This was it . The Anakin Skywalker episode . After the fabled character — Ahsoka Tano ’s former Jedi master — showed up at the end of the former instalment , hype and prospect were at an all - fourth dimension high . This episode of Ahsoka was even playing on the big screen in certain cities . What didseries Divine Dave Filonipossibly have in store ? Was Anakin coming back to life ? How would his appearing impingement Ahsoka ’s life ? And what mightwe pick up about Star Wars mythologythat we did n’t know before ?
In virginal Filoni style , the real answers to Anakin ’s mystery went in another direction . in conclusion , after four episodes , he give us some cryptic insight into who just Ahsoka Tano is and wants to be . The aspect were the highlight of a very beautiful , very uneven episode of Ahsoka that set the microscope stage for the first season ’s final bow .
Holding those closed book for just a few minute longer , episode five ofAhsoka , called “ Shadow Warrior , ” did n’t start with Ahsoka and Anakin . It depart on Seatos . Hera shoot down the Ghost and begins her lookup for her missing Friend , Ahsoka and Sabine . scan by her fleet of X - wing keep do up negative . She instead finds Huyang , holding Sabine ’s helmet , lamenting that he told them to stay together , but they never listen .
Hayden Christensen does his best work to date on Ahsoka.Screenshot: Lucasfilm/Disney+
After the claim expose , we ’re back in the mysterious World Between Worlds , aportal between all space and clock time . Anakin explains to Ahsoka that the only mode she could be there is if she fall back a fight — and though she does n’t remember it initally , she quick recall her battle with Baylan Skoll . Anakin articulate it ’s good that she remember because it means she still has a chance to be . So yes , it seems that technically , Ahsoka is dead .
Anakin says he ’s there to polish off her education which Ahsoka finds mirthful . “ It ’s a little too tardy for that , ” she say , but Anakin aver you ’re never too old to learn . The lesson is “ Live or go ” and Anakin fall his lightsaber . Ahsoka does n’t require to defend him , but she ’s forced to , and the two begin to duel .
Snap back to reality ( whoa , there pass somberness ) , and Hera , Jacen , and Huyang are beginning to fall back Bob Hope . Carson Teva arrives and says that Senator Organa ( RIP Leia ) can only cover for them for so long . It seems the New Republic fleet is not happy that Hera disobeyed decree to come out here looking for her friends and she might have to pay the price for it . As this is happen , her Logos Jacen tells his mommy he hears something . There ’s something about the piss , he articulate . He can feel it .
Syndulla family portrait.Screenshot: Lucasfilm/Disney+
Jacen necessitate his mom to listen . Not for the wave . But for the lightsabers . And as the John Williams sexual conquest slowly rose up on the soundtrack three things became manifest . One , this Jacen kid has something . Two , Ahsoka is still out there . And three , Hera can hear it too . It ’s a knock-down , memorable minute that whole baffles the down - to - earth Carson Teva . But , Huyang explain , Jacen has “ power ” because his father , Kanan Jarrus , was a Jedi . And in that mo I cheered because it took four and a quartern episodes but , finally , another star of Rebels finally gets his due . ( Though , if you read the site , you may have view that this was teased last week . )
Ahsoka and Anakin keep on their battle and Ahsoka even gives her victor a ladder for his money . But Anakin , as always , has a few tricks up his sleeve and destroys the platform they ’re on . Ahsoka falls and earth … somewhere . Is it a desert ? Is it a swarm of locoweed ? Then a clone trooper run by . And another . And then Anakin screams “ Forward ! ” wearing a young outfit . “ Come on Snips , ” he calls as we now realize Ahsoka is a tike again ( play by Ariana Greenblatt , who is having quite the summertime ; she was the girl in Barbie and also played young Gamora in Avengers : Infinity War . She crush the role here . )
Ahsoka might look young , but it seems as if she ’s got the same intellect as her present self . She can order they are , yes , in the Clone Wars and that , yes , this is one of the first conflict she and Anakin were ever in together . ( There ’s no definite confirmation of which conflict it is , specifically , but the battle of Teth seems like a honorable wager . )
Syndulla family portrait.Screenshot: Lucasfilm/Disney+
“ Why are we here ? ” she asks , and Anakin respond , “ You tell me . ” The implication being this is where Ahsoka ’s mind needs her to be to continue Anakin ’s lesson about sprightliness and death . The battle ends , Anakin talks to a few people ( including Captain Rex ! ) as Ahsoka keeps an injured trooper company . She ’s sorry about the losses and says this is n’t what she train for . warfare is not why she wanted to be a Jedi . Anakin explains that being a Jedi change with the times . When he was being civilize , it was about keeping the peace . During a war , he had to train her to be a warrior . “ What if I need to quit fighting ? ” she ask . “ Then you ’ll pass away , ” he says . As he walks aside , Ahsoka sees Anakin phase from his normal self into Darth Vader . A monitor that her master not have all the answers .
The search on Seatos continues but is n’t look forebode . There ’s a glimmer of promise though in the fact Huyang explains to Hera that a normal somebody would n’t vanish , but Ahsoka is n’t a normal somebody . He tells Hera a bit about Ahsoka ’s master when a call come in . Chopper has picked up something on his scan , so Hera and the X - Wings head that way .
We ’re back to the Clone Wars and a very self - cognisant Anakin reference that “ I do n’t know this engagement . ” That ’s because , as the now treble lightsaber - wielding Ahsoka excuse , it happened after she bequeath the Order . It ’s the Siege of Mandalore , seen in the 7th and last season of The Clone Wars . Ahsoka is now a loss leader and , according to Anakin , the warrior he discipline her to be .
Ariana Greenblatt as animated age Ahsoka.Screenshot: Lucasfilm/Disney+
Anakin kicks her out of the past , back to the present , where she hears Vader ’s breathing . She ’s battle not just Anakin her headmaster , but Anakin the fallen Jedi and Sith Lord too . It ’s not wanton but , finally , she best him . “ I choose to live , ” Ahsoka says , in conclusion answering Anakin ’s head which is when he turns back to his light side self . “ There ’s Leslie Townes Hope for you yet , ” he say , and disappear .
Now , if you ’re a long - fourth dimension Star Wars rooter , you belike needed to light a cigarette or have a plastered crapulence after all that . There was so much to stand , from the Easter eggs and callback to the cast , implication , and so much more . But ultimately all of it had to function a determination , right ? What did Ahsoka learn here ? Is it just that she want to live ? Who does n’t ? There ’s no explicit solvent , which is sure on determination and maybe not the just determination by Filoni . Implicitly though , Ahsoka demonstrate Anakin and these major wars in her life story revealed what she recollect of herself . She sees herself as that warrior , not as a master copy . Not someone who can help others without violence . But Anakin ’s perspective on the Jedi boilersuit , that they conform to the times , feels like the key takeaway . The extragalactic nebula is no longer at war . Ahsoka does n’t call for to be a warrior . She ask to be the peacekeeper that Anakin was as a unseasoned nipper . Or , maybe , something else entirely .
Did that come across in the episode ? Was it a lesson worthy of Filoni dipping back into his Star Wars past ? sentence will tell . But , after Hera and her team rescue Ahsoka , you do get the sense from her functioning that Rosario Dawson now feels more comfortable in Ahsoka ’s tegument . ( And not just because we saw more of it as she took her headstall off . ) No , Ahsoka now feel more at peace . Calmer . And , in true Star Wars fashion , the show portrayed that with a new , more comfortable outfit that I like to call Pajama Ahsoka .
We got live-action Clone Wars scenes, you guys.Screenshot: Lucasfilm/Disney+
Ahsoka slumber off her near - decease experience and everyone is curious about what everyone else has been up to . chiefly , though , the interrogation is : where ’s Sabine ? Ahsoka takes the split up map piece that Hera found and starts to apply her antecedently launch power of sensing memories through objects . It takes some time but she realise that Sabine is alive and that she herself handed the single-valued function to Baylan .
Hera is encouraged that at least Sabine is alive and wants to go after her . The problem is they ’re in another Galax urceolata which is n’t some wide-eyed parachuting to lightspeed . Ahsoka is left to cipher that out as Hera has to deal out with the rising issue of the New Republic being passing insane at her . With no real grounds to speak of Thrawn or Morgan , Mon Mothma orders Hera and Ahsoka to come back to Coruscant for questioning with the notion that Hera may be for good suspended from her duties . Plus , they ’re sending a fleet to come get them . It ’s spoiled word for Hera but good intelligence amount in from the phase of Ahsoka . She ’s got a plan .
No one likes the plan though . The programme , we quickly learn , is for Ahsoka to pull off her best Ezra Bridger feeling and to communicate with the Purrgil in the domain and see if they can bring her across the extragalactic nebula to Sabine . The X - Wings head toward the incoming fleet , while Hera and Ahsoka ’s ship go toward the Purrgil . Jacen in particular is fascinated by this plan because Hera has told him the stories of how Ezra saved the Clarence Day by doing this . Ahsoka and Huyang fly close to the handsome Purrgil they can find and she gets out of the ship and does her full to commune with it . Meanwhile , the New Republic ship have get in and while Carson Teva seek to dillydally by lie , he detect that distinguish the utterly mad Sojourner Truth figure out even better .
This episode marked a change in Rosario Dawson’s character.Screenshot: Lucasfilm/Disney+
Ahsoka link with the Purrgil and in a full Pinocchio moment , she and Huyang land inside its mouth . They do n’t know if this is going to work out , or where they are going , but thanks to Ahsoka ’s more confident , calm demeanor it certainly seems like it ’s the correct move . The Purrgil pass away dangerously close to the New Republic ship , Ahsoka apologizes to Hera for not being able to land her , and they make the jump .
“ Shadow Warrior ” was filled with big , beautiful Star Wars moments . It also finally gave Ahsoka Tano some much - needed character development and backstory , on a show with her name in the form of address . The biggest issue I had upon a first lookout man though was that the Anakin stuff happens so quickly and is so densely packed with information , it makes the rest of the episode — Hera , Jacen , the Purrgil — sense like a whole other show . Obviously , one story is set in an unexplainable universe , and the other is in their realness , so a difference of opinion is to be expected . The pacing departure between the two was hugely detectable though and squeeze me to go back and watch just the Ahsoka - Anakin bit to really ransack them for a thematic throughline .
If that ’s the worst problem , though — that I had to go back and re - ascertain part of a Star Wars show that is specifically made for home viewing — maybe it ’s not all that bad . Plus , Ahsoka is hopefully about to descend grimace to face with the malign Grand Admiral Thrawn and lover might finally get an answer to the mystery of Ezra Bridger . For the first time since the starting , it feels like Ahsoka ’s taradiddle has material propulsion again as well as a new lookout on living .
One Pajama Ahsoka Black Series figure, please.Screenshot: Lucasfilm/Disney+
pour the first five episodes of Ahsokaon Disney Plus here .
Want more io9 news ? hold back out when to expect the latestMarvel , Star Wars , andStar Trekreleases , what ’s next for theDC Universe on film and tv set , and everything you demand to know about the future ofDoctor Who .
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , scientific discipline , and polish news in your inbox daily .
News from the time to come , deliver to your present .
You May Also Like
This happened in Star Wars. Wild.Screenshot: Lucasfilm/Disney+
