Great progress today on my idea for a new version of s02e02 Massacre.

I’ve incorporated about ten minutes of Lair of Grievous, so now it plays as follows:

Intro makes clear that as revenge for the events of the Nightsisters arc, Talzin has leaked the location of Grievous’ lair (a secret only Ventress knew) to the Jedi. (We assume Ventress told Talzin offscreen in their last episode together.)
Open on Ventress returning to Dathomir, and being told by Talzin that she should become a Nightsister
Cut to Kit Fisto entering Grievous’ lair and them finding all of his weird artefacts, Grievous arriving, their first combat (where Grievous loses his legs), Fisto deciding to flee but being stopped by Grievous locking the doors, and Grievous undergoing his painful repairs.
Transition from Grievous’ repairs into Ventress going through a similar procedure as she’s healed and purified by Nightsister magics, becoming a true Nightsister.
Return to Grievous’ Lair, where he takes a call from Dooku saying he knows about the Jedi attack, that Ventress has returned to Dathomir, and they can get revenge on Ventress and Talzin. (They leap to revenge as only Ventress knew the location so they must have been the leakers.) Grievous kills Nahdar and Kit Fisto unlocks the doors, and I moved round some scenes so it looks like the right number of clones get killed without needing the fire pit or monster. Kit faces Grievous and flees, and Grievous immediately tells Dooku it’s time for revenge on the nightsisters.
Back to the Nightsisters celebrating and getting immediately attacked by Greivous, and then the rest of Massacre plays out, with the only changes being making Talzin the one who raises the undead army instead of Old Dahka.

Since Grievous has no visible mouth, and Dooku has his back to the camera quite a lot when he’s in hologram, I was able to do a lot of audio work to keep referencing the Nightsisters throughout the Lair of Grievous content.

The workprint is finished but I want to watch it through first and see if I want to make any other changes since it was a complex one to put together.

But, a question for you guys:

One additional option I have here, is to end with Savage on a rampage in the diner looking for Maul, finding a further clue and getting more of Talzin’s guidance, ending up on the ship which’ll take him to Lotho Minor to find Maul. I originally cut that from the start of the relevant episode, as it wasn’t necessary as an episode introduction (he has the medallion, we can start with him just already arriving at the planet), but if I were to put it here, it would serve to bridge the prior Nightsisters episode (four episodes prior) with the next Savage/Maul episode (four episodes hence). Though it doesn’t directly pertain to the content of this episode, it might provide some good wider continuity and let that plotline feel like it’s still running? What do you guys think?