“Star Wars: The Clone Wars” shifted its story to an entirely new part of the galaxy, setting up an endgame. Now, we await to see where this will lead.
The fifth episode of the season — titled “Gone With a Trace” — focused on Ahsoka Tano, who was last season in season six of the show after she left the Jedi Order and the entire life she ever knew. We find her minutes after when she descends into the Coruscant underworld — titled “1313,” which is a callback for many “Star Wars” fans — after her speeder bike crashes.
It’s a slower episode than what we’ve recently seen in the final season of “The Clone Wars.” The first four episodes of the final season included several battles, a lot of droid vs. trooper action, the Jedi and lots of callbacks to the original franchise. Those episodes were fast-paced, epic and wild. They went by in a blink.
But “Gone With a Trace” is a slower, more meaningful episode that set the stage for what’s to come next in the final season.
Ahsoka Tano is a fan-favorite character who was created specifically for “Clone Wars.” For years, fans have wondered what happened to her since the end of “The Clone Wars” season six. We know she appears down the road in “Star Wars Rebels” — which takes place a few years after the fall of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire — and that she’ll likely appear in the second season of “The Mandalorian” (and will be played by Rosario Dawson, no less).
So it’s no question that the final season of “The Clone Wars” will have a heavy focus on Ahsoka, and this episode was the first step toward the endgame.
“The Clone Wars” will only have 10 episodes this season. So it should start setting up its final midway through. It’s a little concerning we haven’t seen Ahsoka Tano until now. We know she’s going to figure into the final battles — specifically with Darth Maul, who appeared in the season’s early trailers.
But now we’re getting our glimpse. So what did we learn? We know that Ahsoka left the Jedi Order and she’s still afraid to jump back into the ongoing battles. She learns more about how the common folk feel about the Jedi, too, which may mean she’s going to have a more nuanced view of the world — something that even Anakin Skywalker, Rey and Luke Skywalker all learn down the road. The world isn’t black or white but shades of gray.
The episode begins with the message of: “If there is no path before you, create your own.” We see Ahsoka begin to craft her own path. She doesn’t plan to stick around in Coruscant’s underworld. Whether she will or not is another question.
So many questions remain about where she will end up next in the franchise and what her fate will be when it’s all said and done. We know she will live on — but will she have one final confrontation with Anakin Skywalker? Will she battle with the Jedi again? We don’t know the answers to these questions, but we know those answers are coming.
We can only wait to see what happens. But the path is laid out before us, created by “Clone Wars.” And it’s one path we’ll have to follow.