The Hidden Enemy

"Truth enlightens the mind, but won't always bring happiness to your heart."

- Moral

"The Hidden Enemy" is the sixteenth episode of Season One of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series. It serves as a prequel to The Clone Wars movie.

Official description
''Anakin and Obi-Wan discover evidence of a traitor amongst their ranks while attempting to lead Republic forces to liberate the planet of Christophsis from a Separatist siege. When the Republic is ambushed on Christophsis, it becomes clear that someone has set them up. The Jedi suspect the Sith, while Rex and Cody uncover information that points to a spy amongst them.''

Plot summary
Anakin, Obi-Wan and their clones prepare to ambush the advancing droid forces from two towers. Just as they are about to fire on the droids, the advances split into three and droids suddenly appear in Obi-Wan's building. Anakin calls in a gunship for immediate evacuation before leading his squad to assist Obi-Wan. They escape to the roof, and the droids follow them. Their gunship arrives, picking them up, but not before taking the command tactical droid's head to find out how the Separatists discovered their plan. At the base, Rex and Cody analyze the droid's memory, but the best they can find is that the Separatists discovered their position ahead of time. Obi-Wan suggests that they may have a spy in their ranks. The Jedi decide to go behind enemy lines to investigate, while Rex and Cody sweep out the base. As the Jedi leave, Cody notices that someone left his comlink on, meaning the spy was eavesdropping on them. They spot someone running off and chase him. Unfortunately, they lose him in the mess hall, among their many brothers, meaning that one of the clones is a traitor. They decide to contact the Jedi. Unfortunately, the droids are keeping the communications jammed.

As Anakin and Obi-Wan race to the Separatist base on BARC speeders, they notice an increasing number of droids spying on them, but still decide to continue the mission, despite the fact that it has been compromised. They arrive at the enemy base and inside, they meet Asajj Ventress again and begin to duel with her.

Rex and Cody have Artoo analyze the communication history, to find out if anyone had sent out any unauthorized transmissions. Rex notices an irregular wavelength that is too low and infrequent for them to normally detect. The transmission seems to be coming from Slick's barracks, so they decide to investigate. They question all of Slick's men: Jester was cleaning his weapon, Punch and Sketch were in the mess hall, and Gus was in the infirmary. The last one, Chopper, appears that he is hiding something, and reluctantly reveals that he was collecting droid fingers, which is forbidden by protocol. Chopper denies being a spy, and Slick offers a full investigation when the Jedi come back. However, Chopper snaps that from his hiding place, he saw Slick turn into the command center rather than the mess hall. Cody also notes that Slick somehow knows about the Jedi's departure, while only Rex and Cody knew about it. Slick, knowing he's been discovered, punches Cody and Chopper, and escapes. Cody and Rex try tracking him, but they are too late: Slick blows up many of the gunships and AT-TEs, as well as the weapons depot, with earlier-placed charges. The other clones inform Cody and Rex that Slick went into the command center, and they order the others to secure the perimeter while they go inside.

The Jedi manage to overcome Ventress and demand her surrender, but as they edge closer to capture her, she creates a large hole in the floor beneath their feet, pushing them one level down. Ventress taunts them and runs away, and the Jedi follow her, discovering that she has set up a whole army to invade Christophsis. The Jedi engage Ventress again, overbalancing the tri-droid she is standing on before escaping on STAPs. Ventress dispatches Loathsom to take care of the Jedi while she moves on to the next phase of her master's plan, and she heads to the Trident.

Rex and Cody enter the command center in search of Slick. They look up at the vents (where Slick is hiding) and inconspicuously act out a scene. Cody leaves his blaster on the table while Rex goes to "secure the lockdown". Slick comes down from the vents and grabs Cody's blaster, only to find that it is empty, and Rex comes up from behind him and puts his blaster at Slick's head. Slick engages the two commanders in physical combat, stating that he was tired of all the suffering and was offered freedom and money from Ventress. Cody manages to knock him out and they apprehend him. As they present Slick before the Jedi, the latter ask why he would betray his brothers; Slick snaps that his brothers are enslaved by the Jedi, that he was striking a blow for all of them and that he loves his brothers, but they are too blind to see it. Cody and Rex reprimand him that if he truly loved his brothers, then he wouldn't have put them at risk. Cody orders the other clones to take the traitor to lockup.

Obi-Wan asks if they managed to salvage anything from the weapons depot. Rex says that though most of their weapons are trashed, they managed to save the heavy cannons, which will prove to be useful in the coming battle.

Cast

 * Matt Lanter as Anakin Skywalker
 * James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Tactical droid #1, #2
 * Nika Futterman as Asajj Ventress
 * Tom Kane as Narrator
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Clone troopers
 * Matthew Wood as Battle droids

Behind the scenes
The script originally dictated the start of the episode to involve the clones setting up a combat droid nicknamed "The Beast", similar in design to the dome-shaped mining droids seen in A New Hope. However, to keep the war defined as clones vs. droids and not clones using droids vs. droids, and since the sequence didn't even explain the droid's use, the sequence was cut.

At the beginning of the episode, when Cody and Slick return, Cody is carrying a plain white clone helmet. He is seen holding his rightful helmet later on in the episode.

When Obi-Wan is explaining the Jedi's mission behind enemy lines to Cody and Rex, he calls Cody "Captain" when Cody is clearly a Commander. The mistake arose during the editing process, since originally Obi-Wan was talking to Rex. Also, before Cody and Rex speak to Slick's men, Slick says, "Captain, if I can just have word with them..." To this statement, Cody turns and looks at Slick.

Much of the background music consisted of an edited version of the "Battle of Christophsis" track from The Clone Wars film soundtrack. Additionally, the music for the brawl between Rex, Cody and Slick is a variation of the speeder chase music from Attack of the Clones.