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.
Last week’s second episode of Ahsoka concluded with Sabine Wren becoming Ahsoka Tano’s padawan again. Sporting her classic haircut and old battle armor, she’s now ready to rejoin her former master in the search for Ezra Bridger and Grand Admiral Thrawn. They’ll be assisted by Hyuang along with General Herra Syndulla and Chopper. No sign of Zeb yet, but he’s sure to show up at some point.
Meanwhile, Morgan Elsbeth has nearly finished building the Eye of Sion, a massive hyperspace ring capable of traveling beyond the charted galaxy to where Thrawn is living in exile. To ensure her plan isn’t stopped, Morgan has dispatched Baylan Skoll, his apprentice Shin Hati, and ex-Inquisitor Marrok to kill Ahsoka. Baylan is oddly reluctant to kill one of the last living Jedi, but still accepts the mission.
It’s also worth pointing out a major moment from “Toil and Trouble” that a lot of folks missed — myself included. After traveling to the planet Seatos, Baylan looked up and saw the shadow of a purrgil (the hyperspace whales that took Ezra and Thrawn to parts unknown) drifting above the clouds.
I just love that we got a glimpse of a purgill. #Ahsoka pic.twitter.com/zCQnXvfHFP
— Gene Schallenberg (@_ingeneious_) August 24, 2023
Don’t feel bad — that was really hard to spot.
As always, the recap portion of this review will contain plenty of spoilers along with some brief explorations of Star Wars lore. The order of events has also been streamlined a bit for the sake of clarity.
Harsh Reality
Ahsoka (Disney+)
The episode opens aboard Ahsoka’s shuttle, where Sabine is training with Huyang. Ahsoka eventually takes over and runs through a gauntlet of every samurai/Jedi training trope you can imagine. It ends how these moments normally do with the apprentice showing a flash of greatness before ultimately being defeated by the master — which in turn is used to emphasize a lesson about patience.
*Side Note: To be fair, the sequence is still pretty good. It’s also livened up a bit by Huyang’s blunt assessment of Sabine’s lack of Force abilities.
Later, Sabine expresses her frustration at not being able to use the Force. She also brings up how it should be possible considering how much the Jedi like to talk about the Force being part of all living things. Ahsoka concedes the point, admitting that talent is a factor. Training and focus, however, are what ultimately define a Jedi’s success.
After she leaves (and Sabine futilely attempts to move a teacup via the Force), Ahsoka heads to the ship’s cockpit to discuss things with Huyang. He sticks to his harsh assessment of Sabine’s skills while also pointing out that very few Mandalorians have ever become Jedi. When Ahsoka counters that Sabine’s path doesn’t need to follow what the failed Jedi Order would’ve accepted, Huyang remarks that Ahsoka comes from a long line of “non-traditional” Jedi, thus leaving open the possibility that Sabine is a perfect fit to be her padawan.
*Side Note: This was such a subtle burn that it made my skin itch.
Different Song, Same Melody
Ahsoka (Disney+)
Herra boards the New Republic flagship (Home One), where she hops on a hologram call to report her findings from Corellia to a group of high-ranking government officials — including Chancellor Mon Monthma and Senator Hamato Xiono.
*Side Note: If you’ve watched any of the recent Star Wars live-action media — or just ‘Return of the Jedi’ — then you at least recognize Mon Mothma, who at this point in time is leading the New Republic. If you’re one of the four or five people who watched the animated ‘Star Wars: Resistance‘ series, then you may recognize Senator Xiono as the father of Kazuda Xiono, the show’s main protagonist.
While Mon Monthma is troubled by Herra’s findings, the other senators dismiss them as an overreaction. Senator Xiono even goes so far as to suggest that requesting New Republic resources to find/detain Thrawn could be a veiled cover to search for Ezra.
Despite being angered by their decision, Herra accepts it and leaves the meeting. She’s met in one of the ship’s corridors by her son Jacen, who’s all types of excited about his Aunt Sabine training to become a Jedi (something Chopper wasn’t supposed to talk about).
As you might expect, he also wants to be a Jedi like his father was.
Whale of a Time
Ahsoka (Disney+)
Herra contacts Ahsoka’s ship and relays the bad news. The New Republic General also declares her intention to obey orders and not join them for the rest of the mission.
*Side Note: I highly doubt this will be the last time we see Herra on the show. If it is, though, that’s a colossal waste of a great character and Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s acting abilities.
Before Sabine can unload on how ridiculous she thinks that is, their shuttle enters the Denab system near the planet Seatos, which results in their comms being jammed. Huyang detects a large object nearby (the Eye of Sion), but they’re engaged moments later by six starfighters led by Shin Hati and Marrok.
Ahsoka sends Sabine to man the tail gun, but their ship continues to get shellacked. Ahsoka finally decides to follow Sabine’s lead, which results in the Mandalorian being able to take down three of the fighters. Throughout the battle, it becomes clear that these two have a history of working together and being completely in sync.
Ahsoka (Disney+)
Knocking out half of the enemy fighters allows Huyang enough time to lock onto the Eye of Sion, which he speculates is a giant hyperspace ring. Soon after making visual contact, Morgan Elsbeth orders Shin and the other fighters to break off so she can take down Ahsoka’s craft with the giant craft’s turbolasers.
*Side Note: We also finally get to hear Marrok’s very deep/gurgly voice. I suppose Barriss Offee could be using a voice modulator, but it’s looking less and less likely that it’s her under that armor.
Huyang has Ahsoka fly closer to the massive hyperspace ring so he can scan it. Despite some fancy flying, the Eye of Sion depletes the shuttle’s deflector shields and leaves the craft drifting dead in space…but not before Huyang (who also gets knocked out) completes his scan. The shuttle is also able to get behind the Eye of Sion, thus putting it behind the turbolasers.
As Sabine gets to work on bringing their ship back online, Ahsoka puts on a spacesuit and goes outside to take on the remaining three fighters — which is just as crazy/badass as it sounds. She takes out the one remaining fighter whose pilot isn’t a named character (of course) moments before Sabine gets the shuttle running again. After a daring midair rescue, the pair take off for the planet Seatos.
*Side Note: As cool as this scene is, I can’t be the only one wondering why Shin and Marrok didn’t just blow up the shuttle instead of trying to pinpoint their fire wherever Ahsoka was.
Ahsoka (Disney+)
Shin and Marrok follow them into the planet’s atmosphere and give chase. Their pursuit becomes exponentially more difficult (and awesome) when a pod of purrgil shows up. Sabine uses the creatures’ to lose Shin and Marrok before dropping down to the planet’s surface. As they look for a place to land, Huyang’s systems come back online.
The trio sets down in a dense red forest and waits for Shin/Marrok to fly off. Once they do, Ahsoka notices that Sabine is shaken from seeing the same creatures that appeared the day Ezra Bridger disappeared. Huyang then reveals his findings about the Eye of Sion — specifically how it could theoretically allow a massive ship to jump through hyperspace to a neighboring galaxy. This also allows him to explain how the Jedi Archives documented ancient hyperspace lanes that could do this very same thing. Those lanes also followed the migration paths of star whales, aka purrgil.
Meanwhile, Baylan Skoll receives word that Ahsoka & Co. are hiding in the nearby forest and orders a bunch of Morgan’s goons to hunt them down.
The Verdict
Ahsoka (Disney+)
From a visual standpoint, it’s hard to be disappointed by “Time to Fly.” In addition to the brilliant aerial dogfighting sequences, the purrgil looked fantastic — something a lot of us were worried about when the creatures appeared in silhouette during season three of Star Wars: The Mandalorian.
The episode still had some issues, though. From the trope-laden opening to the stupid decisions by the show’s villains, there were multiple points that felt far too generic for a show clearly striving to be something different. Even that great ending shot of Baylan Skoll was downplayed by him sending goons after his target instead of doing it himself (which we know he’ll end up having to do anyway).
The overall narrative didn’t move forward much, either. As cool as it was seeing the purrgil, a fresh-eyed audience member still doesn’t have a lot of context for what they mean to the story. The most popular theory right now seems to be that one of those purrgil is going to somehow get shoved into the giant hyperspace ring, which could look extremely sad or hilarious depending on how it’s filmed. Whether that ends up being the case or not, it’s still going to take a lot more than some amazing visuals to make the creatures feel like something more than a strange/random plot device.
Arguably the most interesting scene in the episode was Sabine and Mon Mothma fighting against the New Republic’s hubris-driven bureaucracy, which is already making many of the same mistakes the previous Galactic Republic did. The whole sequence was good, but the moment when Herra briefly let her emotions get the best of her (after Senator Xiono declared Ezra to be dead) was excellent.
Natasha Liu Bordizzo continues to shine as Sabine, portraying her with just the right paradoxical mix of cynicism and resilience that made the character so great on Rebels. Rosario Dawson is wonderful as Ahsoka (as usual), but David Tennant’s voicing of Huyang has made me like the character so much that I might actually buy the overpriced action figure.
Let’s hope all these superb performances and production values get a little more story to work with next week.
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