Star Wars

‘Ahsoka’ episode 1 ‘Master and Apprentice’ recap/review

The narrative may be thin for new viewers, but longtime Star Wars fans will love seeing key ‘Rebels’ storylines continue.

Nick Nafpliotis

August 23, 2023

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the work being covered here wouldn’t exist.

At long last, the highly anticipated Ahsoka live-action series has debuted on Disney+.

For folks who aren’t familiar with Ahsoka Tano’s history in the Star Wars universe, we’ve created a handy guide that covers a lot of it. In the meantime, here’s a quick rundown of information that will be helpful to know going into the series. If you’re already up to date on everything, feel free to skip down to the picture of Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Ahsoka Tano is a former Jedi Knight. She was a padawan to Anakin Skywalker before he turned into Darth Vader at the end of the Clone Wars.
Following the Rise of the Empire (after Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith) Ahsoka attempted to hide before deciding to join the burgeoning rebellion against the Emperor (aka Palpatine and aka Darth Sidious) and his forces.
Approximately five years before the events in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Ahsoka began working with a group of Rebels known as the Spectres:
- Kanan Jarrus: Human Jedi who survived Order 66, but had to watch his master (Depa Billaba) get gunned down by her own troops. Not a fan of clones (obviously). Totally in love with Hera Syndulla. Reluctant Jedi teacher to Ezra Bridger. Has a son with Hera named Jacen. Dies saving his teammates before Jacen is born.
- Hera Syndulla: INCREDIBLE Twi’lek pilot. Brave, intelligent, and fearless. Arguably the leader of the team despite Kanan often being looked to for leadership. Definitely the heart of it. Totally in love with Kanan. Mother to Jacen.
- Ezra Bridger: Force-sensitive human teenager who flourishes as a padawan under Kanan’s evolving skills as a teacher. Dead parents (because that’s how Disney and Star Wars roll).
- Sabine Wren: Badass Mandalorian rebel. Brilliant artist and explosives expert.
- Garazeb Orrelios, aka Zeb: Big mean Lasat who serves as the Spectres’ muscle. Can be a story’s comic relief or the part that makes you cry. Zeb made a cameo in Star Wars: The Mandalorian season three in episode five, but has yet to appear in any Ahsoka series-related material.
- C1-10P, aka Chopper: Crafty and cantankerous little astromech — basically a robot cat that likes to commit war crimes.
  Star Wars: Rebels (Disney+)

Before the events of A New Hope, the Rebel Alliance scored one of their first victories over the Empire in the Battle of Lothal. Unfortunately, the victory came at a steep cost when Ezra Bridger was zapped into hyperspace to the Unknown Regions.

Grand Admiral Thrawn, a brilliant Imperial commander, disappeared along with Ezra.
Following the events of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Sabine and Ahsoka set off on a mission to find Ezra and bring him home.
The next time Ahsoka appeared on screen (at least chronologically) was in season two’s Chapter 13 of Star Wars: The Mandalorian. After defeating Magistrate Morgan Elsbeth in battle, she demanded to know where Thrawn is, who she refers to as Elbeth’s “master.” We never heard her answer and Sabine is conspicuously absent.

In Star Wars: The Mandalorian season three’s Chapter 23, the subject of Grand Admiral Thrawn is brought up during a meeting of Imperial Remnant warlords/commanders. Captain Gilad Pellaeon (one of Thrawn’s most loyal adherents) insisted that the legendary admiral return soon and restore the Empire to its former glory. Moff Gideon wasn’t confident this would ever come to pass.

Ahsoka (Disney+)

If you’ve watched the trailers for Ahsoka, then you know Thrawn will, in fact, be returning. As we begin the Ahsoka series, his looming presence and the quest to find Ezra Bridger will be the spark that ignites the narrative.

As always, the recap portion of this review will contain plenty of spoilers along with some brief explorations of Star Wars lore.

No Jedi

Ahsoka (Disney+)

The episode begins with an opening crawl that explains the state of the galaxy at the time of the series. Most of it is old information to folks who watch the live-action Star Wars shows except for one thing — after Ahsoka defeated Morgan Elsbeth, she was able to get her to reveal the location of a map that leads to Thrawn’s location. Now Elsbeth is being transported on a New Republic ship to stand trial.

Predictably, this does not go well for her captors.

After pretending to be Jedi (and despite the ship’s captain seeing through their ruse), a pair of dark side Force wielders named Baylan Skoll (the master) and Shin Hati (the apprentice) board the vessel and wreak havoc before finding Elsbeth and freeing her. Upon being released from her shackles, it becomes clear that Elsbeth and Baylan know each other and that Baylan/Shin were hired as mercenaries.

Elsbeth also expresses concern about Ahsoka knowing of Thrawn’s potential return and obtaining the map to find him.

Ahsoka (Disney+)

Speaking of the map, our first glimpse of Ahsoka shows that she’s tracked it to the planet Arcana, which was a former stronghold of the Witches of Dathomir.

*Side Note: There is a TON of lore behind the planet Dathomir and the witches who lived there, also known as the Nightsisters. A few of their big highlights from the Star Wars comics and animated series include:

Raising the young Zabrak who would eventually become Darth Maul.
Almost killing Count Dooku.
Restoring Maul’s mind and cybernetic body.

Everything about Asajj Ventress.

For this story, however, all you need to know is that the Nightsisters were witches who wielded arcane magick (yes, with the snooty spelling) via the dark side of the Force. They also weren’t straight up villains, but definitely shaded toward the evil side of things.

After finding the map, Ahsoka is surrounded by a group of HK Assassin droids. She handles them easily, but the droids make things a bit more complicated by activating a collective self-destruct sequence. Ahsoka flees with the map and jumps aboard her T-6 shuttle moments before the area she was searching is turned into a crater.

Ahsoka (Disney+)

Once they’re safely in the air, Ahsoka and her droid companion Huyang banter about their differing opinions on how to properly execute a mission.

*Side Note: Huyang is an architect droid who helped Jedi younglings construct their lightsabers for centuries before the fall of the Jedi Order.

Ahsoka then reveals that she finally found the map. When Huyang expresses surprise that Morgan Elsbeth told her its location, Ahsoka admits that she obtained the information via methods that would not have been approved by the Jedi Council she used to serve.

The pair then get a distress call from the New Republic about Baylan and Shin’s attack. After meeting up with the New Republic fleet, they fly by the wrecked vessel and board the command ship. Ahsoka disembarks and is greeted by General Herra Syndulla, who shows her security footage of the attack. Ahsoka doesn’t recognize either of the assailants, but asks Huyang to run a trace on their lightsaber models to see if they can be matched to their users.

Ahsoka then shows Herra the map she found that can lead them to Thrawn…and hopefully Ezra. Unfortunately, neither she nor Huyang can figure out how to open it. Thankfully, they all know someone with a keen artistic mind who could potentially decipher the map’s intricate locking mechanism.

No Show

Ahsoka (Disney+)

Over on Lothal, Governor Ryder Azadi addresses his people during a celebration of his planet’s liberation from the Empire. It’s also supposed to be a ceremony for a monument featuring Sabine Wren’s artwork, but the festivities come to an abrupt halt when Azadi realizes Sabine isn’t there. He then has Senator Jai Kell stall for time while sending a patrol out to find her.

*Side Note: If you’re a fan of ‘Star Wars: Rebels,’ then you no doubt recognized Governor Azadi, who was an instrumental part of Lothal’s fight against the Empire. He is also played by Clancy Brown, the same actor who voiced the character.

One character you may not have recognized is Jai Kell, who befriended Ezra while he was undercover at the Academy for Young Imperials. Kell eventually saw how bad the Empire was and joined the Lothal Resistance.

Ahsoka (Disney+)

Out on the Lothal freeway, a pair of E-Wings attempt to stop Sabine on her speeder bike, but to no avail. She arrives home at the Lothal communications tower, feeds her adorable Loth-cat, and mournfully watches a hologram Ezra made just for her. He explains that his path as a Jedi required that he sacrifice himself to defeat Tharawn. He also explains that he’s counting on her to make sure Lothal is safe.

Later, Sabine’s nightmare-addled sleep is interrupted by the arrival of Ahsoka’s ship, which docks in Lothal’s capital city. Sabine arrives to find that Governor Azadi is understandably ticked at her for blowing off the ceremony. As if that weren’t awkward enough, the animosity between Sabine and Ahsoka is palpable. We don’t know what happened between them during their shared quest to find Ezra, but it definitely wasn’t good.

Things thaw a bit when Ahsoka reveals that she may have found a map that will lead them to their missing friend.

Back on the planet Arcana, Elsbeth (who reveals herself as a Nightsister), Baylan, Shin, and a former Inquisitor named Marrok arrive and discover that Ahsoka escaped with the map. When Elsbeth orders Shin to go to Lothal, Baylan says that she’ll need to look for Sabine, whom he identifies as Ahsoka’s former apprentice.

*Side Note: Pretty bold of Baylan to assume that Ahsoka would give the map over to Sabine.

Uncharted Territory

Ahsoka (Disney+)

After catching up on life in between hard glances at each other, Ahsoka asks Sabine to see if she can figure out how to open the map. To aid her in the task, Ahsoka shows Sabine a scan of the temple where the map was found (before it got blown to smithereens). The pair then start to trade barbs again, this time regarding how they each let the other down. When their bickering is interrupted by Huyang, Sabine asks if she can take the map to another location where she can think more clearly. Ahsoka refuses, explaining that the map means more than just finding Ezra — it also means stopping Thrawn from instigating another war.

Ahsoka then goes into another room to speak with Huyang, who reveals that one of the lightsabers definitely belongs to Baylan Skoll, who was a Jedi before he disappeared at the end of the Clone Wars. The origin of the other lightsaber remains a mystery, but Shin’s presence does reveal that Baylan is working with an apprentice.

Ahsoka returns from her briefing with Huyang to find that Sabine has taken off with the map and the temple scan (which she had to know was going to happen). As Sabine flies down the Lothal interstate, she’s spotted by a probe droid that reports the sighting back to Shin.

*Side Note: Looks like Baylan got a copy of the script before the other characters did.

Ahsoka (Disney+)

Instead of following Sabine to the home she knows how to get to (based on the Star Wars Rebels series finale), Ahsoka calls Herra to complain about her former padawan. Herra counters that she can’t be surprised that a Mandalorian is so strong-willed. She then totally steps in it by mentioning how Ahsoka’s master probably found her difficult to deal with, too.

Ahsoka coldly points out that she never got to finish her training with Anakin because she walked away from him and the Jedi Order — a decision that ultimately left him even more vulnerable to being corrupted by the Emperor. This leads her to express some genuine regret for walking away from Sabine.

Meanwhile, Sabine finally opens up the map before she’s attacked by two HK droids. She manages to take one down, but the other grabs the map and destroys all her equipment. After calling Huyang for backup, Sabine chases the droid only to find herself in a face-off with Shin. She attempts to fight the dark apprentice with Ezra’s lightsaber, but is clearly overmatched.

Ahsoka arrives moments before Shin runs Sabine through with a lightsaber and escapes.

The Verdict

Ahsoka (Disney+)

Since we’ve seen Sabine in the trailers at other points in the series, the sight of her being so grievously maimed doesn’t carry the shock value it should have. Also, if Star Wars is going to keep showing folks survive after getting run through by a lightsaber, I wouldn’t blame the Force spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn one bit for going rogue and becoming a poltergeist.

As for the episode itself, it’s safe to say that Filoni & Co.’s assurances that you don’t need to have watched Rebels to enjoy Ahsoka were greatly overstated. There’s still a story there, but it’s driven by characters and events that happened off-screen. Aside from a few mentions, new audience members aren’t going to have any idea why Thrawn is such a big deal outside of expository dialogue. That goes double for Ezra and his heroic actions to save Lothal. The script and cast do an admirable job portraying how important those components of the narrative are, but it still doesn’t give fresh-eyed viewers enough reason to justify why they should care, too.

You could argue that Ezra and Thrawn are MacGuffins, but that’s going to get blown apart when Thrawn actually does show up in other series. That once again applies even more to Ezra, who I still predict (and secretly hope) will have bonded with the Chiss admiral and turned to the dark side.

All that being said, I have watched Rebels, so the first episode of Ahsoka was a lot of fun.

We knew Rosario Dawson and Mary Elizabeth Winstead would do a great job, but the comparatively inexperienced Natasha Liu Bordizzo is fantastic so far. In addition to being a great live-action counterpart for Sabine, she infuses the role with just the right weight. This version of the Mandalorian artist is clearly more cynical and broken, but not to a degree that changes her core identity.

The late Ray Stevenson is also superb as Baylan Skoll. Instead of simply making him seem like an evil sociopath, Stevenson allows a small yet vital bit of humanity to simmer beneath the character’s surface.

It should be interesting to see how that comes to the surface as we head into the next episode.

Next Episode: ‘Toil and Trouble’