Spoilers for Ahsoka Part One: Master and Apprentice and Part Two: Toil and Trouble
The opening features a tribal beat soundtrack similar to the one used in the first episode of Star Wars: Tales of The Jedi: Life and Death when Ahsoka’s mother is taking an infant Ahsoka on a hunt. The music transitions to a sound reminiscent of John Williams’ score that takes us from the crawl in the original Star Wars to the revelation of the Tantive IV and Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer in pursuit.
At once, even before we see any action, the audience’s subconscious is prepped for Star Wars as we mostly expect it. A vertical crawl reveals the timeline. The Evil Galactic Empire has fallen, and a New Republic has risen to take its place. It’s unclear if this is taking place before, during, or after the events of The Mandalorian. The search for Grand Admiral Thrawn is mentioned along with his ally, Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto), a Witch of Dathomir! Some may recognize the Maul connection. A larger Star Wars picture is painted before a single cast member even graces the screen.
A New Republic star cruiser transporting Elsbeth stretches through a star field in A New Hope fashion and is boarded by a ship that identifies using an old Jedi transponder code. The arrogant captain, believing them to be Imperial remnants, puts his entire crew in danger with the idea he can simply arrest them for impersonating Jedi. To the crew’s dismay, former Jedi Baylan Skoll (the late Ray Stevenson), missing since Order 66, and his dark apprentice, Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno), are there to rescue Morgan Elsbeth. Skoll takes out a corridor of crew members in the style of Darth Vader from Rogue One. The adept twosome needs no detour through the trash compactor to escape with the Witch.
Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson), meanwhile, finds a spherical relic from an ancient temple. She believes the relic contains a map that will reveal Thrawn’s location. She’s hopeful Ezra Bridger is still with him and still alive. There’s a lot of Rebels history that can be helpful, but it’s not necessary to understand what’s going on. Once she finds the map, she’s accosted by a battalion of droids, straight from Ralph McQuarrie’s portfolio, sent to retrieve the map. When they fail to take the map, they set themselves to self-destruct, razing the entire temple while Ahsoka escapes by the seat of her pants. Her droid partner, Huyang (voiced by David Tennant), shows himself to be a logic-based comedy relief with a side of wisdom.
Ahsoka then rendezvouses with Home One, the ship meant to accept the prisoner transfer that never made it. Now, General Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) meets Ahsoka to brief her on the escape and to discuss plot details. Hera suggests Ahsoka seek out their old team member, Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), the Force-sensitive Mandalorian artist and hacker who was closest to Ezra Bridger. She should be able to unlock the map to find Thrawn and Bridger. In their history, Ahsoka abandoned training Sabine in the ways of the Force, but Ezra showed her enough for her to still have his lightsaber.
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We’re introduced to the live-action Sabine by her absence. She’s decided to abstain from a rebel anniversary celebration, embarrassing local leaders. She runs a speeder blockade meant to detain her and heads back to her home in an old communications tower. She’s as rebellious as ever, without a cause…for now. At the moment, she’s content petting her own Loth-Cat while her Mandalorian armor collects dust. And she whiles away her time watching an old hologram from Ezra.
Morgan Elsbeth and her Sith-like bodyguards revisit the destroyed temple, revealed to have been built by her ancestors, the Nightsisters of Dathomir. A third guard, dressed in medieval-style armor (a Knight of Ren?), accompanies them this time. Elsbeth determines that Ahsoka was not destroyed, and she still holds the map. The new baddies set out to find her. Shin Hati is sent to find Ahsoka’s former apprentice, Sabine Wren.
Sabine watches her old master’s ship fly past her tower and head into the city to meet her. Ahsoka is there to ask for Sabine’s help in unlocking the map. Sabine’s only motive is to find Ezra, so she takes the map back to her abode against Ahsoka’s wishes. Ahsoka learns from her droid that they’ve identified Baylan Skoll by security footage and an analysis of his lightsaber.
Sabine is being watched by Shin Hati, who will send droids to retrieve the map once she unlocks it. Sabine tries to get it back, challenging the Sith-like apprentice to a duel, but she’s rusty and outmatched. Ahsoka arrives in time to get Sabine to safety after taking a red saber to the gut. We aren’t left long with this cliffhanger, though, as “Part Two” has been released at the same time as “Part One.”
Ahsoka: Part Two: Toil and Trouble
Ahsoka Tano is watching over a recovering Sabine Wren as Sabine faces her guilt for stealing and then losing the map. Ahsoka leaves Sabine to study the location of the incident where the map was stolen when she finds a remaining droid and promptly removes its head. Sabine is then able to retrieve the origin of the droid by hacking into its intact processor. They trace it back to a New Republic Shipyard on Corellia that was once run by the Empire. Ahsoka and Hera meet there post haste.
The Witch of Dathomir, Morgan Elsbeth, and her Sith-like associates are at a cliff-side henge. They use the unlocked map to determine the pathway to returning Thrawn to their present galaxy. Last we heard from Thrawn, he was whisked away with Ezra Bridger, along with a pod of hyper-space traveling Purrgil to a far-off galaxy at the end of the animated series Rebels. Elsbeth intends to return Thrawn from banishment. She reveals an unknown plot point called the Eye of Sion we’ll learn more about later in the episode. As Elsbeth leaves, Skoll promises Shin unimaginable power once Thrawn returns.
Hera and Ahsoka convene at the shipyard on Corellia and are met with resistance to their investigation. We learn that decommissioned Imperial Star Destroyers are being disassembled for parts to use in New Republic ships. When Hera notices a hyperdrive core being towed from the port, she questions where it’s going. The query sets off a chain of events that panic the Imperial holdouts working on the bridge. They are easily dispatched by Hera and Ahsoka, but they must then give chase to track the core’s destination.
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Another droid and Elsbeth’s knight prevent Ahsoka from stopping the tow-ship, but Hera flies with our favorite Rebels droid, Chopper, to plant a tracker on the hyperdrive core. We, as the audience, learn the core is headed to the Eye of Sion, a mysterious mobile space station. It’s successfully installed, and soon the device will return Thrawn to the known galaxy.
With plenty of sky battles and lightsaber action, the first two episodes of Ahsoka were a welcome new chapter to unfold in Star Wars lore. A mix of animated momentum with old and new-era aesthetics should keep most fans satisfied. Sabine has chosen to don her Mandalorian gear again, hooking newcomers and Rebels fans alike.
And in the conclusion of Part Two, Ahsoka addresses Sabine as Padawan, promising more duels. Maybe Sabine will get a rematch to avenge her scarred belly. Maybe she’ll get to return Ezra’s lightsaber to him. But one thing is certain. Millions of voices are about to cry out, “Give us some Thrawn!”
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