Although the four-part “droids in the void” arc was by far the worst in the series’ run, “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” Season 5 (8:30 a.m. Central Saturdays on Cartoon Network) nonetheless ranks as the best season so far thanks to the other arcs — the Onderon rebellion, the young Padawans, the Darth Maul/Death Watch saga (that arc’s finale, featuring Sidious fighting Maul, was the best episode of the series) and now the mystery-laden Fugitive Ahsoka arc.
Ahsoka will be put on trial for the crimes she didn’t commit next week in the Season 5 finale. Executive producer Dave Filoni hinted to Jason and Jimmy, formerly of The Force Cast and now of Rebel Force Radio, that Season 5’s ending will be unlike the previous four seasons. I think he means that it will have a cliffhanger ending that leads directly into the Season 6 premiere. There are just too many mysterious questions hanging out there to be resolved in 22 minutes.
First of all, who framed Ahsoka by Force-killing the suspect, Letta Turmond, just when she is about to reveal her employer? At the top of my list is Palpatine/Darth Sidious himself. His specific motive is that Letta not reveal his identity. A nice side benefit is that he can cause a rift in the Jedi Council, thus pushing Anakin closer to his clutches. And, indeed, that would be Palpatine’s motive for setting off the bomb in the Jedi Temple to begin with.
As for means (How did he kill Letta and all those clones with the Force without being there?) — Palpatine is the most powerful Dark Side-user in the galaxy. In the original trilogy, we see Darth Vader choke out underlings who are in the same room. And we see him “sense” Luke through the Force across space in “The Empire Strikes Back.” But we never see him combine the two skills and kill people across space. In the films, we know Palpatine as a master manipulator. Some people suggested that Palpatine used the Force (across a vast distance of space, probably) to create Anakin in Shmi’s womb, but the novel “Darth Plagueis” suggests that the Force itself created Anakin in response to the threat of Sidious.
In “Dark Empire,” Sidious brings himself back to life by transferring his essence into cloned bodies of himself. So while we haven’t seen Sidious do precisely what I’m accusing him of doing on “The Clone Wars,” it seems to be in his wheelhouse of skills — and besides, no other Force user has been shown to have such skills. So if anyone can do it, it’s the No. 1 Dark Side practitioner.
Second, who framed Ventress by attacking Ahsoka while wearing Ventress’ bounty hunter mask and using her twin lightsabers? In this case, the list of suspects gets narrowed considerably because we have visual evidence — the being who ambushes Ventress and steals her mask and lightsabers has a human (or humanoid, at least) female build. And she holds her own in the battle with Ahsoka, further making Ahsoka assume that it is indeed Ventress. (If Ahsoka were to reflect on this, she’d realize it makes no sense for Ventress — who had allied with Ahsoka as a means to her own freedom via a government pardon — to suddenly try to kill her. But it’s understandable that Ahsoka is distracted.)
One possible suspect is Barriss Offee, although a serious set of “Here’s what really happened” flashbacks would be needed to make this work. Barriss is Ahsoka’s best friend and — through research efforts back at the temple — she seems to be helping Ahsoka to figure out who framed her. Ahsoka manages to communicate with Barriss via a communications booth on level 1312 of the Coruscant underground and Barriss tells Ahsoka to head to a warehouse three levels up — that’s where she’ll find her answers. Indeed, Ahsoka finds that the warehouse holds nanobot bombs like the one that blew a hole in the Jedi Temple. But then Ahsoka is captured by her Republic pursuers. Barriss’ actions could certainly be seen as helpful, but they could also be read as part of a frame-job.
Another intriguing possibility is bounty hunter Aurra Sing, whom we haven’t seen since Season 3. Sing has some Jedi abilities (although these are explored in the Expanded Universe more so than in “The Clone Wars”) and Ahsoka has personally been a serious thorn in Sing’s side more than once, stopping the bounty hunter’s assassination attempt on Padme and jumping on the Slave I, causing Sing to lose the ship to Hondo Ohnaka. From a motive standpoint, Sing is a good fit. Based on what we know of her, she’s a much better suspect than Barriss. Still, Sing has been out of the picture long enough that if she were to suddenly reappear as a henchperson in this arc, fans might argue that the writers aren’t playing fair.
On the other hand, there is one powerful Dark Side-user who we did see recently: Darth Maul. Although the visual evidence makes it clear that a woman attacked Ahsoka and it seems like Force-choking someone not in the same room is beyond Maul’s abilities, Maul still lurks in the background of this story. The reason is that the last time we saw him, in the final shot of “The Lawless,” he was being attacked by Sidious’ Force lightning. If the writers’ intention was that Sidious is killing Maul, I think the episode would’ve ended with Maul’s smoking corpse. Because it did not, I feel like Sidious (and the writers) have more in mind for Maul.
And finally, does “1313” have anything significant to do with this? The announcement of the video game “Star Wars: 1313,” where the gamer plays a bounty hunter navigating this dangerous level of Coruscant’s underground, was made last year. But a release date hasn’t been confirmed yet, much to the frustration of “Star Wars” gaming fans. In the current “Clone Wars” arc, Ahsoka is on levels 1312 and 1315. The artwork for the game shows that the bounty hunter is a male, so that puts him out of the running as a suspect. Still the connections, and the questions, linger: Will the game ever be released? And, if not, has the designers’ work been repurposed for this TV arc?
What are your theories on the big questions heading into Saturday’s Season 5 finale? And what are your thoughts on the season in general — is it the best so far, or do the four atrocious droids-centered episodes knock it from that perch?