Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode 4 recap: The Republic strikes back

The fourth episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars‘ seventh and final season, Unfinished Business, landed on Disney Plus early Friday and brought the season’s first arc to an end. After escaping the clutches of the Separatist-aligned Techno Union with captive clone trooper Echo, Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter), Captain Rex and the other clones (all voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) are ready to fight back in the time shortly before Revenge of the Sith.

Echo offers to feed Separatist Admiral Trench (Dee Bradley Baker) intel that’ll give the Republic forces the upper hand, if Anakin, Rex and the Bad Batch get him onto Trench’s Dreadnought above the core world Anaxes, while Jedi Masters Mace Windu (T.C. Carson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) take on the Separatist forces on the planet’s surface

Also, Mace mentions that the Republic has nearly a dozen active battlefronts on the planet — which reminded me that he isn’t a playable character in Battlefront 2. Developer Dice should really get him in there. Anyway, here come the spoilers.

The fortune cookie

“Trust placed in another is trust earned.” This pearl of wisdom refers to the Bad Batch’s initial lack of trust in Echo — they reckon he became a Separtist agent during his time as a Techno Union captive. They learn to trust him and win the day, and he joins them. I wonder what these guys will do when Order 66 goes down?

Echo’s new look

The clone trooper was turned into a cyborg during his captivity, so his physicality is quite different to his brothers now. As such, he wears less bulky armor and has a unique helmet design. It’s super cool, and reminds me of the armor Samus Aran wears in Metroid Fusion — that was like a sleeker version of her traditional Varia Suit.

He ultimately uses his new body’s hacking abilities to defeat the Separatist droid army by gathering them together and sending a feedback pulse that shuts them all down.

The incredible Mace Windu

Mace Windu and Obi-Wan leap into a hangar full of Battle Droids, and Mace gives them a chance to surrender. It doesn’t work, but proves that he’s an absolute badass. Since Lucasfilm knows what it’s doing, it released a clip of this moment so we can revel in it easily.

When Trench starts a countdown on a bomb in the fusion reactor on Anaxes (it looks a lot like the one in the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi), Mace runs off to deal with it on his own.

A taste of Vader

The Jedi Master gets a little help from Anakin, who confronts Trench on the dreadnought. The admiral reveals just how much he’s leaning into a creepy spider-person thing by firing web-like net at Anakin, but the Jedi dodges it. 

Then Anakin gets a bit dark side as he mercilessly slices off Trench’s cyborg arms to get the last part of the code Mace needs to deactivate the bomb. When Trench tries one last attack, Anakin ends him with a lightsaber through the chest.

“Admiral, it was a pleasure,” he says lightly as Trench falls to the floor with a smoking hole in his torso and gives us one last “tic-tic-tic.”

I’m no arachnid doctor, but Trench probably isn’t OK. You’ll be missed, creepy spider-dude.

Best day

Bad Batchers Crosshair and Wrecker have a competition to kill the most droids, with Crossfire employing an absolutely incredible ricocheting shot to come out on top. Things turn out okay for Wrecker though — Anakin gives him the honor of blowing up Trench’s whole fleet as they depart.

“This is the happiest day of my life,” says the towering clone, before hitting the button and setting off the fireworks.

No Wat Tambor

Techno Union boss Wat Tambor, who was responsible for mutilating Echo, goes unpunished for his crimes in this episode. But don’t worry, Anakin will be seeing him real soon.

With that, the first four-episode arc of The Clone Wars’ final season comes to an end. The next begins on March 20 and will reveal what former Padawan Ahsoka Tano has been up to since she left the Jedi Order in season 5. Check out my recap that day.