"Downfall of a Droid," which first aired as the sixth episode of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series, marks the sixth installment of Season One. Notably, it initiates a two-part narrative arc. Henry Gilroy unveiled the episode's title during an interview published in Star Wars Insider 103. Originally scheduled earlier, its broadcast was delayed by a week due to Halloween, eventually airing on November 7. This episode holds significance as the debut writing credit for George Krstic, the creator of Megas XLR.
Obi-Wan Kenobi suggests that Anakin Skywalker withdraw his fleet from the Bothawui system and reorganize because General Grievous has been ambushing Republic fleets. Skywalker, however, has devised a strategy to defeat Grievous. At that precise moment, Grievous' fleet is closing in. Anakin spearheads Gold Squadron in a direct attack, instructing his forces to bide their time as Grievous' fleet advances through the asteroid belt. This tactical positioning allows Rex and his AT-TEs brigade, concealed on the asteroids, to launch a surprise assault on the Separatist frigates from their rear.
Grievous, deeming his droid commander incapable of determining a retreat path, abandons ship in his personal starfighter. Anakin and R2-D2 give chase, but shrapnel lodged in the fighter forces it off course. Anakin later awakens on the Resolute, discovering he was rescued from his fighter, but R2 was not. He informs Obi-Wan that he did not wipe Artoo's memory, which could be disastrous if the astromech falls into Separatist hands. Anakin initiates a salvage operation to find Artoo, but Ahsoka Tano introduces him to R3-S6, nicknamed Goldie, claiming he possesses superior skills compared to an R2 unit. Despite this, Anakin maintains that his loyal astromech is irreplaceable. While searching the debris field, they notice a freighter and dock with it. The Trandoshan captain, Gha Nachkt, denies having an R2 unit but permits a search. Anakin detects R2's beep and begins cutting through the door from where he believes the sound originated. However, Goldie mistakenly activates two IG-86 units instead of opening the door. The two Jedi dispatch the droids, and Anakin enters the room, only to find an irate Gha, upset about his destroyed droids. Ahsoka concludes R2 is not present, and they depart. Unbeknownst to them, Gha has R2 locked in a crate with a restraining bolt and informs Grievous of the droid's strategic importance. R2 later escapes while Gha sleeps, ejecting one of his IG units through the airlock, only to be recaptured by the Trandoshan.
Suspecting Grievous has a listening post nearby, Anakin decides to scout, but Ahsoka sends R3 along, hoping they will bond. Instead, R3 accidentally activates a tracking device, revealing Anakin's location to Grievous. R3's incompetence escalates the situation, detaching Anakin's fighter from its hyperspace transport ring, failing to cut the engines as instructed, and disabling the blaster cannons. Fortunately, Ahsoka and Rex rescue him in the Twilight. Enraged by Skywalker's escape, Grievous destroys a battle droid. Anakin reprimands R3 for almost causing his death and expresses hope that R2 is still alive.
The opening scene of this episode, which was both described and illustrated in the Episode Guide accompanying the episode, was removed most likely because of the rigid time constraints of the TV format. Furthermore, there were other scenes that were featured in The Untold Stories DVD featurette from The Clone Wars film that were apparently removed from the episode for similar reasons. In addition, one of the Clone pilots in the V-19 Torrent exclaims, "watch your stabilizer Gold Six!" when the fighters are taking heavy fire from Grievous' fleet. The same line was also spoken in the film during the Lucasfilm logo sequence.
The original moral of the episode was: "Friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, impossible to forget."
Rex's kama vanishes on two separate occasions in this episode: first, when he and Ahsoka are observing a hologram of an AT-TE that Anakin summoned, and later, when he is instructing the AT-TEs on the asteroids to open fire.
In the initial shot of the Twilight traversing the debris field above Bothawui, the wreckage of an Acclamator-class assault ship is visible in the background, despite the fact that no vessel of that type participated in the battle.
The IG-86 droid that Ahsoka battles in the cargo hold of the Vulture's Claw has one of its arms severed by Anakin, but during the fight sequence, the droid's arm reappears momentarily.
When Anakin is berating R3-S6, the droid's dome appears to be inverted for a brief instant.
Anakin's hairstyle appears to be reversed towards the episode's conclusion.
During a scene that occurs late in the episode on the Twilight, the black overtunic, which is part of Anakin's attire, vanishes below his belt in one shot, leaving solely the red tunic underneath.
There was a brief line of dialogue that was omitted from the final version of the episode in which Ahsoka says, "did somebody call for help, again?" after she destroyed vulture droids that were about to destroy Anakin's fighter, although it was still present in the dataclip of the episode.
There was another line that was cut from the episode where Anakin said, "and I'm going to find him" just after he declared that R2 was not destroyed and "still out there." It was also still present in the dataclip.
This was the second episode of the Clone Wars that was produced. This episode contains the earliest animation that will ever be seen in the series.
The Decoded version of the episode was broadcast on June 6, 2009. The annotating character for the episode was supposedly Obi-Wan, but some annotations still referred to the character as "Obi-wan" instead of "myself" or "I." The annotations contained numerous facts about various ships and some characters that were featured in the episode. Unique information provided by the annotations included the fact that the chest plates worn by Anakin and Obi-Wan were based on designs of ancient Jedi armor. Stim plugs were named for the first time. Also, it was revealed that Gha Nachkt sustained damage to his eye during a cantina brawl.