After successfully retrieving the encryption module, R2-D2, Colonel Gascon and the rest of D-Squad are returning to the Republic in their shuttle, when they get caught up in a swarm of comets and are forced to drop out of hyperspace. Their shuttle is damaged, and they wind up crashing on the Outer Rim planet Abafar.
The surface of Abafar has no landmarks, the sky refracts the sunlight in such a way that the sun can't be seen, and tracks can't be left in the ground. It's a directionless void. They can't stay at the crash site, though, so R2 and the other astromechs roll off. He gets Gascon and WAC-47 to follow by revealing he has the encryption module, which Gascon dropped during the crash.
Gascon gives in to despair during the trek across the seemingly endless void, and matters do not improve after the squad comes across another shipwreck that's been there for quite some time. Eventually, R2 and the other astromechs just up and take off on their own, having had enough of Gascon and WAC's behaviour.
After some time wandering aimlessly around the void, Gascon and WAC run into a herd of flightless birds, and decide to tag along in the realization that the birds will know where to go. They arrive at a water source just outside the town of Pons Ora — to discover that R2 and the other astromechs are already there.
Tropes:
- Alien Sky: Due to its atmosphere refracting the sun's light, Abafar's sky has no visible sun and consists of a uniform field of orange light.
- Armless Biped: The alien birds Gascon and WAC encounter only possess a single pair of long running legs.
- Asteroid Thicket: At the start of the episode, Gascon and the droids run into a dense swarm of comets, none much larger than their shuttle and all moving in the same direction and very close to one another, which damage their ship and force them to crash-land.
- Bottle Episode: Mostly set against one backdrop, with only two voice actors other than the narrator.
- Call-Back: R2 and his fellow astromechs are sent out to repair the shuttle, just like he had to do back in The Phantom Menace.
- Chain of People: When QT-KT is knocked off the side of the shuttle while it's flying through the comet storm, the three other astromechs use their cables to form a chain, before R2 and BZ are able to pull QT and C4 back onto the wing and they can all go back inside.
- Conveniently Close Planet: The Clone Wars does this a lot. In this episode, it's Abafar's turn to be conveniently close at hand when the heroes' ship is damaged and they need a safe location to crash on.
- Crossing the Desert: Gascon and the droids have to cross a featureless desert with no markers to guide them.
- Death World: Abafar, thanks to consisting only of an endless white desert, its atmosphere refracting the sunlight in such a way as to make it impossible to actually see the sun, and its ground not being able to hold tracks. It's very easy to get impossibly lost in this desert.
- Despair Event Horizon: Gascon hits it before he and WAC encounter the birds.
- Expospeak Gag: When the shuttle's engines go down.Gascon: We need the primary motivators reestablished now!
WAC: Forget that. We need the engines to come on.
Gascon: That's what I'm saying! - Hollywood Mirage: Gascon is fooled by one of a town at one point. The droids, being incapable of being fooled by mirages, think he's gone crazy. Granted, Gascon actually does go crazy not long after this.
- Mythology Gag: The heroes being stuck in an absolute void without any kind of features to track their progress is reminiscent of the prison in George Lucas' first film, THX 1138.
- "Not So Different" Remark: The droids argue that Gascon's training isn't so different from their programming. Gascon ends up somewhat agreeing later on.
- Sanity Slippage: Gascon becomes increasingly desperate the longer the group remains in the desert; he starts out as short-tempered and snappish, descends into melodramatic pleas for mercy after the group finds another wrecked ship, descends into a fit of broken laughter after he realizes they'd been going in circles, and eventually slumps into despondent philosophizing after deciding he's doomed. He recovers after finding a way out.
- Self-Deprecation: The alien skeleton D-Squad comes across (which wears a red flight suit and has rabbit-like incisors) has an uncanny resemblance to Jaxxon, a character who has been widely cited as one of the most ridiculous things to come out of Star Wars Legends.
- Single-Biome Planet: Abafar seems to be nothing but an endless flat field of white dust.
- Special Edition Title: In this episode, as with the rest of the D-Squad arc, the opening title is light blue.
- Straw Nihilist: Gascon briefly becomes one after crossing the Despair Event Horizon.Gascon: Think about it. Life. Life is a void. We search and search for answers, but there are none. Hope is just an illusion, WAC. Death is the only certainty!
