The Shadow Of Anakin Skywalker Looms Large Over Ahsoka's 'Dreams And Madness' Episode
This article contains spoilers for "Star Wars: Ahsoka" episode 5 — "Dreams and Madness."
The penultimate episode of "Ahsoka" sees two stories play out: the potential court martial of Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) from the New Republic and the journey of Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) to rescue Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) and Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) from the machinations of Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelson) and his allies.
Hera's story is completed before the opening title card, with Senator Leia Organa (through her proxy, C-3PO, voiced by Anthony Daniels) helping Hera out of the jam. When Senator Xiono wants to strip Hera of her rank, the golden droid arrives to offer proof (albeit via false truth) that Leia sanctioned Hera's mission personally, and as leader of the Defense Council, they can take up any problems with her personally.
Back in the other galaxy, Thrawn continues his preparations to return to the New Republic, loading the secret cargo of the Great Mothers into the hold of his ship, The Chimaera. But Ahsoka Tano arrives just in time to help Ezra and Sabine withstand an attack from Lord Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson), his padawan Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno), and the Night Troopers of Thrawn.
Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) sees the heroes reuniting as a loss, but Thrawn disagrees. They've spent valuable time of Ahsoka's that she doesn't have. And they're just about ready to leave anyway. It will make no difference to them. But before we get to that, let's go back to Coruscant.
Political gridlock
Hera Syndulla heads back to the capital in order to accept the consequences of her actions on Seatos. There, she must deal with Senators (including Senator Hamato Xiono) who want to turn a blind eye to the very idea of an Imperial Remnant. It's this stubbornness that allows the Imperial Remnant to keep operating in the shadows, and ultimately, lets the First Order gather its strength in the Unknown Regions so that they can come back and destroy Hosnian Prime in "The Force Awakens."
It's this attitude that forces Leia Organa to form the Resistance in the first place, but until it's revealed that she's the daughter of Darth Vader — which happens in Claudia Gray's excellent book "Bloodline" that was written based on Rian Johnson's notes for "The Last Jedi" — she still has the political clout to make sure people like Hera can continue fighting the good fight under the auspices of the New Republic.
It's a difficult position for people who see what's really happening to find themselves in. And Hera gives her blunt, honest opinion to Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) about the threat of Thrawn returning to thwart the burgeoning New Republic. With only one episode left, I doubt we'll get a resolution to this conflict, and it's a fire that will continue raging through future seasons of this era of "Star Wars" on television. Let's be honest, it doesn't really get resolved until the sequel trilogy of films, proving once again that Dave Filoni is building a most fascinating bridge to "The Force Awakens."
Anakin's shadow
Elsewhere, the shadow of Anakin Skywalker looms large in this episode, and it happens in two ways. First, Hayden Christensen reprises the role in the form of a hologram that Ahsoka Tano uses to train with her lightsabers. This isn't the first time we've seen these holograms. In "Star Wars Rebels", Matt Lanter, the voice of Anakin Skywalker on "The Clone Wars," came back to make similar recordings that Ahsoka had let Ezra train on from a Jedi holocron.
But Ahsoka seems to have come to terms with Anakin's shadow, and the piece of him inside of her, when she had her brush with death. She seems more at ease in this episode and happier than we've seen her, bringing her more in line with her old self. Ahsoka even tries some of Anakin's flying tricks in the debris field chase, spinning in her ship because that's a neat trick.
However, the place where Anakin's shadow looms the largest is the subtle but momentary panic in Thrawn's reaction when he reads Ahsoka's file and realizes she's Anakin's former apprentice. It's a perfectly acted moment, and when Thrawn is impressed by this revelation, he turns to Enoch and says, "Are you sure there's only one ship?" It's clear that he knows this is trouble, and he starts revising his plans almost immediately.
Moments like these tie the different eras of "Star Wars" together brilliantly and connect them even further to the work of Timothy Zahn, Thrawn's creator, especially the book "Thrawn: Alliances," where Thrawn works with both Vader and Anakin Skywalker at different times of his life.
Another asteroid chase
One of the most iconic action sequences in the history of "Star Wars" comes from "The Empire Strikes Back," as Han Solo heads directly into an asteroid field to lose the Empire. In this episode, Ahsoka Tano is forced to one-up him by going into a debris field of purrgil bones in order to evade Thrawn's fighters pursuing her. She hides as well, but this sequence is designed to show how many lessons Grand Admiral Thrawn has learned and how superior his tactical genius is.
When Vader is stopped by Han Solo, he just sends TIE Bombers indiscriminately out into asteroids to start bombing things and it's only blind luck that draws the heroes from their hiding spot. Thrawn, using every tool at his disposal, discovers her location and flushes her out in a matter of minutes. We should be scared of him, and this shows us just how scared we should be. He doesn't have the dark side or access to the Force, but Thrawn does have the help of the Great Mothers and their magick, and that can only spell doom for the New Republic if he makes his way there and isn't stopped quickly by Ahsoka Tano and her band of allies.
Details to watch out for
In this episode, it's interesting to note that it begins on Coruscant, which is no longer the capital of the Republic. It's Chandrila at this point, Mon Mothma's homeworld. But that might also give cover to Senator Organa for not being there in person, because she could very well be in the capital.
We also learned this episode that Zeb isn't just a pilot on Adelphi, he's actually training recruits there, which changes the tenor of his cameo in the last season of "The Mandalorian" a little bit. It would be nice to see him in this show, but for now, it's at least nice to get some further details about what he's doing.
The last cool thing I'd point out is that Thrawn's Night Troopers fly out in Imperial Patrol Ships that were in heavy use by his forces on Lothal during "Star Wars Rebels." It's a nice touchstone back to the previous show, and it's really cool to see those ships in live-action again (something we first saw in the most recent season of "The Mandalorian.")
More questions than answers
For the penultimate episode of this show, it's really interesting that we didn't get a more definitive cliffhanger to carry us into the finale. But it does leave us quite a few questions left to be answered. Where is Baylan Skoll really heading? What is the mysterious cargo that Thrawn is loading, and how will that affect his plans when he gets back to the galaxy? How will everyone get back home if Thrawn leaves them stranded? It's really tantalizing stuff, and it feels like we'll likely get a super-sized episode next week just to answer all of the dangling questions.
There's so much to love in this episode, too. Ezra Bridger is one of them. He's truly embodied the Jedi spirit in the way Luke Skywalker does, eschewing his lightsaber for the Force. "The Force is my ally" he tells Sabine, which makes one wonder if he's been in contact with the Force spirit of Master Yoda again.
This episode had a wonderful pace and pulse, but a lot of that is driven by the Kevin Kiner-led score, picking up hints of Ahsoka's themes and Thrawn's haunting organ, not to mention a flourish of classic themes when C-3PO arrives. The score is doing so much of the heavy-lifting of the episode, and Kiner should be proud of the work. He's scored more "Star Wars" than anyone on Earth, and he deserves all of the accolades, even if it's just for this single episode.
My curiosity for this episode, though, peaks when I realize how happy an ending it has. We have one episode left, and it seems like everything is going to be okay. I've seen Dave Filoni's work in the past, and with Jon Favreau already on the record saying he had to write the fourth season of "The Mandalorian" in tandem with this to keep the threads straight, as well as promising a New Republic movie from Filoni, I wonder how much resolution we're actually going to get in the finale. It's going to be a long week until we find out.
The finale of "Ahsoka" premieres next Tuesday night on Disney+ at 9pm ET/6pm PT.