Hello and welcome to Laughing Place’s weekly recap of the Disney+ animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars from Lucasfilm Animation. This week’s episode, entitled “Unfinished Business,” is the fourth installment of the show’s seventh and final season.
The episode picks up with Echo (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) having been rescued from the Techno Union Army on the planet Skako Minor. He and the Bad Batch return to the Republic base on Anaxes, where General Mace Windu (Terrence Carson) wants to retake the Separatist-held enemy complex. Echo wants to help, but Rex (also Baker) doesn’t think he’s ready for battle so soon after being liberated from his nightmarish prison. But Windu is willing to hear out Echo’s plan, which entails Mace retaking the plant while Bad Batch escorts Echo to the Separatist Dreadnaught in orbit. There, he will plug into the computer system and feed Admiral Trench (Baker again) fake strategies to help bring about Republic victory.
Tech (Dee Bradley Baker plays all the clones, okay?) is suspicious of Echo: “We don’t really know where his loyalties lie.” “Well I know,” replies Rex. Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) joins the mission to the Dreadnaught, which he calls “strictly stealth” when Wrecker wants to simply blow it up. Their shuttle lands in the hangar bay after using a stolen signal to get aboard. A battle erupts back near the surface of Anaxes when Republic bombers attack the assembly plant. Admiral Trench reacts, “I can use their arrogance and desperation to our advantage.”
Trench wants to use the Separatist algorithm in combat again, but Echo gains access to the system just in time and makes it appear as though the signal is originating from Skako Minor. Mace Windu and Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) attack the plant, but not before Windu offers the battle droid battalion stationed there the opportunity to surrender. Not surprisingly, they don’t take him up on it. “I guess it was worth a try,” remarks Obi-Wan. Trench receives Echo’s signal and orders all droids on the planet to the assembly complex. It seems Echo’s plan is to send a feedback pulse that will shut down all the droids once they’re in the same location.
Anakin calls Windu to tell him the plan and the droids flood in as the fight continues. “This exceeds my expectations,” says Obi-Wan. Suddenly the droids begin to shut down thanks to the energy surge. “I guess you are actually on our side,” Hunter tells Echo back on the Dreadnaught. Trench discovers the source of the signal originated on his ship and dispatches security droids to hunt down the trespassers. He also initiates a countdown to detonate a bomb in the assembly plant that will destroy most of Anaxes. Tech calls Windu and Kenobi to tell them about the bomb, and Mace takes a lift down to the fusion reactor to disarm it. He uses the Force to move dials on the reactor’s control panel through its ray shield following Echo’s instructions, but the droids jam their communication and overload Echo’s nervous system before the final number can be transmitted.
The clones attempt to evacuate the Dreadnaught, but are met with a large contingent of B2 super battle droids. Meanwhile, Anakin confronts Trench and demands he give him the remainder of the bomb’s disarm sequence, cutting off half his spider-like arms as a threat. He gets the number to Mace Windu, the bomb is deactivated, and Anakin kills Trench and takes his detonator device after the Admiral attempts to stun him. It’s another dark turn for the Jedi who will eventually become the Sith Lord known as Darth Vader.
Wrecker barrels his way through the battle droids and Crosshair plants a series of reflective mirrors along the ship’s hallways, using them in a pretty impressive blaster rifle trick to take down a good number of the droids all at once. The clones escape and Anakin lets Wrecker use the detonator to blow up the Dreadnaught. Back on Anaxes, Mace Windu commends Rex, Echo, and the rest of Clone Force 99 (AKA Bad Batch). “You’ve got some medals coming your way,” says Obi-Wan. But the Bad Batch doesn’t want accolades. “We’re just in it for the thrill,” Wrecker declares. Hunter offers Echo a spot on the team, and Rex tells him “Those are some of the finest troopers I’ve ever fought alongside,” so he takes them up on their offer.
The first four episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars season seven are now available to stream exclusively on Disney+.