In an interesting addition to the anti-Jedi sentiment displayed by some members of the public at the end of season six, Trace lays out her concerns. Jedi “start wars, police people,” and don’t bother to help the people suffering right under their feet on Coruscant. This has been on display throughout the show, with Jedi often not able to see the forest for the trees when it comes to the war. They’re doing what the Republic tells them to do, but is that really what the “light side of the Force” calls people to do? Revenge of the Sith confirms it isn’t.
That brings us back to Ahsoka’s moral quandaries. She isn’t the kind of person to immediately collapse into her anxieties, but I did want some more acknowledgment of what she’s going through. It’s cool that her unwillingness to use the Force is unspoken. In an otherwise pretty unsubtle episode when it comes to dialogue and scene-setting, this plot point is nicely restrained. Ahsoka never outright expresses that to use the Force here would create as many problems as it solves, but it’s clear from the context. She says she doesn’t understand people, but what exactly she’s referring to is unclear. Is this about the Jedi Order as a whole? About Barriss or Anakin? Or about her feelings of isolation in general?
Maybe Ashley Eckstein’s voice acting has something to do with it. She’s much-beloved, but something in her voice sounds a little too polished, her tone shifting between chipper and worried without much shading in between. Both Trace and her older sister Rafa are also performed with chipper cartoonishness that sometimes felt like it belonged in a show for a much younger audience.
Trace and Rafa are both in financial trouble. Rafa is shaken down for her sister’s debt, only to discover that Rafa keeps taking jobs that land her in over her head. (Or, at least, I think that’s what Rafa’s situation is. It was a little unclear at first whether she owned the laundromat or was stealing from it or both. She has somehow acquired a reputation for being able to fix droids, but doesn’t usually do so; asking her mechanic sister to help seems to be a first.) Their plotline is serviceable but unexciting, with the straightforward dialogue typical of The Clone Wars. Rafa and Trace feel almost more like mother and daughter than sisters. Rafa touches Trace’s face in a patronizing, showy way that may or may not have been intended to look purely affectionate.
Then comes the obligatory action scene, a chase that is inventive enough but feels oddly placed. The demolition droid wrecks things right and left, giving the chase a lot of its humor and sense of adventure. The fun, skirling cartoon music played alongside action beats worked for me. But the scene doesn’t hook into the main plot very well until the predictable end, where Ahsoka has to choose whether or not to use the Force.