Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Episode 8 of Ahsoka.
Ahsoka Season 1 has finally come to a close with Episode 8, entitled “The Jedi, The Witch, and the Warlord” (not to be confused with The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe). In the penultimate episode, “Dreams and Madness,” Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) inched closer to fulfilling his Machiavellian plans with a clever ploy to keep Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) out of his way while they finished preparing for their impending departure. Episode 8 picks up right on the heels of that, with Thrawn whinging over the fact that Jedi — albeit a former Jedi and her two would-be Jedi sidekicks — are posed to get in the way of his plans yet again. Meanwhile, with impending victory looming over them, The Great Sisters welcome Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) into the fold, transforming her appearance to look just as they do and gifting her with the blade of Talzin. After providing Morgan with so little to do throughout the season, outside monosyllabic dialogue and exposition, it seems as though Dave Filoni might finally be setting her on an interesting story arc, but all is not as it seems.
What Happens in the ‘Ahsoka’ Finale?
Ezra (Eman Esfandi) sets out to construct a new lightsaber for himself, much to the chagrin of Huyang (David Tennant) who is deeply frustrated with Ezra’s haphazard style of working. Huyang reveals that he taught Kanan Jarrus how to build a lightsaber when he was a Youngling, and presents Ezra with a piece of equipment that he had once handed over the matching piece for to Kanan. Reminiscing about masters and apprentices sends Sabine (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) running, directly into the path of Ahsoka, whom she is long overdue for having a conversation with about, well, everything. Ahsoka reflects on the way Anakin Skywalker always stood by her side and vows to stand beside Sabine, no matter what comes next — which seems quite ominous, given the trajectory of the story.
Before Ezra can intrude on the moment, a pair of TIE Fighters swoop in to deliver some pretty serious damage on Ahsoka’s ship. Thinking fast, Sabine boosts the ship and uses it to fly straight into the TIE Fighters to take them out. Unfortunately, this causes her to crash the ship and delay their plans even further. With their ship out of commission, Ahsoka, Ezra, and Sabine decide to take a pair of Howlers straight to Thrawn’s front door. Thrawn intends to rain hellfire down upon them, as he has no interest in negotiating with Anakin Skywalker’s apprentice, but he seems to underestimate just how talented the trio is with lightsabers. When the air strike fails to work, he sends out the Night Troopers to do his dirty work — with a little assistance from the Great Sisters, who take control of their corpses and create a troop of seemingly indestructible enemies.
The trio make their way further up the tower, but they run into Morgan who is ready to do what she must to stop them. Ahsoka urges Ezra and Sabine to split off and stop Thrawn, leaving her to her rematch with Morgan. With her new Dathomirian abilities, Morgan seems like a far more impressive foe for Ahsoka to face off against. Like Ahsoka, Sabine and Ezra run into a spot of trouble with a pair of super-strong undead troopers, but with a move straight out of The Last Jedi, Sabine manages to take out one of them to stop Ezra from meeting a premature end.
With Thrawn’s vessel pulling away from the tower, Sabine and Ezra concoct a plan to use the Force to leap across the ever-growing chasm between them and the Chimaera. Ezra jumps first, trusting that Sabine will be able to tap into the Force to help give him an extra push. But, before Sabine can join him on Thrawn’s ship, Ahsoka mounts the stairs with a legion of undead Night Troopers and Morgan Elsbeth on her tail. In an eleventh-hour decision, Sabine decides stay back to help Ahsoka — an action that an apprentice would surely do for their master, and proving that she’s not solely in it for Ezra and Ezra alone.
Together, Ahsoka and Sabine take down the Night Troopers and—quite shockingly—Morgan Elsbeth too. After her introduction in The Mandalorian, it seemed as though Morgan Elsbeth was being established as a new big-bad for Ahsoka to contend with. Instead, she was used as a means to an end — nothing more than a character to bridge the gap between Ahsoka and Thrawn, which still could’ve been achieved without her. With her ascension to even greater power at the top of Episode 8, a better storyline seemed finally achievable, but all of that was for naught. Like many of the characters in Ahsoka, Morgan’s character arc was poorly contrived and painfully underdeveloped, which led to a rather anticlimactic death. Her motives were murky, her backstory non-existent, and her motivations unknown, spoiling any potential to even consider what she died for. It would seem that Filoni is not immune to the cruel narrative trope of giving women power, only to fridge them mere minutes later. Needless to say, if Ahsoka Season 2 or the impending movie is on a collision course with Dathomir and more Nightsisters — keep Filoni far, far away from Jedi: Fallen Order’s Merrin.
‘Ahsoka’s Finale Sees Everyone Switching Places
With Sabine choosing to stay behind to help Ahsoka win the fight, Ezra finds himself in a similar position to the one that landed him on Peridea in the first place—if only for a short time. This time, it’s Ahsoka and Sabine who find themselves stranded on the desolate planet after Thrawn ensures that they are unable to follow him back to their galaxy. Defeated, the pair head back to a Noti village, with Sabine worrying that she made the wrong decisions. After all, Thrawn got away and Ezra is seemingly stuck aboard the ship. Ahsoka, however, assures Sabine that Ezra made it home safely and is back where he belongs. While his grand escape isn’t shown on-screen, Ahsoka does treat fans to a long-awaited reunion between Ezra and Hera (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) aboard a Republic ship.
It would seem that Ezra thought on his feet, stealing a ship and a Night Trooper suit so he could get off the Chimaera before he was detected. Much like the stilted Sabine and Ezra reunion, this one falls flat, without so much as a hug between Hera and Ezra, who was her de facto son long before Jacen was born. The confounding reunion is made worse by Ahsoka’s dialogue with Sabine back on Peridea, where she claims that they are exactly where they need to be — even though they’re not reunited with the people who love and care for them too. Presumably, this broad piece of dialogue is meant to allude to where the story is headed, but Filoni has kept the plot and character motives so close to the chest that it’s anyone’s guess as to what that purpose might be.
Perhaps Ahsoka and Sabine are meant to reunite with Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno) and Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) as they embark on their own personal quests, though even those seem vague at best. Shin is last seen looking for refuge among the red-clad scavengers, while Baylan is climbing up grand rock-carved statues. But at least Ahsoka pulled out the Force Ghost of Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) one more time, like in the 2004 DVD edition of Return of the Jedi.
How Does ‘Ahsoka’ Season 1 Stack Up To Other Star Wars Series?
With the creation of Disney+, Star Wars has become a massive, sprawling franchise with a number of different live-action and animated series that expand upon the galaxy far, far away. On par with The Mandalorian, which featured Ahsoka’s backdoor pilot in Season 2, this series hasn’t tried to do anything particularly new or different. While it builds on the storylines of Star Wars Rebels, it didn’t necessarily feel like its own series—and it certainly didn’t feel like a series about Ahsoka Tano. Its naming convention is something else that it has in common with The Mandalorian, which ceased to be about a singular Mando in its third season. While some fans might enjoy aimless, disjointed stories, and personality-free action figures masquerading as characters, Ahsoka forever lives in the shadow of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Andor, which knew what they wanted to do with their titular characters and the impressive ensembles within their orbits.
Ahsoka certainly had its moments of excitement, but they were often wedged between overwrought nostalgia and an ignorance toward what made Rebels and Star Wars: The Clone Wars work. The cast and the directors—including Episode 8’s Rick Famuyiwa—salvaged the series’ week scripts, providing depth where there was only the shallow imprints of good storytelling. Hopefully, future seasons benefit from a more diverse range of voices in the writer’s room, not just behind the camera.
Ahsoka Season 1 is streaming now on Disney+.
