You’d be mistaken if you think the latest episode of “The Clone Wars” is going to bring you action and a satisfying conclusion. What it will do is leave you on the edge of your seat, wondering about how to correct the mistakes you’ve made in the past.
“Deal No Deal” reminds me a lot of an episode of “The Mandalorian.” A group of heroes — in this case Ahsoka Tano, Trace Martez and Rafa Martez — go on a mission from the underworld of Coruscant to the upper world to complete a job for the Pyke Syndicate, a group of galactic thugs. The team jets off together and has to achieve a mission before returning home. The episode doesn’t offer much in terms of the overall plot other than solidifying Ahsoka as an independent character in the show who can rely on a lifestyle outside the Jedi Order.
Throughout the episode, Ahsoka learns new things about her newfound friends that offers her a new perspective on how to see the world. Her friend Trace has never seen hyperspace. She doesn’t really know how to fly ships even though she wants to be a pilot.
And then the group heads to Kessel — a planet we’ve seen in “Solo: A Star Wars Story” and has been mentioned consistently throughout the “Star Wars” franchise — where they are tasked with obtaining spice.
“Deal No Deal” doesn’t offer us a satisfying conclusion, though, as it ends on a wicked cliffhanger that clearly leads into the next episode of the season. Our heroes fail to get away from the Pyke Syndicate and are trapped there until next week.
But this episode offers us a different view to how things can turn out in the “Star Wars” universe. I expected the characters to hit the gas, soar into the stars and hit the hyperdrive to escape from their enemies. I thought they would get away. But the mistakes this group made were too hard to overcome, which means they’ll have to escape another way.
Making mistakes is something that often gets portrayed in a negative light. Mistakes can be problematic and lead to dire consequences. But mistakes hold lessons within them. You can learn from mistakes. Often, mistakes will make you smarter and more knowledgable the next time you face a crisis.
I have no doubt that Ahsoka and her team will escape from the clutches of the Pyke Syndicate at the end of the next episode. That’s usually how these episodes work. But to do so, they’ll have to learn from the mistakes they made in this episode. The trio will need to work together rather than apart. They will need to unite to take down their enemies and seek out a more forgiving revolution.
And Ahsoka has her own mistake to learn from. She’s dipped into the underworld of Coruscant looking for a new life. But maybe this will teach her that the underground world isn’t for her — that there is a better life out there she could live. Maybe she’ll see that embracing the darker side of the universe isn’t something she should do, especially when she’s grown up in the Jedi academy, a place of positivity, light and hope.
Like in most of these episodes, there’s also a lesson here for the greater “Star Wars” franchise. Yes, it has made mistakes with recent films. Maybe not everyone enjoyed the prequels or the sequel trilogy. Maybe Emperor Palpatine’s return in “The Rise of Skywalker” was a tough sell. But “Star Wars” will hopefully learn from that too and offer us a better future.
But what this episode shows us is that we have to get through the tough times before we can ever learn from our mistakes. We have to experience the mistakes (and the consequences of those mistakes) before we can correct our future. Getting through them is the hardest part. But it’s something we must do if we want to succeed.
It’ll be interesting to see where “Clone Wars” goes from here. The Pyke Syndicate has a direct connection to the villainous Darth Maul and the wider “Star Wars” story, so we shouldn’t be surprised if we see Maul soon. But there’s no question that we’re getting closer to the end of the line and the end of the story. Hopefully, no more mistakes will be made along the way.