Ahsoka Episode 5 Review

Episode five opens where we left off, a huge cliffhanger from episode four. We basically had two different sequences going on. One sequence was Ahsoka and Anakin in the ‘World Between Worlds’. The other sequence was back in the real world, with Hera and Jason looking for Asoka and Sabine on the planet surface. The link between these sequences was Jacen sensing Ahsoka's presence by hearing her lightsaber battle with Anakin.

The Big Questions: are really unanswerable, and I hope they stay shrouded in mystery. Those questions are as follows:

Was Ahsoka really in the ‘World Between Worlds? Maybe she was just imagining everything. And, therefore, maybe Jacen was really just hearing her thoughts.

If she was really there, was it her body or just her consciousness? Since this planet, Seatos, is such a powerful force/hyperspace/WBW nexus, neither would surprise me. But in either case, I come back to my question from last week’s episode,

Was Anakin really there with her? Was it his force ghost? Was it some other force spirit, possibly one of the Mortis entities? They have been portrayed as guardians of portals to the WBW so that’s plausible. Or…

Was Ahsoka simply in her own mind battling her own fears? Was she simply battling her own dark side, her guilt over her past failures, and her fears that she might become like Anakin?

Again, we may never know, and that, I think, is for the best.

Clone Wars Flash Backs: It was awesome seeing Anakin in live action. It sounded like he deepened his voice to sound a bit more like Matt Lanter (CW Anakin voice actor). Having everything hazy in a fog of war gives me mixed feelings. It would have been really cool to see a full-on clone wars battle in live action, but it was a dream sequence of sorts, and therefore the focus should be squarely on Anakin and Ahsoka. So, the orange haze served its purpose there. Also, the lightsaber fight in the smoke made for some stunning visuals. (See watercolor above. I just had to break the paints.) Also, I imagine they save millions by cloaking the background in a thick orange haze. Ariana Greenblatt, the kid who played Padawan Ahsoka, did a very good job, especially her body language. Her eyes are kind of beady compared to animation Ahsoka, but that certainly isn’t the actor’s fault. I think it was important to see Clone Wars Ahsoka in live action to remind us of just how young she was at that time. No matter how powerful a force user she was, seeing all that death would definitely cause a lot of internal traumas to a 13-year-old kid; hence the demons she has to exercise in this episode. It was also really cool to see Rex in live action, I just wish we could have seen Temura Morrison’s face.

Ahsoka returns to the real world: Upon awakening, Ahsoka throws on a white robe. It seems to be the same robe she was wearing at the end of the Rebels series, so they kind of tweaked the continuity there. Still, I think it’s symbolic of her shedding her fears and absolving herself of responsibility for the past, or at least forgiving herself. And she was very giddy after returning from the WBW, almost look like she had eaten a really strong force-edible. She does a little bit of Cal Kestis psychometry which is kind of…when did she learn that trick? Not really in line with her previous skill set.

Nitpicks: See above. I think it was an enjoyable episode. They cut back-and-forth between Hera and Ahsoka enough to keep the action moving, we got some great visuals and some great nostalgia moments and I think generally, this series is getting better and better.

Mystery: Once again, I think it’s important that we don’t really know where Ahsoka went, if anywhere at all. We don’t know if that was really Anakin’s force ghost, some other entity, or just a manifestation of Ahsoka’s feelings. I hope we never learn these answers, because I think unsolved mysteries that can still be explained in many different ways represent a hallmark of great art.