WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
Yes, my fellow Star Wars fans, that was her. That was Ahsoka Tano in the flesh.
This exciting episode starts off in the foggy forest planet of Corvus, with guards hunting a Jedi wielding two white lightsabers, who is revealed to be everyone’s favorite togruta, Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson). Naturally, Ahsoka quite easily dispatches these men and we discover that she is seeking information from Morgan Elsbeth, this episode’s antagonist and the chick who runs things on this planet.
We can’t go on without acknowledging how well Ahsoka’s transition from animation to live-action has gone. Despite some slight controversy over the length of her lekku and montrails (which were shortened so Dawson could do stunts and action scenes), she looked amazing.
Not to mention the fact that Rosario Dawson did an excellent job portraying Ahsoka’s character, and the writers really captured the maturity that comes with her older age, while staying true to Ahsoka’s righteous personality very well. We mostly have Dave Filoni to thank for this amazing live-action Ahsoka, as he co-created her character, developed her, and was personally in charge of this episode.
But anyway, as anticipated, Mando arrives at Corvus, seeking out Ahsoka, because as you may recall, he’s been caring for the beloved force sensitive Baby Yoda. Through the magical power of convenience, Elsbeth hires Mando to hunt down Ahsoka, because she’s causing a ruckus in her little dictatorship-esque town.
Mando and Ahsoka find each other at last, with Mando deciding not to follow through with the bounty job he was hired for. They discuss the Child’s and his fate, and we learn that the Child’s name is actually Grogu, and that he was a youngling who survived Order 66. (Anakin obviously must’ve thought Grogu was too cute to murder!)
We get a few endearing scenes between Ahsoka, Grogu, and Mando, but eventually, Ahsoka decides against training him. She finds Grogu to be too attached to Mando to become a Jedi, stating, “I’ve seen what such feelings can do to a fully trained Jedi Knight. To the best of us. I will not start this child down that path.”
Yes, I know that Anakin reference had most of us chopping onions. Any content, even if they’re just breadcrumbs about Anakin and Ahsoka’s friendship, really is good content.
Mando and Ahsoka end up teaming up to free this sad and sorry town from Morgan Elsbeth. We get some exciting fight scenes with Ahsoka and Mando beating up Elsbeth’s guards. Eventually, there’s a final showdown between Ahsoka and Morgan. I’ll admit that it’s a little unrealistic that Morgan managed to hold her own against Ahsoka for so long, as Ahsoka once defeated Darth Maul and went toe-to-toe with Darth Vader himself. But hey, we’ll let it slide for the sake of action.
It’s revealed that Ahsoka has been after the whereabouts of Grand Admiral Thrawn, an antagonist from Star Wars: Rebels and arguably one of the best Star Wars villains. The mention of his name implies a possible sequel to the uncertain cliffhanger that concluded Rebels.
Ultimately, Ahsoka and Mando end up freeing the village from Morgan Elsbeth’s tyranny, and the two of them part ways, with Ahsoka telling Mando to take Grogu to Tython, the ancient home planet of the Jedi Order.
Although she won’t be training Grogu, Ahsoka states that another Jedi may come to their aid and be willing to train him. This opens up so many possibilities for who could potentially train Grogu, with Luke Skywalker or Ezra Bridger being two likely candidates, or even a whole new Jedi all together.
This episode was definitely the best one yet, but as this season of The Mandalorian enters its final stages, we can’t help but wonder how this will all come together in the end. Moff Gideon is still tracking the Razor Crest, and there’s still so much we don’t know about Mandalore, Thrawn, or Grogu’s fate. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
