The Clone Wars - S7E5: Gone with a Trace
THE CLONE WARS - DISNEY +The first episode of Ahsoka Tano’s (Ashley Eckstein) arc in season seven, which also happens to be the first truly new episode of the final season, barely gives viewers anything to grasp onto and feels unnecessary instead of integral to Ahsoka’s storyline. As the opening moments of the episode remind viewers, the last time Ahsoka was seen, she had forsaken the Jedi order and vowed to continue her spiritual journey on her own.
If this episode — and the characters it introduces — have any part to play in that journey, it isn’t clear yet as they are unfocused and stilted. The new characters Ahsoka meets when her bike crashes into a repair shop are the mechanic, Trace (Brigitte Kali), and her scheming sister, Rafa (Elizabeth Rodriguez). A sort of meet-cute ensues between Ahsoka and Trace, and it isn’t one bit convincing. Eckstein and Kali do their best, but the dialogue can’t help but feel inorganic. The writers were trying too hard to make their relationship charming or natural and it shows.
One theme that the episode seems to be trying to push is the idea that Ahsoka knows nothing about this universe’s under dwellers, the poor residents who aren’t as lucky as those who live above ground. This theme is most obviously embodied in the visual metaphor of Ahsoka and her bike falling onto a lower level of the city.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t feel like new ground, partly because audiences have seen similar situations in Solo: A Star Wars Story and The Mandalorian and partly because if the show really wanted us to see things from a new perspective, then maybe they should not have picked a mechanic and a smuggler to use as templates – both of which appear frequently in the Star Wars universe.
On a more molecular level, the character dynamics aren’t effective. By the end of the episode, while that old sympathy for Ahsoka resurfaces, the viewers aren’t given any major reason to care about Trace or her sister (and no, quirkiness or a willingness to do good do not count).
Gone with a Trace consistently makes its viewers wonder about the path the series is taking. There’s an obligatory action scene, an unfortunate use of the Force theme song and the rest of the episode feels disconnected from this show and this universe — not in a good way.
