Last week’s episode of Ahsoka concluded with the long-awaited return (and first live-action appearance) of Grand Admiral Thrawn. Now that Morgan Elsbeth has located him and his army of undead (?) Night Troopers, the brilliant war strategist is ready to leave Peridea and go home — but not before loading some mysterious cargo for the Great Mothers.
Meanwhile, Sabine Wren has finally reunited with Ezra Bridger, but has yet to tell him about helping Morgan find Thrawn while simultaneously stranding them on the isolated planet. They also have a pair of dark Jedi mercenaries on their tale, but Ahsoka showing up soon should help with that.
Back in the galaxy far, far away that we all know and love, General Hera Syndulla is in big trouble for the stunt she pulled trying to stop Morgan & Co.
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.
Transparent Prosecution
Ahsoka (Disney+)
The episode opens with Hera standing before a New Republic tribunal to answer for defying their direct order not to assist Ahsoka and Sabine. Chancellor Mon Mothma is sympathetic to the general’s reasons, but Senator Hamata Xiono is ready to throw the book at her. When Carson Teva brings up the fact that an Imperial warlord (Moff Gideon) was recently operating on Mandalore, Xiono goes all in on being a buffoonishly ignorant politician and shrugs it off.
Thankfully, C-3P0 arrives to announce that Senator Leia Organa had actually authorized the mission after all. Everyone in the room knows it’s B.S., but that paperwork behind it is solid enough to get the case dropped. After the tribunal is adjourned, Mon Mothma asks Hera if Thrawn’s return truly is something they should be concerned about.
The general replies that it definitely is.
Out of the Mouth and Into the Fire
Ahsoka (Disney+)
While riding on her T-6 shuttle inside the mouth of a purrgil, Ahsoka decides to do some lightsaber training with one of the old hologram videos Anakin made for her. It’s a very cool moment — and not just because we got to hear Asajj Ventress‘ mentioned in a live-action show. As she’s finishing up, Huyang announces that the purrgil pod they’re traveling with is beginning to slow down, thus indicating that they’re nearing their destination.
Unfortunately, their path to Peridea is blocked by a huge minefield. Before this can happen, Ahsoka flies out of the purrgil’s mouth and makes it past the explosive devices. Moments after spotting the Eye of Sion, it deploys fighters, which Ahsoka leads on a chase through a debris field.
Back on the ground, Morgan gives Thrawn everything the Inquisitorious had on Ahsoka. He’s shocked to discover that she was Anakin Skywalker’s padawan (which he technically knew already, but whatever). Upon learning this, Thrawn orders Enoch to withdraw all fighters. Morgan is understandably perplexed, but Thrawn assures her that this will allow them to control any variables that could stand in the way of their departure.
Ahsoka (Disney+)
Elsewhere, Sabine continues to hang out with Ezra and the Noti without telling her friend how she found him. She does fill him in on what happened during the Original Trilogy movies, at least.
Their conversation is interrupted when Ahsoka reaches out with the Force and manages to catch Sabine’s attention. It’s enough to help Ahsoka pinpoint Sabine’s location, but also reveals her ship’s coordinates to the Great Mothers. After Thrawn orders his orbital battery to open fire, he commands the fighters to re-engage the T-6 and begin herding Ahsoka away from their location.
Meanwhile, Sabine and Ezra are found by Baylan Skoll, Shin Hati, and their new bandit friends. It appears to be pretty standard fight setup until Baylan orders Shin to do everything while he sits back and stares stoically at the horizon. When she asks why he won’t help, her master gives a vaguely frustrating answer about his path lying in another direction.
*Side Note: DO NOT try using this line on your spouse when they ask why you’re lying on the couch and watching football instead of helping to clean the house.
Baylan then offers a “parting lesson” about how impatience for victory will guarantee defeat. To Shin’s credit, she calls in the coordinates to Thrawn and leads the attack without saying “I’ve got a parting lesson for you, too” and flipping Baylan the bird.
Ahsoka (Disney+)
While two gunships full of Night Troopers depart the Chimeara for an attack, the Notti with Sabine and Ezra are forced by the bandits to literally circle the wagons. As the bad guys close in, Ezra rejects Sabine’s offer to take his lightsaber back and begins beating up the bad guys with a combination of fight choreography and the Force. Sabine, on the other hand, uses weapons and good old fashion melee combat skills to take the bandits down.
Shin Hati engages Ezra and quickly appears to be outmatched. It also looks like she’s about die when Sabine joins in, but the dark Jedi is soon reinforced by Thrawn’s Night Troopers…which somehow causes Ezra to run at Shin like a spaz and get Force pushed into the caravan.
Meanwhile, Ahsoka and Huyang manage to make it to their friends’ location. Huyang leads the fighters away while Ahsoka leaps to the ground, where she’s met by a bemused Baylan Skoll. The pair fight to a draw until Huyang does a strafing run and fires on their location, allowing Ahsoka to escape — a sequence of events that Baylan doesn’t seemed terribly concerned about.
Ahsoka (Disney+)
Back at the caravan, Ezra hilariously tries to negotiate with the Night Troopers before Ahsoka shows up and helps her friends kick their asses. They also let Shin run off, which is bound to come back to bite them. The group then has a happy reunion, which is bound to become awkward when Sabine finally has to reveal how she found Ezra in the first place.
Meanwhile, Thrawn expresses concern over Baylan disappearing from their radar. That issue aside, he’s still pleased with the results of their attack. When Morgan asks why, the Grand Admiral explains that moving Ahsoka away from their location has given them enough time to nearly finish loading the mysterious cargo into the Chimaera so they can depart.
The Verdict
Ahsoka (Disney+)
It’s a good thing there was a lot good action in this one, because the overall narrative is straining under it’s lack of direction.
I’m totally fine with some mystery, but much of Ahsoka’s story now hinges on things that keep being mentioned out in the open without anyone elaborating at all:
- The source of power/destined path that Baylan Skoll is looking for.
- The items inside those mystery crates from the Great Mothers.
- Sabine somehow being able to not tell Ezra how she found him for an entire day.
This could all be a setup for some great reveals and character moments. Unfortunately, it could also lead to some pretty big letdowns. Can you imagine how disappointing it’ll be if Ezra’s reaction to what Sabine did consists of a flash of anger followed by them going back to the status quo? Her actions completely betrayed all the trust he put in her to protect their home in the most direct and devastating way possible.
Meanwhile, Baylan’s actions have gone from vague and annoying to downright infuriating. Even if you’re one of those dudes who hates Shin because the orchestra girl you secretly had a crush on in high school didn’t like you, we can all agree that she has every right to be ticked at her master right now.
Also, the build up to what he’s searching for has consisted of nothing but stoic glares and truncated explanations. Even if it’s something cool, the path we took to get there wasn’t very entertaining.
And how many times are we going to just let the main bad guys walk escape when they probably should have died? You can try and say that Jedi don’t kill, but Ahsoka had no issue murking Marrok a few episodes ago.
Those complaints aside, there were still a lot of great action sequences to enjoy in “Dreams and Madness.” It should also be noted Eman Esfandi has totally nailed an adult version of the Ezra Bridger we all know and love. That scene where he attempted to negotiate with Shin and the Night Troopers felt so much like something from Rebels I expected to see Zeb pop up and clunk some Night Trooper helmets together.
Also, it was nice to finally hear Zeb’s name mentioned. I’d love it if he surprised us with an appearance in the series finale next week. I’d love it even more, however, the the narrative got back on track toward a satisfying conclusion.
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