In the ‘Ahsoka’ recap, Ahsoka and Sabine Wren travel to the Denab system looking for Morgan Elsbeth and her plans to find Grand Admiral Thrawn while Hera Syndulla attempts to gather support from the New Republic…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
The two episode debut of “Ahsoka” added a lot of story to the “Star Wars” canon, especially for those faithful fans who watched series like “The Clone Wars” and “Rebels.” It was also a chance to catch up with numerous characters in live action for the first time while still presenting a few twists and turns that didn’t directly connect to past stories, which means there were going to be plenty of holes to fill throughout the debut season.
While those episodes set up the premise for the series — Grand Admiral Thrawn — one of the last and most important leaders in the Galactic Empire — is being sought out by those still loyal to him, which serves as cause for concern for Ahsoka Tano and by extension her longtime friend and now Padawan learner, Sabine Wren.
If Thrawn is alive, he could drum up the kind of support that could snap the back of the already fragile New Republic. But perhaps more importantly to Sabine is that her friend Ezra Bridger — a young Jedi who sacrificed himself to ensure Thrawn was no longer a threat — could still be alive as well.
Now both are on a mission to find them while Hera Syndulla — a former leader in the Rebellion who now serves as a general in the New Republic — desperately tries to issue a warning that the greatest threat since Emperor Palpatine ruled with an iron fist could be lurking in a nearby galaxy.
That’s where we pick up in a rapid fire, 30 minute episode 3 where there’s a lot of action but the story doesn’t necessarily propel forward at a high rate. Still, there’s no real complaints because the first two episodes of “Ahsoka” had so much to digest, it was completely OK to focus on an epic space battle at the center of this latest installment.
With that said, let’s recap episode 3 of “Ahsoka” titled “Time to Fly”…
Episode 3: Time to Fly
The previous episode of “Ahsoka” ended with Sabine Wren being welcomed back as a Padawan learner under Ahsoka, which followed their relationship being fractured from a few years earlier. Apparently, Ahsoka just walked away from Sabine while she was trying to teach her the ways of the Jedi and that led to them not speaking — until rumors of Grand Admiral Thrawn’s return brought them back together.
It remains unclear why Ahsoka decided she could no longer teach Sabine — although it’s entirely possible she felt the pull from her former master Anakin Skywalker, who was later corrupted by the Dark Side when he became Darth Vader. Let’s also not forget during this time period, Luke Skywalker has started building his own Jedi academy, which is destined to fail as we see during the events of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”
As for the present day, Sabine is doing her training alongside Huyang, who previously told her that she was the worst candidate to ever be considered to become a Jedi and that’s not exactly confidence inspiring.
When Ahsoka arrives, she learns that’s what Huyang told Sabine so she decides to take over the lesson for the day. It’s there Ahsoka makes Sabine use a blast helmet — reminiscent of Luke Skywalker first learning from Obi-Wan Kenobi a few years earlier — except this time they are training with practice swords.
Ahsoka is doing her best to try and teach Sabine how to use the Force to guide her movement and anticipate the attacks coming back at her. While Sabine starts to adapt, she also gets frustrated, which leads to her downfall in the training session.
It’s clear that Sabine is very raw and still struggling to master the Force — and that makes her training that much more difficult.
Meanwhile back on Hera Syndulla’s ship, she’s called to a meeting with Chancellor Mon Mothma — making her return to the “Star Wars” universe with a promotion no less — and several Senators, including one particularly combative politician named Senator Xiono.
Hera states her case to the council that she’s asking for reinforcements and a garrison of ships to send to the Denab system where she believes Morgan Elsbeth is gathering support in her effort to track down Grand Admiral Thrawn. While Hera and Ahsoka were able to stamp out the Imperial loyalists working at the shipyard on Corellia, there have still been several hyperdrives taken from there — including some from Super Star Destroyers.
Hera warns them that Grand Admiral Thrawn’s return could spell doom for the young New Republic but nobody seems to believe he’s actually alive. He never emerged from his disappearance several years ago, which convinces the Senators that Thrawn is no longer a threat to them much less worthy of sending a squadron of ships to investigate some possibility that he may be out there somewhere.
Senator Xiono even suggests that Hera’s true purpose is tracking down her friend Ezra Bridger, who disappeared alongside Thrawn. Despite concerned looks from Mon Mothma, the group ultimately decides to decline Hera’s request for additional support — they feel the fragile New Republic needs those troops closer to home than trying to seek out a supposed threat none of them believe exists.
If you’ve watched “The Mandalorian” and now “Ahsoka,” which have both featured plenty of mind-numbing bureaucracy from the leaders now in charge of the New Republic, you can really start to understand how the First Order rose to power right under their noses.
As for Hera, she leaves the meeting disappointed but she’s soon greeted by her son Jacen — another character making a live-action debut — as he questions his mother about Sabine becoming a Jedi. Jacen is son to Hera and Kanan Jarrus — a Jedi knight who survived Order 66 and joined the Rebellion against the Galactic Empire.
While serving together on the same vessel, Kanan and Hera fell in love but their relationship came to a tragic end. During a battle on the planet Lothal — where we spent much of the first two episodes — Kanan was leading a rescue effort to save Hera but he ultimately sacrificed his own life to save hers when Governor Arihnda Pryce fired down on the fuel pod where they were on. Kanan died so the rest of the rebels including Hera and their unborn son could escape.
Now it seems like Jacen is interested in following in his father’s footsteps, already interested in the Force and the Jedi.
Back on the ship, Ahsoka tries to teach Sabine about patience and focus, particularly where the Force is concerned. She tells the young Padawan that the Force resides in all living thing but talent and the ability to focus and use that power is what makes a Jedi.
As she moves a cup across the table to her hand, Ahsoka reminds Sabine that she’s still learning and there’s no need to feel pressure that she has to move mountains just yet. Instead, focus on the baby steps — like maybe trying to inch a cup forward or backwards a few inches.
On the bridge, Ahsoka can’t help but question Huyang’s choice to berate Sabine by telling her she’s the least talented person ever considered to become a Jedi in history because that’s not really helping much. If Sabine’s confidence is shot before she even tries, then her chances to success are almost zero.
As they continue flying through hyperspace, Hera reaches out to them with a message as Sabine joins Ahsoka and Huyang on the bridge. Hera has the unfortunate job to tell them that the New Republic won’t send them any backup because they just don’t believe Thrawn is out there somewhere much less that he’s plotting a potential return to overthrow the government.
That means Ahsoka and Sabine are on their own if they hope to topple Morgan Elsbeth and prevent her from bringing Thrawn back from wherever he’s been stuck for all these years.
Before Hera can finish her message, the signal is cut off because the ship has arrived in the Denab system where all communications are being blocked. Ahsoka orders the ship to come out of hyperspace because she’s starting to feel that something is amiss in this system.
Up ahead, Huyang scans the planet Seatos where the transport ship was last detected by the tracker placed on it by Hera back on Lothal. Huyang is struggling to figure out the exact signature or what’s happening near that planet but before they can investigate, a group of six ships swoops down behind them led by Baylan Skoll’s apprentice Shin Hati and her masked compatriot Marrok.
Sabine rushes down to the rear guns to fire back as Ahsoka attempts to navigate them out of trouble.
Through some evasive maneuvers, Sabine is able to take out several of the ships in pursuit but the chase brings them that much closer to the massive structure that Morgan Elsbeth has been constructing. Morgan orders Shin to fall back so she can open fire on the ship.
Up ahead, they spot the massive hyperdrive ring that Morgan Elsbeth is building and Huyang asks to get closer and closer so a scan can be completed. Getting that close puts them all in danger, especially after a blast reverberates off the ship and leaves them stuck like sitting ducks.
Shin radios Morgan that she’ll finish the job as she pursues Ahsoka’s ship.
On board, Sabine tries to get them back up and running again while Ahsoka decides to step outside to invite a much different kind of battle. Yep, she actually puts on a space suit and steps outside of the ship with her lightsabers in hand as she fends off laser blasts and even manages to cut down one of the other cruisers pursuing them.
That distraction gives Sabine enough time to get the engines back up and running so they can make it down to the planet surface, which should give them the opportunity to escape. On their way through the Seatos atmosphere, Ahsoka and Sabine are both shocked to run into a group of purrgils — the space whales that can jump into hyperspace.
Thankfully the giant mass of purrgils give Ahsoka the chance to race through them and lose Shin and Marrock in the process. They eventually land in a forest down on the surface before powering down again before seeing Shin and Marrock fly overhead.
The apprentice knows that Ahsoka and Sabine are hiding somewhere on the surface but they’ll need to circle back if they have any hope of finding them.
As for Ahsoka and Sabine, they can’t help but find some hope after running into the pack of purrgils, which is the first time either of them have seen those creatures since the day Ezra disappeared alongside Grand Admiral Thrawn. Ezra used the animals as a means to hurl Thrawn’s ship through hyperspace while fully acknowledging that they would never be able to return again.
When Huyang is powered up again, the droid shares with them the results of the scan.
It turns out Morgan is building a massive hyperspace ring but it’s not completed just yet — the final hyperspace engine is still being installed. Once completed, however, Huyang believes this vessel could produce the kind of speed to travel the distance to other galaxies — exactly where they believe Thrawn has been stuck for all these years.
Huyang also notes that the Jedi archives speak about intergalactic hyperspace lanes between galaxies that were mapped out based on the migration paths of the purrgil. That information gives Ahsoka and Sabine exactly the knowledge they needed to grasp the gravity of this situation — if Morgan Elsbeth can complete her ship, she could follow those same migration paths that could lead her to wherever Grand Admiral Thrawn has been stuck without any hope of returning home.
Of course, Ahsoka and Sabine are conflicted because finding Thrawn could also mean finding Ezra.
Back on the surface, Baylan Skoll reappears while commanding his troops to start scouring the planet because he knows Ahsoka Tano is somewhere out there — and he intends to find her!
“Ahsoka” will return with a new episode next Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET on Disney+
