The Trigon Unleashed

"The Trigon Unleashed" is the third episode of Star Wars: Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO. Written by Peter Sauder and Richard Beban and directed by Ken Stephenson, the episode originally aired on ABC on September 21, 1985.
==Plot summary==
===Trouble at home===
C-3PO is stacking a crate in a garage when he is startled by a monstrous shadow. This shadow turns out to be R2-D2, who was carrying several tools. C-3PO tries to hide his embarrassment. Outside, Kea Moll asks Thall Joben if she can come along. Thall declines her offer, saying that the Fromm Gang won't stop until they have gotten their Trigon One weapon back. C-3PO agrees with Thall, saying that the fewer people know about the weapon's whereabouts, the safer it will be. Thall agrees and says it will be safer with C-3PO and Kea should the Fromms catch up with them.
Before Thall and R2-D2 set off to destroy the Trigon One, he tells C-3PO to look after Kea. C-3PO wishes him and R2-D2 a safe journey. Thall says they will be back shortly. While Kea is sleeping, C-3PO falls through a tarpaulin in the roof and lands in the garage, startling Kea. C-3PO apologizes, explaining that he was trying to hook up the antennae to an old subspace receiver in order to take their minds off things.
While fiddling with the controls, C-3PO stumbles upon a transmission While trying to pick up a HoloNet signal to find a comedic program, Threepio accidentally picks up a transmission from Tig Fromm to his father Sise Fromm where Tig promises to find the Trigon One. Sise Fromm warns his son to get it back or he will get another son. Sise regrets financing his son's superweapon. Tig believes that the Trigon One will make them the most powerful gang in the quadrant. Sise disagrees saying that without it, they are the most desperate gang in the quadrant. C-3PO and Kea also learn that Vlix Oncard has been dispatched to capture Thall and his droid. Vlix has surrounded their speeder shop.
Despite Kea's warnings, C-3PO heads out to warn Thall not to walk into a trap. C-3PO barely avoids a blaster bolt. Kea realizes that C-3PO was the droid that Tig was talking about. Under siege, Kea tells C-3PO that they need a plan. C-3PO is lost without R2-D2 but Kea implores him to come up with a plan. C-3PO proposes surrendering. Vlix and his Annoo-dat Blue henchmen demand that they surrender.
===Pursuit and capture===
Just then, Thall returns in his landspeeder with R2-D2 and rescues Kea and C-3PO. Vlix and his associates pursue Thall's landspeeder through the streets of Ingo. The group narrowly escape a closing gate. Vlix and his associates avoid crashing into the gate and catch up with Thall and his friends. R2-D2 points out that the gangsters are missing them intentionally. The group realize that the gangsters were trying to steer them into a dead end but Thall manages to fly the speeder through a closing gate.
They find themselves in a garage but are trapped by Vlix and his henchmen. Vlix tells the fugitives that they have something that belongs to Mr Fromm. Thall says that he will never get it back but Vlix is unmoved. The four bound captives are brought before Tig Fromm, who talks about eliminating rival gangs. He toys with an experimental laser weapon that vaporizes objects. C-3PO and R2-D2 narrowly avoid its rays.
Tig boasts about eliminating the other gangs with the Trigon One and demands to know where the weapon is. Thall is defiant, claiming that it is in a safe place. Under Tig's orders, Vlix shows a video of Kea's mother Demma Moll and Jord Dusat in captivity in order to exert pressure on Thall and Kea. Jord and Demma urge Thall and Kea to resist the Fromm gang. Tig demands where is the superweapon. Kea attempts to escape and fails but destroys Tig's laser weapon. Thall insists on talking to Sise, much to Tig's dismay.
===Prisoners of the Fromms===
Later, while traveling in a yellow Lambda-class shuttle, Tig tries to convince his father of the privilege of interrogating the prisoners. Sise grumbles about having a failure for a son. Tig is despondent about not being able to please his father. Meanwhile, C-3PO and R2-D2 are locked in a zero-gravity compartment. R2-D2 manages to use his magnetic legs to hang on the ceiling. C-3PO grumbles about his plight about R2-D2 not having a plan.
Inside their cell, Kea tells Thall about using the shaft in their cell to take over the ship. Thall fears that doing so would lead to the deaths of Jord and Demma. Kea says they have nothing to fight the Fromm Gang with but the Trigon One. Thall comes up with an idea of using the Trigon against the gangsters. Kea thinks that Thall is "space-sick" but he convinces her to trust her.
The shuttle approaches a dusty planet and lands at the hangar of Sise Fromm's stronghold on Annoo. The prisoners are led out of the shuttle. C-3PO is unable to lower his arms since his circuits have been affected by the zero gravity. Thall tells C-3PO to keep his eyes and ears open. While walking through the stronghold, C-3PO tells R2-D2 that they are spies and have to find out everything they can. However, their captors lead them into a torture chamber for droids. C-3PO tells R2-D2 and their captors that they are "perfect model prisoners."
Later, the droids, Thall and Kea are brought before Sise, who is willing to hear Thall's bargain. Thall demands that Kea's mother and Jord go free before negotiations take place. Sise rejects Thall's demand, saying that he is not a fool unlike his son. Just then, C-3PO lowers his arms, startling the guards and Tig and Sise, who are splashed in a broth. Thall tells the Fromms that the Trigon One is in the Jarl forest on Ingo near the bantha-shaped rock formation. Kea feigns shock. Tig offers to retrieve the weapon since he built the weapon. Sise allows Tig to go and retrieve the Trigon One but sends Vlix to accompany him.
===Escape and sabotage===
Kea demands the release of her mother. However, Sise keeps her, Thall, and the droids as hostages until he can figure out their game. C-3PO and R2-D2 are hung outside down while Thall and Kea are imprisoned with Jord, who warns them that they shouldn't have come. R2-D2 convinces C-3PO to tell the guard that the astromech droid is storing jewels inside his compartment. When the guard comes to check R2-D2, the astromech droid sprays him with oil. R2-D2 then uses his gadgets to free the prisoners. In return, Thall frees R2-D2 and C-3PO.
Thall then asks C-3PO how long it will take Tig to get the Trigon back to Annoo via lightspeed. C-3PO says that it will take Tig 49 minutes to get back to Annoo. Thall decides to free Kea's mother Demma before the Trigon One crashes into Sise's base.
Meanwhile Tig, who has recovered the Trigon, boasts about using the superweapon to take out planets. Sise believes that his son is worthy and tells him that he is proud of him. Demonstrating the weapon's power, he destroys a nearby asteroid, pleasing his father.
Back at Sise's fortress, R2-D2 hooks up to a computer and uses his holoprojector to project the schematics of the base. Having located Demma's interrogation cell, Jord says that they can get there through a service tube. Thall and Kea tell Jord to commandeer the fastest ship while they rescue Demma. Jord and C-3PO enter the hangar where Jord proposes stealing a Strato Driver. R2-D2 and C-3PO use a bag pulley system to throw a crew and guard member into a drain. Elsewhere, Thall and Kea search the prison for Kea's mother.
In space, Tig prepares the Trigon One for descent into Annoo's atmosphere. However, he finds that the guidance systems and docking sequence are not responding. Tig tells Sise that the weapon is on a collision course with Sise's fortress. Meanwhile, Jord learns from C-3PO that R2-D2 and Thall sabotaged the Trigon by setting it on a collision course with Sise's stronghold. Jord sends C-3PO and R2-D2 to find Thall in a cargo sled.
While Tig struggles to regain control of the ship, the droids struggle to control their cargo sled. C-3PO complains about R2-D2's driving skills. The two dodge corridors and crash into a table where two guards are playing. Meanwhile, Thall and Kea are cornered by a pair of Fiddler 10 droids. R2-D2 and C-3PO's cargo sled crashes into the Fiddler-10 guards. Kea reunites with Demma. Before leaving, they issue an evacuation alarm.
===Collision and victory===
In space, Tig evacuates onto Vlix's ship. Sise reluctantly evacuates but is furious about the impending loss of his stronghold. Back at Sise's stronghold, his droids and guards flee the bas in panic. Thall, Kea, Demma, R2-D2 and C-3PO join Jord aboard the Strato Driver. Inside the ship, Jord tells his friends that he has hotwired the booster drive but still needs a servo to join it together. R2-D2 beeps in binary, leading C-3PO to say that Artoo has another plan.
As the Fromm henchmen and droids flee the base in every available vehicle, the Trigon One descends towards the base. The droids and their human friends escape aboard the Strato Driver before the Trigon ploughs into Sise's stronghold, destroying it in an explosion. Vlix and Tig watch the destruction with horror, with the former telling the latter that he messes up things in a big way. Sise vows revenge on his son, much to Tig's despair.
In space, Kea thanks Thall for destroying the Fromm gang's weapons satellite, stronghold, and the Fromm Gang. Jord reminds her that it was a group effort. Thall explains that he and R2-D2 fixed the Trigon so that it would it home in on Sise's communication signal. Demma surmises "that they would let evil destroy itself." Thall thanks R2-D2 for coming up with this idea. C-3PO grumbles about Artoo using his servomechanism to guide the spacecraft. Jord reassures C-3PO that he is indispensable. Thall reassures that C-3PO sees through Artoo's plans while Kea reassures that the two droids are a terrific team. C-3PO agrees with Kea.
==Credits==
==Appearances==
==Behind the scenes==
This episode was adapted into a children's storybook of the same title.
During the evacuation of the Fromm base, one of the craft briefly visible is the one retconned to be the R-22 Spearhead, although it was identified in the Droids toy line as an A-wing.
==Sources==
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==Notes and references==
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