The Deserter

"It is the quest for honor that makes one honorable."

- Moral

"The Deserter" is the tenth episode of Season Two of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series. It aired on January 1, 2010 and concluded a two-part storyline started with the previous episode, "Grievous Intrigue."

Official description
While searching for General Grievous on a distant planet, Rex encounters a deserter.

Plot summary
Hot on the trail of General Grievous, Obi-Wan Kenobi lands with his troops, Commander Cody and Captain Rex on Saleucami. As Grievous had to abandon his landing ship because of damage sustained during his escape, he and his droid cohorts had to use the on-board escape pods to land on the planet's surface. However, the radio transmitter on Grievous's pod was damaged upon landing, and as a result Grievous is forced to locate one of the other pods in order to send a message to the Separatist fleet before Kenobi and his forces find him. Grievous's droids find Grievous a Reek for his ride and some Eopie as pack animals. Grievous refuses to allow the battle droids to ride the Eopie as well, forcing them to drain their power reserves marching along with him.

Upon finding the crashed landing ship empty, Kenobi divides a squad of his men into search parties on speeder bikes. Rex is to lead troopers Jesse, Hardcase and Kix into the local wetlands to the coordinates of a crashed pod, while Kenobi, Cody and Crys will continue looking at the crash site. Unfortunately on their way they are ambushed by droid commando snipers, and Rex becomes severely injured. Upon finding out that they are standing on farmland, the troopers ferry Rex to a farm inhabited by a single female Twi'lek named Suu Lawquane and her two children Shaeeah and Jek. Suu's husband is momentarily absent, but she provides them with a shelter in their barn and some food. Too badly injured to continue the search for Grievous, Rex reluctantly remains behind while his team continues the search, putting Jesse in charge. Strangely, Shaeeah comments that the clones look just like their father.

In the meantime, Kenobi, Cody and Crys finally find a nearly intact droid and scan its memory banks for a clue as where to find Grievous, while their quarry becomes more and more frustrated as one by one of his battle droids escorts lose the last of their power and keep dropping where they stand.

In the middle of the night, Rex is visited by the owner of the farm—a clone trooper who introduces himself as Cut Lawquane. Disgusted with his pre-purposed profession, namely to kill for a living, Lawquane had deserted the army and now leads a happy life with his wife and children stating this is where his main duty is bound than to the Republic. While they have dinner together, Lawquane and Rex engage in an argument, in which Rex attempts to remind Lawquane that, as clone soldiers, their duty lies with the Republic, while Lawquane stresses that even as clones, they are individuals and thus have the freedom of choice. Slowly and reluctantly, Rex begins to sympathize with Cut and his family.

Grievous manages to reach the remaining intact capsule and prepares to send a distress call and his droids prepare for battle. When Kenobi and his men catch up, a battle ensues. When a Separatist shuttle arrives, the last AT-TE is unable to take it down, and Kenobi engages Grievous in personal combat to prevent him from leaving. However, by hooking himself to the shuttle by means of a grappling cable, Grievous manages to escape yet again, which leaves Kenobi disappointed.

In the meantime, Rex and Lawquane play dejarik holochess, in which Rex asks why Lawquane left the army. Lawquane tells how after the Battle of Geonosis, his transport was shot down and his brothers onboard were slaughtered, and knowing that there was nothing to be done, Cut ran - an experience which still haunts him. While playing outside, however, Shaeeah and Jek stumble upon a crashed Separatist escape pod in one of their fields and accidentally activate a platoon of damaged, but still-functional commando droids inside. The droids promptly attack the farm, and Lawquane prepares to defend his family. Rex offers his help, and although the droids manage to invade the farmhouse, the two clones put up a brave fight and destroy them all, with Lawquane saving Rex's life.

The next morning, Rex prepares to leave on an eopie. Although it would be his duty to report Lawquane as a deserter, he respects his clone brother's wish for a peaceful life greatly enough to conveniently forget about the whole incident. He refuses Lawquane's invitation to stay, parting with the words: "This is your home, Cut. My family is elsewhere."

Cast

 * Dee Bradley Baker as the Clone troopers
 * Nika Futterman as Shaeeah
 * Tom Kane as narrator
 * Cara Pifko as Suu
 * Kath Soucie as Jek
 * James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi
 * Matthew Wood as General Grievous and Battle droids

Behind the scenes
The Jedi Temple Archives feature on The Complete Season Two Blu-ray includes the deleted scene "Commando Droid Snipers".

The original episode guide slideshow mistakenly displayed an image of Hardcase, without his helmet on, attending to Rex after he had been shot off his BARC speeder. In the aired episode, it was Kix, the team medic, who stopped to attend to Rex, and his helmet remained on.