Broken Frontier

With a strong emphasis on combat and fast-paced action, the second season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars has ratcheted up the intensity quite a bit compared to the first. With “Lightsaber Lost,” Dave Filoni and his team take a significant step back from the front lines of the Clone Wars to tell a smaller tale focused on Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker’s impetuous apprentice.

In this episode, a pickpocket steals Ahsoka’s Jedi weapon while she and Anakin are investigating a weapons smuggler in one of Coruscant’s grimiest neighborhoods. Fearing a scolding by her master, Ahsoka doesn’t tell him about the theft, and instead heads to the Jedi Archives for guidance. There, she is introduced to Jedi Master Tera Sinube, an elder Jedi and an expert on Coruscant’s criminal underworld. Hungry for an active assignment after so many years, Tera agrees to help Ahsoka find her lost weapon.

From the moment Ahsoka and Tera are introduced to one another, the overriding theme of this episode is clear: patience is a virtue. Throughout the episode, Tera is constantly reminding Ahsoka to slow down and think things through. At each turn, Tera proves to her impulsive nature to be her downfall. But, with a master like Anakin, it’s no wonder to us why Ahsoka’s become such a hothead.

Ahsoka and Tera trace the lightsaber to a murderous Trandoshan named Nack Movers. When they reach Nack’s home, they find him lying dead. Ahsoka discovers one of the assassins, Cassie Cryar (Jaime King), in Nack’s bedroom, and she flees with the Padawan’s lightsaber. While Tera comforts another woman cowering in the apartment (he later learns that she’s an accomplice), Ahsoka pursues the lightsaber thief across the rooftops of Coruscant. If much of the episode seems too slow-paced message-heavy, this well-choreographed chase sequence certainly redeems it.

While the chase is thrilling, I found myself wondering why Ahsoka doesn’t just use the Force to snatch her saber from Cassie. After all, there are several moments in which Ahsoka is just a few feet away from her stolen weapon. The Jedi should never come off as overpowered in The Clone Wars, but the “Force grab” seems like a standard Jedi technique that Ahsoka should have employed immediately. But, then again, that would have made for a short episode.

Thanks to Tera’s slow-and-steady approach, Ahsoka gets her weapon back and the assassins are apprehended. As a bonus, Tera lets loose with a lightsaber concealed in his walking stick. I bet his buddy Yoda wishes he’d thought of that first.

“Lightsaber Lost” is merely an above-average episode of The Clone Wars, although it does supply sme well-intended lessons for younger viewers, teaching the value of patience and the importance of respecting one’s elders. For everyone else, it’s a fairly entertaining, middle-of-the-road Star Wars adventure.