"You're probably better off down here."
If there is no path before you, create your own.
Trouble with a ramshackle speeder bike she bought throws Ahsoka Tano, still reeling from her decision to leave the Jedi Order after being framed for treason, down an underworld portal to the Level 1313 repair shop owned by aspiring pilot Trace Martez. Trace offers Ahsoka a place to repair her bike, but expects payment since very little in the Coruscant underworld is free. But after Trace is threatened by a criminal named Pintu Son-El and his henchmen, who are looking for payment that her older sister Rafa owes them, Ahsoka gets roped into helping Trace assemble some dangerous binary loadlifter droids that Rafa was hired to build...
This episode premiered March 20, 2020.
Tropes:
- Accidental Truth: Trace speculates that Ahsoka (who mentioned that she's from the upper levels of Courscant) has had problems with the Jedi during the Clone Wars, though her wording was about their role in the war. However, part of what she said is unknowingly correct; Ahsoka really did have a massive one that led her where she is now.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The three Type 2 binary loadlifter droids that Rafa is contracted to repair. According to Ahsoka, Type 2 loadlifters are fraudulently marketed, as they are actually repurposed demolition droids with aggressive tendencies. When Trace forgets to install a restraining bolt on one of them before activating it, it goes on a rampage throughout the Coruscant underworld.
- The Alleged Car: Ahsoka's speeder bike is a complete piece of junk. She tells Trace she doesn't know what she was thinking when she bought it.
- Anachronic Order: This episode is actually set before the Bad Batch arc.
- Blatant Lies: When the out-of-control droid runs past Rafa in the street, she demands a pursuing Trace tell her what's going on. Trace insists that the droid is just being put through a test run.
- Breather Episode: This episode moves away from the epic space battles of the previous story arc and the high-stakes conspiracy Ahsoka was embroiled in the last time we saw her. It also doubles as a literal Lower-Deck Episode.
- Call-Back: This is not the first time Ahsoka has had to deal with a rampaging binary loadlifter droid.
- Call-Forward:
- Ahsoka rides a Joben T-85 speeder bike, the same kind that Kanan regularly used on Rebels. Then, after it breaks down and crashes, she says of it "What a piece of junk!"
- During the opening sequence, Ahsoka briefly utilizes the wall-running technique that Cal Kestis will extensively use in his own adventures.
- Pintu Son-El is a member of the same species as Yushyn.
- Ahsoka also chooses to save Trace in much the same manner that Cal will attempt to save Prauf.
- Character Title: The titular Trace.
- The City Narrows: Ahsoka plummets down to 1313, one of the most notorious levels of the Coruscant underworld.
- Climbing Climax: The rogue demo droid scales up a wall at the climax with Ahsoka and Trace on its tail.
- Costume Evolution: Ahsoka has ditched the dress and tights for a jumpsuit. She's also either replaced or covered her akul-tooth headdress with leather headgear.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Ahsoka fighting against two average criminal Mooks goes exactly how you’d expect.
- Facepalm: Trace, after Rafa makes a deal to build three droids expecting her to do the work.
- Fights Like a Normal: To avoid using her Cover-Blowing Superpower, Ahsoka fights Pintu’s Mooks like this. And naturally wipes the floor with them.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Trace and Rafa are introduced with this dynamic (with Trace the responsible to Rafa's foolish), as Rafa is digging through washing machines for things to steal while Trace manages the shop and has to fight off Rafa's creditors. As the episodes continue, this will be subverted as Trace is much more a dreamer and Rafa a feet on the ground criminal.
- Freudian Trio:
- Ahsoka is the superego, the more emotionally reserved and idealistic one who comes from a more sophisticated background.
- Trace is the ego, the reasonable one with both pragmatic street-smarts and dreams of traveling the stars, who balances the influences of her sister and her new friend.
- Rafa is the id, cynical and distrustful of others who acts relatively recklessly out of self-interest.
- Groin Attack: Ahsoka incapacitates one of Pintu's Abyssin henchmen by kicking him in the crotch.
- Instant Expert: As should be expected of a Jedi, Ahsoka figures out how to run a load lifter and save Trace's life despite never having driven one before.
- Like Brother and Sister: It's indicated that Ahsoka sees Anakin as like a brother, as the answer she gives Trace when asked how she learned to fight so well is, "My older brother taught me."
- Metaphorically True: Ahsoka gives Trace and Rafa answers like this about her past in order to avoid mentioning that she used to be a Jedi, since thanks to multiple factors the Order isn't very popular in the Coruscant underworld.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Ahsoka, when her broken speeder bike sends her plummeting down an underworld portal.
- Ahsoka and Trace, when they realize that the latter forgot to put a Restraining Bolt on the droid she just activated, which promptly goes on a rampage.
- Plummet Perspective: Used when Ahsoka is hanging over the edge of the landing platform outside Trace's shop.
- Punny Title: Ahsoka is gone, but not without a Trace.
- Restraining Bolt: Necessary when dealing with Type 2 binary loadlifters due to their aggressive tendencies.
- The '70s: Between Rafa's gorgeous fur coat, Ahsoka's sensible bell bottom pant suit, and the episode's Sanford and Son vibe, we return to the Star Wars roots in the seventies.
- Teetering on the Edge: Happens twice.
- First, Ahsoka's crash-landing on Trace's platform leaves her hanging over the edge of the platform, hanging on to the handles of her bike. Pulling herself back on to the platform, however, is no difficulty.
- This happens again with Trace's forklift when Ahsoka uses it to catch Trace and the deactivated droid she's hanging on to. Ahsoka hops out and attaches the winch cable to the wall, but when the motor fails at pulling the forklift up, Ahsoka has to covertly use the Force to assist it.
- Tempting Fate:
- After Ahsoka manages to initially get her renegade bike under control, she takes a moment to relax thinking that it's over... and then the bike plummets down the underworld portal.
- Trace does this twice: First, when she manages to grab the rampaging droid with her forklift, before it starts climbing up a wall and dragging the vehicle behind it, forcing her to release it. Second, after Ahsoka catches the deactivated droid and Trace with the forklift, before the weight starts pulling it over the edge.
- Time Skip: Ahsoka's montrals and lekku have noticeably grown since her previous in-person appearance in "The Wrong Jedi", indicating that some time has passed since then.
- What You Are in the Dark: Just like Cal Kestis, Ahsoka is forced to choose between exposing who she is and saving a colleague, or letting them die and concealing her Jedi heritage. She opts to save Trace, though unlike Cal, she faces no repercussions for her actions, as no one — save for a child who chooses to remain silent — notices.
