The Clone Wars Season 7, Episode 12 Recap and Review – “Victory and Death”

How was that for a somber end to The Clone Wars? We knew it couldn’t end on a high note, but damn, those final moments where not a single word of dialogue gets spoken may have said more about the devastation of Sidious’ Grand Plan than any previous Star Wars property before it.

This is how you close out a TV series my friends, so head on down below to check out my full recap and review of the series finale!

Recap

Hey now fans of the Ahsoka and Rex action force, Matt Heywood here to recap and review The Clone Wars: Victory and Death, aka, S7E12, aka, the Final one. 

The episode begins right where the last left off, so Ahsoka and Rex battle their way out of the med bay without killing any of the clones hellbent on killing them. 

Maul also continues to battle his way towards an escape, but he has no qualms about using his powers as a deadly tool to wipe out clone after clone, as well as the ship’s hyperdrive room, which he does a la Starkiller style like a Force boss, effectively bringing the ship out of hyperspace over an unnamed planet and its moon. 

Rex and ahsoka hit the hanger bay control room and open up the hanger doors, but they find that most of the clones have been waiting for them, so for the moment they’re trapped. 

The two have a touching moment about what to do, because Rex knows his brothers will kill them if they don’t take them out, but Ahsoka, goes full Jedi, like real Jedi, not those bozos on the council, and commits to not being responsible for their deaths, so they hatch a plan to talk things out. 

Rex pretends to have ahsoka captive and tries to explain that she’s not a Jedi, but Jesse isn’t having it thanks to Order 66 and the directive to kill Ahsoka and any traitorous clones. Just in time the droids drop the platforms the clones are on, so Rex and Ahsoka make a run for a shuttle, but just as they do, Maul also enters the hanger and makes a break for the shuttle too.

Ahsoka charges him, but he sends her flying and gets into the ship. Luckily GG was there to save Ahsoka, but she’s now getting shot at by Jesse from down below. 

Maul proceeds to take off, but once Ahsoka gets back on firm ground she uses the force to halt his ship in its tracks. Unfortunately, the Clones keep pressing their attack, killing R7 in the process while Rex handles the brunt of it, so she releases Maul for good and helps defend her friend. Maul makes his jump away and is safe to get back to leading Crimson Dawn and the Shadow Collective. 

As the Clones increase their attack on Rex and Ahsoka she cuts a hole in the floor so they fall to the next level, but Jesse is right there to bat them back. They fight their way to a BLT-B-Y-Wing and she flings Rex onto it as the ship breaks apart upon entering the moon’s atmosphere. 

Rex and the ship fly out, as does Ahsoka, who is essentially BASE diving at this point with no parachute. After a few moments she eventually gets herself into the cockpit, completing her and Rex’s escape from Order 66 and the ship full of clones trying to kill them. 

We then see them burying the clones, salvaging R7, and in Ahsoka’s case, leaving her lone lightsaber behind, probably in an attempt to appear dead, but also probably because it reminds her of Anakin, and the tragedy of everything that just happened to her, her friends, and her former master. Deep stuff. 

The episode ends with a flash forward to a time where the Empire is in full swing as we see Darth Vader land on the same moon Ahsoka crashed on, and he retrieves her lightsaber as he sees Morai the Convor flying overhead. I’m guessing this is a nod to that being ties to Ahsoka, and a way to let Vader subtly know that his former apprentice isn’t dead after all. 

The End. 

Review

Well, here we are. The Clone Wars has finally ended for real, and what a beautifully sad ending it was. There was no way to end this series on a high note, so I absolutely loved how this episode left us all feeling a bit hopeless by the end, and the closing imagery of Vader’s form in the Clone’s mask was the perfect touch to show us the ultimate results of the Clone Wars themselves, the destruction of the clones, the fall of the republic, and the betrayal of the Chosen One that allowed Sidious’ grand plan to play out to perfection. 

There were other touching moments in this episode too, such as Ahsoka’s and Rex’s talk in the hanger bay control room in which the Clone was clearly emotional about the fact that he may have to murder his brothers to stay alive, yet Ahsoka once again shows us why she’s the ultimate Jedi by committing to him that they won’t be responsible for any of their deaths directly. It was a great scene for both characters, and shows why they stayed committed to each other all the way through the fall of the empire. 

How can I not touch on Maul’s moments in this episode, which yet again upstaged any other action moments. His hyper drive room scene is as epic as it gets in terms of watching what someone with the Force and the Dark side can do when they’re motivated to stay alive. It evoked memories of Starkiller from The Force Unleashed, which is perfect considering Witwer’s ties to both franchises. 

I will say though that I’m a bit let down that we didn’t get any dark saber action from Maul in these final episodes. I really thought we’d at least see him with it, considering that’s who has it when we see the character again in Star Wars Rebels. With it popping up in The Mandalorian I just thought Dave would fill in its journey a bit more, but alas, it stayed out of sight, so I guess he had it with him somewhere and picked it up after he escaped.

Of course the ending and the epilogue were just the perfect combo to close this series out. The ending really was a gut punch, but it had to be, so I’m glad the team went for a very somber close. Seeing Ahsoka and Rex burying their potential murderers speaks volumes as to the type of characters they are, so it was a great tribute to their righteousness.

And finally, that epilogue was just brilliant. We can speculate why Vader went there, but I think it’s clear that he was probably pulled their by the memory of his padawan, or even the left behind saber, which he did craft as Anakin, so he had to see for himself if she was indeed gone. I also believe the Convor at the end was a sign meant for him to let her know that she lives, as if the Force was trying to reach out to his good side and remind him of his past, but we all know that only one Force user will be able to break through to him, and that’s his son, so it was just another sad reminder of the tragedy of Anakin Skywalker and what his choice meant for his former friends, the galaxy, and the future of the Force itself. 

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