Summary
“Justice” highlights some of the early indicators of Count Dooku’s fall to the Dark Side as the obvious corruption of the Republic drives him to rash action.
This Tales of the Jedi season 1, episode 2 recap for the episode titled “Justice” contains spoilers.
Deviating away from Ahsoka’s origin story, which was featured in Tales of the Jedi episode 1, “Justice” instead switches focus to Count Dooku in the first of three episodes that unpack the Separatist leader’s fall to the Dark Side.
Tales of the Jedi season 1, episode 2 recap
Here, the younger version of Dooku is recognizable mostly from his severe, upper-class manner. This is in his early days, when Qui-Gon Jinn (Micheal Richardson) is still his apprentice, though isn’t a version of him anyone would recognize at a glance (him being Qui-Gon is even treated as a last-minute reveal). But the events of this episode become essential building blocks for Dooku’s eventual alliance with Palpatine.
Dooku and Qui-Gon have been dispatched to investigate the kidnapping of a Senator’s son, which they quickly uncover to be the work of everyone living in an impoverished village that has been left to rot thanks to the Senator’s corruption. The village elder (Vanessa Marshall) makes so secret of having kidnapped Senator Dagonet’s son. What else were they to do?
The son (Josh Keaton) sees things the same way. He’s ashamed by the self-serving nature of his father and the fact he has left what are ostensibly his people to fend for themselves as he lines his own pockets. But he barely has time to articulate this before Dagonet himself (Mark Rolston) shows up with a cadre of soldiers, ready to take his son back by force.
Dooku sees the writing on the wall. He understands that the Senator is corrupt and that the Jedi’s explicit function of serving the Republic is being undermined by doing the man’s bidding. So, Dooku refuses to allow Dagonet to take his son. The Senator, unwilling to be told no and clearly seeing the Jedi as his servants and not peacekeepers, orders his men to open fire on both them and the civilians.
Many of the civilians die. And when Dooku sees this, he flips out a little and begins Force-choking the Senator, sending his men flying at the same time. Qui-Gon, recognizing he can’t talk his master down, frees Dagonet’s son and gets him to talk his father into doing right by the people, which causes Dooku to finally relent. And while Dooku recognizes that Qui-Gon’s wise actions saved many lives, he remains disillusioned with the effectiveness of the Jedi, especially in light of the obvious corruption of the Republic, as we’ll see in subsequent episodes.
