"Dooku Captured" marks the eleventh installment of Season One from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series. As the eleventh episode overall, it initiates a two-part narrative arc.
Prior to the events of the Skirmish at Vanqor, Anakin Skywalker intentionally allowed Count Dooku's Munificent-class star frigate, to capture him in an icy region near Vanqor. Once aboard the vessel's hangar, he feigned resistance to legitimize his capture. After being subdued, he was confined to a prison cell. Subsequently, Obi-Wan Kenobi infiltrated the ship to free Anakin and assist in the Count's apprehension. Dooku then flees in his solar sailer, pursued by the two Jedi in a Sheathipede-class transport shuttle. Direct hits compel the Count to execute an emergency landing on a nearby planet's wilderness. Similarly, a strike from a droid fighter forces the Jedi to crash land.
The two Jedi initiate a search for Dooku within a nearby cave, but the Dark Lord of the Sith sets a trap by triggering a cave-in, causing Anakin to lose his lightsaber, which Dooku then takes. This diversion enables Dooku to escape and seal the cave with Anakin and Obi-Wan trapped inside. As the Jedi seek an exit, Dooku encounters Hondo Ohnaka's pirate gang salvaging his wrecked ship. Finding himself outnumbered and stranded, the Count assesses his situation and opts to accompany the pirates aboard their ship, leaving the planet. Upon their arrival, Dooku notices that both of his lightsabers are missing from his belt. Taking him as a prisoner, the pirates intend to demand a ransom from either the Separatists or the Republic.
Concurrently, the Jedi inadvertently awaken "the mother of all gundarks" while trying to find a way out of the cave. Their discovery of the gundark leads them to realize they are on Vanqor. After subduing the gundark, they are nearly overcome by poison gas released from a trapped pocket in the cave, just as Ahsoka Tano and a squad of clone troopers discover the cave entrance.
Following Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and other representatives receiving a message from Hondo Ohnaka regarding a reward for capturing Count Dooku, the Jedi High Council assigns Anakin and Obi-Wan, at the suggestion of Senator Padmé Amidala, to meet with the pirates to confirm Dooku's capture, under the condition that they arrive unarmed. Upon their arrival in the Twilight, the Jedi are greeted at gunpoint and escorted to Hondo, who arranges a meeting with their captive.
After Anakin and Obi-Wan enter Dooku's cell and subtly mock his predicament, Dooku anticipates the Jedi soon joining him in captivity. The Count cautions that the Weequay are "devious and deceitful, and most importantly...stupid" and that the Jedi "underestimated them at their own peril."
Upon departing Dooku's cell, the Jedi are "invited" to a banquet in the pirate gang's main hall, an invitation the Weequay were insistent they accept. Informing Mace Windu and Palpatine that Dooku was indeed securely held by the pirates, Palpatine informs them that he is dispatching Senator Kharrus and Representative Binks with the ransom in exchange for the Sith Lord.
The Jedi take their places at the banquet and are offered refreshments: drugged beverages. As Hondo proposes a toast to a successful exchange, the two Jedi swap their drinks with those of the Weequay and Nikto seated nearby, reciprocating the toast to an "alliance" with "powerful pirates and...new friends." As their Weequay neighbors succumb to the drugged drinks they unwittingly consumed, Anakin muses on how drunken pirates succeeded in capturing the Count where the Jedi had failed. Obi-Wan advises him against being too proud to accept the unexpected advantage, prompting Anakin to propose a toast to unexpected gifts.
Kenobi's line to the Niktos, "You're not the prisoners I'm looking for," is reminiscent of his line in A New Hope, "These aren't the droids you're looking for."
In the initial broadcast of the episode, also presented as a sneak peek, Obi-Wan informs Dooku, as Dooku's frigate comes under fire from the Resolute, that he will be taken to Coruscant to face trial before the Senate, before Dooku dismisses Obi-Wan and Anakin as fools and makes his escape. Subsequent broadcasts omit this scene, instead showing Dooku denouncing Anakin and Obi-Wan as fools after Anakin informs him that Republic troops are boarding the frigate.
The apparatus immobilizing Dooku appears to be a containment field, similar to the one Dooku used to restrain Obi-Wan during Attack of the Clones.
Originally, the pirate group was intended to include two Kowakian monkey-lizards: twin brothers Pikk Mukmuk and Pilf Mukmuk, but their characters were merged into Pilf.
The Corona-class armed frigate featured in the episode draws inspiration from 1950s film concepts of spaceships (flying saucers), such as those seen in Earth vs. The Flying Saucers. Commentary revealed plans to incorporate a flying-saucer type spacecraft into the prequel series since The Phantom Menace, possibly as Trade Federation spacecraft or Alderaanian vessels, but this episode provided the first opportunity to realize the concept.
In the original script, the scene where Anakin and Obi-Wan enter the hangar initially depicted them discovering a Sabaoth starfighter from Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter.
The song playing in the background within the pirate stronghold is a Hindi song titled "Indian Pop Source," composed by the series' composer Kevin Kiner.
Captain Rex's kama is absent during the opening scene involving the briefing about Florrum.