This review contains full spoilers for episode eight of Ahsoka, now available to watch on Disney+.
Rick Famuyiwa has been the most consistently excellent director of live action Star Wars television, and he delivers another great episode in the season finale of Ahsoka. “The Jedi, the Witch, and the Warlord” delivers big moments in the arcs of all of the series’ characters while building on well telegraphed plots that will have major repercussions for the galaxy.
As Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) pointed out last week, Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and her allies are running out of time. The whole finale feels the tension of their race to stop Thrawn from escaping his exile. Mikkelsen continues to do a fantastic job with his methodical and cool delivery, conveying his growing concern only with a tight clench of his jaw and the calculating command to send more of his forces to their death. As he notes, a single Jedi is responsible for his current predicament. He has the truly terrifying villain quality of never underestimating what the heroes are capable of.
The episode still takes time for quieter moments of growth and reconciliation. Eman Esfandi really captures the humor and swagger that Taylor Gray brought to Ezra Bridger in Star Wars Rebels as he bickers with Huyang (David Tennant) about lightsaber construction. It’s a humorous conversation that quickly turns tender as Ezra sees the opportunity to learn something about his beloved lost master and Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) tries to find a way to reconcile with hers. Ahsoka’s forgiveness comes quickly, but it doesn’t feel arbitrary or rushed, rather it’s the natural progression of the growth Ahsoka experienced when confronting her fears in the World Between Worlds.
Both sides of the conflict have to make tough decisions in the season finale. While Huyang does get Ahsoka’s shuttle working just in time to rescue her and Sabine, Tennant sells the heartbreaking delivery as he tells her not to wait for him. Likewise, Sabine finally learns the lesson about how a master and student should always stick together that Huyang’s been trying to hammer home all season, leaving behind the brother she’s fought so hard to save in order to fight at Ahsoka’s side.
And what a fight it is! Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi showed Anakin training Ahsoka to take on squads of Clone Troopers, a lesson that helped her survive Order 66. She uses those skills along with other lessons from General Skywalker well as she coordinates the attacks of Ezra and Sabine. I’d called the use of Nightsister necromancy weeks ago, but the drama of the moment still works, evoking scenes of the risen armies of the Night King in Game of Thrones as the fallen Night Troopers twist and contort back into action. The elite soldier with the hanging, rotting jaw is a particularly creepy touch.
Imbued with Nightsister magic and a relic blade last seen in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) gets her rematch against Ahsoka and again shows off the fluid fighting style that made her episode a highlight of The Mandalorian. The destruction of one of Ahsoka’s lightsabers makes it very clear that without Sabine’s timely assistance this fight likely would have gone the other way.
When Ahsoka encourages Sabine to help Ezra push the door open, it’s unclear if Sabine’s actually doing anything after all the fake out attempts she’s had this season. But the absolute confidence her master had in the idea that she could trust in the Force seems to have finally unlocked Sabine’s full potential. Ezra remains skeptical — a follow up to his initial reaction of asking why Ahsoka would train Sabine before quickly backtracking — but in the end is willing to literally put his life in her hands. Their verbal sparring during the fighting draws on the familial dynamic established with the characters in Rebels in a way that feels natural, even with new actors.
Star Wars is a series that has always been OK with ending on a big loss for the heroes, so it’s not surprising that Thrawn gets away to execute his grand plan of raising a zombie army on Dathomir. But there are also seeds of hope with Ezra’s sweet reunion with his surrogate mom Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) after pulling off the most classic of Star Wars ruses and dressing up as a Night Trooper.
I’ve been mourning the death of Ray Stevenson all season, but it especially stings in the finale, where it’s clear Baylan Skoll was just getting started with his grand plan to break the cycle of conflict between light and dark side by tapping into the power of the gods of Mortis. Both the monumental sculptures he’s standing in front of and Ahsoka’s encounter with Morai, the owl-like creature tied to the Daughter, hint at the cosmic struggle yet to come. Whatever Dave Filoni had planned it will surely be weaker without Stevenson’s gravitas.
The appearance of Anakin (Hayden Christensen) smiling and watching over his former apprentice delivers one last big burst of emotion for the season. It’s a beautiful moment that crystallizes the pathos Filoni built between him and Ahsoka over so many seasons of television as she embarks on the next step in her journey with her own student.
