It’s the season finale of Ahsoka Season 1, and it’s a fun one. The episode’s titled The Jedi, the Witch, and the Warlord, which I thought was awesome. Spoilers from here on out.
We get zombies. That was Mrs. Know-It-All’s line the second it ended. “That is literally the only problem I had. It was a great episode. I liked it. I like where we left off, everything.”
She says this to me and I immediately go into a mini rant.
Why the Magic Doesn’t Bother Me
You have to understand which part of the audience I’m in. I like Star Trek for the vision of the future. You’ve got the uniforms, the whole thing. I like it for what it is. I fell in love with Star Wars because of the lightsabers and the Jedi and the sci-fi fantasy, the sci-fi magic, all that good stuff. And we haven’t been getting hardly any of that outside of the main things.
Rogue One, we didn’t get it. Andor, by the way a brilliant series, we didn’t get any of it. The Mandalorian, the most we got was little baby Yoda with his little hand, maybe moving some things or blocking fire, and that’s it. So having Jedi running around with lightsabers and pushing things and the whole nine yards? Awesome. That was awesome, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
So they’re whooping butt on these troopers, the troopers all fall, and up above you have the sisters doing their Dathomiri dark thing. Next thing you know, green eyes. It reminded me of Hela in Thor: Ragnarok, when she raises the old Asgardian warriors.
Mrs. Know-It-All doesn’t mind them coming back from the dead. Her problem was that it was very zombie-ish, and she doesn’t think it should’ve been. She’s all for bringing them back. It just didn’t have to go into that creaky, dead, zombie part, because even at the door we got the groaning. And I have to admit, I did also think the moaning was a hair much. I remember pausing it and going, okay, fine, maybe the moaning is a little bit much. Otherwise it was fine.
They were dope, though. They still retained what they were doing. They blew open the door, they’re running up, chasing them.
Thrawn Is a Step Ahead the Whole Way
Ahsoka and them are heading back. They’re with the Noti in their little RV things, she’s in her ship, and Thrawn sends two TIE fighters out. Meanwhile Morgan Elsbeth gets blessed by the sisters as one of them, so now she’s got the dark stuff and the black eyes and the whole nine yards.
Oh, and Ezra built a new lightsaber. He’s dope. There’s a really nice moment between him and Huyang, because I guess Huyang knew Kanan when he was a child, taught him how to build a lightsaber, and still had one of the hilts from that whole thing. It’s great.
Those two TIE fighters shoot down the ship, so what do they do? They get on their little wolf horse and go. It’s a howler.
Thrawn is so far ahead of them at every step. Toward the end he says it’s because he knew how her master would’ve done things, and he just assumed she’d do the same. He makes the same connections. So he orders the Star Destroyer to start bombarding, because they’ve already brought the ring in from the atmosphere to lock in. They’re ready. I thought it was pretty cool how they got the ring on there, the way it comes down and snaps on with those little clamps. I just thought it was cool the way they built everything, the way they drove through everything. A Star Destroyer sized hyperspace ring.
Sabine Finally Plugs In
Then there’s a really awesome moment I didn’t expect. You see Ezra trying to hold the door open, and Ahsoka tells Sabine to help. So Sabine’s putting her hand out, everybody’s opening the doors, and you get to see Sabine finally connect with the Force.
It’s like when you have a power cord that’s just barely in the plug, and then all of a sudden it gets fully in and all the power starts going. That was her.
Mrs. Know-It-All had been back and forth about how she felt about Sabine this whole season, and she cheered. She did it. We did it. My daughter does the same thing. She goes, “I’m so proud of her.” And I was like, yeah, me too. Why not? Let’s be proud of these characters. It’s great.
It’s a big fight all the way up. These guys are already called the Night Troopers, but remember the ones Moff Gideon had, the Dark Troopers, the ones in the almost beskar-like armor? One of them is holding Sabine by the neck, and her lightsaber’s not far. She puts her hand out and we’re like, oh, poor thing. Then it starts to shake, and then it flies into her hand, and you’re like, okay.
A few minutes later the Star Destroyer is taking off, Ahsoka’s fighting off zombie guys, and they’re like, what are we going to do? And Sabine goes, okay, I got it. You run, jump. Ezra goes, I can’t jump that far. She goes, don’t worry, I’m going to push you, and then you pull me afterward. He goes, okay, cool. He trusts her, he runs, and she pushes him.
The fact that she was that confident tells you everything. She’d done it once now, and she’s like, all right, I can do this. It’s like she broke whatever block was keeping her from thinking she was special. Now it’s let’s go. We both think that came out of the conversation she had with Ahsoka, standing outside before the TIE fighters show up. It’s one of those moments I genuinely appreciated.
The Most Jedi Jedi We’ve Seen in a Long Time
So he gets away. Thrawn’s back in the galaxy far, far away that we know as the Star Wars galaxy. He bombards and destroys the tower on his way out, but luckily Huyang, always the guy there at the last second, catches them when they jump. They’re fine. The troopers die. And you can tell right then the Mothers didn’t like what he destroyed. Didn’t like that at all. He also didn’t care when Morgan died.
When it was all said and done, Ahsoka’s like, all right, let’s figure it out, let’s go. She’s not worried. She’s very much in tune with what the Force has got for her. I feel like she’s the most Jedi Jedi we’ve seen in a long time.
She has very Qui-Gon qualities, more than Obi-Wan ones. Qui-Gon was the kind of guy who, right after getting attacked by a Sith he doesn’t know, is sitting there on the deck of the Naboo ship going, hey, what’s going on, are we good? Everybody’s good. That’s who Ahsoka reminds me of, and I’m down for it. I’m liking who she is now a lot.
Then of course there’s the little goodbye nod while everybody’s watching, and Thrawn and them arrive at Dathomir.
Ray Stevenson’s Last Moment as Baylan
Sidebar. Shin Hati teams up with the bandits, so everyone gets something to do. And then we get our final moment with the late Ray Stevenson as Baylan.
It was a good moment. He’s standing on this awesome, majestic, giant statue that’s pointing, so he’s right out on the hand. As it pans around I’m going, oh look, he’s looking out majestically, something’s calling him from afar. And eagle eyes over here, Mrs. Know-It-All, goes, “Wait, pause it. There’s a little flickering light.” I’m like, what? So I rewind it, and sure enough, way off in the distance, this teeny little thing. It looks like a mountain of some sort, maybe a volcano, with flickering white light coming out of it. In previous episodes, especially with Shin, he’d said there’s something bigger out there calling him. That’s what it was.
I’m telling you, I hope they don’t lose the character of Baylan even though Ray Stevenson’s gone. I put a thing out a while back about it. A lot of folks on the internet are saying Gerard Butler or somebody else. I’d love to see them recast with someone who can really handle it, and see that character continue to be part of the Star Wars universe. I really believe there’s a lot of fun future in him.
He reminds me of something, and I only know this because I’ve watched the cinematics. I’m not a big video game guy, but I love the cinematics. Star Wars had a video game where they showed a guy who looked an awful lot like Baylan Skoll, who raises two Jedi kids. One of them’s dark side, one of them’s light, they use yellow lightsabers, and they fight each other. I’m sure you’re going to tell me in the comments exactly what the game is. I’d love to see some sort of rising of a different kind of something on this side, because I feel like somebody could do something here.
Ezra Comes Home
I was really happy that Ezra dropped that whole Jedi kung fu nonsense. And Ezra makes it back, because remember, he got thrown onto the ship by Sabine.
So we get a nice little button. Hera and them are there as a ship pulls in, and here comes a guy walking out. Sure enough, the droid, Chopper, rushes up, because Chopper knows his master, man. And dude takes off his helmet. He’s home.
He’s going to tell them some stuff. I want to see the scene where Hera goes in and starts ripping them a new one for real, now that he’s there. I want to see what Senator Xiono says, because I hate him. I bet you he’s excited Thrawn’s back. That bum.
Obviously we knew this wasn’t going to end with a finish, because the story’s still continuing. Mrs. Know-It-All loved the way it ended, and I did too. It got me excited to see what’s coming. This first season was putting everything in place. Her words: some of the episodes she did not like, but she liked how this ended.
The Verdict
Ahsoka Season 1 Episode 8, The Jedi, the Witch, and the Warlord, is a 9.0 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index. We’re in agreement on that.
I thought it was well worth it. I thought the entire series did a really good job of setting things up, especially for me, because I missed those episodes of Rebels and, later on, Clone Wars. I didn’t watch Clone Wars at all. Rebels I stopped watching right before Season 3 started, because, again, life. So they did an excellent job connecting dots for me. I didn’t go hunting down a whole lot of information. I went with what they showed us, and I enjoyed it, and it still made perfect sense. It was cool to get some of the explanation after I’d seen it, but I didn’t need it.
If you haven’t watched the show yet and you stumbled upon this review, do yourself a big favor and go watch Ahsoka Season 1. You’re going to love it.
It left me feeling very much the way I felt the first time I ever saw Episode IV, after A New Hope. I felt like I’m at the beginning of something, and that’s a beautiful place to be in Star Wars. By the way, I loved Andor, and it did a wonderful job, but I know that story. Ultimately I know where it’s going to go. This is new territory. This is the era I really did want to see in the movies down the way, with the characters older, obviously. There are rumors online about whether Luke might be in a follow-up movie. I’m all about it. Whatever Dave Filoni wants to do, I trust them. They’ve earned my trust as far as I’m concerned.
I’m ready to see what they do next. Give him the keys. Make Dave Filoni the Kevin Feige of Star Wars. All signs point to Kathleen Kennedy stepping away very soon. I believe that’s happened already and they just haven’t given the final announcement of when she’s done. I don’t mean make him the CEO of everything. Put him over what’s happening in Star Wars. Trust me, I’m enjoying the heck out of this thing.
Your turn. What did you think of Part Eight, and what are you looking forward to if there’s a Season 2? The Mandalorian could potentially jump in, and Mrs. Know-It-All expects to see it toward the end of next season at least. And tell me which game that Baylan lookalike with the two kids is from. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above. May the Force be with you, and never forget: everyone loves a know-it-all.
