We find Ahsoka alone as the episode begins, but she soon meets a potential new friend.
Lucasfilm
Gone With a Trace, the fifth episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars‘ seventh and final season, landed on Disney Plus Friday, leaving the Bad Batch behind to kick off a new four-part arc. This one is about Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein), who was Anakin Skywalker’s Padawan and basically the show’s main character until the end of season 5.
She left the Jedi Order after being framed for a bombing and being forced to go on the run. Her name was cleared, but those events made her lose faith in the Jedi and she decided to go out on her own.
In this episode, we rejoin Ahsoka as she begins her journey to discover who she is outside the Jedi. We also hear a little of John Williams’ Force theme on our first glimpse of her, hinting at the character’s grand destiny. Beware, SPOILERS are coming your way like a broken speeder bike.
The fortune cookie
“If there is no path before you, create your own.” This pearl of wisdom refers to Ahsoka having to figure out what she wants to do with her life. The Jedi Order — the only life she really knew — offered structure, now she has to figure out what she actually wants.
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Level 1313
Ahsoka goes to Coruscant’s lower levels on her speeder bike (and its glorious Return of the Jedi sound effects), but it’s kind of a piece of junk and she ends up crashing. Luckily, that tumble results in her meeting mechanic Trace Martez (Brigitte Kali), who offers to let Ahsoka fix it up in her repair shop.
Trace Martez is caught in a bad situation.
Lucasfilm
Trace also has a big ol’ ship in her shop, which is clearly going to be part of an action sequence at some point.
This area of Coruscant has a fascinating real-world history. Star Wars 1313 was a video game that got canned when Disney shut down all projects at LucasArts — Lucasfilm’s game development group — in 2013. We saw a cool demo for Uncharted-style adventure before that, featuring actor Wilson Bethel (who played Bullseye in Daredevil season 3). I’m including it here on the off-chance that occasionally mentioning this game will convince Disney that it’s worth reviving — it would’ve starred Boba Fett, whose look is so in right now.
Rafa Martez is clearly trouble.
Lucasfilm
Making friends and frenemies
Trace is no fan of the Jedi — she blames them for starting the Clone Wars — and wants to escape Coruscant’s lower levels with her sister. She’s clearly a decent sort, but her sister Rafa (Elizabeth Rodriguez) appears to be a pretty stereotypical bad seed.
She owes local scum-and-villainy type Pintu Son-El (Bobby Moynihan) money, which results in Ahsoka having to break out some moves to rescue Trace from some goons.
The demolition droid is this episode’s big threat.
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Nasty droid
Rafa’s hustle involves a demolition droid, which runs amuck in 1313’s neon streets. Ahsoka and Trace manage to catch it (with some sneaky Force use by Ahsoka), so Rafa gets paid.
She manages to charm Trace into putting up with her questionable behavior, but the tension between her and Ahsoka is palpable. They agree to part ways once Ahsoka’s speeder bike is fixed.
I have no doubt that they’ll cross paths in the second episode of this four-part arc, which hits Disney Plus on March 27. I’ll have a recap up that day.