In the “Ahsoka” recap for the first two episodes, Ahsoka Tano begins a mission to track down Grand Admiral Thrawn and her old friend Ezra Bridger but she’s going to need some help to get there…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
It’s safe to say at this point that “Star Wars” on television has far surpassed anything we’ve gotten out of the “Star Wars” films in recent years.
“The Mandalorian” has been simply amazing through three seasons and “Andor” is probably the most critically acclaimed story to come out of the “Star Wars” universe since “Rogue One” was released. While “Book of Boba Fett” wasn’t great outside of basically becoming a conduit to the third season of “The Mandalorian,” it looks like things are back on track with “Ahsoka.”
The series focuses on Ahsoka Tano — a character seen first through the “Star Wars” animated series “The Clone Wars” and “Rebels” — before coming to life in live action via Rosario Dawson during “The Mandalorian” season 2. It was that initial appearance where Ahsoka was determined to track down Grand Admiral Thrawn — a powerful commander and master strategist in the Galactic Empire — who disappeared years earlier.
With a fragile New Republic still trying to maintain control across a war-torn galaxy, Ahsoka receives word that Thrawn may have been located, which also means her old pal and Jedi padawan Ezra Bridger might be there with him — more on that later — but if the blue-skinned baddie makes his return, that could spell certain doom for the former rebels and bring an uprising to establish the Empire all over again.
Of course, Ahsoka won’t be alone on this adventure because she meets up with several more characters crossing over from animation to live action for the first time and the hunt for Thrawn will serve as the central story for the first season.
While only two episodes have aired thus far on Disney+, “Ahsoka” already feels like the grandest of the “Star Wars” series with a broader scope and bigger stakes than any before it. In other words, buckle up because this series will undoubtedly have huge implications for where “Star Wars” goes from here.
With that said, let’s recap the first two episodes of “Ahsoka” season 1…
Master and Apprentice-Toil and Trouble
With “Ahsoka” taking place around the same timeline as “The Mandalorian,” we have to assume that we’re approximately five years past the Battle of Endor, which brought the reign of the Galactic Empire to an end. The New Republic has taken over governing across the galaxy but remnants of the old Empire still exist and they will do anything to take the power back.
An opening “Star Wars” scroll starts the episode — a first for the television series — with a synopsis that reveals the search for Grand Admiral Thrawn is being conducted by former Jedi knight Ahsoka Tano with concern that his return could help the Galactic Empire rise from its ashes and challenge the New Republic. Rumors about Thrawn’s return have sent Ahsoka on a mission to find him first but that will require a map that could potentially reveal his location — and at the same time agents working on behalf of the former Galactic Empire are searching for the same information.
When the series begins, we meet Baylan Skoll and his apprentice Shin Hati — a pair forged with the powers of the Jedi yet neither of them are agents for good in the universe. Instead, Baylan leads an attack on a New Republic transport ship that’s taking prisoners to trial on Coruscant — including Morgan Elsbeth, a close ally to Grand Admiral Thrawn, who we first met back in “The Mandalorian” season 2.
Her introduction came along with a fight against Ahsoka Tano where Morgan Elsbeth was defeated and she was eventually compelled to give information that could lead to Thrawn’s location. Now Baylan and his apprentice have arrived as mercenaries to free Morgan Elsbeth and help her continue the search for Thrawn with hopes they will find him first.
When we catch up with Ahsoka, she’s on the planet Arcana where she discovers an ancient site buried in the sand. Once inside, Ahsoka locates a puzzle like globe that contains a map inside that could help lead her to Thrawn. Before she can leave, Ahsoka is attacked by a group of HK-87 assassin droids, who underestimate that outnumbering a Jedi still doesn’t assure them of victory.
Ahsoka needs little effort to wipe out the assassin droids but they soon shift into self-destruct mode, which forces her to rush back to her ship being piloted by Jedi loyalist droid Huyang as they make a quick escape off the planet.
Before long, Ahsoka makes her way to a New Republic fleet where she’s reunited with her old friend Hera Syndulla.
During the early days of the Rebellion, Hera Syndulla was a talented pilot and eventual captain of Ghost — a ship that was made famous during the “Star Wars: Rebels” series. There Hera teamed up with Ahsoka Tano as well as served as a big sister/parent figure to both Sabine Wren and Ezra Bridger, two characters who play a major role in this series.
These days, she’s General Hera Syndulla — a post befitting her accomplishments in helping to topple the Galactic Empire — and while she’s happy to see Ahsoka, their reunion is cut short by some bad news. Hera tells Ahsoka that her former prisoner Morgan Elsbeth has escaped custody on the way to trial thanks to a pair of lightsaber wielding mercenaries.
Side note — New Republic transports really need to get better because this is the second high profile prisoner who escaped after Moff Gideon did the same thing in “The Mandalorian.”
Hera shows Ahsoka video of the two hooded assailants who helped Morgan Elsbeth escape and she witnesses both of them use lightsabers and the Force, which is a rarity these days. Ahsoka doesn’t recognize either of them so she orders Huyang to run a match on their lightsabers in hopes of identifying them.
The good news is Ahsoka knows what Morgan Elsbeth is after — the star map she retrieved from Arcana that she then reveals could lead to the location of the final Imperial Grand Admiral who survived the rebellion and it’s none other than their old adversary Thrawn.
Hera is shocked by this news because she was convinced that Thrawn died at the Battle of Lothal during the Rebellion. In reality, Thrawn’s ship was sent hurling through space thanks to the efforts of Jedi padawan Ezra Bridger after he helped summon a group of hyperspace jumping whale like creatures called Purrgil that carried them far, far away from any known sector of the galaxy. We got a brief glimpse of the Purrgil during “The Mandalorian” season 3, which was another hint that this hunt for Thrawn was coming.
For now, Ahsoka needs to unlock this star map to see what it contains and Hera suggests that she seek out another former ally, who might just hold the key to getting that information freed.
That takes us to Lothal — a well-known planet during “Star Wars: Rebels” — where Governor Ryder Azadi is presenting a mural paying tribute to the crew that helped liberate them from the clutches of the Galactic Empire with special recognition paid to Ezra Bridger, who allegedly gave his life to stop Grand Admiral Thrawn, and Sabine Wren — a Mandalorian with deep ties to Ahsoka and everyone else in this series who has suddenly gone missing when she’s supposed to give a speech.
Instead, Sabine is racing around Lothal, avoiding the troops sent there to retrieve her, before arriving at a tower that used to serve as Ezra’s home before he went missing. Now Sabine lives there with the memories of her friend including a holographic message where he tells her goodbye before enacting the plan that would send him and Thrawn hurling to the deepest reaches of space.
Sabine’s trip down memory lane is interrupted with Ahsoka’s arrival on the planet except this doesn’t feel like a welcome reunion. Instead, we learn that at some point Sabine decided to become a padawan with Ahsoka serving as her master to help her learn to become a Jedi. Sadly the training failed and the two split with Sabine returning to live on Lothal and remaining at odds with Ahsoka all these years later.
Coming back together, Ahsoka wastes no time breaking the news that she’s retrieved a star map from a stronghold that used to belong to the Witches of Dathomir — a group of warrior clans including the Nightsisters, which Morgan Elsbeth was a member. That map could lead them to Ezra Bridger — news that tugs at Sabine’s heartstrings and gets her on board to decipher the lock to get them access to the star map.
As they talk, Huyang returns with information on the two people who helped free Morgan Elsbeth from capitivity. While the droid wasn’t able to identify the apprentice, the other person was recognized as Baylan Skoll — a Jedi that trained at the academy who disappeared after Order 66 was enacted. Order 66 was the one handed down by Emperor Palpatine that effectively wiped out every Jedi in the galaxy minus a few who managed to escape.
Now it appears Baylan Skoll has turned into a mercenary for hire and he’s training new Jedi in the ways of the Force.
For now, the bigger problem is unlocking that star map and Sabine defies Ahsoka’s wishes by taking the trinket back to her home so she can concentrate without her former master looming nearby. That turns out to be a bad move because Morgan Elsbeth had Baylan dispatch his apprentice Shin to retrieve the star map after she realized Ahsoka made off with it following a trip to Arcana.
Both Morgan Elsbeth and Baylan seem to know that Ahsoka will be traveling to Lothal to get help unlocking the map, which means she’ll be reuniting with her former apprentice Sabine Wren.
Sure enough as soon as Sabine figures out the lock to open the star map, she’s attacked by a pair of droids, which leads to her grabbing Ezra’s lightsaber that she retrofitted for herself during the Jedi training. Sabine is able to dispatch the droids but she doesn’t have as much luck with Shin, who defeats her in battle with a lightsaber directly through the side of her body.
Shin leaves with the star map while Sabine lays dying on the floor outside of Ezra Bridger’s former home — and thanks to what just happened, she missed out on a chance to potentially find him.
When Sabine wakes up, she’s in a hospital with Ahsoka standing guard over her.
Sabine explains that she was able to get the star map open and she got a brief look at where it was pointing towards but she didn’t get to study it or make a copy before she was attacked by the droids and Baylan’s apprentice. Ahsoka returns to her home and finds one of the droids still functional — and she lops its head off before returning it to Sabine in the hospital.
These droids still maintain some memory and function even after being destroyed, which allows Sabine to tap into the computer to hopefully give them a clue about where they came from. Just before the droid head explodes, Sabine extracts a key piece of information — the droids came from Corellia — a planet primarily known for shipyards and producing pilots that also happens to be Han Solo’s home world.
Corellia also used to be where Morgan Elsbeth assembled her own war ships under the command of Grand Admiral Thrawn but the entire planet has since been taken over by the New Republic. Still this droid coming from there can’t be a coincidence so Ahsoka leaves Lothal and partners up with Hera Syndulla again while Sabine is left to recover with only Huyang staying behind with her.
As they arrive on Corellia, Hera attempts to convince Ahsoka that she’s going to need Sabine on this mission, especially if they are going after both Thrawn and Ezra Bridger. It seems the relationship between Ahsoka and Sabine soured during their training together. It’s later revealed that Ahsoka apparently abandoned Sabine as her apprentice out of nowhere, which led to the split between them.
There’s little doubt that history between Ahsoka and Sabine, especially what initially ended their training together, will be revealed at some point. Perhaps it’s a situation much like Luke Skywalker experienced when he tried to start a new Jedi Academy only to see his star pupil Ben Solo turn to the Dark Side.
Of course, Huyang also reminds Sabine that she was never the best student much less nearly as strong with the Force as Ezra Bridger, but still Ahsoka wanted to teach her the ways of the Jedi. Their split may have been Ahsoka’s call but Sabine never tried to seek out her former master in an attempt to restart the training either.
As for Ahsoka and Hera, they arrive on Corellia where they meet a bureaucratic worm named Myn Weaver, who oversees the shipyards now under New Republic control. They ask for a tour of the facilities once run by Morgan Elsbeth, which he’s reluctant to do until Hera reminds him that she’s a General and it won’t take much for a formal inspection to happen under her orders.
So Myn takes them to the site where Morgan Elsbeth once built her ships, which gives Hera time to speak to Ahsoka about her fractured relationship with Sabine and how they are much stronger together than apart. Hera can’t help but wonder why Ahsoka seems so opposed to giving Sabine a second chance, especially with a mission this important.
When they arrive at the facilities that once belonged to Morgan Elsbeth, they realize that hyperdrives are being taken apart and repurposed for New Republic defense ships. The only problem some of the hyperdrives belong to Super Star Destroyers and the new repurposed versions are far too big for anything being built for the New Republic.
When Myn tries to stonewall her behind classified files, Ahsoka asks about the droids they employ as part of the work to repurpose these ships and she wonders if any are HK series — the assassin droids — and he laughs at the suggestion. A second later, a different droid comes forward with information that an HK droid did arrive on the planet several days ago along with a clearance code to prevent anything being logged into the system.
Ahsoka asks to find that droid and she’s told that it’s currently manning a ship about to leave the planet. When Hera orders the ship stopped, the Imperial sympathizers rise up against them only to be cut down by Ahsoka a split second later. That forces Ahsoka and Hera to give chase to the ship, which may be the only way they can find Morgan Elsbeth and the map that was stolen.
Outside, Hera gives chase in her own ship while Ahsoka stays on the ground where she runs into an Inquisitor named Marrok, who is wielding a new type of double ended lightsaber. A duel breaks out between Ahsoka and Marrok while Hera continues chasing after the ship returning to Morgan Elsbeth.
The battle continues until Marrok decides to abandon the fight as he launches his lightsaber at Ahsoka as a ship comes speeding into the dock to pick him up. The ship lays down fire with Ahsoka giving chase only for Marrok to hop on board where he’s reunited with Shin.
Ahsoka is forced to watch them both fly away but thankfully Hera was able to give chase to the larger transport ship where she attached a tracker that should lead them back to Morgan Elsbeth as well as Baylan Skoll.
It turns out, Morgan and Baylan are currently hold up near a planet called Seatos where a massive ship called the Eye of Sion is being constructed. Morgan has been gathering parts from various hyperdrives to build a ship fast enough and powerful enough that it could reach Grand Admiral Thrawn wherever he’s been stuck for the past nine years.
After unlocking the star map, Morgan discovers that Thrawn was launched to a place called Peridea, which is a name that’s familiar to Baylan as well. He heard about it in myths while learning at the Jedi academy but he never believed it was real — but Morgan reminds him that all fables begin with some truth. Now Morgan is putting the finishing touches on a ship that will allow them to travel to Peridea to retrieve Grand Admiral Thrawn with Baylan revealing his motivation to serve comes down to nothing more than the power he’ll be granted as a reward.
Back on Lothal, Sabine recovers from her stab wound and she returns home where she sees the remnants of the tower after he battle with Shin and the droids. She decides that it’s time to put away her anger and frustration and return to Ahsoka’s side where she belongs.
Sabine gives herself a haircut while pulling out her old Mandalorian armor along with Ezra’s lightsaber, which she now calls her own. When Ahsoka returns to her ship, she finds a message from Sabine waiting for her — she’s dressed in her full armor and tells her former master “I’m ready.”
Before Ahsoka arrives to pick her up, Sabine studies the mural she painted as she touches Ezra’s face and it’s clear she’s more determined than ever to find her friend. As Sabine prepares to board Ahsoka’s ship, Huyang reveals a message from General Syndulla that the tracker stopped moving in orbit around a planet called Seatos, which is where they believe Morgan Elsbeth is hiding.
Ahsoka and Sabine board the ship to go after them — and as they prepare to jump into hyperspace, Ahsoka turns and says “take us out, padawan,” which receives a welcome smile from Sabine as master and apprentice are together again.
“Ahsoka” will return with the third episode of the season next Tuesday on Disney+
