As the Crimson Razors continue to wreak havoc among the unsuspecting galactic community, the Skywatch and the bulk of Imperial forces busy themselves with organizing their ragtag force. Before they can even decide where to set down their trillions of civilians, they must first come to understand who they answer to and why. And so Lord Admiral Rollah Sendurran finds herself performing one of the oddest roles she has had to fulfill in her hundreds of years of service: playing dinner guest to an Astartes Chapter Master.
Meanwhile, the Republic gathers those who have survived the "far outsiders" at Rothana and begins to form a plan. Anakin Skywalker, Captain Rex and Clone Commando Echo, as well as Doctor Shina, Captain Spikes, and a few others have all been gathered to discuss their perceptions and ideas on what must be done. However, things become far more tense the more they all slowly realize that all they really know about these new invaders is that they must be stopped.
Tropes in this episode include:
- After-Action Villain Analysis: Occurs in episode 9 where Orion tells Lord Admiral Rollah about the Kassakanni Insurrection, in which a heretical cult staged a planet-wide rebellion on Yevan Secundus and began sacrificing members of the local aristocracy to an unknown fertility god. Orion led the squad of Space Marines which put down that rebellion and interrogated the rebellion's leaders under the assumption that the cult was the work of some rogue psyker, xeno, or daemonic corruption. Orion then goes on to explain to Rollah that the cult had actually arisen on its own with no outside interference; the end result of decades of famine caused by a greedy and corrupt planetary governor.
- All of Them: At the end of episode, in response to the news that the Imperial fleet commanded by Davik Thune has departed Axum for parts unknown, Admiral Tarkin orders his aide to send a message to Chancellor Palpatine requesting that he recall the Republic's fleets back to defend Coruscant due to the unprecedented threat posed by the Imperium, leading to this exchange:Tarkin's aide: Oh, Admiral! Which fleets?
Tarkin: Pardon?
Tarkin's aide: Which fleets did you want recalled? Which fronts?
Tarkin: I would have thought that to be obvious. All of them, boy. Request all of them. - The Big Board: The main Jedi and Republic cast have a military conference at Rothana in a room with a large, pentagonal holotable that they use to display various holograms for presenting data and analyzing past battles with the Imperium.
- Breather Episode: This episode follows the climatic battle between Anakin and Hastus as well as the Republic being forced to give up Anaxes to the Imperium. The first half has Orion and Rollah have a discussion over dinner regarding Orion's plans to create the Imperial Council to govern the Xek-Tek refugees, while the second half has a Republic military meeting attended by the Season 1 cast and Tarkin who go over what they know about the Imperium and try to brainstorm ways to better combat them.
- Continuity Nod: When Obi-Wan shows that he's open to Echo's suggestion of allying with the Separatists against the Imperium, Anakin (in a moment of subtlety grabbing the Jerkass Ball) sarcastically quips that the Republic might as well also form an alliance with Death Watch while they're at it.
- Dénouement Episode: This episode serves as a dénouement to the first season, showing all the season's POV characters and their storylines converging as they all sit down together to try to figure out their next moves. Orion and Rollah have a dinner meeting to discuss how they will manage the Imperium's forces now that they are cut off from the wider Imperium of Man, while the Jedi and Republic characters try to brainstorm ways to better combat the Imperials.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: Tarkin says that everyone needs to "address the roth in the room" before presenting his argument for why he believes the Jedi make poor generals and should relinquish command of the Clone Army to professional military officers.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- Dr. Shina is abrasive and rude but she makes some good points and arguments. Had Renphi followed her advice to retreat after the Imperials arrived it likely would have saved most of the Republic fleet from the utter massacre they suffered. She is also correct at the meeting when she points out that the Republic has very few advantages over the Imperials and one of them is that they can travel the Galaxy much faster so putting the Senate and the Chancellor on a dreadnought and evacuating them from Coruscant is pragmatic given how massively outclassed the Republic Navy is. Later in the meeting, Echo declares that her suggestion was the most practical as it could be done the quickest and they are running out of time.
- It's more mixed with Tarkin. The author has stated that Tarkin's idea for holding Anaxes would have failed due to the presence of Space Marines. However, Tarkin is correct when he points out that Anakin could have recovered the weapons or body of the Space Marine he and the Bad Batch killed as both might have given the Republic some information as to how Space Marines operate. He also makes some valid points as to how the Jedi really aren't equipped to lead a fight against the Imperium as they are now.
- Let Me Tell You a Story: During Orion Phatris's dinner with Rollah Sendurran in episode 9, Rollah accuses Orion of overreaching his authority by reforming the power structures of the planets he visits. Orion responds by telling her a story about Yevan Secundus, a planet where Orion twice had to put down rebellions caused by the planetary governor being greedy and incompetent. After putting down the first rebellion, Orion had the planetary governor executed for his failure. When Rollah interjects and asks what's the point behind the story, Orion explains that the replacement planetary governor turned out to be just as bad as their predecessor, leading to another rebellion even worse than the previous one. By that point, Orion had realized that fixing the corruption in Yevan Secundus's government wasn't as simple as killing the ruler, so he carried out a thorough Ruling Family Massacre. Afterward, he personally selected and mentored the next planetary governor, putting his candidate through a series of trials to ensure that they wouldn't be corrupt like their predecessors. The point that Orion was trying to make with that story was that sometimes the only way to reform a broken system is to rebuild it from the ground up. The secondary purpose of that story was to explain Orion's reasoning for wanting to install a new power structure in the Imperial refugee fleet now that they are in a new galaxy cut off from the rest of the Imperium.
- Metaphorically True: During the private dinner meeting between Chapter Master Orion Phatris and Lord Admiral Rollah Sendurran in Episode 9, Orion tells Rollah that he often worked closely with her predecessor prior to his untimely demise and claims to have had meetings with her predecessor over dinner just like what they are doing right now. The narration for this scene notes that this is only partially true; Orion did meet with Lord Admiral Boazan over dinner during the Retaliation Wars, but that was only on two separate occasions whereas Orion frames it as though it was something they did on a regular basis.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Echo advocating for an Enemy Mine with the Separatists comes across as one given how Anakin and the Bad Batch had just rescued Echo from the Techno Union where they had forcibly turned him into a cyborg and used his brain as a living computer for the Separatist military. The fact that Echo (who by this point should have every reason to despise the CIS) is stating that the only way for the Republic to defeat the Imperium is to ally with the Confederacy shows just how badly his encounter with Tasleon and learning about the Imperium's military power spooked him.
