WARNING: This article contains spoilers for "A Distant Echo," the latest episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 7.
The Clone Wars has returned, and the premiere episode of Season 7, “The Bad Batch,” held a surprise for longtime fans of the series. Reappearing after a long absence, Cody, Rex and the members of Clone Force 99 were forced to contend with the villainous Admiral Trench.
Trench has made quite an impression on Star Wars fans despite only a handful of appearances -- due in no small part to the unique design of his race. As a member of the spider-like Harch species, he possessed six arms, eight eyes and fanged chelicerae protruding from the sides of his mouth. Much like the spiders he was inspired by, Trench was best characterized as a patient and menacing foe who preferred to lure enemies into his traps.
A cunning strategist, he was considered one of the Separatists’ best military leaders. He first came to prominence prior to the Clone Wars as a commander for the Corporate Alliance, a precursor to the Separatist Movement. He was responsible for overseeing a blockade of the Malastare on their behalf and successfully fended off a Republic assault led by future Admiral Wullf Yularen.
Trench’s history with Yularen never actually played out on screen. Instead, it served as background information for his first appearance, the Season 2 episode “Cat and Mouse.” The episode chronologically occurs before The Clone Wars film that launched the series and finds Trench once again commanding a blockade, fending off Republic attacks over the planet Christophsis. Yularen was completely blindsided by Trench’s reappearance because he was presumed dead. Trench up until this point had proven he still had all of his skills and had the Republic on its heels. It wasn’t until he faced Anakin Skywalker that he met his match.
At the behest of Senator Bail Organa, who was stranded on Christophsis, Anakin was tasked with punching through the blockade in order to ensure much-needed aid reached the troops fighting on the planet’s surface. Using a stealth ship, Anakin decided to go against orders. Instead of sneaking the supplies to the planet, he decided to use the ship for an attack. His first attempts to breach Trench’s defenses proved to be of no effect, but he was able to see a chink in the Harch’s armor. Using his superior piloting skills, Anakin lets torpedoes fired from Trench's ship follow him into a collision course with the vessel, destroyed it and allowing the Republic to provide aid to its troops on Christophsis. With his flagship annihilated, Trench was presumed dead once again.
However, Trench reappears in the Season 5 episode, “The Uknown," fitted with extensive cybernetics due to injuries sustained at the battle above Christophsis. He was present at the Battle of Ringo Vinda which allowed him to cross paths with Anakin Skywalker once again. Skywalker was joined by fellow Jedi, the twins Tiplar and Tiplee. The tide seemed to be turning against Trench once again until a clone trooper Tup experienced a malfunction in his control chip. Unaware that the chip even existed, Tup fell into a trance and prematurely enacted Emperor Palpatine’s Order 66, gunning down Tiplar from behind during the heat of battle.
Trench notices this odd behavior, allowing the Jedi and clones to retreat so he could report his findings to Count Dooku. While initially dismissive, Dooku discerns the truth behind Trench’s story and orders the Admiral to capture Tup and deliver him to the Emperor for study. Trench successfully plans an assault to capture Tup while he’s being shuttled back to Coruscant. Tup is eventually rescued by Anakin, but the Admiral survives to fight another day.
That was the last time he had been seen until “The Bad Batch” where he is leading the forces occupying the planet Anaxes. Trench seems to have learned his lesson when dealing with the Jedi, using a new algorithm to outmaneuver the Republic’s forces. Rex, with the help of Clone Force 99, was able to discover that Trench’s information was being transmitted from a planet called Skako Minor. It also seems that the source of this transmission is coming from the clone trooper, Echo, a friend of Rex’s thought to have been killed much earlier in the war.
Trench briefly appears in the second episode of Season 7, "A Distant Echo," to warn the Separatist forces on Skako Minor of the Republic's discovery. With Anakin, Rex and the Bad Batch recovering Echo, they're sure to set their sites on Trench next as he was clearly instrumental in the Arc Trooper's torture.
Airing now on Disney+, Star Wars: The Clone Wars stars Matt Lanter as Anakin Skywalker, Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano, Dee Bradley Baker as Captain Rex and the clone troopers, James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan and Sam Witwer as Maul.