Star Wars: Clone Wars, “Gone with a Trace”, Review!

The title refers to the 2016 thriller novel, Gone Without A Trace.  It features Ahsoka Tano who was the Jedi apprentice to Anakin Skywalker.  They were a trusted duo since the Clone Wars (2008) movie.  She was a Togruta, the same species as Jedi Master Shaak Ti, with two curved horns that end in head tails.  Ahsoka was young, she had the same boldness as Anakin, but matured over the series.  Finally, she felt betrayed by the Jedi Order and left it in “The Wrong Jedi” (2013).  It was a surprise to discover that the mysterious agent “Fulcrum” was actually Ahsoka Tano working for the Rebel Alliance.  This was in the “The Siege of Lothal” episodes of Star Wars: Rebels (2015).  This episode would be in season five with the Bad Batch arc occurring afterwards.  Ahsoka (Ashley Eckstein) is racing across Coruscant in her speeder bike.  The speeder bike malfunctions sending her down a pit and crashing onto a landing pad.  Ahsoka is wearing a mechanic’s jersey instead of her familiar brown tunic.  She is met by a woman who is at a garage on the other side of the landing pad. 

STAR WARS: CLONE WARS -- “Gone with a Trace” -- Disney/Lucasfilm.

The woman, Trace Martez, (Brigitte Kali) introduces herself as “the best mechanic on 1313.”  Kali was in the film Baby Driver (2017).  1313 has great importance for Star Warriors.  Star Wars: 1313 was the LucasArts game in development since 2012.  It was going to be tied into the Star Wars: Underworld live action series taking palce in the underworld of Coruscant.  Trace opens up the doors of her hangar to a Nebula-class freighter.  She is going to modify it to a faster ship.  Ahsoka takes her offer to work on her speeder bike.  She discovers that she needs a sparker for her speeder bike.  Ahsoka wants to leave and Trace tries to reassure her she can stay.  It is difficult to see the Clone Wars is going on while mechanics are calmly working on their vehicles.  She watches a Republic cruiser ascend from the pit.  Ahsoka returns to see Trace has worked on her speeder bike and has the engine running.  She admits that she lived in the upper levels.  Trace says the Jedi there have forgotten about the people of 1313.

She wants to build her ship to escape with her sister, Raffa, from Coruscant.  They are interrupted by an alien, Pintu (Bobby Moynihan), who looks like a long, tube eyes with a mouth of tentacles.  Moynihan is known for his SNL work, but he has also voiced Orka in Star Wars: Resistance.  He has brought along two henchmen and wants payment from Raffa.  Trace warns Ahsoka to stay out of it and fights with the henchmen.  Knocked against a table by one of the men, Trace asks Ahsoka for help.  Of course, she takes them on even using a capoeira-like spin kick.  Pinto threatens them before leaving with his men.  Trace takes Ahsoka to find her sister.  Rafa (Elizabeth Rodriguez) is searching compartments for her laundry.  Rodriguez played Gabriela Lopez, the nurse who takes away Laura in Logan (2017).  Trace stops her from stealing the clothes and tells her about Pinto.  Rafa says that she has a legitimate deal coming up.  Ahsoka introduces herself.

STAR WARS: CLONE WARS -- “Gone with a Trace” -- Disney/Lucasfilm.

A blue Twi’lek man enters wanting some droids to be built.  Rafa accepts the job with a handshake deal.  She of course leaves up to Trace to work on the droids.  Later, Rafa and Ahsoka are working on the massive droids, Ahsoka is careful about working on the binary load lifters.  These were droids mentioned by C-3PO in A New Hope (1977), but made their first appearance, unidentified in “The Padawan Path” episode of Star Wars: Forces of Destiny (2017).  Ahsoka recognizes the type of droid, the same type she dealt with that was malfunctioning, they were made from demolition droids.  It suddenly slams down on Ahsoka who leaps away.  She raises up a control device to deactivate the droid.  Another smashes around before racing out of the garage.  Rafa is working on a datapad as tookas and the rampaging binary load lifter race past her.  The cats appeared in the Clone Wars episode, "To Catch a Jedi" (2013).  Trace runs after it with Ahsoka.  The droid leaps down to the lower street and begins going all Wreck-It Ralph.  

Trace sends Ahsoka back to get the droid’s tracker.  She leaves Rafa to join Trace on her construction speeder.  The out-of-control droid leaps over them.  Trace activates the speeder’s forklift to capture the droid.  The binary load lifter begins climbing a wall and Ahsoka releases the forklift.  Trace leaps on the droid as it is about to reach out for a kid.  Then, the droid falls, but Ahsoka catches it with the forklift.  There are some aliens watching that may look familiar; a tall Snivvian, an Aqualish in orange and an Ithorian in blue, Snaggletooth, Walrus Man, and Hammerhead, the original SW figures.  An Aqualish in green, Greedo, is in the foreground.  The speeder is about to be pulled over the 1313 wall, but Ahsoka pulls the tow cable around a pipe to pull them back up.  They are all about to fall, but Ahsoka uses the Force to pull them back.  They have to let Rafa make the deal with the droids that may be dangerous.  This is an ok episode with what happened to Ahsoka Tano, but it seems out of context with the greater Clone Wars that is in the series' title.  

Three Lightsabers out of Five!  

#StarWarsCloneWars, #GonewithaTrace, #AshleyEckstein, #BrigitteKali, #ElizabethRodriguez