Ahsoka is closer to Rafa & Trace in The Clone Wars than we originally thought

Season 7 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars provides fans a vital missing piece in the life of former Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano, but the latest episode of the series just made a pretty serious callback to the very beginning of The Clone Wars. In Episode 7, "Dangerous Debt," Rafa and Trace Martez's backstory is actually an Easter egg that references the very first season of The Clone Wars, a bounty hunter named Cad Bane, and a gangster named Ziro the Hutt.

Here's how Rafa and Trace's backstory links with the history of The Clone Wars, not to mention Ahoska's personal history with one fellow Padawan.

**Spoilers ahead for Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 7, Episode 7, "Dangerous Debt."**

Right away, at the very top of the episode, Ahsoka learns why Trace and Rafa distrust the Jedi so much, and it all ties back to Episode 22 of the first season, "Hostage Crisis."

“There was a prison break on the surface of Coruscant," Rafa recalls in the latest episode. "Some gangster named Ziro... [the Jedi] chased Ziro and his gang down the portal... leaping from speeder to speeder as they went... finally some red-eyed alien who was protecting Ziro blasted the engine of an ascending cargo transport… there was a populated landing platform, but the Jedi steered it clear of that, right into the portal wall... and on the other side of that wall, was our home."

Cad Bane and Ziro the Hutt just after the events described by Rafa. (Credit: Lucasfilm)

The "Ziro" Rafa mentions is none other than Ziro the Hutt, the notorious gangster and rival of Jabba the Hutt who Ahsoka and her Master, Anakin Skywalker, crossed paths with all the way back during the Clone Wars animated movie in 2008. The "red-eyed alien" is Cad Bane, a big-time bounty hunter who broke Ziro out of prison on Coruscant in "Hostage Crisis."

Now, Ahsoka wasn't one of the Jedi who was around during this chase sequence, and it appears that the specific events that Rafa describes actually happen offscreen, for the most part. That said, it seems like we can guess as to the identity of one of the Jedi in the chase based on the next thing that Rafa says.

"The Jedi didn’t even catch Ziro," she says. "Afterward, the Jedi came back... Dark robes contrasting against her light green skin."

Luminara Unduli and Barriss Offee. (Credit: Lucasfilm)

This green-skinned Jedi is probably either Luminara Unduli or... her Padawan, Barriss Offee. Ahsoka knows both of these Jedi really well. In fact, Bariss Offee is the Jedi who straight-up betrayed Ahsoka and framed her for the bombing of the Jedi Temple. That all happened in Season 5 over the course of the episodes "Sabotage," "The Jedi Who Knew Too Much," "To Catch a Jedi," and "The Wrong Jedi." Those four episodes of Season 5 actually form the direct backstory to what Ahsoka is going through right now in Season 7; this season's fifth episode, "Without a Trace," takes place not long after Season 5's final episode, "The Wrong Jedi."

The point is: Unless these were different green-skinned female Jedi (a possibility!), Rafa probably felt insulted and betrayed by either Luminara Unduli or Bariss Offee. Ahsoka was also betrayed by these people — directly by Bariss, and in a roundabout way by Luminara, who was Bariss' teacher. And, on some level, Ahsoka herself was responsible for Ziro being locked up on Coruscant in the first place, as she and Anakin were instrumental in exposing his underhanded dealings in The Clone Wars movie.

If you connect the dots, Trace and Rafa's parents might still be alive if Ahsoka weren't a Jedi.

All this means that Ahsoka doesn't only feel guilt through association with the Jedi as an idea, she probably feels straight-up angry and betrayed by how these events are so directly linked to her own life. Her connection with Rafa and Trace may have seemed random, but because Ahoska was connected to their lives before they met, it seems like the Force is moving in mysterious ways.

What this means for Trace, Rafa, and Ahsoka still remains to be seen. But this small detail in The Clone Wars proves one thing about Star Wars canon: literally everything matters, even a chase sequence we didn't entirely see way back in 2008.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is airing new episodes on Disney+ on Fridays.