Disney Plus’s series Star Wars Ahsoka, Season 2 Episode 4, called “Fallen Jedi,” explores the story of Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson), Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and Huyang (David Tenant) learning of the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelson). They are on a mission to locate Thrawn’s location to not only eliminate Thrawn as a threat but to find their friend Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi), who likely survived alongside the Grand Admiral during the aftermath of the Battle of Lothal during the Age of the Rebellion. However, the Dark Jedi mercenary Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson), Baylan’s apprentice Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno), Nighsister Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto), and Inquisitor Marrok (Paul Darnell) seek to bring Thrawn back as Heir to the Empire. Therefore, the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant are on a race to find Thrawn, and the fate of the Known Galaxy lies on who reaches the Grand Admiral first.
The episode begins in Seastos, with Sabine and Huyang fixing their T-6 Ship and its transmission with Hera and the New Republic. Ahsoka tells Sabine that they should destroy the Star Map to stop Thrawn’s return as Heir to the Empire, to the latter’s sadness and disappointment because she wants to bring Ezra, whom she loves as a brother, home. The group is ambushed by Baylan and Morgan’s HK Assassin Droids and mercenaries. Ahsoka and Sabine defeat the attackers and head out to retrieve the Star Map, while Huyang stays to fix the ship.
Soon, Baylan and Morgan orders Shin and Marrok to delay Ahsoka and Sabine from preventing them from downloading the Star Map data to Peridea to the Eye of Sion. Shin and Marrok head to Ahsoka’s T-6 ship and duel the former Jedi and her Mandalorian padawan in the forest. Ahsoka slays Marrok, whose death reveals Marrok’s status as an undead Inquisitor resurrected with Morgan’s Nightsister Magik, and heads to the Star Map nexus, leaving Sabine behind to fight Shin.
At the Star Map Nexus, Ahsoka and Baylan have an epic duel, with the latter telling Ahsoka that she and her former master, Anakin Skywalker, are nothing more than people who bring death and destruction. Despite his claim, Baylan believes that Thrawn’s war the Grand Admiral will start will help the Galaxy: “One must destroy to create.” Ahsoka manages to grab the Star Map, but it burns her hand, giving Baylan an upper hand against her. Shin arrives at the scene and is knocked unconscious by Ahsoka, who believes the former killed Sabine by her presence alone. However, Sabine is alive, and the Mandalorian puts the Star Map at gunpoint. Baylan pushes Ahsoka over the cliff and coerces Sabine with her desire to save Ezra, the only family she believes she has left, to hand over the Star Map. Sabine hesitatingly obliges, and Morgan, on the Eye of Sion, can have her droids complete their calculations to Peridea’s coordinates. Shin wakes up and tries to kill Sabine via Force choking until Baylan stops her because he promised to help Sabine reunite with Ezra on Peridea. The two Dark Jedi and a captured Sabine enter the Eye of Sion and join Morgan in their jump to hyperspace to Peridea.
Hera disobeys the Senate Commission and leads Captain Carson and the Phoenix Squadron to the Denab System. Jacen and Chopper join Hera’s endeavors on their ship, the Ghost. Phoenix Squadron’s mission is to defeat Baylan and Morgan and help Ahsoka and Sabine. After arriving at the Denab System, Huyang informs them via transmission information on the Eye of Sion. However, the squadron fails to stop the hyperdrive ship after it jumps into hyperspace to Peridea. The powerful hyperspace jump created a shockwave, killing two of the pilots. Hera, Carson, and the other two pilots survive the event. The episode ends with Huyang alone on the T-6 ship and Ahsoka somehow awakening in the World Between Worlds, where she reunites with her former master, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen).
Ahsoka (Snips) reunites with Anakin (Skyguy)
In Ahsoka Season 1, Director Peter Ramsey and Writer Dave Filoni magnificently made the fourth episode intriguing and awe-shocking. The return of Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One and the former master of Ahsoka, is breathtaking in his reappearance in the World Between Worlds. However, whether the man Ahsoka met was Anakin or something else is a mystery, as the ominous Vader theme emphasizes when the screen goes black. It is likely Anakin will help Ahsoka find a path to Peridea via the World Between Worlds and find a Purgill Gateway there. Peridea might have a Purgill Gateway in the World Between Worlds since there are differently shaped gateways to locations across time and space: a Sith Holocron gate to Malachor, a Sith symbol to an unknown Sith temple, and the Loth-Wolves to Lothal. Therefore, Peridea might have a Purgill Gateway because it is where many Purgills migrate outside the Known Galaxy.
It is questionable why Ahsoka was able to enter the World Between Worlds after falling off a cliff. One answer could be Anakin saving Ahsoka and pulling her into the unique realm. Another could be Ahsoka’s strong connection with Morai, a female convor bird with spiritual ties to The Daughter, a Mortis God who embodies the Light Side of the Force. In The Clone Wars’ Mortis Arc, The Daughter sacrifices her own life to save Ahsoka’s life with the help of Anakin. Therefore, Ahsoka could have Force divine intervention in a sense.
The episode also reveals Sabine lost her biological family, her father, mother, and brother, during the Purge of Mandalore. Ahsoka somehow had a hand that prevented Sabine from saving her parents, causing discord and distrust between the master and the apprentice. The trauma of the Purge of Mandalore understandably gives reason for Sabine’s drastic change of character from a fun and sarcastic rebel to a sad and moody Non-Force Sensitive Jedi Mandalorian padawan. Therefore, Sabine has a hard time recovering from her family’s death, which increases her desire to bring Ezra home. Ezra will probably be disappointed if he learns what Sabine has done because he nearly sacrificed his life to save the Galaxy from Thrawn’s influence.
Baylan, Shin, and Morgan were likely devout followers of Thrawn. Baylan knows Thrawn is evil and is on a crusade to destroy the Galaxy and rebuild it better under the Grand Admiral’s leadership. Morgan already served with the Grand Admiral during the reign of the Galactic Empire for unknown reasons. However, Thrawn tends to recruit followers in the Unknown Galaxy to work for the Chiss Ascendancy’s goal of protecting the Galaxy from dark, evil threats like the Grysk, the likely canon version of the Yuuzhan Vong. In Legends, the Vong are a nomadic extra-galactic sentient species that almost destroyed the New Republic. The Chiss Grand Admiral sees the Empire as a necessary evil to provide a powerful military to defend the Galaxy from the evil extra-galactic threats.
Rating: 9/10