That's Rush Clovis. I'd probably pull a gun on him too.
But I'm getting ahead of myself, we've got the beginning of a whole new story arc this week. And it's another espionage thriller kind of story. I'm not sure what exactly caused it, but it seems like there was a shift in the writers in The Clone Wars' later seasons. They moved away from more straight-up action war stories to mysteries and almost dramas in a few cases. Not to say there's been a lack of action, just that it's taken a back seat to character interaction and intrigue. I suppose this makes sense in the grand sweep of the Star Wars narrative. As the war drags on and we move closer to the Empire, things get darker and trust gets muddier.
Moving onto brighter things though, our protagonist this time out is Padme. I like this, The Clone Wars' wider scope allowed the writers to tell different kinds of stories but it was still rare for Padme to take a starring role. More often she ended up paired with Anakin or Ahsoka. But this time she takes center stage.
It's a good setup too. Padme has been sent to the neutral planet Scipio, where the Banking Clan is based, to negotiate a loan for the Republic. War costs money after all. While there she runs into Rush Clovis, a man she apparently has a bad history with. Rush tries to convince Padme the Banking Clan is up to no good, they're out of money and taking loans from both the Republic and the Separatists to pay the other side off, and he needs her help to expose them. Padme doesn't really trust Clovis, but he's persuasive enough to get her to agree. Unfortunately his plan ends up with Padme arrested and making things worse is Embo (a bounty hunter from previous seasons) apparently trying to kill her.
