Jealousy is the path to chaos.
The InterGalactic Banking Clan is in chaos after Padmé Amidala, Anakin Skywalker and Rush Clovis escape from Scipio with files proving that they've been war profiteering and concealing the fact that their vaults are empty due to embezzlement. The Council of Five is confident that the files alone won't be enough to sink them, since their secret accounts can only be revealed by them. But Banking Clan member Nix Card, secretly duplicitous, informs Darth Sidious that the trio are on their way to Coruscant with the stolen information. Once presented with the files, Palpatine places Padmé in charge of the ensuing investigation, ordering her to work closely with Clovis in rooting out what is going on inside the Banking Clan. But caught between Clovis and her jealous husband, what is Padmé to do?
Tropes:
- Armor-Piercing Response: When Anakin insists that there's nothing going on between Padmé and Clovis, and that their relationship is strictly business, Obi-Wan bluntly replies, "Then we should have no problems, should we?", outright telling Anakin that his jealousy is unfounded.
- Blatant Lies:
- Anakin saying that he and Padmé are just friends. Yeah, you keep telling people that, Ani.
- Padmé's later denial of the same relationship to Clovis isn't especially convincing, either, and Clovis makes that clear.
- Captain Typho does not look especially convinced when Clovis claims that the damage to the apartment came from an intruder who beat him up that Anakin just chased off.
- Bullying a Dragon: Clovis challenges Anakin to a straight-up fight without any "Jedi tricks". Anakin is a battle-experienced General with the Grand Army of the Republic, with a super-strong robot arm. Clovis is a banker and former senator with no real combat experience. The math is pretty simple here.
- Call-Back: Obi-Wan brings up Duchess Satine while talking about how he knows something of what Anakin is going through.
- Call-Forward: Anakin is starting to show signs of the jealousy and possessiveness towards Padmé that he displays in Revenge of the Sith, demanding that she not work with Clovis and later viciously beating him up in Padmé's apartment. To drive it home, when Anakin tries to apologise and explains that something in him "snapped", a snippet of the Imperial March is played.
- The Cameo: Senators Chuchi and Tills appear during the Senate session, the latter shouting "Traitor!"
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Anakin, to an even greater extent than the previous episode, culminating in him beating the crap out of Clovis for trying to kiss Padmé. Padmé is so disturbed by his behaviour that she decides to take a break from their relationship and very nearly calls it off entirely.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Anakin wins the fight, unsurprisingly, but Clovis manages to get a few good hits in and shows some martial arts prowess.
- Deal with the Devil: Clovis accepts an offer from Count Dooku to support him as the new head of the Banking Clan in exchange for a disk with the location of the Council of Five's secret accounts.
- Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting: While it's reasonable most of the time for all the characters on screen to know how to fight, mostly being clone soldiers and Jedi or their opponents, guards and cops, and the like, it's a little more surprising that Clovis, a banker, can go toe to toe with a Jedi. However, given the fairly Crapsack World nature of the Star Wars galaxy, the wealthy and powerful probably expect kidnapping and assassination attempts to be routine. And since it's revealed that Clovis was adopted by one of the high-ranking Muun families, it's likely he would insure his new son received all the self-defense training he could afford.
- Everyone Can See It: This episode confirms that everyone close to Padmé and Anakin can see how they feel about each other, even if they don't know the full details of their relationship. Clovis confronts Padmé about it while Obi-Wan does the same with Anakin.
- Exact Words: In Palpatine and Anakin's conversation at the end, the Chancellor tells Anakin that he's suspicious of Clovis because he thinks there's something that hasn't been unearthed yet, although Anakin is surprised the Chancellor would go through with such a plan when people could be hurt. Of course there's something that hasn't been unearthed, but Palpatine knows exactly what it is.
- Forceful Kiss: Clovis tries to plant one on Padmé, but is interrupted by Anakin's arrival.
- Interspecies Adoption: Clovis reveals that he was adopted by the high-ranking Muun his parents used to work for when his parents and the Muun's wife were killed in a shuttle accident when Clovis was 12.
- Is That the Best You Can Do?: A variant. During their brawl, Anakin asks Clovis "Is that all you've got?!" when Clovis' blows barely inconvenience him.
- It's Personal: Clovis reveals that he has a personal history with the Munes and the bank. He was taken in as a child by the head of the bank and treated as one of the family by all Munes he dealt with.
- Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Clovis challenges Anakin to fight like a man without "Jedi tricks". Anakin is more than happy to comply, and beats the crap out of him.
- Like an Old Married Couple: Clovis' suspicions about Anakin and Padmé being in a relationship come about because, as he says to Padmé, "Friends don't argue the way I saw you two arguing earlier."
- My God, What Have I Done?: Anakin seems genuinely remorseful for beating the crap out of Clovis and apologizes to Padmé, but she's still pissed.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Anakin delivers one to Clovis after the latter makes the mistake of requesting that they fight without "Jedi tricks".
- Noodle Incident: Padmé mentions that her and Clovis' work reminds her of that time she and Clovis had three nights to prepare for a Senate hearing regarding saving Bromlarch's planetary aqueduct system (it would be resolved in Queen's Shadow).
- Properly Paranoid: Anakin may be slipping closer to the Dark Side with his possessive feelings about Padmé, which Palpatine is covertly encouraging, but he's right to be concerned about Padmé and Clovis, since while she's not interested, Clovis is rather more insistent.
- Psychic Strangle: Anakin does this to Clovis when he catches him trying to kiss Padmé.
- Punch Parry: Clovis blocks a punch from Anakin with his fist... a punch from Anakin's prosthetic hand, resulting in Clovis grunting in pain.
- Secret-Keeper: Clovis figures out that Anakin and Padmé are in a relationship and chooses to claim that the damage to the apartment from his and Anakin's fight was due to an intruder rather than expose it.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: It's made clear that Obi-Wan strongly suspects that Anakin and Padmé are in a relationship in the scene where he tries to give Anakin some advice. It's also hinted that Captain Typho knows too.
- Tempting Fate: At the beginning, the Council of Five says that they're in no danger from the stolen files because no one but them knows the location of their secret accounts. Too bad for them that the Sith have a disk with those files they intend to give Rush Clovis as part of helping him take over the bank for their own purposes.
- Unwitting Pawn: Dooku and Palpatine plan to help Clovis take over the Banking Clan as part of their own plans, but Clovis himself has no idea.
- The X of Y: "The Rise of Clovis".
