Disney+
We have Jedi, people! Yes, finally a real honest to goodness Jedi appears on The Mandalorian and it’s fan favorite Ahsoka Tano from Clone Wars and Rebels. Fitting that Dave Filoni, the showrunner, supervising director, writer and several other job titles of the aforementioned series, as well as working on two episodes of this show last year, directed this episode as well.
His love for the character shows as he brings her to live action, not with her voice actress as we saw last week, but with Rosario Dawson who I thought just absolutely killed it. She isn’t exactly known for her action work but damn if she didn’t look like a total boss.
Wielding two lightsabers, the episode jumped right in establishing Ahsoka’s conflict on a barren war torn planet, intent on interrogating the local Magistrate and prepared to take on the entire town’s forces to do so. This is the kind of Jedi action every fanboy has been waiting for in a live action setting. Stealth and power in equal parts, she basically is Batman with a Lightsaber. Force wielding was kept to a minimum for the most part but the action didn’t suffer at all for it.
Once Mando arrives, it becomes quickly apparent that this town is being held prisoner by this Magistrate, played by Diana Lee Inosanto, an actor of somewhat royal lineage as she is the daughter of martial arts legend Dan Inosanto and goddaughter of Bruce Lee himself! Along with soldiers and assassin droids, she is also accompanied by a hired gun played by classic ’80s actor Michael Biehn.
Upon seeing a bounty hunter, the Magistrate offers Mando a pure Beskar spear as payment for killing the Jedi. A lesser series would have seen Mando hunting and a misunderstanding putting them at odds for the bulk of the episode. Instead Ahsoka briefly attacks him in what is a fantastic bit of action that moves blindingly fast, and just as quick Mando blurts out Bo-Katan’s name and gets the plot rolling forward.
The biggest revelations of the episode come here as Ahsoka communes with The Child and we finally learn a some backstory for the little guy. He was indeed trained as a Jedi at the temple and was hidden after the Clone Wars. He has been hiding his powers to stay safe and, in the one lazy writing part that needs to be called out, a big chunk of his time between then and now is ‘fuzzy’. Hmmm, okay sure. But the biggest piece revealed has to be we finally have his name! The Child is actually … Grogu? Yeah, it’s a name I guess, kind of silly but I suppose most of the Star Wars names are.
Ahsoka tests him with no luck until she gets Mando to try and coax him instead, confirming to her that Grogu has become attached to Mando like a child with a parent, something that puts a very old fear into her. Ahsoka refuses to train Grogu as his attachment could easily lead him down an emotional path to hate and the dark side. Obviously Anakin’s betrayal still weighs heavy on her.
Mando offers a deal to help her liberate the town and get the information she needs but only if she takes Grogu on as a pupil. The following sequence is just about one of my favorite Star Wars moments ever. Watching Ahsoka just tear through the soldiers and droids, tension building throughout. The atmosphere in this episode was just amazing, and while the direction and blocking was fairly basic the action and mood did more than enough to compensate for a lack of flair in camera movement.
Disney+
This all led up to two showdowns. In the one corner you have Ahsoka and the Magistrate toe-to-toe, lightsabers to spear in a very Samurai-esque battle. Then over here you have Michael Biehn and Mando in a stare off as Biehn’s character tries to lull him into a false sense of security, but the kind where we as an audience, as well as Mando, know this ends with blood. While Mando’s showdown ends with a quick draw and a body slumped to the ground, Ahsoka’s ends with her disarming her foe and finally asking her all important question: ‘Where’s Thrawn?’
This excited me to no end as Admiral Thrawn is a character that started in the expanded universe novels decades ago, and after the great culling of the offshoot books from Star Wars canon he was one of the few characters from that era that was so incredibly popular they reintroduced him in the more recent books and animated series.
So speculation and more so wishful thinking time. Ahsoka and Thrawn are incredibly popular characters and this setup is either a huge tease for nothing … or there has been a rumor that a female led Star Wars property is in development currently. Could this possibly be the set up for that series? Oh boy, do I hope so!
Returning to our actual story though, Ahsoka backs out of her deal and sends Mando on yet one more mission. To take The Child to an old Jedi Temple where he can find his own path … and likely set the stage for a finale. Can next Friday just get here already?! Just another fantastic episode that reminds us what made the Jedi so magical all those years ago.
What did you think of this episode? Sound off in the comments below!
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