Ahsoka Tano embarks on a new journey after finding a clue to the lost Ezra Bridger… and Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Despite being ordered to bring her to the ceremony, Porter can't help but smile when Sabine manages to slide her swoop bike under the ship blocking her path.
- Ambiguous Time Period: Azadi mentions in his speech on the anniversary of Lothal's liberation that it had been "several years" since that day, but a specific number is not provided.
- The Atoner: Ahsoka recognizes that she hurt Sabine when she walked away from their relationship in the past. She says she had her reasons, but "Even the right reasons can have the wrong consequences. What do you do then?"
- Awesomeness by Analysis:
- Huyang is able to work out who Baylan is simply by looking at a corrupted recording of him and then narrowing him down by the make of lightsaber.
- Sabine's artistic eye returns from Rebels and she works out how to open the Nightsister map.
- Blatant Lies: Sabine tries to claim that the dedication ceremony simply slipped her mind; neither Captain Porter nor Governor Azadi believe her.
- Breaching the Wall: Was there a door into the Nightsister temple? Doesn't matter, Ahsoka has keys that opens ceilings.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Morgan Elsbeth returns, having last been seen in "The Jedi". This episode reveals that Ahsoka captured her and turned her over to the New Republic.
- Professor Huyang returns for the first time since The Clone Wars, revealing he managed to last well beyond Order 66.
- Clancy Brown makes his live action debut as Governor Ryder Azadi after voicing him in Rebels. Likewise, Jai Kell is revealed to have become Senator of Lothal years after the Battle concluded.
- Call-Forward: A map that can reveal where Ezra and Thrawn are located that both factions want to find them is what would happen years later with the map to Luke Skywalker.
- Catapult Nightmare: While Sabine is asleep, she fidgets about in bed with voices being played over. She shoots up and calls Ezra's name.
- Circling Saw: Ahsoka uses this to descend below ground. She uses it creatively to gain the advantage over her five droid assailants, taking three of them temporarily out of the fight while she dispatches the other two.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with Sabine collapsing after taking a stab from Shin’s lightsaber.
- Continuity Nod:
- Baylan gets a hallway rampage in the style of Vader in Rogue One, Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian, and Maul in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
- Ahsoka enters the series in an inverse of her exit from The Clone Wars — entering an ancient temple as opposed to leaving it.
- Ahsoka goes by the Fulcrum call sign.
- Hera retains her rank of General in the New Republic military after she was promoted to that rank at some point before the Battle of Yavin.
- Home One is still acting as the flagship of the New Republic Navy, just as it served as their primary command ship during the Battle of Endor.
- The Ghost, Hera and the Lothal cell's ship as seen in Rebels, can be seen docked in the hangar of Home One.
- Ahsoka mentions Morgan has hired mercenaries before, an indirect nod to the circumstances that led to Ahsoka capturing her in the first place, back in The Mandalorian.
- Ryder Azadi has resumed the governorship of Lothal after the death of Arihnda Pryce in the Battle of Lothal.
- Sabine's hair is dyed purple with orange tips, similar to her appearance in Season 1 of Rebels only with longer hair.
- Sabine has decorated some of Ezra’s tower with Lothwolves.
- Morgan alludes to General Grievous’s massacre of the Nightsisters in "Massacre". Ahsoka also previously alluded to the massacre when she told Din Djarin how Morgan’s people were massacred during the Clone Wars.
- Sabine’s poor reaction to seeing Ahsoka again should bear little surprise to viewers familiar with "Trials of the Darksaber" when she revealed just how badly she took the abandonment of her family. Hera once again serves as a background advisor to Ahsoka as she did to Kanan. The fact that Sabine can fight at all using Ezra's lightsaber is a testament to Kanan's training of her.
- Sabine isn't exactly psyched to learn that Nightsister magic is involved with the quest, given her possession by a Nightsister spirit on Dathomir.
- Ahsoka references leaving the Jedi Order in "The Wrong Jedi".
- When Shin ignites her red/orange lightsaber, Sabine immediately tenses up. She's been on the wrong end of a fight with one of those more than once.
- To show how she's dominating her fight with Sabine, more than once Shin grabs her by the wrist and tosses her around, like Vader did during his one-sided duel with Kanan in "The Siege of Lothal" and Kanan did to Maul in "Twilight of the Apprentice".
- Ahsoka entering a hidden vault, solving a puzzle, and recovering a small sphere is strongly reminiscent of Cal Kestis doing the same in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. The map even resembles a Zeffo astrium.
- Sabine's old armor can be briefly seen under a bench in Ezra's tower when she goes to grab Ezra's lightsaber.
- The Liberation Day ceremony Sabine ducks out on takes place in front of the mural she painted in celebration and mourning of Ezra's and Kanan's sacrifices.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Baylan and Shin cut through Captain Hayle and his crew like they were made of paper. In particular, Baylan does so in a Hallway Fight reminiscent of the end of Rogue One.
- Ahsoka effortlessly scraps the assassin droids who jump her after she gets the map.
- Sabine spends the entirely of her duel with Shin on the backfoot, whereas the Dark Jedi isn't even winded. When Ahsoka approaches them (forcing Shin to run) she ends the fight in about two seconds before beating a retreat.
- Curb Stomp Cushion:
- The assassin droids managed to put up a little bit of fight against Ahsoka.
- Though Shin has her on the back foot during the entirety of their fight, Sabine isn't exactly a pushover. She's trained with a lightsaber in the past, a lightsaber not specifically built by and attuned to her (just as Ezra's isn't necessarily attune to her).
- Destroy the Evidence: One of the HK-87 assassin droids that attacks Sabine in Ezra's comms tower steals the star map and shoots all other electronics in the room to prevent any copies from surviving.
- Due to the Dead: Ryder holds an annual holiday celebrating the anniversary of the Liberation of Lothal, and specifically takes care to honor Ezra, who as far as the cast knows gave his life to free his home planet.
- Establishing Character Moment: For those unfamiliar with Sabine Wren, her first moment in the series is her blowing off a ceremony, which is in a small part in her honor, that she is supposed to be giving a speech at. She is seen on her colorful speeder heading away from the city. Then a couple of E-Wings come after her to get her to go to the ceremony. She tells them to get lost then blows past their Road Block by cutting off her hover of her speeder and going under it. All of this telling new viewers that she is a skilled and stubborn individual.
- Establishing Character Music: Just so you know Sabine still harbors her anti-authoritarian tendencies, not only is she introduced blowing off Governor Azadi and Senator Kell, she's listening to Star Wars Punk.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Sabine's lothcat, which creatures have long been established as having a strong connection with the Force and having acted as guides to Ezra in Rebels, hisses at the Dathomiri map, a creation of dark-side witches.
- Exact Words: Captain Hayle invites Baylan and Shin aboard believing they're just ordinary Imperial criminals pretending to be Jedi. But as he quickly and painfully learns, they're indeed not Jedi, but rogue Dark Siders.
- Failed a Spot Check: Azadi, Jai, and the other officials somehow managed to miss that Sabine wasn't on the dais with them until Azadi actually called for her to step forward.
- Famed In-Story: The Spectres are still seen as heroes by the free people of Lothal (Porter's call sign, "Spectre 2-1", even implies the local fighter wing was named in their honor), with Governor Ryder Azadi paying tribute to their efforts in freeing Lothal from the Empire in a large ceremony in the rebuilt Capital City. Sadly for him, Sabine doesn't feel like celebrating, and ditches the ceremony right before a speech, to the Governor's embarrassment.
- Fantastic Racism: Shin's attitude to Morgan takes a noticeable dip when the later reveals she's a (former) Nightsister, and looks about ready to try and do her in right there.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Captain Hayle's XO, Jensen Corbyt, asks for an update on the attackers, and she is informed that the two of them had split up. No sooner has this report been received does the door to the bridge open and Shin starts slaughtering the command crew.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- While Ahsoka's ship is entering the hanger of Home One at the bottom right corner the top of the Ghost can be seen.
- When Ahsoka walks back into the room that she left Sabine in only to find her gone and the table retracted back into the floor, the cup that Ahsoka had been drinking from is still there.
- Headbutting Heroes: Thanks to a falling out in the past, Sabine and Ahsoka don't get along. Sabine only agrees to help her former master because there's a possibility of finding Ezra.
- Heartbroken Badass: Sabine, despite the passage of an unspecified number of years, is still broken up over Ezra's Heroic Sacrifice. She's living in his tower and plays his goodbye message.
- Holding the Floor: Ryder tasks Jai with giving a speech to the waiting audience in Sabine's place to buy time in case she shows up. Given he has no time to prepare anything to say beforehand, he futilely tries to protest.
- Hope Spot: Sabine opens up the Nightsister map, finding the path to Thrawn and Ezra, only to be immediately attacked by Shin and her assassin droids.
- Idiot Ball:
- Captain Hayle recognizes that the "Jedi" trying to request permission to dock aren't who they say they are, but instead of simply refusing to let them aboard or even just blasting them from a safe distance considering they're all but certainly some form of Imperial agents, he allows them to come aboard anyways thinking he can handle them. He then wastes time telling them he wasn't fooled and that he'll be detaining them right to their faces instead of trying to apprehend them the moment they exit their ship. This allows Baylan and Shin plenty of time to realize the jig is up and just start carving through them the old-fashioned way.
- When Sabine asks if she can take the map-sphere with her for closer study, Ahsoka refuses, pointing out that there are bigger issues at stake than just finding Ezra. Sabine mutters assent, and Ahsoka then leaves — with Sabine still holding it — to hear the update Huyang has brought. You know, because it's not like Sabine is famously stubborn or rebellious or anything. Big shocker, when she comes back, Sabine is gone, along with the map — which leaves her unprotected when Shin and her accompanying droids come looking for it. As for Sabine, she foolishly disobeyed Ahsoka and left with an extremely important artifact to an unguarded location and then preceded to unlock the artifact's puzzle while at that unguarded location.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
- Baylan kills Captain Hayle this way.
- Shin puts her lightsaber through Sabine's side at the end of their fight.
- In Medias Res: This episode reveals that Ahsoka tried training Sabine as a Jedi at some point between the events of Rebels and this series, but it has never been depicted or referenced until now.
- Innocently Insensitive: Hera tries to make a light-hearted jab at Ahsoka by joking that at some point she was probably considered a pain by her master, Anakin, as well. Ahsoka quickly becomes stern and quietly upset, and Hera visibly recognizes she unknowingly crossed a line.
- Irony: Marrok, an Inquisitor trained to hunt Jedi, is now working together with Baylan, a survivor of Order 66.
- I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: The episode has Clancy Brown (as Ryder Azadi) and Mark Rolston (as Captain Hayle), though they share no scenes together. The two were in The Shawshank Redemption as Hadley and Bogs respectively.
- Just in Time: The droids very kindly give an audio and visual warning as to the activation of their self-destruct and then 20 seconds before it goes off, thus allowing Ahsoka just enough time to escape.
- Just Toying with Them: Shin obiviously doesn't see Sabine as a threat, even with Ezra's lightsaber, and given how easily she won the fight, she clearly only engaged in the duel to indulge in a bit of violence.
- Know When to Fold 'Em:
- When Sabine blows past their Road Block the security force gives up on trying to make her go to the ceremony.
- Shin flees when Ahsoka arrives, no doubt sensing another Force-user.
- Legacy Character: Downplayed, the security forces of Lothal have appeared to have taken on the callsigns of Spectre in honor of the Ghost crew.
- Logo Joke: Normally, the Star Wars intro shows various characters are lit in blue or red depending on their affiliation. Here, they are all lit in red, and the logo itself, as well as the Lucasfilm logo, is also red.
- Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: The planet Ahsoka finds the map on used to be a Nightsister stronghold, thousands of years ago. Now, it's just ruins and sand.
- Musical Nod: The eerie chorus of "Thrawn's Web" returns when Ahsoka mentions Thrawn by name for the first time.
- Never Found the Body: When she hears that Thrawn is still alive, Hera protests that he died at the Battle of Lothal. Ahsoka refutes that his death was never confirmed. On the plus side, as Hera realizes, this means Ezra is likely still alive as well.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Sabine takes the map back to Ezra’s tower to spite Ahsoka’s insistence it doesn't leave her side. It only ensures that Shin has an opportunity to jump Sabine, who had also left before Ahsoka could advise her of Baylan and Shin's nature as Dark Jedi, and take the map. The only solace is that Sabine was able to unlock the map and see the display, but she didn't have time to translate the location of the targeted planet, and her unlocking it means Morgan and the others can now use it as well.
- No One Could Survive That!: Hera (as well as Ryder and others) assumed Ezra and Thrawn died during the Battle of Lothal, and is shocked to hear of Thrawn's rumored survival.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Sabine tries to keep a cool head, but from her body language it is very clear that once Shin ignites her own lightsaber she knows is in over her head.
- Shin reacts this way when she realizes that backup has arrived for Sabine. She decides to make an exit at that.
- Opening Scroll: The episode opens with a scroll informing viewers about Elsbeth and Thrawn, and why Ahsoka is looking for the latter. Unlike the Skywalker Saga scrolls, this one is in red font instead of yellow, plays with darker and quieter music than the traditional bombastic Star Wars fanfare, is left-aligned rather than centered, and scrolls straight upwards rather than being angled up and away from the camera.
- Outrun the Fireball: The droids pack so much explosive firepower that Ahsoka is forced to flee for her life when they self-destruct.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Shin's droids attack in significant numbers to keep Sabine occupied and simply grab the map and smash all her electronics.
- Production Throwback: Baylan's shuttle and Sabine's speeder bike are based on some of Ralph McQuarrie's initial designs for the Imperial shuttles and speeder bikes seen in Return of the Jedi.
- Properly Paranoid: Captain Hayle doesn't believe that the people requesting to board his ship are really Jedi as their code is old, certainly before the Empire, and there are so few left at this point. He simply assumes they are Imperial agents and has a security team ready to meet them. Unfortunately for him, Balyan and Shin actually are Force users equipped with lightsabers and quickly cut the captain and his team down once Baylan knows the jig is up.
- Rank Up: Ryder Azadi retook his old position as Governor of Lothal. Jai Kell has also become the Senator of Lothal.
- Remember the New Guy?: While she'd been established as having a connection to him when she debuted on The Mandalorian, Morgan Elsbeth was apparently an important ally of Thrawn's during his service to the Empire, but she was never mentioned in Rebels or any of the Disney-era Thrawn novels.
- The Reveal:
- Morgan is descended from the Nightsisters of Dathomir, and implies that she's a survivor of General Grievous's massacre. This makes her the first Nightsister to appear in a canonical live-action installment (a witch named Charal appeared in the non-canonical Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, and later Legends works would retroactively establish her as the first Nightsister to appear in any work).
- The iconic mural depicting the Ghost family is revealed to have been commissioned by Ryder as a memorial to Ezra and Kanan, as well as to honor the heroics of the crew for leading the Liberation of Lothal.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Lothcats make their live action debut, and they're as adorable as ever.
- Road Block: When Sabine makes it clear that she isn't going to go to the ceremony the security force sets a E-Wing down in the path of her speeder. She just speeds up and they start to panickily try to get her to stop. She cuts the hover off and slides under the E-Wing before fishtailing and going on her way. The security force gives up after that stunt.
- Secret-Keeper: Ahsoka clearly hasn't told anyone about Anakin's fall to the Dark Side, keeping the pain of that to herself.
- Serial Escalation: A galaxy far away is now two galaxies. Ezra and the purrgil seem to have taken Thrawn to another galaxy and the map reveals the path to get there.
- Ship Tease: Although Ezra refers to Sabine as a sister, she seems to be carrying more of a torch than she did during Rebels, living in his tower, playing his message, waking up saying his name...
- Shout-Out: Ryder and Sabine quote The Lion King almost verbatim when the former complains about the latter missing the ceremony, with Sabine sarcastically saying it slipped her mind.
- Smug Smiler: Sabine sports a smug smile after blowing through a Road Block that just dares the security force to try again. They don't.
- Suicide Attack: When the HK-87 attacking Ahsoka in the ruin are put on the backfoot in combat, they cease their attack with weapons and all simultaneously prep explosives in their chests. The resulting detonation is large enough to obliterate the ruin, and Ahsoka escapes by the skin of her teeth.
- There's No Kill like Overkill: The self-destruct mechanisms in the HK droids have enough explosive force to level a city, but given they're dealing with the former Jedi Ahsoka, nothing less would be enough to kill her — and even that doesn't do it.
- Underestimating Badassery: The New Republic Captain correctly deduces that the "Jedi" are not who they claim to be and goes to confront and detain them when they come aboard, unfortunately he is unaware that they do possess the abilities of Jedi, just not their ethics, and the Captain and his crew are slaughtered.
- Wandering the Earth: Ahsoka has been living in a starship for some time with Professor Huyang, traveling the galaxy and going "where she's needed," while also pursuing her lead on Thrawn.
- We Used to Be Friends: Sabine and Ahsoka are on very frosty terms after Ahsoka discontinued her training of her.
- Wham Line: Baylan tells Shin she's going to have to hunt "Ahsoka's apprentice. Sabine Wren.".
- Wham Shot: When Sabine unlocks the Star Map, it initially creates a holographic map of the galaxy where 99% of the entire franchise has taken place in. Then another hologram of an entirely different galaxy appears far away from it, and then a pathway between it and the Star Wars galaxy forms as it becomes clear just what happened to Thrawn and Ezra after Rebels.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Ryder chastises Sabine for not just missing the ceremony, but for making a scene in front of the entire planet. Ryder has a good point considering the ceremony was made to honor Ezra's sacrifice and the Ghost crew who led the Liberation that day, so it's not like it was just Bread and Circuses like Pryce's showboating after Kanan's death or the like.
