Ahsoka Episode 5 Delivers Intense Lesson From Anakin, Thrilling Flashbacks — and a [Spoiler] Name-Drop!
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Last week, Ahsoka Tano was a (literally) fallen Jedi. In this week’s episode — directed by Ahsoka creator and Star War: The Clone Wars/Star War Rebels executive producer Dave Filoni — the titular heroine finally got to complete her training with master Anakin Skywalker (guest star Hayden Christensen).
A tumble off that cliff on Seatos landed Ahsoka in the World Between Worlds, where the ex-Jedi Knight found herself reunited with Anakin. And while he looked the same as she last saw him, Anakin quipped that his onetime Padawan looked “old.”
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But they weren’t there for the nostalgia. As Anakin noted, Ahsoka had more to learn — and her first lesson was to “live… or die.” Anakin whipped out his blue lightsaber and a battle commenced with his Ahsoka, who wielded her white Katana.
Meanwhile, Hera landed her ship on Seatos only to realize that Ahsoka and Sabine were nowhere to be found. Her son Jacen, displaying a strong sensibility to the Force, listened to the waves and faintly heard the lightsabers clashing. It took a moment for Hera to hear it too, after which she sent Captain Teva and his squad to survey the area above the water — even though the word from “Senator (Leia) Organa” (!!) was that they needed to wrap things up ASAP.
Back in the World Between Worlds, Ahsoka landed a harsh blow to Anakin’s face and thought she bested him. However, they were just getting started. He shattered a section of the bridge with his lightsaber, sending Ahsoka tumbling down….
We were then met with a younger Ahsoka (Barbie’s Ariana Greenblatt) — wielding a green lightsaber — running and deflecting enemy fire alongside Anakin during one of her first missions in the Clone Wars. When the smoke cleared, she held the hand of a dying Clone Trooper, solemnly taking in the death all around her. She blamed herself for the many losses, since they were simply following her orders.
As Anakin explained that death was the cost of war, Ahsoka wondered if that’s all she would have to teach her Padawan one day. This scene felt straight out of an episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, with Anakin joking that teaching is “not all it’s cracked up to be” and Ahsoka baffled that he would make a joke at a time like this. Wisecracking aside, Anakin was teaching her how to be a leader and soldier to survive the war.
He marched back into battle, flashes of Darth Vader alluding to his future, and disappeared in the dense smoke.
Back on Seatos, Hera flew above the ocean and started to wonder if she was chasing ghosts. Huyang offered some reassurance, pointing out that she did things her way because she cared and that’s why people like her. The Twi’lek general then asked what Ahoska’s master was like and Huyang simply called Anakin “intense.”
We returned to Anakin and Ahsoka (who now wielded both lightsabers, which Anakin had changed to blue to match his own) in the middle of the Siege of Mandalore. In reality, Anakin wasn’t present for this battle, since he was sent away to rescue Chancellor Palpatine while Ahsoka and Clone Commander Rex (Temuera Morrison) led Clone Troopers to capture Darth Maul and liberate Mandalore from his control.
Anakin continued his lesson, telling Ahsoka she was everything he is and part of a larger legacy. She had inherited his knowledge, just as he inherited knowledge from his master Obi-Wan Kenobi, and so on. The difference, though, was that Anakin was more powerful and dangerous than anyone realized, and he eventually turned to the Dark Side. So, as Ahsoka pointed out, part of her legacy was death and war.
That comment spurred Anakin’s final lesson, a rehash of his first one to “live or die,” which brought them full circle. In other words, Ahsoka had to face her master one last time, and he now wielded a red lightsaber (signaling his switch to the Sith). This Anakin was more aggressive, bringing back memories of his rage-fueled battle with Obi-Wan on Mustafar in Revenge of the Sith. He delivered a brutal kick that knocked Ahsoka out of their Clone Wars vision and back onto the glossy bridge in the World Between Worlds. As he stalked towards her, we again saw him briefly flash into Darth Vader.
“You lack conviction,” Anakin spat.
Master and apprentice again clashed, and Anakin’s red eyes bore into Ahsoka’s as he told her, “Time to die.” But she refused to go down. She then disarmed him, holding his own lightsaber close to his face before retracting it.
“I choose to live,” she declared. With that, Ahsoka had finally completed her training.
“There’s hope for you yet,” a warmly smiling Anakin told her before vanishing. The bridge faded, and Ahsoka appeared submerged in the Seatos ocean. A member of Captain Teva’s squad pulled her from the water and back to reality.
With Sabine still missing, Ahsoka used her Jedi abilities to retrieve a memory of her Padawan’s last movements from the fractured star map. Ahsoka pieced together that Sabine had been taken by Baylan, but following her wasn’t going to be easy since Ahsoka didn’t have the coordinates to their intended destination.
Hera, speaking with a hologram of Chancellor Mon Mothma, tried to talk her way out of orders to return to Coruscant, to no avail. The senate was contemplating a move to permanently suspend Hera’s command and she needed Ahsoka’s testimony to sway them against it. The Republic even sent starships to Seatos to see what Ahsoka and Hera were up to, so Hera ordered Captain Teva to hold them off and buy more time.
Because Ahsoka had figured out a way to follow Sabine. She would make use of the purrgil — the same space whales that dragged both Thrawn and Ezra into deep space in the Rebels finale — who were currently flying in the sky above. With Teva distracting the Republic starships so they wouldn’t scare off the purrgil pod, Ahsoka again utilized her Jedi gifts to communicate with one of the majestic creatures, and she, Huyang and their ship promptly hitched a ride in its mouth.
Though unsure if the purrgil knew where Sabine had gone, Ahsoka told Huyang she was willing to see where this lead them. With Hera, Jacen and the others remaining behind, Ahsoka and Huyang then were taken on a hyperspace jump into the unknown.
What did you think of this week’s episode of Ahsoka? Did the reunion with Anakin Skywalker make you emotional? Grade the episode, then sound off below!
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