Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 7 Episode 6: A foolish venture

This episode of Clone Wars moved things out of the Republic for a shady deal. Although it still suffers from some key issues, the mounting tension and thickening plot keep you engaged.

The Clone Wars is no stranger to slower-paced arcs, and this is shaping up to be one of them. Ahsoka is caught up in a suspicious transport job with the Martez sisters, and she desperately tries to help them out of it without revealing her true identity.

The setup of this episode is nothing new. People who start at the bottom encounter a get-rich-quick scheme that will supposedly solve all of their problems. Such a prospect can seem enticing in spite of how seedy it is, especially for someone who’s had to scrape by for years. Even when you’re dealing with a party who has swindled countless victims before, it’s easy to fall into that mindset of “Maybe I’ll be the one to outsmart them.” It’s a formula we’ve seen numerous times before, but it still works on some level here.

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What helps it in that regard is the character dynamic. Trace Martez is clearly influenced by her older sister Rafa in the way that most younger siblings are, and this is amplified by the fact that they’ve grown up without their parents. When you see how naïve this street-smart kid is when taken out of her own environment, it’s hard not to pity her situation. Rafa may love her, but you as a viewer can plainly see that she doesn’t have her best interests at heart.

Throwing Ahsoka into the mix as the voice of reason pulls Trace in two directions, and it makes for some decent drama that’s given plenty of time to breathe due to the absence of any action scenes. All of this combined with Ahsoka carefully doling out info while hiding her past mounts the tension even more.

What would have arguably made it more potent would be if the writers had tied it in with Anakin Skywalker’s guidance of Ahsoka. Throughout the Clone Wars, she’s been fed this idea that the Republic and the Jedi righteously stamp out injustice throughout the galaxy. Seeing the brutal slavery on Kessel diminishes that concept, and it potentially raises questions about blind jingoism contributing to the disconnect between the Jedi and the common folk. This, in turn, motivates those people to take larger risks in order to help themselves. Sadly, much of that subtext is left to the imagination.

The most we get is an admittedly effective scene where Anakin senses Ahsoka’s presence on the transport ship and lets it through the security checkpoint. On top of being a nice callback to a similar scene in Return of the Jedi, this moment works surprisingly well due to expression on display. From the solemn regret in his voice and the sadness on his face, you can tell that Skywalker views his apprentice’s clandestine departure as a personal failure. If he had done things differently, maybe she wouldn’t be sneaking away like a common criminal.

Unfortunately, the drama is undermined by a handful of little issues that make you scratch your head. First came the overtly slimy majordomo who recruited Rafa for the job. He is so obviously evil that he wouldn’t be out of place in a parody, and the fact that Trace and Rafa can’t see through his ruse just makes them out to be frustratingly thick.

Then, there came Trace’s decision to dump the cargo when she realized they were shipping it to gangsters. To be fair, Rafa and Ahsoka rightly call her out on this, but there were other ways to convey Trace’s insecurity and panic than to simply jettison their only bargaining chip. We’ve already seen her inexperienced piloting, so just have her scrape an asteroid when coming out of hyperspace. Make it an accident instead of a deliberate act of stupidity.

Finally, we had Ahsoka attempting a Jedi mind trick on the gangsters during the exchange. This was an uncharacteristically boneheaded move. If you conspicuously wave your hand in plain view of twenty people and their leader suddenly agrees to your demand, at least one of them is bound to think something’s fishy. Granted, she could have been trying to influence all of their minds, but the direction and script lead us to believe that she’s only targeting the boss. It just came off like a cheap method of reaching a cliffhanger.

In the end, however, this week’s Clone Wars was an improvement over the last episode. Although it doesn’t take full advantage of its scenario, the story still stays afloat through its patient suspense and heightened character drama. Not to sound sadistic, but here’s hoping the next one delivers some satisfying consequences for this misguided venture.

Were you pulled in by this week’s Clone Wars? At its midway point, how do you think this season is shaping up?

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is available for streaming on Disney Plus.