Dreams and Madness on Disney+

Thrawn and Ezra have been found. Our heroes have reached—or are on their way to—a new galaxy far, far away. With season one of Ahsoka nearing its end, the penultimate seventh episode started there and moved all the pieces just one or two steps ahead, setting the stage for the finale. The result was a highly entertaining, satisfying episode that was more about action and recalibration than anything else. Plus, it had some very, very good cameos.

Before things could pick up back with Ezra and Sabine on Peridea, or Ahsoka and Huyang traveling there, another main character was forced to deal with their own dire circumstances. It’s Hera Syndulla—who, a few episodes back, was told to come back to Coruscant to deal with a possible court martial for disobeying New Republic orders by going to help Sabine and Ahsoka.

Standing in front of a very official-looking committee, wearing a brand new outfit, Hera is being lashed out at by Senator Xiono. Earlier this season, he was the guy who was already resistant to Hera leaving, and now it seems he’s using her ambition against her. Xiono seems adamant (too adamant?) that Hera is pushing a false narrative about a new version of the Empire rising and believes there should be consequences. Carson Teva interjects, pointing out that the recent conflict on Mandalore is a strong indication to the contrary, but Xiono quickly says Moff Gideon was acting on his own without any help.

Let’s just dive into that for a second. First, that statement firmly places Ahsoka’s events after the events of season three of The Mandalorian, which may become important. And second, season three of The Mandalorian clearly showed Gideon working with a shadow council who are trying to bring the Empire back under Thrawn. So while there’s no proof of any of that for Senator Xiono to see, we the audience know it’s true. He’s making a horrible mistake.

Xiono calls for Hera to be court-martialed and for a moment it seems like there’s no one, not even Mon Mothma, who can fix this. Which is when there’s a ruckus outside the door. A very familiar gold droid, with an even more familiar accent, tries to enter the room and eventually does so. Previous Disney Star Wars shows have shown other protocol droids but this one is unmistakable. It’s C-3PO himself, played by Anthony Daniels, and 3PO explains he’s there on behalf of Leia Organa. Leia wanted to make sure the committee knew that it was she who authorized Hera’s trip and that she apologizes for not knowing Senator Xiono forbade it. If he has any problems, he can direct it to her as the leader of the defense council. Mon Mothma takes that as gospel and closes the matter. However, she also takes Hera aside and whispers to her that she knows what just happened isn’t true. Point-blank she asks Hera if this threat is real. Hera tells her it is. “Prep for the worst and hope for the best,” she says.

It’s here that we learn episode seven of Ahsoka is called “Dreams and Madness,” a very interesting title when you look back at the episode as a whole. Who or what does it refer to exactly? We’ll discuss at the end.

Still riding in her ship, inside a whale, Ahsoka is doing some lightsaber training. And she’s doing it under the guidance of her old master, Anakin Skywalker. There’s a millisecond of confusion because we saw a more time-accurate Anakin with Ahsoka in the World Between Worlds, but when he starts talking about the war, things lock into place. As Anakin explains that Ahsoka may have to fight people like General Grievous, Asajj Ventress, or Count Dooku on the battlefield, we realize this is a decades-old recording from during the Clone Wars. He’s even got the haircut and outfit to match. Holo-kin gives Ahsoka lessons of encouragement and confidence as she goes through lightsaber training before being interrupted by Huyang. She tells him he made over 20 such recordings, this being the final one, and that she believes, all things considered, he was a good master. That bit about the recordings seems like a kind of throwaway line, but the episode then makes a very specific point to show that Ahsoka has all the recordings in a box in a closet. We’d imagine those will come back, if not this season, then in the future.

Huyang is there to tell Ahsoka the Purrgil are slowing down, as well as his skepticism that they could’ve possibly taken them to the exact place they needed to be. To this, Ahsoka messes with him a bit and our inference from a few episodes back is revealed to be true. This Ahsoka, following her near-death experience, is somehow unburdened. She’s more fun and playful. Later in the episode she’ll even smile and laugh. This is much more the Ahsoka fans fell in love with through animation.

Of course, the Purrgil do drop out of hyperspace precisely where they need to be, and instantly it’s chaos. Thrawn and his team have set up a minefield where bombs are drawn to whatever is near them and explode. For a second, the Purrgil provide cover but they soon decide to leave. Now Ahsoka’s ship is exposed and even when they make it out of the minefield after an exciting aerial action scene, they’re pursued by Imperial fighters. She’s forced to hide in the Purrgil graveyard surrounding Peridea, and Huyang remarks that it’s odd they knew she was coming. Thrawn orders the fighters back though and says his plan is for Ahsoka to think she’s in the clear.

So we’re caught up with Hera, we’ve caught up with Ahsoka, what about Sabine? Well, pushing the moment we’ve been waiting for back an extra few minutes, the episode finally cuts to her and Ezra, who are traveling along with the Noti. Apparently, she’s already told him everything that’s happened between when he disappeared and now—the highlights being that the Empire fell and the Emperor is dead. Or, at least, “That’s what people say,” Sabine adds in a nice little wink. Plus, tying up the Rebels links, Hera’s a general and Zeb is training recruits (finally a Zeb mention!). What she hasn’t told Ezra yet is how she came to find him in this alternate galaxy. Sabine just says it’s complicated and Ezra, kind of maddeningly, is okay with leaving it at that. (Who else wanted to scream “Ezra, she sold out her friends and the galaxy to save you! Thrawn is still out there and he’s getting ready to leave!” Just me? Okay.) One tidbit Sabine does drop is the fact that since he was gone, Ahsoka took her on as an apprentice. He’s surprised, but happy about this.

Back in space, Huyang’s scans are unable to locate Sabine so Ahsoka reaches out with the Force. It works, Sabine senses her, and just in time too as Thrawn uses the Nightsisters to find Ahsoka and force her out of hiding. She flies out, presumably heading towards where Sabine and Ezra are.

Also on the lookout for Sabine and Ezra are Baylan and Shin. They’re observing the friends from a distance when Baylan makes a surprising suggestion. He tells his apprentice she should alert Thrawn about Ezra and Sabine and take care of them herself. She’s taken aback that her master won’t be helping, but he tells her that her ambition leads in one direction but his path is in another. It’s then we realize we’re seeing this master let his apprentice go but not before delivering one last piece of advice: “Impatience for victory will guarantee defeat.”

Back on his ship, Thrawn looks at all the pieces coming into play and seems confident in their chances for victory, especially with Baylan helping out. Only, he’s not helping out, which we know, but Thrawn doesn’t. At least not yet.

The bandits that Sabine so easily dispatched of last week have regrouped and joined Shin on her pursuit. They begin to attach Ezra, Sabine ,and the Noti, who have no way to fight back. Ezra gets them to form a defensive position before noticing a figure off in the horizon. It’s Shin, and Sabine explains that she’s like Ezra, lightsaber and everything.

Ahsoka is now finally on the planet, flying above the action, still avoiding fighters. She tells Huyang that she needs to get down to the surface, only they can’t land. And so he flies low and Ahsoka jumps down to the ground, in a half cool, half not-great-looking piece of CGI. Before you had a chance to complain though, turns out Ahsoka lands not by Ezra and Sabine, but by the now rogue Baylan. He tells her he can’t let her interfere and the two powerful Force users battle again.

Their battle is then intercut with Sabine and Ezra defending themselves from the bandits. Sabine offers Ezra her (formerly his) lightsaber but Ezra says no. He just needs the Force, he says, and the battle begins. They’re doing okay until Shin shows up and radically shifts the balance, Force-shoving and knocking out Ezra.

The show cuts back and forth between the two battles, really turning up the intensity, and eventually, Baylan tells Ahsoka what we’ve assumed to be true. She can’t defeat him. He’s too powerful. But Ahsoka says she doesn’t need to, distracts him, and leaves. Just in time too, because with Shin now there, as well as a bunch of Thrawn’s Night Troopers, it’s looking dire for Ezra and Sabine. That is until Ahsoka shows up. Her presence turns the tables and sends the troopers running, saving her friends.

Thrawn is watching all of this play out on some virtual chessboard back on his ship and notices something. Baylan is no longer helping his cause. He does not seem pleased. And yet, he decides to recall all his troops and calls his tangle with Ahsoka a success. Morgan doesn’t understand how that’s possible since they were defeated, so Thrawn explains: he was able to distract the powerful Jedi long enough to finish the crucial cargo transfer, making his departure from this galaxy that much sooner. Thrawn says he now has the advantage of the most important weapon at this moment—time.

As Thrawn’s soldiers pull back, Shin is face to face with Ahsoka. Ahsoka offers her a truce and says she can help her. But Shin doesn’t take the bait and leaves. With that, all seems well for our heroes. Sabine and Ahsoka get to reunite—and finally, Ezra and Ahsoka also get to reunite. She not only smiles through it, she laughs, exhibiting some actual joy for the first time in the entire show. It’s a joy shared by Ezra too who thinks he’s finally going home. Though, we’re not so sure.

“Dreams and Madness” finally saw the reunion of master and apprentice Ahsoka and Sabine, as well as the further return of Ezra Bridger. It also showed Thrawn as a master military strategist, thinking several steps ahead of his opponents in order to get what he wants. The Shin and Baylan story shifted in an unexpected way and appearances by C-3PO, Clone Wars Anakin, and a hint at a not-so-dead Palpatine linked all three Star Wars trilogies. Talk about an episode with a lot packed in.

But, with one episode left, how far is this story going to go? Obviously, Thrawn won’t be defeated in one more episode, but will this season of Ahsoka see a chapter close or simply another one open? Can our heroes escape this galaxy far, far away, and get back to their own? Most importantly, how will Ahsoka deal with Sabine’s betrayal and what will Ezra think of it all? There’s a lot to wrap up with only one more episode, and that’s with the full knowledge and expectation that there are almost certainly more seasons and movies to come. We just have to hope that season one of Ahsoka, after so expertly putting all the pieces in place during this episode, moves them to a satisfying spot for us to leave things for a few years.

Then, finally, there’s the title. “Dreams and Madness.” No one really had any dreams in the episode, nor was there any actual madness. So you have to think bigger picture and once you do that, it could go any number of ways. It works in regards to Shin and Baylan; she has aspirational dreams and he’s mad for power. It works for Thrawn, in that he has dreams of leaving and madness in his methods. It works for the Sabine/Ezra/Ahsoka relationship too in that their reunion is certainly a dream come true, but Sabine’s previous actions may turn it into madness. Or maybe it’s none, or all, of those things. Who is to say?

Weigh in with your thoughts below, as we discuss the penultimate seventh episode of Ahsoka.

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