Duel of the Droids

Following the discovery that R2-D2 is being detained at General Grievous' clandestine enemy listening post, Anakin, Ahsoka, and the replacement droid R3-S6 embark on a mission with dual objectives: rescue and sabotage.

R2-D2 succeeds in transmitting the location of Grievous' listening post, situated on a Ruusan moon, which is detected by the Twilight. Despite Obi-Wan Kenobi's recommendation to await reinforcements, Anakin Skywalker spearheads a rescue operation to secure Artoo before his knowledge falls into the hands of the Separatists, and also to plant an explosive device. Gha Nachkt gains access to Artoo's memory bank, discovering that the droid possesses every Republic strategic plan. He demands increased compensation, but Grievous resolves the matter by fatally stabbing him with his lightsaber. Upon the team's arrival at the station, Anakin separates from Ahsoka Tano and the clones, proceeding alone to locate Artoo. Unbeknownst to them, R3-S6 is a Separatist spy who informs General Grievous of their presence. Tano and the clones infiltrated the reactor control room, where they were forced to engage and neutralize the security battle droids. Following this, Grievous commands his IG-100 MagnaGuards to transport Artoo to his ship.

Concurrently, Anakin successfully locates R2-D2 and confronts Grievous' MagnaGuards in combat. After defeating them, he and Artoo instruct everyone to gather in the south hangar. Regrettably, Ahsoka does not receive the message, as Grievous engages her and her clone troopers. The general eliminates all clones except Rex and Denal. Ahsoka defends herself against Grievous' attacks and retreats into a room filled with spare droid parts. She attempts to conceal herself from the general, but R3 exposes her location. Grievous destroys her comlink and traps her. As Anakin and the clones successfully plant explosives, they meet the Twilight in the hangar, where R3's betrayal is revealed when he traps them and activates numerous droids to attack, confirming Anakin's suspicions about the golden droid's true allegiance. Anakin commands Artoo to open the doors. Meanwhile, Grievous suspends himself from the ceiling in the storage room and finds Ahsoka, using one of his metal hands to seize the Padawan by the throat and disarm her. The general descends to the floor, picks up her lightsaber, and examines it. Ahsoka struggles to breathe, unable to break free from his grasp. Grievous expresses confidence that R3 has trapped the others, stating that after he eliminates Ahsoka, her master will be next. Ahsoka, unafraid of death, believes Anakin will still succeed in destroying the base. At that moment, Skywalker orders Rex to activate the explosives, despite the fact that the squad is still in the station.

Rex complies, and as the station is rocked by multiple explosions, Ahsoka uses her lightsaber to sever Grievous' hand that is clamped around her throat. The Padawan jumps onto a shelf, causing the shelves' contents to spill out, and the shelves themselves begin to topple over in a domino effect. Ahsoka escapes into an air vent and retrieves her lightsaber with the Force before fleeing. Grievous slashes at the vent Ahsoka was in with his lightsaber; however, the Padawan is able to evade being sliced to pieces, and she heads for the hangar bay. Ahsoka rejoins the team, who defeats the Vulture droids and escapes in the Twilight, detonating the bombs. Grievous escapes the station in his ship, Soulless One. Anakin leaves in his starfighter to pick up Artoo.

In the meantime, Artoo manages to open the hangar doors, but R3 moves to intercept him, and the two droids engage in combat. Artoo pushes his Separatist counterpart over the edge, but R3 grabs him with a suction cup. Artoo succeeds in cutting the cable, and R3-S6 is sent flying into the air, and he is destroyed by flying debris. Artoo is then rescued by Anakin.

As they depart from the system, Anakin communicates with Obi-Wan. Despite their success, Obi-Wan disapproves of Anakin's decision to endanger the mission and everyone's lives to rescue a droid. While Ahsoka is pleased to have R2 back, she agrees with Obi-Wan. However, Anakin asserts that R2 is more than a droid: he is a friend.

In the originally aired version, a scene occurs where Ahsoka tells Anakin, "I hope you find Artoo in one piece," to which Anakin responds "Get going, Snips," after which Ahsoka says to Rex and the rest of the clone troopers, "Looks like it's up to us to complete the mission, as usual." They depart as the scene transitions to the commercials. However, this scene was omitted from the DVD release of Season One and immediately proceeds to the scene where Gha Nachkt disassembles R2-D2 to extract Republic information for General Grievous after the commercials.

An IG-100 MagnaGuard is decapitated and does not continue fighting.

Grievous' hand is restored when he departs in his starfighter after being severed (likely due to the same scene being reused in "Destroy Malevolence", but reversed).

When R2-D2 is on the table, his eye socket is briefly seen attached when it should not be.

The Decoded edition of the episode reveals that Gha Nackht was a level 5 droid programmer, R3-S6 was captured by Grievous' agents and reprogrammed on the planet Milagro, and clone trooper Denal served with Rex on Geonosis.