fact that the majority of Grievous's ships are droid-crewed), meaning that the fake Grievous is able to overwhelm the Imperials through sheer attrition by throwing wave after wave of disposable ships at them and gradually whittling down their fleet.
- The Reveal: The Grievous that Obi-Wan and the other Jedi have been fighting for the majority of the Clone Wars is actually an inferior imposter hired by Dooku and Sidious to replace the real Grievous, who had grown too powerful and dangerous for even the Sith to control.
- Sequel Episode: This episode partially serves as one to "Beyond Axum", which ended with Dooku abandoning the Separatist Council and Senate to die on Raxus Secundus while Thune's fleet commenced their Orbital Bombardment of the entire planet. The fake Grievous's POV segment in this episode picks up almost immediately after that with Grievous's fleet jumping out of hyperspace into the Raxus system to find the Imperial fleet still in the process of laying waste to Raxus Secundus's surface.
- Space Mines: The true Grievous is defending Hypori from an incoming Crimson Razors battlegroup led by Vordran. By reviewing footage of the Imperial attacks on other Separatist worlds, Grievous is actually able to correctly determine where Vordran's battlegroup will be coming out of the Warp and lays a minefield there.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: During their duel, the fake Grievous chucks one of his lightsabers at Tasleon's Bolter to destroy it.
- Villain Episode: This episode is centered around General Grievous and shows how the Separatists have been dealing with the Imperium.
- Wham Episode: This episode reveals that there are two General Grievouses — the original Legends version who was mothballed because the Sith didn't think they could control him and his inferior canon copy. The canon version is lured into a trap and killed off, forcing Dooku to revive the original, who immediately proves their decision correct by going rogue almost as soon as he is brought up to speed on recent events.
