Victory and Death

"The end is finally here."

- StarWars.com

"Victory and Death" is the series finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It is the twelfth and final episode of the seventh season, and the hundred and thirty-third episode of the series overall. It was released on May 4, 2020 on Disney+.

Synopsis
Cornered in the Republic cruiser's medical bay, Ahsoka and Rex plan their escape. Ahsoka tells Rex to set his pistols to stun, hoping to avoid killing any more troopers. They subdue the clones in the hallway while R7-A7 plots an escape route. With the escape pods destroyed and the main hangar locked down, Ahsoka decides that their best bet is to steal a shuttle. Rex mentions the chaos ensuing from Maul's escape, but Ahsoka admits that she was the one who released him as a diversion. Rex skeptically goes along with it.

Maul meanwhile makes his way to the cruiser's stern, using a stolen wrist comm to track the clones' movements and orders: with Rex missing in action, Clone Lieutenant Jesse assumes command and orders his men to converge on the main hangar. Maul enters the hyperdrive room and slaughters all clone troopers in his path. He then uses the Force to rip the hyperdrive generators out of place, crippling the engines and forcing the cruiser to emerge from hyperspace over a barren moon.

Ahsoka, Rex, and the droids fight their way into the main hangar control room, finding that all hangar bays are secured. Rex notes that he would be proud of his men, were they not trying to kill them. While R7 unlocks the hangar blast doors, Ahsoka orders Cheep to prep the shuttle while G-G slices into the main computer. G-G reports that the hyperdrive is offline. Ahsoka has R7 open the main hangar doors, revealing that their cruiser is caught in the moon's gravity. R7 then unlocks the doors containing a Nu-class shuttle, but a full platoon of clone troopers also emerges, led by Jesse, who secure the hangar to cut off Tano's escape.

Ahsoka weighs their options; Rex says that they will need to fight their way out, but Ahsoka is unwilling to kill the men who she served with for so long. Rex tells her that they won't share her sentiment, that they are willing to die if it means taking her with them. She removes his helmet, seeing the tears in his eyes. She affirms him that he is a good soldier, as are the men down below, but she will not be the one to kill them. Instead, she forms an idea.

Jesse receives a report that Maul is headed for the main hangar, but right then, Rex emerges onto the hangar deck with Ahsoka as his captive. The droids sneak by off to the side and plug into a terminal. Jesse demands that Tano be executed immediately, but Rex belays the order: he explains that Ahsoka is exempt from Order 66 as she is no longer a member of the Jedi Order. But Jesse reminds him that Darth Sidious himself ordered Tano's death and they must comply. Ahsoka tells Rex to keep them talking a little longer. Rex tries to convince Jesse to trust him after all they've been through, lest they all be subject to treason. Jesse responds by charging Rex with treason and ordering his execution alongside the traitor, Ahsoka Tano. By then, the droids successfully sliced the hangar controls. Ahsoka seizes her lightsabers and signals them to drop the maintenance platforms.

With Jesse and his men fallen into the maintenance pits below, Ahsoka and Rex break for the shuttle only for Maul to arrive. He races ahead of Ahsoka, reminding her that she wanted this chaos, and Force pushes her into one of the pits. The clones open fire on her and attempt to raise the platforms. G-G catches Ahsoka with a tow cable and pulls her up while Rex covers her with stun shots. Maul steals the shuttle and attempts to take off. Ahsoka uses the Force to catch him and draw him back to the hangar. R7 rushes forward to help but is destroyed by a stray blaster bolt to the dome. Rex tries to keep Ahsoka covered, but his defense begins to waver. Maul pushes more power into the shuttle's engines, slipping from Ahsoka's grasp. When Rex is shot in the shoulder, Ahsoka chooses to save him, letting Maul escape into hyperspace.

Fighting back-to-back, Ahsoka and Rex search for another escape route as the cruiser begins to break apart in the moon's atmosphere. Ahsoka cuts through the deck and drops them both into the maintenance section. Cheep and G-G continue raising and lowering the lifts to keep the clones off balance until they are discovered. Jesse has the two droids destroyed. Rex hastily searches for another ship while Ahsoka deflects the clones' attacks. The only flight-worthy ship he can find is a Y-Wing Starfighter. Rex climbs in and prepares to take off, but Ahsoka is pinned down by the clones. She tries to leap into the fighter but instead falls out of the hangar.

Rex takes off and tries to catch her amid a rain of debris from the doomed cruiser. Ahsoka leaps from one piece of wreckage to the next, eventually reaching the opened gunner's seat. She pulls herself in as Rex steers the Y-wing clear of the debris. They both watch helplessly as the cruiser crashes to the surface below, killing all aboard. They later land near the wreckage and bury the fallen clones, including Jesse, leaving their helmets as grave markers. While Rex returns to the Y-wing with a partially rebuilt R7, he looks back at Ahsoka looking over the gravesite. She takes a long look at her lightsaber, then drops it from her hand to the ground, leaving it with her fallen comrades.

Years later, an Imperial Shuttle lands near the crash site with a contingent of Stormtroopers. Darth Vader emerges and walks towards the cruiser. Coming to the clone gravesite, he digs Ahsoka's lightsaber out of the snow and activates it. He looks at the blade, then up at a convor circling overhead, for a long moment. Vader then deactivates the saber and walks away, reflected in the cracked visor of a clone trooper helmet belonging to Ahsoka's company.

Cast
Starring
 * Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano
 * Dave Filoni as CH-33P a.k.a. "Cheep"
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Clone Troopers / Commander Rex
 * Sam Witwer as Maul

Crew
Created by
 * George Lucas

Executive Producer and Supervising Director
 * Dave Filoni

Directed by
 * Nathaniel Villanueva

Written by
 * Dave Filoni

Score by
 * Kevin Kiner

Original Star Wars Themes & Score by
 * John Williams

Producer
 * Caroline Kermel

Co-Producer
 * Carrie Beck

Associate Producer
 * Josh Rimes

Original Series Casting by
 * Lindsay Halper

Characters

 * CH-33P
 * Jesse
 * Darth Maul
 * Morai
 * R7-A7
 * Rex
 * RG-G1
 * Ahsoka Tano
 * Darth Sidious
 * Darth Vader

Events

 * Clone Wars
 * Order 66

Behind the scenes
"Order 66. Ahsoka. Rex."

- StarWars.com


 * This episode departs from the season's regular Friday release on Disney+, having been brought forward four days in order to coincide with Star Wars Day on Monday, May 4, 2020. Unlike previous episodes of the season, no preview clip was released, however four shots from the episode were included in the "Next On Disney+ - May 2020" video on the Disney YouTube channel.


 * In an identical fashion to the previous two episodes, this episode opens with the "A LUCASFILM LIMITED Production" card, followed by the red variation of the logo, and then the title of the episode, "Part IV - Victory and Death". A new piece of score plays during the intro and there is no newsreel or moral.