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The blue-skinned spectre of the Empire proves to be far more than rumor or myth.

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

Hello friends, and welcome back to Episodes 6 and 7 of Ahsoka! There’s no time or word count to spare up top here, so let’s dive right into Episode 6, the Dave Filoni-written and Jennifer Getzinger-directed “Far, Far Away.”  

Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and Huyang (David Tennant) go through hyperspace inside the purrgil’s mouth. Ahsoka tells Huyang that Sabine went with the enemy willingly. Huyang points out that Sabine made her choice to save Ezra. Ahsoka counters that she regrets not having enough time to help Sabine make the right choice, i.e., destroying the star-map and keeping Thrawn from being able to return. Huyang responds that the Force can’t give you all the answers. This might have been Sabine’s only choice. Ahsoka asks Huyang to tell her an old story, his choice. Very well, the droid says, “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away…” 

He said it! He said the thing! Savor that little interlude because that’s the last we see of Huyang and Ahsoka in this episode. 

Elsewhere, Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) is briefly visited in her cell by a rather smug Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) before the ring ship drops out of hyperspace. Their destination? Peridea, the ancestral planet of the Dathomiri. Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) loves the place, but the rest of the gang are less than impressed by its giant creepy statues of Witches and rings of purrgil bones (the whales fly there to die). A beacon calls them down to the planet’s surface, where three Great Mothers (Klothow, Lakesis, and Aktropaw) greet Morgan, Baylan, Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno), and Sabine.    

The Great Mothers sense a Jedi in their midst and hustle Sabine off to yet another solitary confinement. Baylan and Shin wander the witches’ temple while Baylan declares the planet a “land of dreams and madness.” He tells Shin that the fall of the Jedi was inevitable, as was that of the Empire. Shin hopefully asks if their coming alliance with Thrawn doesn’t mean that it’s now their turn for power, but Baylan waves that away. He wants to bring the whole cycle to an end.  

Sabine tries using the Force to shift the blocks of her cell, but when they start moving, it isn’t her who does it. It’s the arrival of the Imperial Star Destroyer named the Chimaera, Thrawn’s flagship. The Great Mothers, Morgan, Baylan, and Shin, watch as Night Troopers in cracked and repaired armor begin chanting Thrawn’s name under the eye of Thrawn’s captain of the guard, Enoch (Wes Chatham). The next person to join the party is the man (Chiss) himself: Grand Admiral Mitth’raw’nuruodo (Lars Mikkelsen). 

Thrawn thanks the Great Mothers for their help in contacting Morgan. Then he announces his troops will begin emptying the temple catacombs of a mysterious something before they all leave this galaxy behind. The Mothers waste no time before tattling that the newcomers brought along a Jedi prisoner. This displeases Thrawn until he learns that the prisoner is Sabine.  

Thrawn thanks Sabine politely for enabling his rescue. Additionally, he offers her provisions and a mount so she can go out and look for Ezra, whom Thrawn has never been able to locate. Sabine is clearly (and rightly) suspicious but accepts the provisions and her weapons and heads out. As soon as she’s out of the gate, Thrawn turns to Baylan and tells him and Shin to follow Sabine. When she finds Ezra, his henchpeople should kill them both.  

Sabine defeats a group of bandits, and her Howler (a sort of space wolf horse thing?) leads her to a group of little hermit crab aliens. The aliens wear starbird symbol necklaces and seem to recognize Ezra’s name. Sabine follows them to their village, where, sure enough, she’s reunited with her long-lost teammate and brother. Sabine shies away from telling Ezra (Eman Esfandi) the whole truth about how she managed to find him.  

[A] testament to Dave Filoni’s deep love for this universe and its lore and Mikkelsen’s gloriously expressive face.

Shin and Baylan find the dead bandits and poke around the bodies. While they do, Shin asks if her Master misses the Order. Just the idea of it, he says. Still, something is calling to him on Peridea. He wonders if the Great Mothers aren’t fleeing a power even stronger than their own. The appearance of a new troupe of bandits interrupts his musings.  

The Great Mothers tell Thrawn that there’s been a complication. They can sense another Jedi is on their way, riding with the star-whales. Thrawn wonders aloud if this isn’t perhaps the presumed-dead Ahsoka Tano, especially since the Jedi (and the Nightsisters) are always dying and being resurrected and what-have-you. Morgan protests that Baylan assured her that Ahsoka is dead. Thrawn replies that Baylan was also once a Jedi. He tells Morgan to destroy any star-whale that approaches the planet.  

“Far, Far Away” carries the burden of introducing Ahsoka’s two most anticipated characters: Ezra Bridger and Grand Admiral Thrawn. Though we see more Thrawn than Ezra in this episode, so far each has surpassed audience expectations, in looks, demeanor, and their part in the story at hand. Thrawn shows up and takes charge, much as his reputation has warned us he would do, and much as viewers who know his character from Rebels or books (or both) have known he would. It’s good to finally have a solid villain in the mix. Baylan and Shin are there to be dark horses with mysterious backstories and shaky motivations. Though a perfectly capable character, Morgan Elsbeth has never quite come into her own as a villain, remaining more like a sidekick. 

With only two episodes left in the series, it’s clear we won’t see Thrawn’s ultimate plans play out. Nonetheless, his arrival’s a good shake-up to a story that has earned one. Filoni’s writing, as ever, knows what to do with these characters and where they need to go. He knows the world, loves the world, and it’s apparent.  

Now, to the penultimate episode, “Dreams and Madness,” directed by Geeta Vasant Patel and written by Dave Filoni. “Dreams and Madness”  

On Coruscant, Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) defends her actions to Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) and Senator Xiono, among others. Xiono is having a field day mocking Hera’s warnings about Thrawn and saying things like, “Imperial remnants is a sensationalist term.” He’s also doing that thing that people in Star Wars love to do: act like the Jedi were all make-believe. That’s despite the fact that he’s 1. Old enough to remember the Jedi’s existence, and 2. Speaking directly to a woman whose late partner was a Jedi. Carson Teva (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) brings up the incident on Mandalore, but Xiono handwaves Moff Gideon’s acts as those of a solo warlord.  

The appearance of C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), here on behalf of Senator Leia Organa, interrupts Xiono. He has a data transcript proving Leia approved of Hera’s mission and totally didn’t know anything about a vote against it, especially not one that happened without her knowledge. Xiono tries to protest that the Senate can’t accept evidence from a “mere droid,” but Mon Mothma dismisses the case. She pulls Hera aside and tells her that Mon knows damn well Leia didn’t approve that mission. Still, she wants to know how real Hera finds the Thrawn threat. Oh, she finds it very real.  

In hyperspace, Ahsoka trains while a Clone Wars-era hologram of Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) gives her advice. He made her many of these recordings, she tells a watching Hyuang, and this was the last. Huyang informs her that the purrgil are slowing down. Ahsoka and Huyang pilot out of the pod to find they are in the middle of an Imperial minefield. As Ahsoka maneuvers around the mines, the purrgil hastily blink themselves out of there (well, there goes one way home), and the hyperspace ring ship deploys fighters. Ahsoka heads into the debris field of purrgil bones to hide.  

Down on the Chimaera, Enoch updates Thrawn on Ahsoka’s arrival. A chagrined Morgan–she really thought Ahsoka was dead–gives Thrawn a data pad with Ahsoka’s dossier. Thrawn is startled to read that her Master was Anakin Skywalker. Upon that revelation, he commands Enoch to put the fighters on standby. Morgan, still learning Thrawn’s ways, protests the move. Thrawn tells her that if Ahsoka is anything like her Master, she’ll be “unpredictable and dangerous,” so they must control all the variables. He then orders the just-arriving Great Mothers to search for Ahsoka.  

“Dreams and Madness” is an audacious episode that raises questions it very much knows won’t be answered in the final segment.

Ezra, Sabine, and the Noti travel along as she updates her brother on the state of the galaxy. Ezra’s amazed to learn that the Emperor is dead. “That’s what people say,” shrugs Sabine. She still hasn’t told Ezra how she found him, nor that she thinks that Ahsoka is dead. On a hill behind them, Shin, Baylan, and their recruited bandits watch.  

Ahsoka uses the Force to search for Sabine, making a connection just as the Great Mothers locate Ahsoka. Thrawn tells Enoch to open fire while she flees the debris field, heading for Sabine. Of course, that’s just what Thrawn wanted her to do. 

The Noti convoy stops when they see Baylan and Shin out ahead. Baylan tells his apprentice to contact Thrawn to update him, kill Ezra and Sabine, and take her place in the coming Empire. Baylan’s out, everyone. He senses something on Peridea and will look for it. He leaves Shin with a parting warning that “Impatience for victory will guarantee defeat.” Shin and the bandits move on as Thrawn sends gunships of troopers to aid her.  

Ezra and Sabine fight off Shin’s raiders and help the Noti to hunker down while Ahsoka approaches with fighters close behind. Through it all, Baylan watches from a distance. The gunships arrive full of reinforcements for Shin, with Thrawn guiding the attack from the Chimaera. Ahsoka leaps from her ship, leaving Huyang to distract the fighters, only to find herself face-to-face with Baylan on the ground. Baylan regrets that he can’t allow her to interfere. A frustrated Ahsoka spits back that she doesn’t have time for this as they begin to duel. It seems like Baylan might prevail once again, but Huyang swoops in, distracting Baylan enough that Ahsoka can steal his Howler and ride away.  

She finds Ezra and Sabine, engaging Shin in a fight while the siblings deal with the Night Troopers. Thrawn calls off the aerial pursuit and orders the gunships back. He calls the day almost a success, which flusters Morgan Elsbeth. Thrawn points out that this battle has distracted their enemies, which has allowed the cargo to finish loading, and Ahsoka has lost time that she can’t afford. As the troopers retreat, a dismayed Shin flees. Ahsoka and Ezra reunite, and Ezra is a little shocked when he learns that Sabine believed Ahsoka to be dead. Sabine, tell him the TRUTH already!! Huyang lands the ship and a beaming Ezra tells his friends that he feels like he might be going home.  

Oh. Oh no. Why’d you have to go and say a thing like that?!  

“Dreams and Madness” is an audacious episode that raises questions it very much knows won’t be answered in the final segment. Will Shin turn to the Light? What is in those crates Thrawn is transporting? How will Ahsoka, Ezra, and Sabine get home (because they ALL WILL, Dave)? How many uniforms did Thrawn have with him? What is Baylan’s deal? There can and should be a conversation about what a series touted as limited should do with unanswered questions, particularly in a connected media universe where layers upon layers of required watching and reading can start to weigh on some of its audience. Still, Ahsoka’s final episodes wouldn’t play if it was all spelled out. At the very least, we can hope Hera gets some form of vindication towards Xiono, though, well, he will endure some consequences of his refusal to believe in a lingering Empire. 

It’s the finale next week! Let’s see where it takes us, star-whales or not!  

Bantha Droppings:

• Look, nothing excuses nothing, but Thrawn’s pained reaction when Sabine tells him he’ll never understand what sacrificing everything for a friend means is a testament to Dave Filoni’s deep love for this universe and its lore and Mikkelsen’s gloriously expressive face. Thrawn knows about sacrificing everything. Yes, even Thrawn had friends. He’s gone too deep along the way, I maintain, but paved with good intentions and all that.  
• It’s probably clones or bodies for clones or magical suits for clones in those caskets Thrawn is so keen on bringing back with him, but imagine if they get back, pop them open, and it’s all just Dathomirian pottery?  
• Xiono says, “mere droid,” and almost gets himself Chopper’d, but, luckily for him, Teva is there to calm Chop down.  
• Hey, uh, what’s the Chimaera using as fuel? Rocks?