The Clone Wars returned today with the eighth episode of the seventh and final season of the show, wrapping up the middle arc of the season, which has focused on Ahsoka.
This episode wraps up that storyline, but it also bridges us into the highly-anticipated Siege of Mandalore, which begins next week. This episode has some pretty exciting tie-ins as it pertains to that arc.
So let’s dive in to our review!
SUMMARY:
Imprisoned by the Pykes, Ahsoka asks Trace and Rafa Martez to trust her. The three are brought before Marg Krim, and Ahsoka makes a deal, pretending to betray the sisters. She tells Krim that Trace and Rafa hid the spice and tells him to let them go retrieve it, saying that if they’re not back in a day, she’ll tell him where their family lives. Though Krim realizes this is a trap, he goes along with it – because we learn his life depends on the spice shipment too.
After they leave, Rafa explains to Trace that Ahsoka hadn’t betrayed them but was allowing them to escape; she couldn’t betray them by revealing the location of their family, since their family is dead. But not one to be indebted to Ahsoka, Rafa hatches a plan to return to rescue her. The plan is that the sisters will steal spice from a Pyke outpost and then take it to Oba Diah. She smooth-talks her way through loading spice onto their ship, but the trandoshan manager of the station interrupts. Rafa fights him off, eventually sending him plummeting to his death. With spice in tow, Rafa and Trace head back to save Ahsoka.
Ahsoka, meanwhile, frees herself from her cell using the Force, and begins sneaking around the Pyke compound, planting charges. She comes across Marg Krim talking with a hologram, and she soon realizes that it’s Maul. It seems that Maul nearly senses Ahsoka’s presence, but then threatens Krim, saying he doesn’t have any further time to deal with his incompetence. After overhearing this transmission, Ahsoka uses the Pyke computers to trace the transmission, discovering that Maul is on Mandalore. The Pykes soon discover her, and though she puts up a brief fight (revealing herself to be a Jedi), she is captured again. Krim reasons that this must have been a Republic initiative, since they sent a Jedi.
As the Pykes prepare to execute Ahsoka, Trace and Rafa arrive with the spice. But they are shocked to discover Ahsoka is a Jedi, and the Pykes in turn prepare to execute all three of them… when the charges Ahsoka had planted detonate. This creates the distraction needed and the three escape. They make it to Trace’s ship and take off; Ahsoka mans the guns and takes out all but one of the pursuing fighters, but the ship then loses its rear deflectors and its gun. Trace turns around and flies right at the approaching ship, causing the enemy to crash and outmaneuvering him.
They fly into space and prepare to jump to hyperspace, but are pursued by a Mandalorian Gauntlet starfighter. Back on Coruscant, Trace and Rafa accept Ahsoka as a Jedi, with Rafa saying Ahoska is what she wants Jedi to be. Their touching moment is interrupted by Bo-Katan Kryze. Ahsoka recognizes her, but Bo-Katan assures her that Death Watch is dead and, bringing up a holo of Maul, says they have a common enemy. Bo-Katan asks Ahsoka for help, and Ahsoka is unsure about leaving with her, since it will mean going back to the Jedi. But Trace and Rafa encourage her by telling her it’s what she is meant to do, and she agrees to leave with Bo-Katan – though leaving her bike in Trace and Rafa’s shop, just in case.
As Ahsoka boards the Gauntlet fighter, Trace and Rafa watch as Ahsoka and the Mandalorians leave.
REVIEW:
I enjoyed this episode, but I’ll be honest: the most exciting part about it for me was seeing how close we actually are getting to the Siege of Mandalore. That’s the focal point of this final season of the show, as it’s the way that things were always supposed to end.
And along those lines, there were two significant things in particular that happened that help us lead to the Siege of Mandalore. First, we see that Maul is on Mandalore and is still trying to operate his criminal underworld (he mentions Crimson Dawn!), though here it doesn’t seem like Marg Krim and the Pykes necessarily want to be a part of it (it seems more like they’re compelled to be rather than desire to be). And Ahsoka discovers that Maul is on Mandalore, wondering what he’s doing there. Second, Bo-Katan recruits Ahsoka for help. Considering their previous encounter on Carlac I’m kind of surprised how quickly Ahsoka agreed to help, as it felt a bit too easy… but I suppose that Ahsoka has come to conclude throughout the episode that Maul is still a threat and that she can do something about it.
I think one of the things that this arc did really well was help us get Ahsoka from the point of leaving the Jedi Order to where she will join forces with them once more, then largely follow a Jedi-like path in Rebels. I think Rafa summed it up well when she said that Ahsoka is what she wants a Jedi to be. So many in the Order lost their way, and Ahsoka knew that and saw that. But Ahsoka uses the Force to help people, and that was true in this arc all the way throughout. We can clearly see that her ideals line up with what a Jedi should be, as she takes a strong moral stand and wants to help people. She is hesitant to do anything that would lead her back to the Jedi, yet Trace and Rafa are able to see that she never really left the Jedi path – just their Order.
As for Trace and Rafa, it was nice to see them take things into their own hands and come up with a plan to rescue Ahsoka. I wish there had been more time for them to digest the reveal that Ahsoka was actually a Jedi, but nonetheless it was cool seeing how the sisters actually looked out for someone else for a change. It brought their story along nicely too.
This story was obviously changed quite a bit from what it was originally planned to be, including to accommodate its new location in the larger story, tying into the Siege of Mandalore. And while I did think that Ahsoka joined up with Bo-Katan pretty quickly, I thought the way they tied these things into the arc was quite good and believable. That’s especially true regarding Maul, as it makes total sense that he’d be putting pressure on the Pykes – thus the reason they’re even more desperate than usual for the spice. And I’m guessing that Bo-Katan is on the planet to investigate that possible link, though that will likely be explained more in next week’s episode.
So yeah, I enjoyed this arc, but it’s nothing compared to my excitement for the Siege of Mandalore next week!!! That’s what we’ve been waiting so long for, and it’s almost here.
My grade: 8.6/10
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