Mission to Mos Eisley (episode)

While aboard a space transport, an impatient C-3PO asks the droid pilot to go faster while in hyperspace. The irritated droid threatens to slow the transport down, and C-3PO resigns to sit in the back of the ship where encounters a Twi'lek who has been collecting cards of Rebel heroes. Recognizing one of them as Hera Syndulla, C-3PO shares his account of how he and R2-D2 encountered Hera and the crew of her ship, the Ghost.

In the fifteen years following the formation of the Empire, 3PO and R2 went undercover as Imperial minister Maketh Tua's translators for Amda Wabo, an Aqualish arms trader. The hanger where Wabo's disrupters are being loaded is ambushed by Hera's crew, consisting of Garazeb Orrelios, Sabine Wren, Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarrus and C1-10P ("Chopper"). Once Zeb shoots the door that Wabo is under, seemingly crushing him, R2 suggests that he and 3PO follow the "gunkbot" (Chopper) and leave for the Ghost, where Hera asks "Who are you calling ghastly?" in response to 3PO's perceived opinion towards her crew.

Once in space, 3PO and R2 are fitted with restraining bolts, and after a brief quarrel with Chopper, the protocol droid assures the astromech that they are quite valuable to the Empire. Zeb overhears him and suggests scrapping the both of them, but Kanan is more concerned about delivering the stolen ion disruptors to their benefactor Cikatro Vizago. Once they have left, however, 3PO takes matters into his own hands and calls for help via an intercom. 3PO's distress call is picked up by Agent Kallus, who tracks them down to Lothal, where Hera and her crew are making the transaction with Vizago. They attack the rebels with AT-DP walkers. During the fighting, C-3PO accidentally uses the ion disruptors to destroy the attacking Imperial forces. He and R2 are then taken back to Bail Organa—who 3PO subsequently discovers is a prominent member of the Rebel Alliance—on the Tantive IV.

At last, the space transport arrives at Mos Eisley, where 3PO discovers that Wuher has gone out of business due to a cantina run by Watto, and the Mos Eisley Cantina has become a refuge for droids who are running from Jawas. He tells the droids in hiding about how he and R2 played an important role in the events before and after the Battle of Yavin.

Four years ago on the Tantive IV, Bail's foster daughter Leia Organa had obtain the stolen plans for the Death Star. While performing some two takes of "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope," Leia places the plans in R2, who escapes with 3PO in a pod heading down to Tatooine. On the surface they are captured by Jawas and taken to the Lars Homestead, where Luke Skywalker and his uncle purchase the duo after R2 sabotages all of the others. Once purchased, R2 goes in search of Obi-Wan, and Luke and 3PO follow. Meanwhile on the Death Star, Darth Vader berates Conan Antonio Motti for his reliance on technology and uses the Force to take control of his body and humiliate him.

Luke and 3PO find the elderly Obi-Wan, who is surprised that Luke did not change his last name while hiding from the Empire. R2 presents them with Leia's message and Obi-Wan asks Luke to accompany him to Alderaan. Luke immediately agrees. At the cantina, the search for a pilot doesn't last long since they are attacked by stormtroopers. With Han Solo and Chewbacca added to the party, they take off in the Millennium Falcon where Luke conducts lightsaber training in a clumsy fashion. 3PO informs Han that the ship is being pulled into a tractor beam towards the Death Star. Hiding under the floor, the Imperials find the vessel empty but Vader suggests otherwise, summoning his band of stormtroopers back to guard Leia. Obi-Wan use his "Jedi Mind Trick" to get past two Stormtroopers (actually just him getting the Stormtroopers to look away and then knocking them out with a wrench). Taking the two stormtroopers' armors, Han, Chewbacca and Luke search for the princess while Obi-Wan goes to shut down the tractor beam. 3PO and R2 hide in a closet with a rapidly firing mouse droid for company.

After freeing Leia, the four escape into a trash compactor that nearly crushes them before R2 deactivates it. Obi-Wan finds deactivating the tractor beam surprisingly easy until he encounters Vader; they both apologize to each other and are about to go their own ways until they realize who the other person is. Luke and the others arrive just in time to see Vader do away with Obi-Wan (offscreen) before Vader sees Leia out of her cell and they escape. Luke and Han argue in the turrets after fighting off a few TIE fighters, and Leia takes over until they arrive on Yavin 4.

Leia points out that the Death Star's one weak spot is a ventilator shaft which is vulnerable to proton torpedoes, describing the situation as a "one in a billion chance" from which many of her pilots will never return alive. Luke and the others fearlessly accept the odds without hesitation. 3PO watches R2 go off in Luke's X-Wing, wondering why the astromech puts his life in such dangerous situations. In the battle, Luke hears Obi-Wan's voice and fires the torpedoes down the ventilation shaft. Meanwhile, Han shoots Vader's TIE Advanced fighter, causing it to spin out of control. At the ceremony, 3PO, distressed that R2 never made it back, is overjoyed to see him, yet falls. The tray he carries with Luke and Han's medals remains intact, but Chewbacca's breaks into three pieces, explaining why Chewie never got a medal.

Concluding his story, one of the droids informs 3PO that R2 was seen with a mysterious stranger, who was buying up droids from the Jawas. Exiting the cantina, 3PO spots the hooded stranger and R2 heading into a LAAT gunship. Too late to enter the departing ship, 3PO finds Chewbacca and the Falcon instead and the two follow the ship into space.