‘Ahsoka’ Finally Unleashed Ray Stevenson in a Meatier Episode 4

By Mike Redmond | TV | September 8, 2023 |

By Mike Redmond | TV | September 8, 2023 |

Previously on Ahsoka: While in pursuit of Morgan Elsbeth, who now has the map to find the last known location of Grand Admiral Thrawn and Ezra Bridger, Sabine resumes her Jedi training with Ahsoka during their trip through hyperspace. The Mandalorian warrior still shows little aptitude for using the Force, but her fighting skills are impressive thanks to her time wielding the Darksaber. Upon their arrival in the Denab system, Ahsoka’s ship is ambushed by a squadron of fighters led by Shin Hati. As they ward off their attackers, Ahsoka and Sabine discover what Morgan has been building: The Eye of Sion, a massive hyperspace ring capable of intergalactic travel. After taking a crippling hit from the powerful device, Ahsoka and Sabine narrowly elude their attackers by flying through a swarm of Purgills and landing in the forest on the planet Seatos below.

Just to unclinch everyone’s sphincters, and possibly explode a few heads, I actually liked this week’s episode of Ahsoka (for the most part). This show is not without its flaws — and, boy, was one of them back in full… force — but “Fallen Jedi” is a surprisingly solid piece of Star Wars TV. That said, I should probably put my cards on the table.

You know how some people say they’re ready for a Star Wars story that isn’t about lightsabers and the Jedi? That will never be me. Star Wars without lightsabers is like sex with a condom. Sure, it’s theoretically possible, I guess, but why would two or more people do that to themselves? Anyway, my point is these shows have had the opposite effect on me. Andor didn’t have a single lightsaber, and I still can’t shut up about how it’s a goddamn masterpiece. Obi-Wan was sloppy with them, and it made me want to lay in traffic. What a piece of shit. (“But, Mike, what about The Mandalorian?” That show needs to sit in the corner and think about what it’s done for a while.)

Ahsoka, on the other hand, has restored balance to the Force.

Where last week’s episode was a letdown thanks to it focusing almost entirely on delivering an admittedly well-done dogfight, Episode 4 started slapping Jedi cards on the table and it was all the better for it. I’ve said before that Ray Stevenson’s Baylan Skoll and Ivanna Sakhno’s Shin Hati are easily the most compelling characters on Ahsoka. This week, they proved it.

Picking up with Ahsoka’s ship stranded on Seatos, Huyang (David Tennant) gets to work fixing their comms so they can call in Hera (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) for reinforcements. However, it’s not long until the ship is attacked by Baylan’s mercenary forces prompting Ahsoka and Sabine to take on Marrok and Shin, respectively. It should be noted that Ahsoka and Sabine make this call after Huyang warned them to stick together, and they’ll come to regret ignoring the bucket of sass.

As Ahsoka locks sabers with Marrok, fans hoping to learn the secret of the masked Inquisitor are about to get their answer. Way more importantly, I was totally right about something and you bet your ass I’m going to toot-a-loot my own horn.

From last week’s recap:

The most probable answer goes back to what I said earlier, “what you see is what you get” from these things. There’s a very high chance that Marrok is just a new character created for Ahsoka. The last time one of these shows tried a mystery — Which Jedi reached out to Baby Yoda in The Mandalorian Season 2? — the answer turned out to be super boring.

Yup, mysterious ol’ Marrok turned out to not be Ezra, Starkiller, Cal Kestis, Snoke, The Emperor, or even Kanan Jarrus, a theory I may have recently gravitated towards. Instead, he was just some gas zombie re-animated by Morgan’s Nightsister magic. The only interesting thing about Marrok’s death is that it seemed to genuinely shock Shin. Of course, being in love with a Fart Jedi and carrying his fart baby will do that. (Calling it now.)

While Ahsoka had no problem taking out Marrok — She practically showed off by beating him with only one lightsaber. — Sabine is just barely holding off Shin. Her raw talent at wielding a blade does a decent job of keeping the fight even, but things go south when Shin starts adding the Force to the mix.

To Ahsoka’s credit, the trailer made it look like this fight would be the moment when Sabine first uses the Force. She holds her hand up in the classic pose as Shin taunts her for not having any power, and I fully expected Sabine to finally tap into whatever level of Force-sensitivity she has. Instead, she fires off her Mandalorian wrist rockets, catching Shin and me entirely off-guard. It was a neat, unpredictable moment that sent Shin packing after almost getting her face blown off.

Does this make me being right about Marrok a wash? No, because here’s the thing: Your mom is a wash.

Determined to retrieve the star map to Ezra/Thrawn or destroy it before Morgan can upload its coordinates, Ahsoka trusts Sabine to handle Shin and books it to the cliff-side ground base where Baylan Skoll is waiting for her. Once again, the mysterious Jedi brings his old school, Extended Universe vibes to the proceedings even if the dialogue is a tad predictable. When Baylan says that Anakin spoke highly of Ahsoka, I immediately thought, let me guess, she’s going to say that’s funny, Anakin never mentioned him. Sure enough…

Crudely shoehorning characters into canon aside, there is a neat little character moment during their exchange. After Baylan prattles on about how you can’t create with destroying, blah blah blah, Ahsoka doesn’t even bother asking what he’s planning or what his whole deal even is. Instead, she just calmly powers up her lightsaber. She’s heard this kind of talk her whole life and knows exactly how it ends. Why waste time?

As the two collide, Baylan proves to be a formidable adversary, steadily wielding his lightsaber like a knight with a broadsword. Despite Ahsoka’s more acrobatic energy, she struggles to overpower the Jedi, but finally manages to secure an opening to grab the star map. Unfortunately for Ahsoka, that puppy is hot as sh*t, forcing her to drop it to the ground before Baylan’s back on her. My man does not let up.

As Ahsoka struggles to keep Baylan from knocking her off the cliff into the raging ocean below, Shin appears causing a visible break in Ahsoka’s stoic facade as she immediately assumes Sabine is dead. In a surprisingly rage-filled moment, Ahsoka Force slams Shin into a rock wall before turning her attention back to Baylan, who’s still bearing down on her. He almost has Ahsoka off the cliff until Sabine arrives.

Holding the now-cooled star map in her hand, Sabine threatens to blow it to hell with her blaster if Baylan doesn’t let Ahsoka go. He doesn’t do that. Seeing his opening, Baylan knocks Ahsoka off the cliff wall as Sabine looks on in disbelief. This all went very south and it’s about to get worse. While approaching Sabine, Baylan easily latches onto the one thing she wants more than anything: To find Ezra. He promises her safe passage to her friend if she hands over the star map. He stays true to his word when an enraged Shin wakes up and attempts to Force-choke Sabine to death until Baylan orders her down.

Together, the three arrive on the Eye of Sion which now has the full coordinates to Thrawn and Ezra. The ship makes a massive jump to hyperspace just as Hera and an X-Wing squadron show up just minutes too late.

As for Ahsoka, sigh… goddammit.

In case I didn’t mention this in my Obi-Wan recaps, I have no issue with Hayden Christensen. Without re-litigating the prequels, the dude was just a kid working with what he got. He was not the problem with those films if you’re of the mind that those films had problems. (Again, not firing up that old chestnut.) That said, I have such a deep love for The Clone Wars that I bristle at the thought of combining the cartoon and live-action versions even if they are technically the same person.

Matt Lanter’s Anakin was the Jedi Knight people hoped to see in the movies, and like Ahsoka, he thrived in his animated medium. More specifically, he was not some Nic Cage’s Superman in The Flash looking shit. You can tell which of these shows got the money for unholy abominations, and which ones did not because sweet Jesus.

Anyway, for those of you who were completely lost and haven’t rushed to Google yet, Ahsoka is not dead. She’s inexplicably in the World Between Worlds, which is a Force-concept introduced in Rebels that is basically some weak-ass, space-time nonsense. I’m not a huge fan of the whole thing, and it will obviously solve the problem of how Ahsoka can catch up with Sabine after she rocketed to another galaxy.

As for why Ahsoka randomly fell into the World Between Worlds and found Anakin? Your guess is as good as mine. I freaking hate it.

Mike Drops

— Save the ending, Episode 4 is easily the strongest of the whole series so far. I am a sucker for Jedi bullshit. However, I find myself noticing that Ahsoka is the least interesting character in her own show. She’s just not making the jump from her original medium where she was one of the best new Star Wars creation in decades. Just like Hayden Christensen, that isn’t Rosario Dawson’s fault. You can tell she’s done her homework and is doing everything in her power to stick the landing. There’s just a dullness to live-action that Ahsoka is struggling to clear.

The problem is creative decisions like this week’s obsession with having her only fight with one lightsaber and doing overly blatant samurai stances in the process. We get it, Dave Filoni, this whole franchise was inspired by Kurosawa movies. George Lucas didn’t bonk people over the head with it. You shouldn’t either.

— As much as I liked “Fallen Jedi,” it’s also the most Volume-y episode of Ahsoka so far. For the most part, this show has done a pretty great job of not looking like it was filmed in a LED shoebox. That was not the case this week where the whole thing took place in a drab, grey forest where you can palpably tell not a single scene was filmed outdoors. Sensing The Volume is my biggest pet peeve with these series, and that’s because Obi-Wan is a case study in what happens when you use the technology as a lazy crutch. Feel free to file all of this under “Nerdy Quibbles That Nobody Cares About, Mike.”

— Yes, I’ve seen the Anakin theories that are already bouncing around. The big one is that he somehow found the World Between Worlds post-conversion to the Dark Side, but pre-getting sliced and burnt to shit by Obi-Wan. (Read: Darth Vader but not in the suit yet.) That seems like a whole lot of gymnastics, so I wouldn’t put money on that one. However, their meeting is apparently a big ol’ deal because the following is happening below. To which I say, why not spend more money on every episode of your TV show instead of whatever the hell this is?

Next #TanoTuesday, experience Episode 5 of #Ahsoka on the big screen. Click below to RSVP for available screenings near you: https://t.co/4t5W0J7nKj pic.twitter.com/wFyyHImDHu

— Ahsoka (@ahsokaofficial) September 6, 2023