Recap / The Mandalorian S2E5 "Chapter 13: The Jedi"

A live-action appearance 12 years in the making.

Written and directed by Dave Filoni

Release date: November 27, 2020

"A Mandalorian and a Jedi? They'll never see it coming."

— Din Djarin

Following Bo-Katan's directions, the Mandalorian arrives on Corvus in search of the Jedi. Problems arise though as Mando learns the planet is under a tyrannical Imperial rule, and upon reaching town, the Magistrate tasks him with killing the person he has come to find: Ahsoka Tano, the former padawan of Anakin Skywalker.

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Tropes:

• Action Prologue: There is no anticipatory buildup to the big guest-star reveal; the episode just goes straight to Ahsoka making corpses out of Gas Mask Mooks with a Mook Horror Show seconds after it begins in earnest. Filoni knew what the fans wanted to see right away.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Sort of. Ahsoka's Lekku and horns are shorter here than they were in Star Wars Rebels, even though they should be longer. Word of God explained that it was a necessary change to make stunts and movement easier.
• Agony Beam: The civilians lining the road to the Magistrate's palace are strapped into devices that painfully zap them on the regular, complete with X-Ray Sparks.
• Armor-Piercing Response: By Din when Ahsoka seems less than enthusiastic about his mission to find a Jedi.
  Ahsoka: The Jedi Order fell a long time ago.
  Din: So did the Empire, yet it still hunts him.
• Attack Hello: Ahsoka attacks Din out of the blue, no doubt assuming he was sent to kill her. After a brief fight, he manages to calm her down by mentioning Bo-Katan.
• Badass Bystander: When Elsbeth orders the prisoners executed, a villager (later revealed to be the real Magistrate, deposed by Elsbeth) runs to rescue them, despite being unarmed.
• Badass Normal: The Magistrate, Morgan Elsbeth, doesn't seem to have any powers or augmentations, but can hold her ground in a melee fight against a trained and experienced Force-user like Ahsoka, though this is downplayed as during their fight Ahsoka avoids using the Force, mostly fights with a standard grip form rather than her usual Reverse Grip Form, and is deliberately trying to avoid killing Elsbeth, since Ahsoka is trying to get information that likely only she knows.
• Bait-and-Switch: Ahsoka demanding to know where the Magistrate's master is evokes Bo-Katan asking the same of the Gozanti captain two episodes ago. This combined with the mention of her continuing to build ships for the Empire seems to point to her being yet another of Moff Gideon's underlings... until Ahsoka clarifies she's looking for Thrawn.
• Big Bad: Implied to be the Magistrate for the whole episode—but then revealed at the end to be Grand Admiral Thrawn.
• Both Sides Have a Point: After spending months searching for a Jedi, Din finds one in the form of Ahsoka, whom he asks to train Grogu in the ways of the Force. Though he is capable, she refuses after only a little bit of training, citing the Child's emotional attachment to his adoptive father that he's at risk of falling to the Dark Side. Nevertheless, Din presses, and makes a deal to help Ahsoka deal with Elsbeth in exchange for her guidance in his son's training, which she again declines even after all is said and done, which leads Din to pointing out they had a deal. In Din's case, he is right; a deal is a deal, and Ahsoka should know that better than anyone. Besides that, despite not wanting to part with his charge, Din, being a bounty hunter, is in no way capable of raising Grogu in a stable environment, considering his line of work is very dangerous (as the show repeatedly demonstrates) and the boy's abilities are something far beyond his understanding. Yet Ahsoka also makes a point that Grogu's emotional attachment makes him very dangerous to be trained in the ways of the Force, and she has first-hand experience of what happens when someone who's emotional attachments are too strong ends up going off the deep end, making the likelihood of Grogu turning into the next Darth Vader a very real threat. Ultimately, she is able to reach a valid compromise: she instructs Din to take Grogu to Tython, and allow him to decide what he wishes to do with his life, which Din accepts as reasonable.
• Bullying a Dragon: Elsbeth is well aware that Ahsoka is a Jedi, though perhaps Ahsoka's reputation has not preceded her in this instance. Either way, she seems to think that her small army of goons, a hired gun, and some assassin droids are sufficient to protect her, even though Ahsoka cuts through them like paper and brushes off attempts at intimidation.
• Call-Back:
  • To the ending of Rebels. Ahsoka is looking for Thrawn, which may be a part of her and Sabine's search for Ezra (who disappeared with Thrawn) or is a part of something that happened during/after they found Ezra. Later revealed that this episode takes place before Rebels Distant Finale and therefore hasn't even picked up Sabine yet to search for Ezra.
  • Ahsoka reveals that Grogu was a youngling in the Jedi Temple during Order 66, and believes his attachment to Din means he's at risk of falling to the Dark Side — which is why she refuses to teach him, as she fears he'll end up like other Jedi that have fallen. It's implied she's specifically talking about Anakin. His potential to fall to the Dark Side out of love for Din was previously evidenced in "The Reckoning", when he misunderstood an arm wrestling contest between Din and Cara for a real fight and began Force-choking her — a traditionally Sith technique.
  • Ahsoka says that the only other member of Grogu's kind that she's known is Yoda, another Jedi. There's also Jedi Master Yaddle from The Phantom Menace, but Ahsoka never personally knew her.
• The Cameo:
  • An owl-like creature, most likely the convor Morai, can be seen perched on a high tree branch right before Mando and Grogu meet Ahsoka.
  • "Governor Wing", the villager who helps Mando, is played by Wing T. Chao (Wing Tao Chao), a former Disney Imagineer who was instrumental in building Disney's international parks and hospitality businesses. Chao was inducted into Disney Legends in 2019, alongside The Mandalorian series creator Jon Favreau and previous guest star Ming-Na Wen.
• Casting Gag:
  • Michael Biehn's character wields a blaster shotgun in a sequence in which Ahsoka stealthily picks off his men one by one in a dark environment. Presumably, he keeps it handy for close encounters. Amusingly, Din also refers to him as "former military" (Biehn's character in Aliens was a corporal).
  • Also, once again, a Michael Biehn character loses a western-style quickdraw match.
  • This time, he's fighting on the side of HK's.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Child reaches for the panel ball again and uses the Force to detach it while Din isn't paying attention, leading to Din confiscating it. Later, when Ahsoka tests the kid's ability to reach out using the Force, he has a better time with Din and the ball than with Ahsoka and the rock.
• The Coats Are Off: Elsbeth and Ahsoka remove their cloaks before they duel.
• Combat Pragmatist:
  • Lang, evidently aware that a Mandalorian in blaster-proof beskar is out of his league, tries to lure him into a false sense of security before pulling an I Surrender, Suckers gambit. It just gets him killed.
  • Ahsoka in the Action Prologue is one, using a combination of the Force to create diversions, turning off her lightsabers to hide in the fog and quickly ambush the Magistrate’s goons before disappearing again. She was trained by the Chosen One after all.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Ahsoka describes the Force to Djarin the same way that Obi-Wan did with Luke, as "an energy field created by all living things".
  • The way Ahsoka ignites her lightsabers like she's removing a sword from its sheath is the same way as at the start of her fight with Darth Vader in the Star Wars Rebels episode "Twilight of the Apprentice".
  • In Return of the Jedi, Boba Fett had the most luck using his wire cords to ensnare Luke. Here, pretty much the same thing happens when Din holds up Ahsoka. It still only works for a second. Sabine tried the same trick on Kanan in the Star Wars Rebels episode "Trials of the Darksaber"
  • When Ahsoka tries and fails to get Grogu to levitate the stone, she says to him, "I sense much fear in you". Yoda had said these exact words to young Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace.
  • The way Ahsoka and Elsbeth remove their cloaks while facing each other is highly reminiscent of Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, and Maul doing the same before their duel in The Phantom Menace.
  • Much like in her battle with Maul in The Clone Wars, Ahsoka is deprived of her right-handed lightsaber in battle. She makes do again without switching her second lightsaber's hand. This time she wins before retrieving the lost lightsaber.
• Crapsack World: Corvus is a planet filled with lush forests and has small but secure villages where people live their lives. Sounds neat, right? The thing is, Morgan Elsbeth and her small army have burnt the forests to a crisp, and are forcing the villagers they have to either live quietly in fear, or be used as human batteries to power the place up. Although with Morgan being driven out and Governor Wing being restored to power at the end, perhaps Corvus will be able to escape this trope. The air outside the city is so bad, presumably, some kind of forcefield keeps the air inside the city breathable, that Elspeth's guards have to wear gas masks.
• Cuteness Proximity: Ahsoka is clearly taken with Grogu, as shown in the way she gestures at him when she says "Let's see what knowledge is hidden inside that little mind."
• Darkened Building Shoot Out: A variation as it takes place in a forest rather than a building, but several parts of the opening fight scene are shown only by blaster fire and the light of Ahsoka's lightsabers.
• Dead Hat Shot: Invoked by Ahsoka, who tosses out Din's mudhorn pauldron to convince the Magistrate that she killed him.
• Distinction Without a Difference: Ever since she left the Jedi Order, Ahsoka has repeatedly claimed she is no longer a Jedi, though she is still a light-sider who affiliates with the Jedi. Since audiences unfamiliar with Ahsoka or Din would just be confused if she pulled this card, Ahsoka doesn't correct Din when he identifies her as a Jedi (it's possible she just got tired of correcting people, or treats it as a semantic matter that's not worth correcting when there are more important things to deal with).
• Dragon Their Feet: The Dragon to The Dragon, actually. Lang is shot and killed by Din, and shortly thereafter, one of his HK battle droids tries sneaking up on Din from behind, to no avail.
• Dramatic Irony: The Magistrate and her men believe that Din is the perfect hunter to take down Ahsoka since Mandalorians and Jedi are legendary enemies. Din had never even heard of the Jedi or their history with his people until he came upon Grogu, and has figured out since meeting Bo-Katan that Ahsoka is not a threat. He and Ahsoka use this misconception to their advantage when they take on the Magistrate's forces.
• Empathic Environment: After the Magistrate has been defeated, the planet's sky has changed from an unpleasant dingy, smog-riddled browny-green to a much more pleasant clear blue, showing her evil rule has ended, and so has the damage it brought. Crosses over somewhat with Fisher King, with the reinstatement of the previous governor. Considering the Magistrate was an industrialist robber-baron strip-mining the planet to make ships for the Imperial remnant, whose factories, very briefly seen at the start of the episode billowing smoke, have likely been shut down with her defeat, it also serves as a subtle Green Aesop.
• Enemy Mine: Invoked. Jedi and Mandalorians are supposed to be ancient enemies, but Din has no such prejudices and Ahsoka has a few close friends who are Mandos, so it's not a big deal when he and Ahsoka team up to take on the Magistrate.
• Evil Is Petty: Elsbeth orders her men to go door-to-door executing people when Ahsoka attacks the next day, even though Ahsoka has made it clear civilian casualties won't stop her. She also has her citizenry tortured for seemingly no other reason than because threatening to kill them the first time didn't make Ahsoka back down.
• Exact Words:
  • Or rather, lack thereof — when Lang asks Din if he is with the Guild, the Mandalorian answers that he was last time he checked, which was probably before he met Grogu. Done again later when the Magistrate offers the beskar spear in payment for killing Ahsoka; Din simply asks for the Jedi's location, letting her assume he's taking the deal. So when he sides with Ahsoka later, he points out that he never explicitly accepted it.
    • Also, Din is indeed a hunter. He's hunting the Jedi... so he can hand over Grogu, not because she's a bounty.
  • Ahsoka never actually calls herself a Jedi, as she left the order before she was knighted. Her choice of words even implies that Din has not actually seen a Jedi.
  • When Ahsoka returns to the Magistrate's colony, she tells her that the bounty hunter (Din) she sent failed, tossing out his mudhorn pauldron in support of this. Din did indeed fail to kill Ahsoka... because he never tried to begin with. Also, Ahsoka only implies, rather than actually stating that Din fell in battle, allowing him to ambush the Magistrate's forces.
• Faking the Dead: Ahsoka and Din continue the Non-Answer ruse that Din pulled on the Magistrate after they team up, with Ahsoka tossing Din's sigil pauldron at the Magistrate's feet, suggesting that she killed him. It gives Din's later Dynamic Entry an extra layer of surprise to the guards.
• Family of Choice: While it was obvious that the Child/Grogu has affection for Mando, this episode is the first time someone manages to articulate just how strong his love actually is; to the point that it could become a potential danger for Grogu to fall to the Dark Side (similar to Anakin with his attachment to Padmé).
• A Father to His Men: A man is seen throughout the episode looking out for the other villagers, even about to risk his life when seeing an innocent man is about to be wrongly executed. The ending reveals that he was the governor before the Magistrate took over, and he's reinstated after she's defeated by Din and Ahsoka.
• Flynning: Nothing new to the Star Wars universe, of course; Ahsoka and Elsbeth's duel features a lot of flashy moves designed to look cool rather than actually hurt each other. Justified somewhat in Ahsoka's case, as she wants to keep the Magistrate alive in order to interrogate her.
• Foreshadowing:
  • If you look closely, the HK-87 droids bear the insignia of the Imperial Navy's Seventh Fleet — Thrawn's command — hinting at who is really in charge behind the scenes.
  • Another hint at the nature of Ahsoka's quest is the presence of a lothcat in the city. Just as the convors are associated with Ahsoka, the lothcats are associated with Ezra Bridger, the padawan from Star Wars Rebels.
  • Ahsoka states that Morgan's people were massacred during the Clone Wars. Ahsoka will later reveal more details about this.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Blink and you'll miss it, but when Din and the Child are traveling through the forest looking for Ahsoka, an owl-like bird can be seen perching on a tree branch. Viewers unfamiliar with Clone Wars and Rebels likely wouldn't even notice it, but die-hards will immediately recognize it as Morai, a convor with an unexplained connection to the Daughter — Anthropomorphic Personification of the Light Side — who tends to follow Ahsoka around a lot. It's a subtle nod to long-time fans, and a clear indicator that Ahsoka is nearby.
• Gas Mask Mooks: The Magistrate's soldiers sport this look.
• Genre Mashup: The climax features a western-styled Showdown at High Noon between Lang and Din, while at the same time in the courtyard Ahsoka and Elsbeth have an eastern styled Samurai-like duel (though Ahsoka is a Ronin, not a Samurai). Both duels draw very heavily from classic Samurai and Western genre films.
• Genre Shift: The show is typically presented as a Space Western, with heavy emphasis on Wagon Train to the Stars. With the first appearance of a (de facto) Jedi Knight on the show, this episode is stylized more as a samurai story.
• Given Name Reveal: The Child's name is Grogu.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Grand Admiral Thrawn serves as one in this episode, as he's the one who appointed the Magistrate and repeatedly tried to have Ahsoka killed. He went into hiding sometime after the end of Rebels, and Ahsoka needs to defeat the Magistrate to learn his whereabouts.
• The Gunslinger: Lang, who serves as The Dragon to the Magistrate.
• Hear Me the Money: Mando clangs the Magistrate's spear, offered as payment for killing Ahsoka, against his bracer and identifies it as beskar by the sound.
• Hero of Another Story: Ahsoka, who is on Corvus to confront the Magistrate as she may know the whereabouts of Thrawn.
• Hidden Depths: Ahsoka reveals through her telepathic connection with Grogu/The Child that despite not being able to speak (and mainly prioritizing his stomach), the Child actually has a name and memories of being trained at the Coruscant Jedi Temple.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics: Ahsoka defeats Elsbeth's mooks by attacking from, and then disappearing back into, the fog and shadows. She also douses her lightsabers until the moment she strikes.
• Homage Shot: Ahsoka showing up on the other side of the town alone and walking slowly towards Elsbeth, her men and her droids? That's straight out of the climax of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo, where the hero (Sanjuro) does the same with Unosuke and Ushitora's gang. And given Ahsoka is basically a space Rōnin...
• Hostage Situation: Defied by Ahsoka. Elsbeth points out that she has an entire town full of people she has no compunction about killing to force Ahsoka to back off, but Ahsoka refuses to leave them to her mercy and ignores the threat.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: A subtle version of the trope; older fans will notice that in her fight with Elsbeth, Ahsoka is not fighting with her usual form, using just a very basic dual-sword style. It's not until Elsbeth manages to disarm one of her blades that Ahsoka switches to her iconic reversed grip form. From there the fight is quick and very one-sided.
• Incompletely Trained: Grogu started training with several Jedi masters at the Temple on Coruscant, until Order 66 forced him to hide. He's had no master to train him in the ways of the Force since.
• Infinity -1 Sword: Din gets a new weapon, a spear made of pure beskar.
• Internal Reveal: Din learns the nature of the Force from Ahsoka when she tells him how Grogu's abilities work, explaining the Force to him and how it's the source of a Jedi's power. She also gives him a brief recap about how the Jedi Order fell once the Empire rose to power and there are very few Jedi who survived.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Lang claims that serving Elsbeth isn't worth dying for when he realizes Ahsoka has won their duel, putting down his rifle in surrender. He then tries to quick draw on Din with a blaster kept behind his back. Unfortunately for him, Din is quicker (not that the holdout pistol is likely to have gotten through his beskar anyway).
• Keep the Reward: When Ahsoka offers Din the beskar spear, he initially declines as he didn't truly earn it (i.e., he didn't kill her as the Magistrate wanted). Ahsoka insists that he take it, as it belongs with a Mandalorian.
• Leitmotif: Ahsoka's theme can be heard a few times in the episode. Also, when she mentions Master Yoda, his theme is played.
• Mayor Pain: The Magistrate is the Evil flavor. She considers her guards cannon fodder and the civilians in town target practice.
• Monstrous Scenery: Huge long-legged creatures can be seen in the background of many shots, ambling through the burnt-out forests of Corvus. They are never seen at closer quarters, and the only interaction Din Djarin has with one is staring at it through his binoculars before being ambushed by Ahsoka.
• Mook Horror Show: Ahsoka's initial fight with the Magistrate's goons plays out like a Batman fight... if Batman dual-wielded lightsabers. To play the effect up more, Ahsoka disappears into the fog whenever her lightsabers aren't lit, and when they are lit, instead of being the colorful blades as seen in the films, her lightsabers appear with intensely bright white-hot blades, usually right before she strikes.
  • This is repeated when she and Din infiltrate the city later. Even a small army with the support of incredibly advanced assassin droids is no match for a light side veteran of the Clone Wars who trained under Darth Vader himself.
• Muggle: Ahsoka refuses to train Grogu due to his strong emotional attachment to Din and suggests letting his Force abilities fade over time is for the best. However, Din insists that because Grogu is very strong in the Force, he needs to be with a Jedi who can train him.
• My Greatest Failure: Implied when Ahsoka refuses to train Grogu, pointing out that his emotional instability makes him very vulnerable to the Dark Side. As her own master, Darth Vader, turned in part due to the events that transpired on The Clone Wars and how they affected her, her sullen tone of voice indicates that she feels responsible in some way for his downfall.
• Mysterious Past: Ahsoka doesn't seem to know where Grogu (and for that matter, Yoda) originated from before he was brought to the Jedi Order, which eliminates returning him to his people.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Some of the Magistrate's droids are HK-87 hunter droids, a reference to the HK-47 hunter droids from Knights of the Old Republic. The heads and torso may be different, but the legs are similar.
  • Frank Oz famously used basically the same voice as his Sesame Street character Grover for Yoda. The Child's name is revealed to be the similar Grogu.
  • Ahsoka recommends that Din go to the ruins of a Jedi temple on the planet Tython. Tython appeared in Darth Bane and Star Wars: The Old Republic as the original homeworld of the Jedi Knights and it did indeed feature a Jedi temple.
  • After Elsbeth knocks one of Ahsoka's lightsabers into her space!koi pond, Ahsoka shifts her grip on her remaining saber to the reverse grip she used in the cartoons.
  • Hinting at Ahoska's true purpose on Corvus, we see a Lothcat digging through the trash when Din first enters the city.
• Non-Answer: Din Djarin uses one of these to let the Magistrate think he has agreed to hunt down Ahsoka without actually saying it or giving his word. After being given the offer, he simply asks where she's at (not actually agreeing or refusing).
• Not So Above It All: Din, the poster-child for The Stoic, manages to prove he's not above showing emotion a few times.
  • First, when Ahsoka is communicating with Grogu, he frantically paces, awaiting the outcome of the conversation.
  • Then, when he manages to get Grogu to use the Force on his favorite knob, he actually bursts into a fit of joy over his adoptive son pulling off the move.
  • Finally, when he's prepared to give his son over to Ahsoka, he solemnly sits with the boy as he sleeps, dreading the thought of parting with his charge.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Lang tries this track during his brief standoff with the Mandalorian outside the Magistrate's complex, saying they're both just hired guns fighting for a cause that may or may not be worth dying for. Din isn't having it and warns Lang to keep his distance. Subverted when he still tries to kill Mando after his mistress loses her duel with Ahsoka, earning him a blaster bolt to the chest.
• Oh, Crap!: Elsbeth's confident expression after knocking away one of Ahsoka's lightsabers melts away to grave concern when Ahsoka changes her grip style on her remaining lightsaber, hinting that she was holding back.
• Older Than She Looks: A Bizarre Alien Biology version. Despite her age, Ahsoka's montrals and lekku are a lot smaller than they should be (they've actually shrunk in comparison to her last on-screen appearance as an adult), looking closer to their length and size when she was a teenager, presumably a concession to having an actor play her while doing fight scenes. In-universe, they should have been roughly the size and length of the prosthetics worn by Orli Shoshan, who played Jedi Master Shaak Ti in the prequel trilogy, but Shoshan has said that it was very difficult for her — a trained martial artist — to move and perform fight choreography while wearing them, which Word of God confirms is why they were shrunk for Dawson.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: A rare positive example. After Grogu manages to use his Force powers to pull the knob towards him, Mando shows pure joy for the first time in the series. Giving evidence of his own growing bond and attachment to the child.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: For probably the first time in the series, Din is hit with this trope and not the other way around. He may be one of the best Badass Normal around but the Magic Knight Ahsoka outclasses him quite far in ability. It's best compared to episode 3 where he tried to overstep an official's order in their own town and ended up needing to be saved by the covert. Here Ahsoka just needs him to make sure the civilian population isn't hurt while she cleans house.
• Parental Substitute: Ahsoka confirms what we already suspected — that Grogu now basically considers Din his surrogate father.
• Planet Looters: Elsbeth's job was supervising the wholesale strip mining of remote planets to fuel the Imperial war machine, with Corvus being the latest victim of her efforts. The devastation is so massive, the burning of the planet's surface can be seen clearly from space. The scene brings to mind Lothal from Star Wars Rebels, which was similarly devastated by the Empire, right down to the effects being visible from space.
• Polluted Wasteland: The "forest planet of Corvus" brings to mind a place like Endor, but Elsbeth has already turned it into a barren, burning ruin.
• Poorly Disguised Pilot: For the Ahsoka live-action series, which was announced two weeks after this episode aired.
• Putting on the Reich: Continuing the tradition of the Galactic Empire having Nazi Germany-inspired uniforms and regalia, the HK assassin droids have head chassis that resemble Stahlhelm.
• Quick Draw: The standoff between Lang and Din ends with this. Lang tries to gain the advantage by faking surrender, but Din is still quicker on the draw. And quick enough to shoot the last of the two droids on a roof before it manages to aim at him.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Elsbeth can wield a beskar spear well enough to put up a fight against Ahsoka, even managing to disarm her of one of her lightsabers, though Ahsoka ends up victorious.
• Ret-Canon:
  • Beskar and its toughness was already canon by way of Rebels and this show, but the lightsaber-resistant aspect of it is recanonized, with Din's beskar armor and the Magistrate's beskar staff being able to withstand Ahsoka's lightsabers.
  • Ahsoka directs Din to take Grogu to the ancient Jedi Temple on Tython. This temple location was first introduced in Darth Bane: Rule of Two and is the setting of Jedi Player Characters' Justified Tutorial in Star Wars: The Old Republic, although Tython was already made canon again by way of All There in the Manual.
  • Similar to Tython, the HK-Series Gladiator droid was mentioned in the Star Wars: Smuggler's Guide, thus is canon. However, this episode is the first on screen appearance of the HK-87 Assassin Droid, a reference to HK-47 and his model line from Knights of the Old Republic and related material.
• The Reveal:
  • The Child, 1) whose name is Grogu, 2) was raised in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and went through many masters. 3) He survived the Temple raid by hiding, after which he was taken and hidden away after the Clone Wars. 4) However, his memory of what happened next is "dark" and he was "lost and alone".
  • Ahsoka seems to be unaware of Luke, as she tells Mando to take Grogu to find other possible Jedi through Tython while noting there aren't that many Jedi left. Or she's reluctant to recommend the son of her fallen former master.
  • Ahsoka is still looking for Grand Admiral Thrawn (and, possibly by extension, Ezra).
  • Thrawn is no longer MIA—he is willingly in hiding. He also now knows that Ahsoka is looking for him and is trying to have her killed.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: This episode takes it up to eleven for Grogu. Nearly every time Din says his name, Grogu repeats it in the cutest way with a tiny little kid voice.
• Running Gag: When Grogu's name is first revealed, for the rest of the scene he perks up and looks at Ahsoka and Din every time they say it.
• Scenery Gorn: The planet Corvus is populated with burnt trees and dried soil, with the only green being Elsbeth's private garden. Ahsoka says that Elsbeth has left similar destruction in her wake across multiple worlds to build ships for the Empire. It's so bad that when the Razor Crest approaches the planet, some of the raging forest fires can be seen from orbit.
• Screw Your Ultimatum!: Elsbeth threatens to start executing her citizens if Ahsoka doesn't back down. Ahsoka bluntly replies that they're as good as dead under her rule anyway, and gives Elsbeth a day to surrender.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: Blaster shotguns, much like the one wielded by the Magistrate's chief enforcer Lang, seem to be a problem for Jedi on account of simultaneous discharge of so many blaster bolts. Instead of even attempting to deflect any of them with her lightsabers, Ahsoka just leaps out of the way when Lang lets fly.
• Shout-Out:
  • The distorted voice of the Gas Mask Mooks makes them sound like Combine soldiers.
  • The destroyed forest surrounding Caladon brings to mind the village near a destroyed forest in Avatar: The Last Airbender episode "The Spirit World". Dave Filoni worked on the show's first season.
  • To Princess Mononoke. Caladon is ruled by a female warlord who has destroyed the surrounding environment and is terrorized by Ahsoka, whose facial markings and character as a heroic neutral are partially inspired by San. Ahsoka's use of the rooftops to escape and isolate and engage the Magistrate's men and HK-87 assassin droids mirrors San's attack over the rooftops of Irontown.
  • The scene where Ashoka walks through a street full of dust kicked up by the wind towards a gang of bad guys is reminiscent of a scene from Yojimbo. The plot of a lone swordsman repeatedly carving up a gang of bad guys who take townsfolk as hostages in retaliation is also based on the film.
  • The standoff between Lang and Din echoes the one between Johnny Ringo and Doc Holliday in Tombstone. It didn't end well for Lang's actor in that movie, either.
  • As pointed out in both Wookiepedia and Den of Geek, Calodon sounds like Caladan, House Atreides' home planet in Dune.
• Smarter Than You Look: This episode is the first time we get a clear idea that The Child is capable of thoughts beyond mainly eating and instinctively using the Force. We also learn he doesn't use the Force often as a matter of survival; no-one wants to hurt a seemingly harmless baby.
• Sparing the Final Mook: When she assaults the town gate, Ahsoka disarms one mook, who stays out of the fight afterwards while Ahsoka kills the rest. When she notices him again, he holds his hands up in surrender, and she motions for him to run away. The guard quickly complies.
• Telepathy: Ahsoka and Grogu can communicate by sharing their thoughts through the Force, which is how she learns his name.
• Toxic, Inc.: What the Magistrate is actually contributing to the Imperial war machine is unspecified, but whatever it is it required turning an entire forest world into a burnt-out Polluted Wasteland.
• Trust Password: Following from two episodes ago, Din manages to stop Ahsoka from attacking by mentioning her name and that Bo-Katan sent him, which convinces her that he's come in peace.
• Turn Out Like His Father: An implied Grandfather-esque variant. Ahsoka refuses to train Grogu because she fears he'll fall to the Dark Side, saying that she's personally seen the best of the Jedi fall. Given how she held him in high regard (and in some ways still does), she's most likely talking about her own master, Anakin Skywalker, and is afraid of failing Grogu as Obi-Wan did to Anakin.
• Uncertain Doom: The Magistrate is not seen again after Ahsoka disarms her and asks about Thrawn.
• The Un-Reveal:
  • Did the Magistrate tell Ahsoka where Thrawn is?
  • How things are going or went with Ahsoka and Sabine's search for Ezra isn't indicated, though if anything, Ahsoka is looking for Thrawn.
  • Sabine is nowhere to be seen and Ahsoka says nothing about her. Dave Filoni has suggested that this episode might actually precede the final scene of Rebels, meaning the two simply haven't reunited yet.
• Wham Line: When Ahsoka asks her question:
  Ahsoka: Now tell me, where is your master? Where is Grand Admiral Thrawn?
• X-Ray Sparks: The civilians getting tortured in the Magistrate's contraptions show their skeleton underneath whenever they are zapped with electricity.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Din has finally located a Jedi that could take care of Grogu, but she refuses to train him and instead tells Din to go to Tython, where Grogu might be able to call for a Jedi who will.

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