Writer / Director: Steve Melching / Steward Lee

Tagline: "The most dangerous beast is the beast within."

Story: The plot thread begun last week on Malastare with the fearsome, lightsaber-proof Zillo Beast continue this week... on the populous planet of Coruscant. In a poorly calculated plan to harness the beast's indestructibility for the Republic Army's use, Chancellor Palpatine orders the creature be brought to the same city-world where the government's seat of power presides. Don't they have monster movies a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away? We can be happy they don't, because the chaos that ensues contributes to one of the best episodes this series has seen.

"Gojira!": "The Zillo Beast Strikes Back" is clearly inspired by giant-monster-wreaking-havoc-on-city movies in the vein of "Godzilla," "King Kong" and, more recently, "Cloverfield." "Kong" is the closest comparison as the Zillo is painted as a tragic figure. Sure, it goes marauding across the city-world, taking hundreds if not thousands of lives in the process. But it's also the last of its kind, forcibly brought to Coruscant against its will. Apparently intelligent enough to understand the words being spoken by those around it, the beast comes to realize that its been sentenced to die by the chancellor... and so it breaks free, tearing across the city to show Palpatine what it thinks of his plans.

Jedi On The March: One thing missing from our rich history of giant monster movies is a Jedi Order to protect us. The episode is filled with well-executed Jedi action, from Yoda and Aayla Secura's dash along the great beast's backside to Anakin's death-defying improvised plan to save himself, Padme, the chancellor and his ever-present droid pals, R2-D2 and C-3P0.

Serving The Fans: Lots of excellent canon-serving quotes in this episode. A favorite for many will be the chancellor uttering the iconic line first uttered by Harrison Ford's Han Solo so many Earth years ago: "I have a bad feeling about this." So do we, Palpy... so do we.

A Glimpse Of The Future: Take note fans: whenever you see a "Star Wars" property with the words "Strikes Back" in its name, prepare for awesome in the form of a maybe-not-so-happy ending. The Zillo Beast dies a tragic death, an extended sequence (for a half-hour show, anyway) in which gas bombs are repeatedly dropped on it until it falls to the ground, dead. One of the last shots in the episode, an upward-tracking bird's eye view of the beast's corpse, is a note-perfect reproduction of a similar scene from "King Kong"... and it's similarly heartbreaking. Best of all however-- in the final moments of the episode we see the rascally Palpatine, future Emperor and Sith Lord in hiding, giving the order for the beast to be cloned. Since I don't remember any funky-looking creatures like this running around in George Lucas's original trilogy of films, it seems pretty clear we haven't seen the last of the Zillo Beast.

Not next week though; Friday, April 23 marks the start of a three episode arc to end this second season of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars." The particulars of the story remains a tightly kept secret within the Lucas camp, but we do know that the three episodes will feature the long-awaited reveal of young Boba Fett. Several years have passed since he watched Mace Windu remove the head of his father at the First Battle of Geonosis, the opening confrontation in the Clone Wars. I'm betting that the time has only served to deepen his hatred of the Jedi.