Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 7, Episode 3: Drama put on hold

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 7, Episode 3 features a high-octane escape. So, why is it not more involving?

Picking up right after the prior adventure, the third episode of the Clone Wars revival basically covers the heroes’ escape from the Techno Union facility. With their liberated friend Echo in tow, they must battle legions of flying droids and colossal walkers in order to shake their pursuers.

That being said, if you expect the Clone Wars crew to spend much time with the characters after last week’s rescue, then you’ll be sorely disappointed. This episode is essentially just wall-to-wall action. Granted, that action remains a visual and audio treat. On top of the panning camera delivering a palpable sense of scale and the tracking shots putting you right in the heat of battle, the locust-like enemy designs add some welcome novelty to the “clones vs. droids” formula.

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Even with all of these technical advantages, though, the episode as a whole feels just like a standard adventure. The heroes don’t really have anything deeper going on here, and character and/or suspense seem to come second to flashy battles. They fight; they quip; they fight some more.

The villagers we previously encountered are brought back here, but their inclusion comes off as rushed, especially when you consider that we’ve seen their arc handled with more care and attention with the lemur-esque things in Season 1. We briefly touch on their desire to stay out of the war, but this is never given any time to breathe. Instead, Rex convinces them to choose a side, and they seemingly become instant allies.

The catalyst for their involvement is the attack by the Techno Union, an organization which is also said to be neutral in spite of the fact that we saw them pledge their allegiance to the Separatists in Attack of the Clones. Going into this neutrality, which party publically draws first blood, and the resulting political fallout might have been interesting, but it could have also drifted a bit too close to Star Trek. In that case, it might have been better for the writers not to bring it up at all and focus instead on the core characters, but they don’t do that either.

You’d think the creators would take advantage of the dramatic reveal in the previous episode, but they never devote any time to do that. Now, I’m not saying you have to go into graphic detail with PTSD, especially with Disney steering the ship, but some psychological damage would have been nice. After all, this show has never been afraid to venture into darker territory with its content in the past, so there’s little reason that delving into Echo’s state of mind should be off limits.

On the surface, however, Echo barely seems fazed by his imprisonment. Despite long periods of torture and probing, he’s behaving normally and even dropping the occasional one-liner. This might have worked if it was played up to be suspicious, leading us to believe it’s just a front. That may have caused one or more members of the Bad Batch to distrust him, which would in turn raise further conflict with Rex about sticking by your brothers. As it stands, the whole ordeal feels like a missed opportunity.

In the end, this episode of The Clone Wars provided plenty of action and surface-level excitement. Unfortunately, the lack of character or narrative drive created an inescapable feeling of shallowness that permeated the entire adventure.

What did you think of this episode? Do you think that next week’s adventure will finish this arc on a high note?

Star Wars: The Clone Wars can currently be viewed on Disney Plus.