The wise man leads, the strong man follows.
The 501st has taken the Umbaran airbase, but the capital is still holding out, continuing to receive weapons from a supply ship in the planet's orbit. General Krell orders the clone troopers to be ready to march out on the capital in twelve hours, but as Fives and Jesse are quick to point out to Rex, the missiles the capital has at its disposal mean the clones will be walking into a blast zone. Fives comes up with his own plan: he and Jesse cracked the Umbaran codes, so they can use the captured starfighters to get to the supply ship without being noticed and easily destroy it. But General Krell isn't interested when Rex suggests it to him. Fives is undeterred, however, setting out along with Jesse and Hardcase to destroy the supply ship because it will mean less casualties, even though the three clones are breaking orders by doing so...
Tropes:
- Bait the Dog: Krell briefly seems to be impressed with Fives and Jesse for destroying the supply ship, calling it a brave act. He seems to be deliberately invoking the trope just to twist the knife deeper before telling them he will have them court-martialed and executed for disobeying orders.
- Big "NO!": Fives, when he realizes Hardcase is planning on making a Heroic Sacrifice to destroy the supply ship.
- Blatant Lies:
- When the conversation in the barracks about Fives' idea to destroy the supply ship is interrupted by the arrival of Dogma, he notices the tension and asks what's going on. Tup's reply is an unconvincing "Nothing".
- Special mention has to be given to the way Fives tries to tell Krell that nothing is going on in the hangar - just a drill, then an equipment check - all while the Umbaran ship is shooting the hangar to pieces very audibly. This doubles as a Continuity Nod below.
- Booby Trap: Hardcase's lie to Krell about the reason for the chaos in the hangar is that one of these was set off while they were decrypting the Umbarans' computers.
- Call-Back: Fives gets the idea of destroying the DH-Omni Support Vessel from the inside from what Anakin told him about doing the same thing back in The Phantom Menace with the main Lucrehulk-class battleship that kept the Droid Army functioning via its central computer during the Battle of Naboo.
- Cliffhanger: The mission succeeds at the cost of Hardcase's life and Krell tells Fives and Jesse that they will be court-martialed and executed for disobeying his orders.
- Continuity Nod: Fives' conversation with General Krell over the comlink as Hardcase attempts to control his wayward fighter plays out similarly to when Han Solo tries to bluff in the Death Star detention block in A New Hope, complete with Krell demanding the clone trooper's operating number.
- General Failure: At this point, it's safe to count Pong Krell. It's better to have rested soldiers than tired soldiers, better to have high morale than low morale, and better to attack from cover than to attack without any cover. He throws clones into the grinder and leads from behind despite himself being the squad's single most valuable asset. He ignores any advice or intelligent suggestions—even when this requires him to contradict his previous dismissive attitude, such as claiming the plan to take out the supply ship is "frivolous" and would cost them clones they need for the attack on the capital—and instead defaults to Attack! Attack! Attack!. His decisions are so terrible that he could barely make worse ones if he tried. By the end of the arc, it's revealed that Krell's failures as a leader are not the results of incompetence, but deliberate acts of treason.
- Go Out with a Smile: Hardcase does this as a result of his Heroic Sacrifice.
- He Didn't Make It: Fives says this about Hardcase.
- Heroic Sacrifice: With the DH-Omni Support Vessel's generators protected by ray shields and his ship damaged, Hardcase removes a weapons pod and manually drags it into the generator room, even though he knows this won't allow him enough time to escape the resulting explosion.
- Internal Homage: Fives' attempt to bluff General Krell over the coms about what's going on in the hangar nods to Han Solo's attempt at bluffing over the coms on the Death Star in A New Hope.
- Kick the Dog: Fives and Jesse are feeling bad enough that Hardcase died during the mission, but of course that's not enough for Krell, who gleefully tells them that he will have them court-martialed and executed for disobeying orders. He also clearly enjoys announcing this in front of Rex, who was trying to take the blame for them.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to the rest of the Umbara arc. With the 501st away from the immediate battlefield, they're given some time to breathe and there's a lot more comedy sprinkled in, such as Hardcase wrecking the hangar as Fives tries to keep Krell from noticing, and even the battle droids get in a moment or two when the series was phasing this aspect out. The onscreen body count is also much lower than the other episodes, and although Hardcase doesn't make it out alive, he goes out on his own terms in a bittersweet triumph, unlike all the other clone casualties up to this point. Yet the episode still keeps the story moving forward and maintains the omnipresent sense of dread, leading to the tone darkening again come the cliffhanger.
- Ludicrous Precision: The Tactical Droid engages in this regarding the likelihood of there being clones onboard its ship after the presence of the commandeered starfighters is reported.
- Oh, Crap!: Fives is a little shaken when he first sees the space battle raging around the DH-Omni Support Vessel since he's not a pilot by training and has never actually been in a situation like this.
- Rapid-Fire "No!": Hardcase, when he accidentally triggers the missile launcher on the starfighter in the hangar.
- Sarcastic Clapping: Jesse, after Krell orders the fighters locked down just after Hardcase figured out how to properly control them.Jesse: [walks up, clapping] I thought the plan was to blow up the supply ship, not destroy our own hangar.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Fives, Hardcase, and Jesse eventually disobey Krell to destroy the Separatist supply ship. Despite succeeding in their mission (at the cost of Hardcase's life), Krell promises to have them court-martialed and executed for their "act of insubordination".
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: One of the first things Fives says over the intercom while trying to bluff Krell about the situation in the hangar is "Nothing's out of control down here"... which could not be further from the truth.
- Taught by Experience: The Tactical Droid in charge of the DH-Omni Support Vessel orders the Battle Droids to turn on the ship's shields to prevent it being destroyed from the inside, not wanting a repeat of the Battle of Naboo, albeit with supplies for the Umbarans.
- Tempting Fate: Fives says "This can't get much worse" when Hardcase's attempt to control a fighter inside the hangar goes haywire, and then he sees another clone trooper setting off an alarm for the main control room.
- Trojan Horse: The captured Umbaran fighters and the access codes provide entry to the supply ship.
- The X of Y: "Plan of Dissent".
