Ahsoka's part eight brings the series to a powerful conclusion! The finale of season one of Ahsoka has a clever title and nod to the first Chronicles of Narnia book, The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardobe! It is directed by Rick Famiyuwa who is the Star Wars director needed for a last home run out of the ballpark! The episode is written by Dave Filoni injecting all his love for his characters, series, and Star Wars! Spoilers! Re:cap - “Part Seven: Dreams and Madness”; Sabine and Ezra were traveling with the Noti when they were ambushed by Shin and the Peridean bandits. Ahsoka is dueling with Baylan.
Ezra is fighting hand to hand with the bandits and uses the Force to throw them back. Sabine uses her lightsaber to defeat the bandit leader. Ezra struggles with Shin and uses the Force to distort her lightsaber blade! Shin faces Ezra and Sabine as she sees two gunships sent by Thrawn. Sabine duels with Shin as Ezra was Force pushed by her. Baylan catches hold of Ahsoka’s hand when Huyang launches missiles at him! Ahsoka takes the opportunity to ride away on a Howler. Ezra recovers and the gunships unload teams of Night Troopers! Sabine is pulled away from Shin’s lightsaber by Ezra and they are surrounded by Night Troopers. Ahsoka arrives and tosses away Shin. The battle rages with Sabine using lightsaber and blasters and Ezra using the Force and a trooper’s blaster rifle.
Thrawn recalls the gunships and the fighters saying that the loss was due to Baylan missing from the battle. Thrawn says to Morgan that the cargo loading is almost complete. The Night Troopers retreat and Shin now faces Ahsoka, Sabine, and Ezra so she escapes on a Howler. Ahsoka hugs Ezra as the Jedi shuttle begins landing. The Noti begin appearing from their pods. Ezra is ready to return home. “Part Eight: The Jedi, The Witch, and the Warlord“ begins with drumming, always a great score by Kevin Kiner throughout the series. We see the fortress with the Chimaera hovering above it. In the Star Destroyers’ bay, Morgan reports to Thrawn that the cargo loading is finished. Thrawn orders Captain Enoch to move the Eye of Sion into position. The Night Trooper captain reports that they have found the Jedi shuttle.
Thrawn sends two TIE fighters. Morgan says they can’t be stopped, but Thrawn says he was defeated by a single Jedi, Ezra, and now has learned not to be so confident in victory. The Great Mothers call Morgan forward to give her the Gift of Shadows. Klothow asks her to pledge to accept a new life. Aktropaw says Morgan has to leave her old life. Lakesis asks if she will give “your loyalty, your life.” A Nightsister’s vow. Klothow steps forward and they all close their eyes. She places her fingers on Morgan’s face, they glow an eerie green, Thrawn watches them. Morgan screams, her eyes and mouth glowing green, and she has all black eyes with Nightsister markings on her face! A new part of SW lore seeing the Nightsister initiation ritual. The Great Mothers form a spinning green column with black smoke that summons the Blade of Talzin. Mother Talzin was the leader on Dathomir.
Morgan takes it and the blade ignites in green flames! Alarms begin sounding in the Star Destroyer. The two TIE fighters launch as Thrawn stands unmoved. The Jedi shuttle slowly hovers before the Noti pods on a Peridean hill. Ezra is at a workshop assembling a lightsaber ignoring the assistance by Huyang! The droid has been teaching Younglings who to build lightsabers including Yoda! Sabine adds that Ezra was taught by Kanan Jarrus. Huyang says he taught Kanan as a Youngling his name was Caleb Dume. Huyang, who had additional arms in his back!, has found the blade emitter. He gave the other to Kanan. Ezra attaches the emitter, we haven’t seen a lightsaber assembled in live action, he ignites the blue lightsaber blade and Huyang is impressed.
Sabine is silent. A quiet scene, but very emotional. Ezra is about to ask Sabine if she was taught to build a lightsaber, but she has left them. Huyang explains that Ahsoka thought Sabine’s training would be “dangerous” after the Night of a Thousand Tears where she lost her family. Sabine gets some air outside of the shuttle’s hatch. Ahsoka was meditating at the top of the shuttle. She says Sabine’s “gamble” paid off and notes that her master always trusted her. Ahsoka asks Sabine if she has kept up her training and her apprentice says she has improved her lightsaber skills. Sabine is told to “Train your mind. Train your body. Trust the Force.” Ezra walks out with his new lightsaber and then sees the approaching TIE fighters! The fighters go on a strafing run. Ahsoka and Ezra leap from the shuttle. Sabine joins Huyang as he says they lost the stabilizers. The shuttle is about to fall on the Noti when Ahsoka and Ezra use the Force to hold it up!
Sabine prepares the shuttle for what Huyang says will be a short burst from the engines. The shuttle hurtles forward shredding the wings of the TIE fighters! Then, the shuttle crashes! Sabine walks up to Ezra and Ahsoka. Captain Enoch reports to Thrawn about the strike on the shuttle and he knows that the fighters were lost. Thrawn orders Enoch to be ready for a ground assault. Ahsoka rides a Howler with Sabine and Ezra on her Howler. They ride past Huyang and Noti repairing the shuttle. He says to them, “May the Force be with You.” This is missing from the other Star Wars stories. Morgan addresss the Night Troopers which she tells Thrawn are all volunteers. She notes that they are ready to sacrifice themselves. Ahsoka, Sabine, and Ezra are riding up as the Eye of Sion encircles the Chimaera. Huyang reports that repair work is continuing, but not to wait for him. Ezra says that Thrawn woke the Great Mothers and repaired the Star Destroyer.
Ahsoka heads straight for them with Sabine pulling on her helmet before following her. A droid reports the scan of the two targets and Thrawn orders a rain of “hellfire” to stop “the apprentice of Anakin Skywalker.” He fears her! Turbolasers blast the ground as Ahsoka and Sabine weave through them on the Howlers. She tells Ezra to open the gate with the Force and Sabine to help him. The gate of the fortress is just opened a crack and Ahsoka reaches out with the Force, they are able to slip in as the gate closes! Thrawn sends in the Night Troopers while he goes to talk with the Great Mothers. The Night Troopers blast the Jedi, Ahsoka deflects some of their fire back, and she tells Sabine to use her blasters. In Clone Wars, Ahsoka could cut down hordes of battle droids with her lightsabers. The trio are able to defeat all of the Night Troopers, Ahsoka slices through the last two with her lightsabers.
Thrawn watches as the Night Sisters chant. A green mist flows through a Night Trooper. Talzin had a Nightsister elder, Old Daka, revive Nightsisters as an Army of the Dead in Clone Wars, “Massacre” (2012). The army of darkness shambles towards the Jedi. Ahsoka didn’t take part in the Battle of Dathomir. Ezra is surprised. They retreat up steps. Really they should just cut down the Night Troopers with their lightsabers and pull away and sever their blasters. Ezra is captured, but Sabine cuts through the Night Trooper. The groaning walking dead are sealed off by the Jedi. They hear the Star Destroyer prepare for launch and rush to stop it. The Eye of Sion attaches connections to the Star Destroyer. Enoch is updating Thrawn and Morgan says they are ready to leave. Thrawn tells Morgan that the Jedi may reach the ship and that they need time. I guess it’s up to Morgan, uh-oh. Thrawn leaves her saying, “For the Empire” and then the Great Mothers pass her. She whispers, “For Dathomir.”
Ahsoka Tano’s lightsabers, The Mandalorian Fan Experience, Star Wars Celebration, 2022, author’s photo.
Night Troopers scramble after the Jedi, Ezra cuts a door panel that sends another door down them, then they reach Morgan with her Blade of Talzin. Ahsoka sends off Sabine and Ezra. She won the duel on the first meeting in The Mandalorian, “The Jedi”, when Morgan wielded the beskar spear. Their duel is epic with a ringing sound with the clash of the Blade of Talzin. Sabine and Ezra face two super Night Troopers. They shrug off blaster fire and Ezra skewers one with his lightsaber only to be knocked away! Thrawn reaches the control room with the Great Mothers and orders the Star Destroyer to launch. This is familiar from the finale of Star Wars: Rebels. Sabine’s helmet is torn away, her lightsaber dropped, and then she is pinned against a column.
She tries to reach out with the Force for her lightsaber. Ezra is tossed around by his opponent. Sabine’s lightsaber begins to slightly roll like Luke’s lightsaber in the Wampa cave. It flies towards her and she ignites the blade through the Night Trooper’s helmet! Sabine blasts Ezra’s Night Trooper and he activates his lightsaber sending his opponent’s severed helmet rolling! The Night Troopers breach the door. Ezra and Sabine reach the top of the fortress as the Chimaera pulls away! Ahsoka and Morgan duel as the Night Troopers rush into the chamber. Ahsoka retreats deflecting the Night Trooper blaster fire. Sabine tells Ezra that she can use the Force to swing him and he can swing her in turn!
Ezra starts running, leaps, and Sabine Force pushes him almost to the hangar! He climbs up and takes care of two Night Troopers waiting at the edge. Ezra calls for Sabine who turns to see Ahsoka dueling with Morgan. She leaves her master. Morgan severs one of Ahsoka’s lightsabers! Morgan tells Ahsoka her friends are dead just like the Emperor and that she is alone. Sabine interrupts her saying Ahsoka is not alone fighting with her lightsaber, gauntlet, and blaster! I like that Sabine's arc has come back to loyalty to Ahsoka and sacrificing herself to get Ezra back home. Ahsoka continues the fight with Morgan, she cuts through her mid-section with her lightsaber!, her Nightsister time was short!
Klothow senses this and says that Morgan died. Ezra hears a Night Trooper report, responds on comlink, and pulls away the body. Sabine explains to Ahsoka mid-battle that Ezra is going home. Really they should Force push the Night Troopers off of the fortress. Ahsoka is ready to go, activates her comlink, and Sabine picks up her helmet to race after her. It’s about time that Huyang arrives! Thrawn orders the turbolasers to destroy the Fortress. The blaster cannons pound the base of the fortress. The Night Troopers blast at Sabine and Ahsoka who leap off the edge Back to the Future Part II-style.
They show up on top of the shuttle and deflect Night Trooper fire as the fortress collapses a la Barad-dûr in Return of the King! Huyang diverts power to the engines as they race towards the Chimaera! The shuttle is detected and Thrawn contacts Ahsoka. He says he knew Anakin Skywalker, he says their strategies and he hints, their fates, are the same. I love that he called Ahsoka a ronin, they are masterless samurai, like the 47 Ronin. Thrawn claims the victory, but while the shuttle is not fast enough, a tether could be attached to the ship! He says, “Long live the Empire” as the ship is about to go into hyperdrive!
The shuttle is knocked back by the wake of the Eye of Sion and Chimaera’s jump. They are lost! Where are the star whales? At the Noti village, Sabine and Ahsoka ride up on Howlers as the shuttle pulls up behind them. The Noti clap for their appearance. Ahsoka sees a white bird, a Morai that represents the Daughter? The Ones were representations of the Force that Ahsoka, Anakin, and Obi-Wan encountered on Mortis. This was in the three episode arc, "Overlords", "Altar of Mortis", and "Ghosts of Mortis", in Clone Wars. The Daughter represented the light side and the Son embodied the Dark Side.
Shin rides a Howler to a bandit encampment. She ignites her lightsaber which gets their attention. Baylan walks to the edge of one of the giant statue arms, it looks like a statue of The Father next to the Son. The Father was one who settled disputes between the Son and Daughter. A new way of the Force? Baylan was called by the Father? He looks at the surrounding mountains. It feels like their path has diverted from our main story involving Ahsoka. This may be a development for season two. I hope there is a respectful answer in how to deal with Ray Stevenson's Baylan.
The Chimaera approaches the orangish-hued world of Dathomir. Thrawn sees the cargo. A shuttle is flanked by A-Wings approaches Home One. Hera is there with Chopper, Vic Hawkins, and armed New Republic soldiers greet the shuttle. A Night Trooper walks down the ramp and Hera draws her blaster. Chopper rolls forward to meet Ezra, in his Night Trooper disguise with his hands up. He takes off his helmet and smiles. Hera is stunned. Night at the Noti village, in exile, Sabine sees Ahsoka look to the skies as shafts of moonlight fall through the clouds. Sabine senses something, but they both leave.
Then, we see the glow of a Force ghost, Anakin Skywalker! What does this mean? Lao Tzu’s saying, “When a student is ready, the teacher will appear.” The pivotal, wider events going on with Baylan breaking the cycle of the Force will mean that Ahsoka will need guidance through this next part, season two! It appears that Ahsoka and Sabine will be part of the story on Peridea with Baylan and Shin while Ezra and Hera deal with Thrawn's rise to power. I love the reverse of the characters' situation from the beginning of the series. A poignant ending to an incredible series, Ahsoka season one!
Five Lightsabers out of Five!
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