Ahsoka recap: How can constant lightsaber fights feel this dull?

Things are happening on Ahsoka now, or at least they just started happening and then the episode ended—but that at least makes for a more engaging viewing experience than some of the previous episodes of this show. Exciting things happened to our two main characters (sorry, Hera and Huyang), which means I’m excited to see what happens next week, but, unfortunately, next week is next week. Let’s start with this week.

The episode kicked off right where the previous episode ended, with Ahsoka, Sabine, and Huyang desperately trying to repair their ship before Morgan Elsbeth and the Bad Guys find where they are. Or, rather, Sabine and Huyang are trying to repair the ship while Ahsoka looks off into the distance and thinks about things (Jedi, am I right?). Ahsoka figures that stopping Thrawn is more important than anything, even rescuing Ezra, so if it comes down to it, they should try and destroy the map before the Bad Guys can use it. Sabine pointedly does not comment one way or the other.

But there’s no time for that because the Elsbeth’s henchmen have found them, and while Elsbeth is like “cool, kill them and let’s get going,” Baylan is a little more worried about the resilience of two Jedi (or one Jedi and a woman who just has a lightsaber), so he sends Shin to make sure the job gets done. The henchmen start by trying to take out Huyang, setting up a delightful Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots battle. I don’t know if it makes sense that the assassin droids wouldn’t just shoot Huyang or whatever, but it’s a fun moment.

The hubbub draws out Ahsoka and Sabine (in her Mandalorian armor), and the two pretty effortlessly wipe out the enemy droids using awesome, well-choreographed teamwork moves. This fight scene, while quick, was a blast. Sabine is shooting guys, using the grappling hook on her armor to swing them around and move around quicker, while Ahsoka uses the Force to toss guys into the blaster fire of other guys.

It’s a good fight that works so well that I couldn’t help but wonder why Ahsoka insists on teaching Sabine to be a Jedi anyway. She doesn’t like it, she’s not good at it, Ahsoka doesn’t like teaching her, and it’s not as interesting to watch. So, naturally, Sabine almost immediately whipped out her lightsaber in the next fight scene, when her and Ahsoka are confronted by Shin and the mysterious Marrok.

Sabine calls dibs on Shin while Ahsoka starts fighting Marrok, and other than Marrok doing the wacky spin move that Inquisitor lightsabers can do (it looks cool here in live-action than it ever did on Rebels), this fight scene was a dud. Just batting lightsabers around in a dark forest, something we’ve seen a million times in Star Wars. Luckily, one very noteworthy thing happens: Ahsoka slices Marrok in the chest, and they…burst open in a cloud of gas? It’s so weird and unexpected that everybody stops and just reacts for a moment.

If that’s a thing from Star Wars, I’ve never seen it before, but it did remind me of when Roger on American Dad! blew up that guy’s head with an elbow drop and just sits there for a second afterward because of how horrifically violent it ends up being. I hope they explain it at some point (maybe Marrok is some kind of gas-filled puppet man and there will be another Marrok down the line?), but if not, at least they got this reveal(?) out of the way so people will stop speculating about Marrok being someone important under the mask.

Ahsoka goes on ahead to find the map and runs into Baylan, kicking off a scene that is very cool right up until the moment the lightsabers come out. Baylan knows Ahsoka and knows who her Jedi master was, saying that Anakin “spoke highly” of her and that everybody knew Anakin…though very few Jedi lived to see what happened to him. This kind of thing is great. I think one of the most interesting things about Ahsoka as a character—and this is something Rebels clocked—is that her beloved friend and mentor became one of the most evil people in the entire galaxy right after she left the Jedi Order. She’s too stoic too often in this show, but bringing that up draws out the other shades of personality in a way that Star Wars should be doing more often.

Ahsoka being a good Jedi isn’t very interesting to me, especially when Disney keeps bringing out more and more Jedi who survived Order 66. But her being someone who maybe could’ve stopped Anakin from becoming Darth Vader, or someone who was so close to him that perhaps she’s no better than the monster he became, is great!

But yeah, they have a lightsaber fight. It’s a straightforward showdown with them staring at each other and posing before swinging and parrying over and over and over again, but Ahsoka finally shifts to a higher gear when Baylan brings up Anakin again and she gives him a mighty kick, knocking him back so she can grab the map. Her arm gets burned when she touches it, which gives Baylan the upper hand just as Shin returns.

She had run away from her fight with Sabine, but Ahsoka doesn’t know that and thinks Sabine is dead, so she smashes Shin against a wall and knocks her out. Then Sabine shows up and grabs the map, threatening to destroy it if Baylan won’t let Ahsoka go. He pushes her off a cliff, seemingly to her death, but Sabine still can’t destroy the map. She knows it’s her one shot to find Ezra, and Baylan knows that as well (presumably by using the Force to look into her mind), and after Baylan promises that nothing bad will happen to her, Sabine gives up the map.

With all of the data they need, the Bad Guys—plus a handcuffed Sabine—launch the ring into hyperspace just as Hera arrives in the Ghost (her ship from Rebels) with some X-Wings. They’re too late to do anything and a couple of the X-Wings crash, prompting Hera’s son Jacen to flatly say “I’ve got a bad feeling” with the energy of someone who needs to go to the bathroom. (Maybe that’s rude, he’s just a kid, but also I’d probably be more forgiving if he had said the actual line and not this weird shorter version. If you’re going to do heavy-handed Star Wars references in your Star Wars show, then do it right.)

But it’s all good, because Ahsoka wakes up in a mysterious black void with glowing pathways scattered everywhere. She hears a voice and looks around, only to see none other than Anakin Skywalker—Hayden Christensen himself—standing behind her. He’s happy to see her, she’s happy to see him, but the music ends on an ominous note. What does this mean? I don’t know but I want to know!

Stray observations

• The place where Ahsoka wakes up could be a thing called the World Between Worlds, a concept that I completely hated when it was introduced in Rebels…but I’ll get into that later, if that’s what this is. Just everyone please cross your fingers for me that there’s no time travel happening anywhere.
• Another possibility is that it’s some kind of Jedi afterlife, and this is really the real Anakin Skywalker (or his ghost) after having been redeemed by Luke in Return Of The Jedi (reminder that this takes place after that). I don’t think Star Wars has ever shown where Force Ghosts go when they’re not catching up on their old buddies, so maybe it’s this? It would be a cool reversal of expectations if Ahsoka is reunited with Anakin and he’s a kind and calming presence again instead of being an asshole controlled by his anger.
• One of the X-Wing pilots that accompanied Hera was Carson Teva from The Mandalorian. It’s always nice to see him. I’ve seen some complaints that this screws up the timeline, since he’s not part of the regular New Republic fleet in that show and it wouldn’t make sense for him to see this big ring and not mention it to anyone during The Mandalorian, but there’s no reason to think that this doesn’t take place immediately after those things happened on the other show. Plus, while I do tend to be a stickler about this kind of thing, it’s Star Wars. None of it has to make logical sense as long as it doesn’t directly contradict things that have been explicitly established onscreen.