The hour-long first episode of the highly-anticipated (not really!) Star Wars Disney+ show, Ahsoka, revolved around a map to Thrawn, i.e., the big bad of the highly-revered animated show, Star Wars Rebels. The protagonists, Ahsoka Tano, Hera Syndulla, Sabine Wren, and Huyang, talk about using this map to find Ezra Bridger, their long-lost friend from the highly-revered animated show, Star Wars Rebels. The antagonists, Baylan Skoll, Shin Hati, and Morgan Elsbeth, talked about retrieving the map (which exists in the form of an orb) from Sabine Wren so that they could get to Thrawn. Guess what happened next? I’m pretty sure you won’t believe it. Shin Hati arrived at Lothal and took the orb from Sabine Wren. Isn’t that mind-blowing? Who could have expected that? I certainly didn’t. Anyway, the episode ended with Sabine getting stabbed in the gut with a lightsaber to create some kind of fear, anxiety, and concern. Did it do all that? No, it didn’t, because lightsaber stabs do not mean anything in the world of Star Wars anymore.
Spoilers Alert
Shin Hati is sent to Corellia
Episode 2 of Ahsoka opens with Sabine Wren, alive and well, recapping the events of the previous episode and how the villains took the map and destroyed everything, thereby leaving them with no way to resume their mission. Meanwhile, Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati reach yet another gray planet called Seatos, where they are supposed to meet Elsbeth and figure out how to use the map via the runes available at that location. Tano goes to Sabine’s tower-type house and does an auditory recap of the events from the ending of the last episode. Tell me something! Do the writers think that the viewers of the show won’t have the ability to retain what they’ve watched in the previous episode? Then why do they have to do so many recaps? I would’ve accepted this repetitive form of storytelling if said repetition had some variety to it. Since it doesn’t, it feels annoying. Either move on with some new information or present old information in an interesting way. How hard can that be? Apparently, it’s very hard for the great Dave Filoni and his trusty team.
Once that’s over, Tano finds a droid hiding in Sabine’s house, severs its head, and brings it to Sabine. It’s meant to be this “do or die” situation because the head can explode if the information isn’t extracted from it in a short amount of time. But, at the cost of sounding repetitive, this pretense is pointless because we know that nobody is going to die or even get a scratch on their body. It’s just a waste of everyone’s time. Well, once they are done with that, we learn that the droid has come from the New Republic shipyard in Corellia. Tano adds two and two together and assumes that it used to be Elsbeth’s base of operations and is still being used to infiltrate the New Republic’s ranks. This is confirmed by Elsbeth herself, as she sends Shin Hati and Marrok to complete a shipment that’s taking place at Corellia in order to create something called the Eye of Sion.
Sabine Wren dons her Mandalorian armor
Hera Syndulla and Ahsoka Tano grill the Regional Supervisor at the shipyard, Myn Weaver, regarding any suspicious activity happening over there. Weaver feigns ignorance, but he’s forced to give Hera and Tano a tour of the place so that they can check it out for themselves. He drones on about repurposing Imperial ships and employing people who worked for the Empire. Then Syndulla and Tano talk about giving Sabine Wren a bigger role in this mission. Again, these are just hollow attempts to pad the runtime. If these conversations had any substance, I would’ve liked to listen to them. But they don’t because these characters are talking about things that are bound to happen. It’s pointless to doubt if Weaver is an Imperial spy or whether Sabine will get to join Tano. It’s going to happen, even if we are stupid enough to expect that it won’t. So why can’t they talk about something more personal? Something that’s driving them in this journey towards intergalactic peace? Why are they talking about the plot? Do the showrunners think this is some form of foreshadowing? News flash: it’s not!
Sabine Wren talks to Huyang about joining Tano. Do I have to repeat why I find this irritating? I hope not. Also, I guess I don’t have to repeat why I didn’t find the reveal that Myn Weaver and all the employees at the shipyard are secretly helping the remnants of the Empire surprising. Well, Tano and Hera incapacitate the crew and go after the ship that’s carrying a machine part out of Corellia. Tano is forced to confront Marrok and a droid, while Hera and the droid, Chopper, go after the ship. The three-way fight between Tano, Marrok, and the droid is dull as hell. It looks bad, and the choreography and the editing drain the life out of it. By the way, if you want to put your money on the theory that Marrok is actually Ezra Bridger, I suggest that you go ahead and do that. Star Wars isn’t capable of doing anything unexpected. So, this is probably a very safe bet. While all this is going on, Hera decides to tag the ship instead of trying to shoot it down, thereby allowing them to locate where it’s going. Chopper succeeds in doing so, and as soon as that ship goes into Hyperspace, Marrok escapes with Shin Hati. While Chopper figures out the coordinates of that ship, Tano returns to her ship only to learn that Sabine has donned her iconic costume and is ready to join her on her mission.
Did Hera Syndulla track down Baylan Skoll’s base?
Huyang informs Tano and Sabine that Chopper has traced the transport ship to the Denab system and is somewhere near the planet Seatos. As the episode cuts to a giant circular ring being fitted with the piece that was stolen from Corellia, it becomes clear that that is the Eye of Sion. The name of this device is a Knights of the Old Republic reference, which featured a Sith Lord called Darth Sion. He was a zombie Sith. Are we going to see a zombie Sith in Ahsoka? I don’t think so. It’s probably just a reference. But the device in question looks like a giant portal. What is it supposed to do? Well, I’m guessing it’s supposed to give the villains access to a place that cannot be reached by traveling through Hyperspace. Elsbeth even says that the parts that are being attached to the Eye of Sion are hyperdrives. So, it has to be a portal of some sort that’ll be used to usher in the live-action version of Thrawn.
DuringAhsoka Episode 2’s ending, Baylan expresses his concern about Tano’s intention to throw a wrench in these Imperial soldiers’ plans. Shin Hati thinks that that won’t be possible because they haven’t been traced. Baylan refutes that claim by stating that Tano is on her way. Elsbeth says something vague about disallowing anything or anyone from coming in between them and Thrawn. I guess that means she’s ordering Baylan to take Marrok and Shin and stop Tano. Shin wants them to kill her, but Baylan doesn’t because he’s a former Jedi. Am I smelling a redemption arc since that’s what Star Wars is all about? Just a bunch of redemption arcs. There are no definitive villains. Well, we’ve got to keep watching to know more about this pathetic crop of characters. Now, if you are wondering whether Ahsoka and Sabine are going to face off with these villains on the Eye of Sion, I’d request that you go through the promotional material. You can clearly see they are going to duke it out on Seatos. Am I excited about that? No, not really, because I’m sure it’ll be yet another boring action sequence. That said, I’ll stay tuned until the end of this show. If you want to hang around for the next few weeks, please feel free to do so and share your theories with us.
