Last week’s episode of Ahsoka concluded with Ahsoka, Sabine, and Huyang setting down on the planet Seatos to stop Morgan Elsbeth from finding Grand Admiral Thrawn. The powerful Nightsister plans to locate Thrawn via a star map, which she will then use to take a hyperspace lane beyond the charted galaxy in the Eye of Sion.
If none of that made any sense to you, then you picked a terrible time to jump into the series.
To ensure that Ahsoka & Co. don’t thwart her plans, Morgan is backed by an army of goons and HK-87 assassin droids along with three powerful Dark Side Force users:
- Baylan Skoll: A Jedi who survived Order 66. In addition to money, he’s helping bring Thrawn back because it will somehow harness a form of incredible power that he and his apprentice can exploit.
- Shin Hati: Baylan’s apprentice. Remember that girl from high school who appeared to know that she could’ve easily been popular, but preferred being isolated with Nirvana and/or the Dead Kennedys pumping through her ever-present headphones? Well, turns out she’s also a badass with a lightsaber who always stays on mission (even when the person giving the orders annoys/frustrates her).
- Marrok: A former Inquisitor who is now a mercenary and a really cool action figure.
Meanwhile, Hera Syndulla has been told by her New Republic superiors to stay out of this conflict because SURELY one of their most decorated generals wouldn’t have valuable insight on a potential threat.
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.
Chekov’s Betrayal
Ahsoka (Disney+)
The episode opens with Huyang attempting to fix Ahsoka’s shuttle while Sabine tries to hail Hera on the New Republic flagship, Home One. With neither of those options panning out in a timely manner, Ahsoka decides they should make their way toward Morgan’s ground forces to take the map by force.
Before she and Sabine depart, Ahsoka points out that they may have to destroy the map to prevent Morgan & Co. from finding Thrawn…even if that means destroying their last/best chance of finding Ezra Bridger. Predictably, Sabine is not a fan of even entertaining the possibility they’ll face such a decision.
Unfortunately for her, this is about as obvious a foreshadowing moment as you’ll ever see.
Ahsoka (Disney+)
Meanwhile, an assassin droid spots Ahsoka’s shuttle and reports back to Shin and Marrok. After Baylan orders the pair to lead a battalion in an attack, he urges Morgan to get things moving. When Morgan notes the fear in his voice, the former Jedi explains it as experience.
Back on the ship, Ahsoka attempts to impress on Sabine how important it is for her to be focused on stopping Thrawn even if it means not finding Ezra. Outside, Huyang is almost finished repairing the craft when he’s attacked by an assassin droid. Despite being centuries old, he manages to put up a good fight before cutting one of the shuttle’s wires to alert his companions.
Sabine and Ahsoka step outside and proceed to open a can of whoopass. Once they’re done, Ahsoka tells Huyang to prioritize getting the ship’s comms back online so they can contact Hera. Before she and Sabine depart to find Morgan’s ground base, Huyang implores the pair to stick together since that’s how they’ve always worked best.
*Side Note: Once again, foreshadowing.
Ahsoka (Disney+)
The pair eventually run into Shin and Marrok. Sabine and Shin almost immediately start throwing down while Ahsoka and Marrok have a cool standoff before starting their duel. Ahsoka also decides to go from duel-wielding sabers to using a single blade. I’ve heard some folks try to justify this as a weird thing how she fights other Force users, but that would contradict a whole lot of duels she’s been in before.
Whatever the case, it still looks cool.
After an exceptionally good battle, Ahsoka kills Marrok. His body disintegrates in a way that heavily implies he was an undead being brought to life with Nightsister magick. Whether that’s the case or not, it looks like we can finally give up wondering if Barriss Offee was under that mask.
Marrok’s death stuns Shin enough to give Sabine a respite from nearly getting herself chopped in half. She then tells Ahsoka to get the map while she takes care of her Dark Side adversary. To her credit, she holds her own for a while in a lightsaber duel before getting knocked to the ground. After trying and failing to defend herself with the Force, she falls back on good old Mandalorian technology.
Whether it’s because she’s afraid of getting hit with a vambrace or she senses her master is in trouble, Shin throws a smoke bomb and hightails it back to the stonehenge.
Ahsoka (Disney+)
Meanwhile, Ahsoka arrives just as Morgan is departing for the Eye of Sion. Baylan begins his defense of the map (which is still calculating the proper hyperspace coordinates) by bringing up Anakin Skywalker and how Ahsoka left both him and the Jedi Order. When she fails to take the bait, he defends his own actions as securing a better future through destructive means with a just end.
Ahsoka quickly grows tired of Baylan’s BS and engages him in yet another good lightsaber duel. She eventually gets the upper hand and uses the opening to grab the map, which stops the hyperspace coordinates from transmitting while burning the hell out of her hand.
Baylan recovers and begins angrily slashing at his weakened opponent. When Shin appears nearby, Ahsoka assumes that Sabine was killed and Force throws Shin into a rock. This enrages Baylan further as he forces Ahsoka toward the edge of the nearby cliff.
When Sabine finally does appear, Ahsoka uses all her remaining strength to hold back Baylan while imploring her padawan to destroy the map. Instead of listening to her master, Sabine holds a gun to the map and demands that Baylan step away. Predictably, the rogue Jedi forces Ahsoka off the cliff, instead.
Ahsoka (Disney+)
Sabine tries to gun down Baylan, but he easily deflects her blasts aside. When she points her gun at the map again, Baylan appeals to Sabine’s desire to find Ezra, who he refers to as the only family she has left. The rogue Jedi then drops a total bomb by mentioning that he knows Sabine’s family died because Ahsoka didn’t trust her.
*Side Note: Considering that Ursa and Alrich Wren were fine the last time we saw them, this is a pretty big deal thing that happened offscreen. If they simply died during the Great Purge of Mandalore, then that doesn’t provide a ton of context about why Ahsoka was involved. It’s also odd that Baylan knows about any of this. Ezra is one thing (especially with Morgan in the mix), but this level of knowledge isn’t something he could simply deduce via the Force.
Baylan eventually convinces Sabine to hand over the map so she can be reunited with Ezra. He also gives her his word that she won’t be harmed — a promise he makes good on when Shin wakes up from her concussion and immediately goes into Force Choke mode.
After forcing his apprentice to release Sabine, he replaces the map. Once the coordinates are transmitted, he destroys it so that no one can follow them.
Bad Moon Rising
Ahsoka (Disney+)
Back aboard the Home One, Hera decides to go rogue and help her friends. After taking off in the Ghost with Chopper and her son Jacen, she meets up with our old friend Carson Teva and a squad of X-Wing pilots.
She eventually makes contact with Huyang, who tells them about the Eye of Sion. She and the X-Wings decide their best course of action is to get in the giant craft’s way so that it can’t jump to hyperspace. Once Baylan & Co. arrive, however, Morgan tells them to do it, anyway. The jump causes two of the X-Wings to be destroyed while the others and the Ghost barely survive.
Meanwhile, Ahsoka wakes up in the World Between Worlds to find herself face-to-face with Clone Wars-era Anakin Skywalker.
*Side Note: Although it will likely be explained quite a bit more next week, you can read more about the World Between Worlds and how it pertains to Ahsoka here.
The Verdict
Ahsoka (Disney+)
One interesting challenge of recapping/reviewing this series the day after it airs is seeing the immediate reaction. While I certainly enjoyed the episode, I’m not sure I agree with folks saying these were the best lightsaber duels we’ve seen since the prequels.
In my book, the gold standard is still the duel between Maul and Ahsoka during the Siege of Mandalore.
Now to be fair, you can’t expect live-action lightsaber fights to be as kinetically thrilling as one that was animated based on some truly exceptional motion-capture work.
Even without those advantages, though, the lightsaber duels in “Fallen Jedi” were still outstanding. It was also a wonderful relief to see Hera charge back into battle and the narrative — especially when her involvement was capped off with a phenomenal action sequence that helped bring a dark shroud over the episode’s conclusion.
As a big fan of Sabine, however, I’m struggling to line up her decision with what we know of her.
In preparation for Ahsoka, my wife binge-watched all of Star Wars Rebels, which made her a huge fan of the series. After Sabine’s decision in “Fallen Jedi,” she bluntly stated that it completely dishonored Ezra’s final wish/request. You could argue that the decision was born of grief over the loss of her family, but that puts the audience into two distinct camps:
- People who watched Rebels and immediately screamed at their television over the offscreen deaths of Ursa and Alrich.
- People who don’t know anything about the Wrens, thus making Sabine another Disney Dead Parent plot device.
Thankfully, this frustrating aspect of the episode was countered by some exceptional character work for Baylan. The rogue Jedi continues to reveal subtle layers that make him more interesting with every appearance. The vague references to his end goal can be frustrating, but the late Ray Stevenson still makes every second he’s on screen compelling.
Speaking of compelling, that ending points to some pretty wild possibilities next week. Let’s hope the story is stronger than the CGI they used to create the younger version of Anakin.
Next Episode: ‘Shadow Warrior’
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