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GamesRadar+ Verdict
"A good lead into the famed Siege of Mandalore arc, but frustrating after last week's stalled progress"
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Warning: This review contains major spoilers for Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 7 episode 8
We've reached the end of Ahsoka Tano and the Martez sisters' arc, and it came an episode too late. "Together Again" starts exactly where last week's unnecessarily circular episode began and left off - with the trio locked in a Pyke prison. Thankfully, the scene changes quickly, and the episode moves forward at the kind of pace we need in the series' final season.
"Together Again" benefits from splitting the trio up almost immediately: Ahsoka fake-betrays the Martez sisters to the Pykes, holding their nonexistent family over their heads to get them to go retrieve the spice they're "hiding" (read: they go back to Kessel and stiff-arm their way to getting more barrels). As soon as Trace and Rafa are on their own, they're free to bounce off each other again, without needlessly leaning on Ahsoka for plot movement or character building. Likewise, Ahsoka isn't handcuffed by the need to hide her powers, and moves through the Pyke prison with ease, planting thermal detonators around the factory and even stumbling upon an old "friend" (more later). It's a breath of fresh air and a nice change from last week's laborious story.
In the space they get while separated from Ahsoka, Rafa and Trace settle into some classic Star Wars tropes - Trace gets to show off her burgeoning Skywalker pilot moves, while Rafa gives us pure Han Solo smirky scumbaggery. You absolutely love to see it. Plus, Ahsoka gets out of the prison faster than you can say "death sticks" and inadvertently walks onto a path that will lead her back to the Jedi. While planting devices to blow up the spice factory, Ahsoka oversees the Pyke leader talking to a cloaked figure via hologram - it's none other than Darth Maul, who's been trying to build his own crime syndicate by merging the disparate groups together. He doesn't get as much of a dramatic reveal as I'd hoped, but as soon as his red and black visage appears, it's impossible to not daydream about his future clash with Ahsoka.
By the end of the episode, Ahsoka has sorted out the Martez sisters' bungled attempt at doing a crime and returns with them to Coruscant, where she's immediately approached by Bo-Katan, who asks for her help in fighting Darth Maul. For reference, the last time we saw Maul was on Mandalore, where he convinced the Mandalorian splinter group Death Watch to join his crime syndicate to end all crime syndicates, the Shadow Collective. Shortly after his actions on Mandalore resulted in the death of New Mandalorian leader and Obi-Wan Kenobi's former lover, Satine Kryze, Emperor Palpatine shows up to punish Maul and his brother Savage Opress for attempting to gain power without his approval. Palpatine killed Savage, but had other plans for Maul - it looks like those plans involve Maul continuing to run a crime syndicate, but under Palpatine's tutelage. We'll find out next week…
Ultimately, this was a better episode than last week's, but the pacing of this arc was far too slow. Episode 7 could have been excised from the season entirely without any noticeable detriment to the storyline - Ahsoka still would have gone to Mandalore, and the Martez sisters would have found out about her Jedi connections and accepted her despite their horrible association with them. That last bit, however, is supremely important, as The Clone Wars finally spells out its stance on Ahsoka Tano and the Jedi. Rafa Martez is begrudgingly okay with Ahsoka's former Jedi status, saying "you might not think of yourself as a Jedi, but you act like one. Or at least how I want them to be."
