On the face of it, the most recent episode of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” didn’t progress the story at all. We end up in the same place where we began, denying any sort of movement in an already slow plot for this final season of “The Clone Wars.”
But the seventh episode of the season — titled “Dangerous Debt” — did offer a little advancement in Ahsoka Tano’s growth to embracing who she is and what she will always be — a Jedi.
We start the episode with Ahsoka and the Martez sisters trapped inside a Pyke Syndicate prison. Slowly, the guards take each of the Martez sisters to be tortured and questioned for what they know about the missing spice, which had been tossed out of the ship last week.
Soon after, the sisters and Ahsoka break out of their prison, and so begins a chase between the Pyke Syndicate and our three heroes. Unfortunately, the chase leads everyone right back to where they began — inside a prison cell.
The opening message for the seventh episode reads, “Who you were does not have to define who you are.” And we see that in many ways when it comes to Ahsoka and her journey to becoming who she was, even if she was banished from the Jedi order. The Jedi part of her will never leave her. She will never become someone different.
Throughout the episode, we see flashes of Ahsoka embracing her Jedi ways. She uses it to unlock one of the prison cells she’s trapped in. She embraces it to make a death-defying jump, hopping over her two friends. Her abilities are unnatural, only fit for a Jedi.
She does this even as the Martez sisters share a heartbreaking memory of their past. Trace and Rafa Martez share that they don’t trust Jedi. Why? Well, their home was destroyed after a Jedi used her abilities to block a ship from destroying a number of people. When the Jedi approached them afterward, the Jedi told them the Force would be with them, but offered no other help to replace their home. For this reason, the Martez sisters So Ahsoka knows she has to keep quiet about her past as a Jedi Knight. Still, she embraces her strengths as a Jedi. She leans into who she is for the sake of saving herself and her friends.
Ahsoka will never forget who she is. She can never completely change from what she has been. She is clearly still embracing her training as a Jedi, even if she’s around people who dislike the Jedi way and if she herself has forsaken the teachings.
It was good to see her embrace the Jedi path. The recent arc with the Pyke Syndicate — which is now on its third episode — seems to be stretching a little too far now. The next episode will surely be the conclusion of the arc (there are only 10 episodes in the season, meaning we get three new ones before the end of the show).
Though the seventh season is a slow one without much depth, it’s nice to see some semblance of “Star Wars” action here. It’s good to see Jedi represented as well.
Now the questions remains: Where does this take us? Ahsoka is clearly embracing her skills as a Jedi by not forgetting who she was. So there’s a hint we’re going to see her embrace the Jedi order again sooner rather than later.
But with only three episodes left, it remains unclear whether or not she will rejoin the entire Jedi Order and if she will fully return to the life she once lived.