Ahsoka episode 8: “The Jedi, the Witch, and the Warlord” review!

Fifteen years to the day of the premiere of The Clone Wars animated series, the Ahsoka live-action series aired the season one finale. The whole season has been terrific, and the eighth episode was certainly no different.

The show did an admirable job pulling together the various character threads and storylines from throughout the season into a satisfying conclusion to the season, but it also made it clear that the episode is just as much of a beginning as it is an ending.

Let’s dive in to the episode, titled “The Jedi, the Witch, and the Warlord”, and as always, be warned that full spoilers for the episode are ahead!

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The episode begins with Morgan Elsbeth and the Great Mothers, so that seems like as good of a place as any to start. The Mothers grant Elsbeth the gift of shadow, which though not spelled out too in-depth here basically just grants her additional power and use of magick. Most notably, the Great Mothers pull a sword with green flames out of the air, giving it to Elsbeth to fight with. They call it the sword of Talzin, which is actually a nod to The Clone Wars. Mother Talzin was the ruler of the Nightsisters during the Clone Wars era, and she too used the flaming green sword in combat against Mace Windu. Here, Elsbeth wields it, and as we’d already seen in The Mandalorian season two she’s quite proficient in combat. Skipping ahead a bit in the episode, all of this leads to some truly fantastic fight scenes between Elsbeth and Ahsoka Tano. The choreography of the fights is so well done, and director Rick Famuyiwa allows the scene to linger on it instead of cutting away immediately, which helps to show off the fight in even greater ways.

Elsbeth is killed trying to hold off Ahsoka, having made a valiant stand, but it was all because Grand Admiral Thrawn asked her to, essentially, stay behind to buy him time – all for the good of the Empire. Elsbeth is willing to do this, but not for the Empire – for Dathomir. This is an important point, because it shows how the villains aren’t all driven by the same thing. We’d already seen that last week with Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati, as they parted ways because it became clear they were pursuing different goals. Here, we see that even Thrawn and Morgan are after different goals. They both view Thrawn’s return to the known galaxy as the greatest good, but for different reasons: Thrawn sees it as the key to the rebirth of the Empire; Elsbeth sees it as the key to the rebirth of her people. So long as these aims run mostly parallel there’s no problem, but I could envision these differences to come into play down the road. After all, in Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy, some key allies of Thrawn gradually came to realize that he wasn’t actually out for their own best interest in the way they thought he was.

But for now, both Thrawn and the Nightsisters have what they wanted. At the end of the episode, we see that Thrawn has made it back to the known galaxy, where he will no doubt begin to assemble his forces and the various Imperial remnants in an effort to rebuild the Empire. But a bit surprisingly, that’s not where we see him at the end of this episode. I was surprised that there wasn’t any triumphant reunion with the Imperial remnants or clash with the New Republic or anything like that, but what we get is nonetheless chilling: Thrawn arrives in orbit around Dathomir, the ancient Nightsister world. Though they originated from Peridia they long before had settled on Dathomir, and they grew into a powerful clan of witches until they were wiped out by General Grievous and the Separatist army during the Clone Wars. So much of this series explores rebuilding – whether of the Jedi, the Empire, or the Nightsisters (and, considering The Mandalorian season three in this same timeline, we could throw Mandalore in there as well). So as they arrive at Dathomir, Thrawn and the Great Mothers look out over a huge room of coffins – which I have no doubt are dead Nightsisters, the seed of the people’s rebirth. We saw Thrawn’s Night Troopers brought back to life as zombies, which was the confirmation of some really popular fan theories within the last few weeks, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to see the Nightsisters try to use some of their magick to keep it all going.

Switching over to the heroes, the episode gave us some really great moments between the main three, all united. It starts with Ezra Bridger constructing a new lightsaber, which was absolutely a welcome development. It was cool to see the construction process, which reminded me of the Star Wars Jedi games where you get to build your lightsaber (or Savi’s Workshop at Galaxy’s Edge, for those familiar with that), but it was an especially great touch to hear about Kanan Jarrus and to see Ezra be given a piece just like Kanan’s lightsaber by Huyang. The droid was a fantastic addition to this series, because not only is he a likable character but he also allowed Dave Filoni to explain some of the lore and history and stuff that happened in the animated shows in ways that felt mostly natural to all viewers. Huyang is a connection point to what came before in the Star Wars media we’ve watched, and it works because Huyang is a connection point to previous eras of the galaxy as well in-universe.

This also helps to fill in some of the details on why Ahsoka stopped training Sabine. Huyang tells Ezra about what happened on Mandalore, and it sounds more like the Purge that killed Sabine’s family happened around the time of Operation: Cinder than earlier. But Ahsoka was worried that if Sabine continued training as a Jedi it would lead her down a dark path. This was hinted at earlier, but it’s nice to have it all on the table. Ahsoka’s fear throughout this series has been that she would wind up like Anakin and succumb to the dark side, and that led her to be more reserved and cut off from others. It’s perfectly logical, then, that Ahsoka would fear what Sabine could or would become in light of all of this. But her journey throughout the series has been to teach her how to let go of all of that baggage of the past, trust the Force, and move forward in the present. It’s why Ahsoka doesn’t hold Sabine’s decision against her; instead, Ahsoka says she’ll stand by Sabine just like Anakin stood by her. And it’s why, at the end of the episode, as Thrawn taunts Ahsoka about potentially winding up like Anakin, she doesn’t take the bait in the way she might have earlier in the season.

Sensing this confidence in her master, Sabine also shows growth. Her arc is a pivotal one in this episode, and by the end of it she’s made the difficult choice that she didn’t earlier: she lets Ezra go so that she can stay behind and aid Ahsoka. And for her part, Ahsoka doesn’t chide Sabine for her decision; she instead tells Sabine that Ezra would never have been found or on his way home if not for that. None of this means that Sabine made the right choice, but it’s to show that Ahsoka has come to an understanding of it that wasn’t there before.

Along the way, this episode also gives us some truly thrilling action moments. A particular highlight for me was seeing the three heroes all wielding their lightsabers in combat alongside each other fighting the Night Troopers. That was amazing. But another highlight was seeing how, at a moment of dire need, Sabine finally was able to channel the Force and use it. As she pulls her lightsaber to her and kills the zombie Death Trooper (we might call it the now really dead undead Death Trooper), we hear the Force theme and can’t help but celebrate. Sabine has learned to connect with the Force, a season-long journey with a satisfying payoff. The idea that everyone has the Force and can use it if they’re committed enough is a very longstanding Star Wars idea (which George Lucas has long taught), and it’s so cool to see it all playing out like this with Sabine’s story.

In the end, these character arcs were given satisfying conclusions, but the overall story was left quite open. I personally think Dave Filoni struck a very good balance between these two, tying things together in this season while making it clear that this is just the first part of a much larger story. Thrawn is back in the known galaxy, and Ezra has returned to reunite with Hera. Ahsoka and Sabine, however, have been left behind in another galaxy. It’s a bold move, but their story is certainly not done yet. And I think having Ezra be the one to make it back is important for many reasons, but one real practical one is that he’ll be the best proof of Thrawn’s return and existence. If Sabine or Ahsoka came back and just claimed to have found Ezra, that’s one thing. But for Ezra to show up and testify about what happened should give more credence to things.

What I hope doesn’t happen is that Ezra just turns around to go searching for Sabine, because in a way it can feel a bit like this series ended where it began, just with the roles reversed. Yet the important aspect at the end is that Ahsoka has regained a level of trust in the Force that didn’t seem to be there previously. So when she tells Sabine to let go and that they’re where they need to be, I don’t see it as a giving up on ever making it home but rather a trusting that the Force has a purpose for them in being there. I think the fact that Ahsoka sees Morai (the owl) at the end, for the first time this season, it’s an indication to her of this very thing. Ahsoka trusts the will of the Force now in a way she didn’t before, and as she does, her master, Anakin Skywalker, looks on approvingly as a Force ghost.

Making Morai’s appearance even more interesting here is the brief appearance of Baylan Skoll at the end too. The biggest surprise to me about this whole episode was how Baylan and Shin Hati were almost non-players in it. Their stories were not really wrapped up at all, as instead we were just given some teases. Shin looks to be leading the group of marauders, but Baylan’s quest is far more interesting. In shots that look like they’re straight out of The Lord of the Rings, Baylan stands atop a giant rock statue looking out over the mountains at a glowing object far in the distance, something that calls to him. And the rock statue he stands atop of is a statue of the Father, one of the three Mortis gods. We see the statue of the Father, but also a statue of the Son to the right of our screen. To the left of the screen are ruins that look like a former statue of the Daughter, but defaced.

In The Clone Wars there was an arc on Mortis, a mystical Force realm where three deities – the Father, Son, and Daughter – dwelled, keeping the balance of the Force. At one pivotal moment Ahsoka was killed, but the Daughter sacrificed her life to bring Ahsoka back from the dead. Ever since then fans have long speculated that there’s a deep connection between Ahsoka and the Daughter, or the Mortis gods, almost as if she’s now taken her place. So the fact that Ahsoka is on the planet, and Morai (who was also associated with the Daughter and, since, with Ahsoka) showing up too, could hint at more to come with all this. And it hints at what power Baylan is after. While this has me extremely curious about what comes next, it’s also sad knowing that Ray Stevenson won’t be around to continue playing the character. He was absolutely fantastic as Baylan, and it will be an extremely hard task for anyone else to come in and pick up that mantle.

Wrapping things up, I thought this was a terrific series, and it’s my favorite of the live-action Star Wars shows. This was a very satisfying and action-packed finale that contained some really important character moments, but also made it very clear that this whole story is really just beginning. Let’s hope a second season is officially announced soon!