In this episode of Closing Crawl hosts Matt, Drew, Jared, McCormick, and Jon delve into the nearly two-hour premiere of the 'Ahsoka' series.

We discuss: continuity, character reintroductions from 'Rebels,' the use of maps in Star Wars, production and acting.

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Bo-Katan and Ahsoka lament the Mandalorian Civil war’s casualties. Mandalore needs a new type of leader, in the mold of Bo’s sister Satine. I’m sure everyone who lost loved ones in the conflict are glad that Bo learned a lesson.

Ahsoka has a SpaceTime(™) with the Jedi council. We’re in act 3 of Revenge of the Sith and Ahsoka joins the council meeting in time to say smell you later to Mace, Ki-Adi and Aayla Secura. Yoda fails to guilt trip Ahsoka about the whole ex-Jedi thing. Ahsoka and Rex reckon with the cost of war, and interestingly enough Erich Maria Remarque got a writing credit for this episode.

Ahsoka and a Republic Cruiser’s worth of clones prepare to extradite the imprisoned Maul to Coruscant. Ahsoka has force visions of Anakin merking Mace, just as Rex receives Order 66. Rex fights the control chip, while other members of the 250.5th immediately draw down. Ahsoka escapes to free Maul, and suggests he cause a distraction. Ahsoka then recruits some astromech droids; if they’re half as violent and chaotic as R2 she’s got a real shot at getting out of this.

Ahsoka uses tries to reason with Rex. When that fails she informs him the astromech droids came here to hack elevators and taze clones and they’re all out of elevators. She takes the unconscious Rex to the med bay for some Force assisted trepanning. Rex comes through the procedure in his right mind, but the frogurt is also cursed and the rest of the clones are actively trying to hunt down and kill all Jedi.

Rex and Ahsoka (henceforth Rexsoka)’s cruiser hurtles through hyperspace. They are trapped in the med bay as Order 66-ed clones cut through the doors. Rexsoka set their blasters and fists to stun, incapacitate the clones, and escape to the shuttle bay.

Maul wreaks havoc on the ship’s systems, knocking the cruiser out of hyperspace. Ahsoka directs the droids to find an escape ship since the cruiser is falling into the moon’s gravity well. They locate a shuttle, but a sea of clones blocks their way. Rex, tears in his eyes, tells Ahsoka the clones will kill them. Ahsoka knows this, but she will not kill them in return.

Ahsoka hatches a plan to get to the escape ship: she pretends to be Rex’s prisoner. This gambit allows the droids to get into position and pull the proverbial rug out from underneath the clones. With escape in sight, Maul shows up and ganks their shuttle! The droids then heroically lay down their lives to save Rexsoka.

Rexsoka finds a Y-Wing. Ahsoka flings Rex onto the ship, then the cruiser tilts violently and begins to breaks up in atmosphere. The Y-Wing is thrown from the hangar, sans Ahsoka. She leaps off the cruiser and… sky walks? down the falling pieces of the rapidly disintegrating cruiser. She reaches Rex and they fly away.

The Y-Wing lands next to the wrecked cruiser, we see Rex with shovel in hand. They’ve come to bury the dead. Their friends. His brothers. Ahsoka reflects on the sea of clone helmets, some still painted with her markings. We freeze on Jesse’s helmet, Ahsoka looks down, and one of her lightsabers falls to the ground.

We flash forward and see STORMtroopers milling about. We hear all-to-familiar mechanical breath. Darth Vader approaches, retrieves Ahsoka’s lightsaber, lights it, then surveys the wreckage. Above glides a Convor (the owl-like bird that became a sort of spirit companion to Ahsoka after Mortis). We cut to the visor of an Ahsoka-painted helmet lying in the snow, where Vader’s reflection retreats as we reach THE END.

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An old-school “Lucasfilm Limited” logo, nice and green, introduces our show, followed by a red Clone Wars logo and title card: Part 1 Old Friends Not Forgotten. For the first time in the series, we have no Jedi Fortune Cookie.

Grievous has launched an offensive across the outer rim. On Yerbana, Obi-Wan arrives in the knick of time to slice a missile in half before it kills Cody, and sticking a Marvel superhero landing. Anakin refuses to take cover because “there’s only 1000 droids, tops,” and pulls a full Obi-Wan false surrender to lure out the tactical droid; which he force pulls the length of a football field then slices its head off. Rex’s clones fly in on jetpacks and finish off the droids.

Admiral Yularen tells Anakin and Obi-Wan they have an incoming transmission using the code “Fulcrum.” It’s Ahsoka with a lead on Maul’s location! Ahsoka and Bo-Katan arrive on the ship. Anakin tries to buddy up - but he gets the cold shoulder. Bo-Katan proposes a joint operation to capture Maul.

Anakin surprises Ahsoka with a visit to Rex and the 501st. They salute her, even though she’s no longer a commander. Before Anakin can present her with a special gift alarms blare: Grievous is attacking Coruscant!

This means the boys can’t go to Mandalore with Ahsoka and Bo. Anakin promotes Rex to commander and splits the 501st, assigning half the company to aid in the capture of Maul. Anakin gives Ahsoka her lightsabers, which he took very good care of, and even made some improvements.

Ahsoka, Bo, Rex and the now halved 250 ½ clone squad arrive on Mandalore and meet with resistance. Bo goes after Almec, and Ahsoka goes after Maul. Ahsoka falls into Maul’s trap, which was meant for Kenobi and Anakin. We end once again in a fade out with no fanfare music.

We begin again without a Jedi Fortune Cookie, but the radio announcer...actually, no, the radio announcer is gone too, along with the opening theme. We are really at endgame here. Ahsoka is surrounded by Maul and his loyal Mandalorians, as he informs her he was hoping his plan would lure Obi-wan here. While he soliloquizes, Ahsoka signals Rex and the clones with her location: they free Ahsoka, but Maul escapes.

In the throne room, Ahsoka and Bo-Katan speak to Obi-wan via Spacetime(tm). He informs them that we're now past the opening of Revenge of the Sith, and that Anakin and he rescued the Chancellor and killed Dooku. Back in the tunnels, Ahsoka learns that Maul has captured ARC Trooper Jesse and is searching for her. Prime Minister Almec is killed by Gar Saxon, who is tying up lose ends under Maul's orders.

Maul decides that with Sidious's plans coming to fruition, the time for action has come - he fires up his Mandalorians with a speech about dying gloriously in battle, and then sneaks into the throne room to surprise the heroes. Maul and Ahsoka discuss their differences. Now that Maul knows Ahsoka's full history, and that she has left the Order, he offers her an alliance to defeat Sidious. She agrees to the plan, but only if Maul explains what's up with Anakin. Maul tells her the truth: he's the key to Sidious's plan, and has been groomed to be the new Sith apprentice. Unwilling to accept the truth of this, Ahsoka decides that she must fight Maul instead. And we get the best lightsaber battle of the series!

Maul disarms Ahsoka, and offers her one last chance to join him, but she sticks to her convictions. Then, with an assist from a number of clones, she captures Maul and secures him for transport back to Coruscant.

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Ahsoka and the Martez sisters failed at smuggling spice, and are imprisoned on Oba Diah. They argue, someone calls Ahsoka a Jedi, and Ahsoka responds with 'so what if I were?': the sisters react in horror. See: the Martezes’ parents were killed in a mishap during Ziro the Hutt's prison break, when the elder Martezes came up on the wrong side of Bariss Offee’s solution to the trolley problem. The Jedi did helpfully explain that the Force would guide the new orphans, before bouncing.

The Pykes attempt some kid-friendly torture on Trace, but she steals a gun and flees. Ahsoka secretly uses the force to open her cell, and the escape is on! A running gunfight ensues, with the Martez sisters shooting and Ahsoka slyly using Force powers to assist.

Ahsoka and Rafa take a moment to discuss whether Trace is cut out for a life of crime. Trace and Rafa are re-captured while Ahsoka flees. Three Mandalorians, with familiar voices depending on which shows that aired before this that you've seen observe, and suggest that Ahsoka might be a Jedi.

Ahsoka attempts to free Trace and Rafa, but they are caught and returned to the same cell they were in at the start of the episode.

Back in their cell, Ahsoka wants to hold a retrospective, but Rafa wants to assign blame. Someone isn’t abiding by Scrum values! (They’re never going to get their PMP certification this way.) Ahsoka comes up with a better plan than Rafa’s ‘play sick’ scheme.

Ahsoka starts lying to the Pyke leader, and Rafa is on the ball enough to run with the premise. Trace and Rafa are sent to get the spice by holding their non-existent family hostage. The Pyke high seneschal is also savvy enough to get that this is a scam, but doesn't have a choice because without the spice he’s going to be in big trouble with his boss.

Trace and Rafa leave in the Silver Angel, and are creeped on by Bo Katan’s Mandalorian peeping squad. At a space Cracker Barrel Rafa explains the scheme to Trace by speaking slowly and using big words. Also some visual aids. A couple puppets. Rafa can’t owe anyone anything so she’s going to steal spice and save Ahsoka

Ahsoka breaks out of prison, Rafa and Trace find a spice mining operation and Rafa has a hot hand with the fast talk skill. Ahsoka plants bombs all over the spice refining facility. Grand Pyke is getting his ass chewed out by a shadowy holo figure about the missing spice shipment. Hey, it’s Maul! Ahsoka is ambushed and outs herself as a Jedi.

Back with Trace and Rafa, Rafa finally throws a bad roll and the Trandoshan longshoreman manager calls her bluff. Aggressive negotiations ensue and Trace gets into a slap fight with nerdlingers; that 1D in strength isn’t going to get the job done. Rafa apparently specialized in Gymkata and uses her skill on the uneven bars to dump the Trandoshan into a chasm. The sisters escape with the spice and show up in time to save Ahsoka. Not!

The Grand Pyke dimes out Ahsoka; Rafa and Trace are stunned and hurt. Ahsoka and Trac and Rafa decide to pass the Bechdel Wallace test. Meanwhile Chekhov’s thermal detonators explode and move us right into Act 3.

A chase ensues and Trace decides to play the ballsiest game of chicken this side of Footloose. Our heroes escape and are followed by Bo Katan. Rafa says Ahsoka is what a Jedi should be. Bo shows up to ask for help in dealing with Maul, but Ahsoka is fearful it will lead her back to the Jedi. Ahsoka apparently was too busy murdering droids to learn the term bildungsroman.

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Ahsoka’s been riding around Coruscant on a speeder bike looking emo: I guess being a Skywalker is a state of mind. Her bike malfunctions and plummets into a bottomless pit, crashing onto a platform several hundred levels down. She meets the owner: Trace.

Trace offers her a place to fix her bike, as well as a job Ahsoka demonstrates technical aptitude. Trace is trying to be a capitalist, but really she just wants a friend and also Ahsoka doesn’t really get money. They start to connect and Trace drops some truth bombs that the Jedi are perceived as: starting wars, telling people what to do, and ignoring the problems of everyone who isn’t a Jedi or senator.

Some goons show up to collect on a debt from Rafa, Trace’s sister. Trace immediately starts throwing hands. It’s actually a pretty good dust up, until Ahsoka to get involved drops the hammer. They leave to find Trace’s sister Rafa who is stealing from dryers at the local laundromat. Ahsoka and Rafa instantly dislike each other. Apparently it’s Rafa’s legitimate laundromat, which makes her theft both more and less pathetic. Then a dude shows up with a sketchy job of assembling some droids.

Ahsoka and Trace are building some Vulture Mk III mechs. Ahsoka reminds Trace about restraining bolts which is handy because one of the droids immediately attacks her., and another pulls a runner. They chase down Mighty Joe Droid and Ahsoka continues to let Trace risk her life because she’s committed to remaining undercover. They capture the droid with minimal Jedi powers.

Ahsoka tries to convince Rafa these droids are too dangerous to sell. Rafa says she’ll do the right thing, which turns out to be charging double. Ahsoka realizes that the Jedi never prepared her for dealing with moral gray areas.

Later, Trace and Ahsoka are doing repairs and talking about where Ahsoka learned so much about starships. She tells Trace she learned it at Skywalker Academy. Trace tells Ahsoka she couldn't afford to go to an academy, but she scrimped and saved and built her own ship: The Silver Angel!

Ahsoka feels directionless and asks to stick around for a bit. Rafa’s got a job to make them a bunch of money, and begrudgingly allows Ahsoka to join the crew, but won’t tell them what the job is until they’re underway.

Trace pilots the ship into a military traffic lane. Admiral Yalarin, on the Star Destroyer in their path hails the Silver Angel. Ahsoka hangs up on him and instructs Trace to pilot them into the civilian lanes. Anakin, who is on the same bridge as Yalarin, senses Ahsoka with the force, but ultimately lets the ship pass just like he would do later for Luke.

The Silver Angel emerges from hyperspace above Kessell! They land and are invited to a banquet, where it’s revealed the Rafa's job is to haul Spice for the Pykes. They load the spice and head to Oba Diah to deliver. Onboard, all three fight about what to do. Ahsoka wants to deliver to anyone except the Pykes so it can be used for medicine. Rafa wants to deliver to their intended recipients. Trace, torn between doing what is right versus what her sister wants, dumps the spice into space, uh-oh. Rafa said they must now give up the ship to hopefully save their lives, Trace strongly disagrees, but Ahsoka has a plan!

Ahsoka Jedi mind-tricks the Pyke leader, and he gives them their credits and lets them go. However, a subordinate inspects the cargo, notices it is empty, and calls in reinforcements. With their ship stuck in a tractor beam and surrounded by enemies, things don’t look good for the trio.

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The Bad Batch have just freed Echo from the Techno Union, and are trying to escape. Echo leads them to an elevated walkway, but they’re cut off by droids. Tech summons local flying creatures, and our heroes must take a literal leap of faith off the platform onto their backs to escape… But the droids have wings too?!? Our heroes escape the droids, to the local’s village.

The locals and our heroes stage a defense, but the locals have no technology and seem to be being overrun by the droids. Two War of the Worlds style massive droids appear and are clearly turning the tide. Anakin takes out one while the clones tackle the other, and the rest of the droids flee. Our heroes are safe, but Echo seems reluctant to return to, as Rex explains it, things being “just like the old times”.

Is Echo trustworthy after his treatment at the hand of the Techno-union?

Echo, now clad in modified armor with a Bad Batch insignia on it that definitely does not foreshadow anything, offers his assistance in the battle for Anaxes. He has a plan: if the Bad Batch can sneak him on to Admiral Trench's ship, he can continue offering strategic plans to the Separatists, but this time, he'll be helping the Republic instead!

Echo spends the rest of the episode not telling anyone else the specifics of his plan, which doesn’t help convince everyone that nothing is wrong with him. Once aboard Trench's Dreadnaught, they hijack the ship's comm vault, and Echo plugs into the system, intercepting a request from Trench for battle plans. The request is happening now because the Republic forces, under Masters Windu and Kenobi, have launched an all-out assault on a Separatist-held assembly plant.

Phase 2 of Echo's plans that he did not tell anyone about in advance is 'Send all Separatist forces to reinforce the assembly plant that Mace and Obi-wan are attacking.’ Again, nothing suspicious here. Warned of more incoming troops, the generals prepare for an even larger battle! Echo makes good on his plan and manages to shutdown all the battle droids once they are in the same place. Admiral Trench has a backup plan, which he has not informed his subordinates of - a bomb hidden in the assembly plant that is big enough to destroy the whole planet!

Master Windu goes to disarm the bomb - which is ray-shielded, but fortunately, he has the ability to cause spooky action at a distance. Echo relays the disarmament code to him, but is detected and knocked out before he can relay the last digit. Anakin hunts down Admiral Trench and tells him to reveal the last digit. Trench refuses, noting that Dooku will kill him if he fails to take the planet, but a Jedi would let him live. Skywalker convinces Trench he plays by different rules than the rest of the Jedi, and relays the code to Windu, who disarms the bomb and saves the day, and also kills Trench when Trench tries to stun him.

As the bad batch attempts to escape from the ship, Wrecker and Crosshair engage in a "Legolas and Gimli" battle of one-upmanship, killing increasing numbers of droids in increasingly unlikely ways. They board the Marauder and Wrecker gets the last laugh when Anakin hands him the self-destruct button for the flagship. Wrecker gets his boom and the explosion destroys multiple Separatist vessels. When they land, Echo, Rex, and the Bad Batch are congratulated for their efforts. Clone Force 99 lets Echo know that he's now weird enough to be one of them, and he's offered a spot in the group. Rex tells Echo he has to go where he feels he belongs. Echo joins the Bad Batch in saluting Rex.

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Separatists led by Admiral Trench battle Republic forces led by Anakin and Mace Windu for the Republic shipyards on Anaxes. Rex has an idea of why things are going badly: analytics; the droids know Rex's strategies too well. They plan to take a small squad to the enemy Cyber Center, where intel is processed, to see if they can figure out what's happening. Before leaving, Rex and Cody chat about losing Fives, Echo, and Hevy during the war, which makes me feel bad for Droidbait and Cutup. Rex thinks Echo is alive, because their battle plans are old ones he and Echo drew up, and also because he has to remind us that Echo died several seasons ago.

Rex and Cody leave to meet up with their squad for the mission: Clone Force 99, AKA The Bad Batch! Hunter, the leader! Tech, the smart one! Crosshair, the sharpshooter! Wrecker, the big one! These guys seem cool enough to have their own show. They join up with Rex, Cody, and 501st clones Kix and Jesse to find what the Separatists are using to outwit the Republic. Their gunship is shot down, and with a large number of droids incoming, the Bad Batch goes to work showing off their cool skills, which involve Wrecker lifting things, Hunter stabbing things, and Tech saying numbers while Crosshair shoots.

The team infiltrates the Cyber Center, break into the computers and discover that the algorithm they've been looking for is a live signal from the planet Skako Minor. When they try to find out who is sending the signal, they get the answer 'CT-1409'. As the clones escape from the facility, Rex reveals that CT-1409 is Echo.

Rex is trying to get support for Echo’s rescue mission and Anakin suggests highlighting the goal of finding out how the Separatists are predicting their strategy. Did Anakin sexually contract politics from Padme? Then Anakin changes subjects and says that he and Rex need to do that ‘thing’. Rex excuses himself and follows Anakin.

Rex watches the door while Anakin Space Times Padme who is positively glowing. Anakin and Padme have an actual conversation and look like they genuinely regret being apart. I think those two kids are going to make it. Anakin is worried about Rex being too attached to personal attachments, Padme suggests that Anakin has made the same mistakes once or twice and Anakin actually cops to it.

Obi-Wan rolls up on Rex and makes him sweat trying to find excuses for Anakin’s chatting with his wife. Obi-Wan lets him them the hook and says that he hopes Anakin told Padme he says hello. Anakin hasn’t grown too much because he looks pissed rather than embarrassed. Is Star Wars allowed to do ‘show don’t tell’, because that was a great scene.

While on their way to Skako Minor Wrecker is working out with a G0NK droid. We told you Dave Filoni was a fan of this podcast. The clones land and are accosted by the aliens from Crystal Skull riding small dragons. Anakin is snatched and taken to their village. Anakin is rescued and it turns out the locals don’t want the war to come to their planet.

Meanwhile Admiral Trench calls Wat Tambor to tell him the clones are on their way. Wat thinks that the Techno Union has corporate neutrality, but Trench suggests that a black-ops squad might not have a JAG officer to advise them on rules of engagement here. The clones infiltrate the Techno Union base, Wrecker goes absolutely nuts on some droids, suggesting that some Gronkowski DNA might have been involved in his personal mutation. That party cruise is wild. The clones find a Vault-Tec stasis pod and it was Echo all along.

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The Closing Crawl Crew discusses the past of the podcast, the future of Star Wars, and visits with an old friend, long gone.

Recorded live at Gen Con in 2022.

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