R2 Come Home

"Adversity is a friendship's truest test."

- Jedi Fortune Cookie

"R2 Come Home" is the twenty-first episode of the second season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It is the forty-third episode of the series overall. It was released in tandem with "Lethal Trackdown" on April 30, 2010 on Cartoon Network.

Synopsis
Anakin Skywalker and Mace Windu land on Vanqor, searching for Admiral Kilian, Ponds, and the clone officers who went down with the Endurance. While searching, the two Jedi squabble about how Anakin gives R2-D2 too much freedom. The Jedi cannot find any signs of life, and so they call off the clones still over Vanqor. Hoping to at least find Kilian's and Ponds' bodies, Anakin and Mace head inside the destroyed frigate. There, Artoo finds a body of a clone, and Mace realizes with a shock that this clone was not killed in the crash, but executed, most likely by the assassins who were looking for his body. The Jedi find many more executed clones, but cannot find Kilian or Ponds. Suddenly, Anakin sees Jango Fett's helmet sitting on a platform, and picks it up out of curiosity. When Mace sees the helmet, and thinks about how the problem on the Endurance was caused by a clone cadet, he immediately realizes that Boba Fett is behind this. Mace quickly pulls Anakin out of the way right as the helmet explodes. Meanwhile, Artoo and R8-B7, Mace Windu's astromech, were attacked by gundarks while looking for survivors. The gundarks tear R8 apart, but the explosion of the Endurance's bridge prevents them from reaching Artoo.

Boba, Aurra Sing, Bossk, and Castas watch the explosion from afar, and though Aurra is certain that Mace is dead, Boba wants to go back to make sure. Aurra eventually is swayed, as they would get a hefty bounty from the Separatists for killing Windu and Skywalker, as well as for bringing in their other hostages-Kilian, Ponds, and a clone officer.

Anakin and Mace survived the explosion, but are now buried under a large pile of rubble. Using the Force to lift it only made the ship closer to caving in on them, so Anakin tells Artoo to contact the Jedi Temple. As Artoo heads off, Mace regains consciousness and Anakin tells him of his plan. With no other options, Mace reluctantly places his hope in Artoo. Meanwhile, Boba, Aurra, and Castas climb through the wreckage of the ship, and Aurra starts to get very annoyed due to Castas' constant complaining. Artoo sees them climbing, and pushes things down the shaft to hold the bounty hunters back. Finally, Aurra gives up after Artoo nearly pulverizes them with a clone trooper's thermal detonator, and decides to blow up the remainder of the ship using Slave I.

Artoo then heads outside to contact the Jedi Temple, but runs into another gundark. The droid manages to kill the gundark by attaching it to Anakin's stafighter and sending it into the cruiser, but the bounty hunters, seeing the explosion and thinking that it might be Mace trying to escape, jam all communications, preventing Artoo from contacting the Jedi Temple. With no other options, Artoo gets in Mace's ship and flies off. Mace sees this and thinks the droid has abandoned them, but Anakin has not lost hope. Artoo is pursued by Slave I all the way into space, where he attempts to dock with a hyperspace ring. Quickly, Boba fires at the hyperspace rings, but only succeeds in destroying one, and Artoo uses the other one to reach hyperspace. Thinking Mace was in the starfighter, the bounty hunters mistakenly believe he escaped and so start a new plan, which is to use the hostages to force Mace to come on their terms. However, Aurra wants to regroup first, and Slave I heads into hyperspace.

Meanwhile, Artoo lands on Coruscant, where he wastes no expense in getting to the Jedi Temple. The droid races into a Jedi strategy room, and after getting into a brief fight with another astromech, shows Anakin's message to the Jedi. Plo Koon and Ahsoka Tano immediately head out after hearing the message.

The wrecked cruiser is about to completely fall apart, and Mace loses hope in Artoo. Holding the remains of Jango's helmet, he tells Anakin about how he killed the bounty hunter and that Boba, Jango's son, was seeking revenge on him. Suddenly, Republic Gunships reach the cruiser, carrying Plo, Ahsoka, and Artoo. The gunship manages to loosen the wreckage enough to get Anakin and Mace out, and the gunships fly off just as the bridge where the two were trapped falls and explodes. The gunships land on the ground, where Anakin and Mace are put on stretchers for an assessment of their wounds. Mace commends Artoo for rescuing them, and Anakin jokes that that's more praise than he's ever gotten.

Cast
Starring
 * Matt Lanter as Anakin Skywalker
 * Terrence Carson as Mace Windu
 * Jaime King as Aurra Sing
 * Daniel Logan as Boba Fett
 * Robin Atkin Downes as Castas
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Clone Troopers / Bossk
 * Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano
 * James Arnold Taylor as Plo Koon
 * Tom Kane as Narrator

Crew
Created and Executive Produced by
 * George Lucas

Executive Producer
 * Catherine Winder

Supervising Director
 * Dave Filoni

Produced by
 * Cary Silver

Directed by
 * Giancarlo Volpe

Written by
 * Eoghan Mahony

Supervising Writer
 * Drew Z. Greenberg

Staff Writer
 * Brian Larsen

Score by
 * Kevin Kiner

Original Star Wars Themes and Score by
 * John Williams

Characters

 * Bossk
 * Castas
 * Comet
 * Crasher
 * Dooku
 * Boba Fett
 * Jango Fett
 * Adi Gallia
 * Grievous
 * Jax
 * Obi-Wan Kenobi
 * Shoan Kilian
 * Plo Koon
 * Ki-Adi-Mundi
 * Ponds
 * R2-D2
 * R4-M1
 * R7-D4
 * R8-B7
 * Aayla Secura
 * Silver
 * Aurra Sing
 * Anakin Skywalker
 * Ahsoka Tano
 * Mace Windu
 * Wolffe

Creatures

 * Gundark

Droid models

 * Astromech Droid

Locations

 * Coruscant
 * Jedi Temple
 * Geonosis
 * Kamino
 * Vanqor