In the fifth episode, Ahsoka confronts the past, former rebels confront bureaucracy, and viewers confront some revelations. All this in our next recap of 'Ahsoka.'
Previous recaps:
Warning: spoilers for the 5th episode of 'Ahsoka' ahead
On the platform where the duel between Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) and Baylan (Ray Stevenson) took place, the droid Huyang (David Tennant) stands holding Sabine's helmet, mournfully repeating that those two never listen to him. Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who has flown there, calms Huyang, promising to find the Jedi.
The new episode, like the previous one, is built on references to 'The Lord of the Rings.' This was to be expected, and the two great artifacts of pop culture were bound to collide sooner or later, but that showrunner Dave Filoni loves the film 'The Two Towers' this much, perhaps no one expected.
At the end of the previous episode, Ahsoka lost her duel with Baylan and fell off a cliff. This also happened to Aragorn, and he too fell into water, and to Gandalf, who, like Ahsoka, encountered an echo of the distant past – he had a Balrog, the Jedi had a former Jedi knight Baylan. In the afterlife (the name of the mysterious space is not specifically designated in the series, although it has already appeared in 'Rebels'), Ahsoka was met by her former teacher (Hayden Christensen), who informs her that, firstly, she lost the fight, and secondly, she can still return to life.
In order not to keep her master company in eternity, Ahsoka needs to learn something else. As always, training with Anakin takes the form of a good fight: Ahsoka valiantly opposes, perhaps, the greatest swordsman of her era, and in the end they both fall from a glowing bridge between worlds somewhere into the past.
There we see for the first time in live-action a teenage Ahsoka, her younger teacher in a costume from 'The Clone Wars,' and clone troopers going into another attack. Not expecting to be there, Ahsoka remembers that this is one of their first joint missions with her teacher and that it was, essentially, a meat grinder. Anakin gives her a terrifying lecture at that moment in the spirit of: if you want to live, know how to fight. Meaning, of course, 'know how to kill.'
The current Ahsoka, unlike her teenage self, is not at all thrilled with the prospect of participating in war and wants to hear from her teacher that he at least is not thrilled that people are dying, that he at least feels sorry for them. But Anakin is engrossed in the battle, he replies routinely that yes, it's a pity, of course, but who hasn't it happened to, such are the times, such is life. We understand that there will be no other life for any of them. And Ahsoka, with the mind of her current self in a teenager's body, looks in horror at her teacher going into the attack, who will return from this attack but will never return from the war. The receding Anakin briefly becomes Darth Vader.
In the next scene, the action moves to a slightly less distant past: before us is the Siege of Mandalore, an older (she is already 17) Ahsoka, killing Mandalorians left and right, the 501st Legion led into battle by Captain Rex (firstly, the first cameo of the iconic commander in live-action, secondly, voiced by Temuera Morrison!). In short, this is the finale of the Clone Wars and 'The Clone Wars,' the end of the Old Republic and the end of the animated series.
Anakin appears there (although the real Skywalker at this time was presumably already somewhere at this stage) to teach Ahsoka something again. But what? She doesn't understand this and openly asks the master what exactly he taught her? She became a soldier, became a warrior, a good commander and an excellent fencer, but did she become a Jedi? Anakin tries to prove to her that he simply could not teach her the way Obi-Wan taught him: times have changed.
Ahsoka asks if it will turn out that everything she has become is just an echo of war, a visualization of PTSD in muted orange. Anakin tries to convince his student that she is more than all this, just as he is more than all this. Ahsoka in response reminds the master of his war crimes, genocide, and betrayal of the Jedi and the Republic, after which he returns to the state of the finale of 'Revenge of the Sith' and attacks his student. They are transported to that strange space.
What happens is what, as they say, everyone was waiting for: Ahsoka fences with Anakin. In a wonderfully staged duel, watching the movements of both is a sheer joy – Anakin's confident mastery combined with his brute force and sharp techniques, Ahsoka's elegance and agility, who after all learned from the best. In the end, she disarms the master and refuses to kill him (as you understand, this is a reference to the similar duel between Luke and the phantom Vader on Dagobah), although it was he who ultimately brought her more suffering than anyone else.
Anakin returns to the Jedi state and tells his student that there is still hope for her. At that moment, Ahsoka is pulled out of the sea by New Republic pilots, who, under the leadership of Hera Syndulla, had been actively searching for her throughout the episode. The heroes were led to the Jedi by Jacen, son of Hera and Kanan Jarrus, who displayed considerable abilities in the Force in this episode.
The rescued Ahsoka wakes up on her ship, chooses a new outfit, and goes out to Huyang, Hera, and Jacen in the image of Gandalf the White. General Syndulla has problems, and she is summoned to Coruscant for her unauthorized mission, while Ahsoka, realizing that Sabine is now with Baylan in another galaxy, figures out how to follow them. (Spoiler: not on Shadowfax, lord of all horses.)
The only thing missing was the cry 'The whales have arrived!' The heroes looked at the sky, and in the next scene, Ahsoka and Huyang on their shuttle were already flying into the mouth of the largest space whale, which – the Jedi radiated silent confidence – would definitely fly where needed. Captain Teva, meanwhile, cosplayed Poe Dameron from 'The Last Jedi' and in the same style, though with less success, distracted the arriving New Republic cruisers. In the end, the whales flew away, Ahsoka and Huyang flew away with them, the Republic fleet was left bewildered, and General Syndulla and Captain Teva were left anticipating trouble.
Impressions
This is a good episode, and although much in it is already clear to everyone who has watched 'The Clone Wars' and good war films, or even now to everyone in general, isn't 'Ahsoka' essentially repeating what has been done before? This is a series in which the current action is of much less interest than everything that led to it. Ultimately, it's a series about how to survive the past, to step over it. And about how it's easier for some to go to another galaxy for a red-eyed admiral of distant wars than to move on, to erase the past.
The main observation of the episode is probably how creepy Ahsoka looks in war when played by a real teenager. There were simply ethical questions about the drawn heroine who is taught to kill at 15, but a living girl who, instead of 'Mean Girls,' ended up in 'Saving Private Ryan,' or, even worse, in some 'Cross of Iron,' evokes genuine horror. How is this possible? How can you look at this? How can you make 7 seasons of a children's cartoon about this? But the scariest thing is, does this only happen in 'Star Wars'? Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya? Volodya Dubinin? Well, now Ahsoka Tano.
From the less important: Jacen will clearly be a Jedi, flying on whales is fun, Captain Teva is liked by all of us, Leia Organa was mentioned, so we expect something special, Hayden Christensen is awesome.
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