Far, Far Away on Disney+ With Thrawn

After last week’s unforgettable, Ahsoka-heavy episode, this week’s “Far, Far Away” flipped the script. Ahsoka is on her way to that galaxy even further away and in the meantime, things pick up with the villains. Do they make it to this alternate galaxy? Is Thrawn there? Is Ezra there? How is Sabine feeling after her betrayal? All that (and more) gets answered in my personal favorite episode of Ahsoka yet.

Episode 6 of Ahsoka is called “Far, Far Away,” a familiar Star Wars phrase that’s also a nod to the location all of the characters are going. That journey gives us a moment in which Dave Filoni smashes the fourth wall of Star Wars to bits. It comes as Ahsoka and Huyang are enjoying their intergalactic ride in the Purrgil. She mentions he used to tell the younglings at the Jedi temple stories with Purrgil in them (called History of the Galaxy parts one, two, and three, in fact—with one being the best, according to Ahsoka). However, at this moment, Ahsoka tells Huyang a more recent story. It’s the one where her apprentice, Sabine Wren, risked the entire galaxy to willingly give Baylan Skoll the map to Grand Admiral Thrawn. This is news to Huyang and they discuss how troubling that is. But he reiterates it was her decision and posits maybe it wasn’t an awful one? Time will tell. To get her mind off it, Ahsoka asks Huyang to tell her one of those old stories and he starts by saying “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.” So stories in the Star Wars universe start the same as Star Wars stories do in our universe. Oh, Filoni, you’re crazy for that one.

It’s appropriate, though, that “Far, Far Away” gave audiences that little wink right at the beginning, because the 40 minutes that followed were as pure Star Wars as any of the live-action Star Wars shows may have ever been.

Sabine is being held captive and beginning to believe Baylan Skoll lied to her about their deal to let her find Ezra. Morgan questions this too, but Baylan assures her he’s got a plan for the unfocused Sabine. Before they can get too into it though, their ship exits intergalactic hyperspace (which is given a very cool new design to differentiate it from normal hyperspace), and they’ve arrived at Peridea, the ancient home of the Dathomiri. It’s also where the Purrgil come to die, as we see all manner of their remains making up the ring surrounding the planet.

A beacon beckons everyone down to the surface, which means Sabine gets to share a little side eye with Shin as they fly down to the surface in a gold drop ship that’s part stealth bomber, part Eagle-5 from Spaceballs. Huge ancient statues grace the surface and a giant city rises up on the horizon. It has a large column at the front and… wait a minute. Did the Star Wars universe just travel to Middle-earth? Is that Minas Tirith? Alas, it’s not, but the design certainly owes a lot to Peter Jackson’s films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s work.

Upon landing, three red beings await Morgan, Baylan, Shin, and Sabine. Morgan bows to the women, who appear to be ancient Night Sisters, her fellow ancestors of Dathomir. We learn the Great Mothers called to her in a dream and have been waiting a long time for her arrival. Now she has come, just as Thrawn promised she would. As they wait for him, the Dathomiri smell a Jedi. It’s Sabine, who they claim is dangerous. They tie her up and lock her away as Sabine continues to ask about Ezra.

Baylan and Shin remain on the platform and have an incredibly dense, formative discussion. We learn that Shin was not a youngling at the Jedi temple. She came from somewhere else. We learn that stories of this planet and all it represents have been passed down as folktales. However, now that it seems the stories are true, Baylan thinks this place might hold the answer to stopping the endless cycle of the universe. The Jedi fall, the Empire rises, the Jedi return, over and over again. He believes this place might hold the beginning of a new era.

What is he referring to? Where did Shin come from? And did he recently watch all the Star Wars TV shows and movies and get frustrated that the same old story is being told over and over again? Is this Dave Filoni admitting something to us? We don’t know the answers to any of those questions but the scene was very intriguing and interesting, one of the best in the series to date.

Then, it was time for the first of the big reveals Star Wars fans have been waiting for. A massive Star Destroyer arrives, one some may recognize from Star Wars Rebels. And if you don’t, you still know what it means. It’s Grand Admiral Thrawn’s ship. He lands it like a giant Lego set, on top of the temple, and inside we get to see… so much. It’s like a party for toy companies. There’s a new type of Stormtrooper, wrapped in fabric (dubbed “Night Troopers” by the subtitles). They’re led by Enoch, the lead trooper, who has a gold, almost ancient Roman-looking face on his helmet. These are Thrawn’s legions and they chant his name we see him gliding through the middle in one of the grandest entries we’ve seen ever in Star Wars.

“What was first just a dream has become a frightening reality,” Thrawn says with his first line—which, again, is Filoni gently winking at the audience that yes, Timothy Zahn’s Expanded Universe Legend, Grand Admiral Thrawn, has just made his first live-action appearance in Star Wars. It’s something fans have dreamed about for decades. He’s also referring to the fact that Morgan has actually arrived on Peridea to rescue him. Thrawn wants to load up some mysterious cargo and get the hell out of there, only there’s a loose thread: Sabine Wren, a name Thrawn recognizes from his battles back in Rebels. He agrees with Baylan though, whom he also knows by his Jedi reputation: Sabine may be of use to them.

The Night Troopers bring Sabine in front of Thrawn and though he’s sort of cordial, he also makes it clear to her that her decision not to destroy the map could change the focus of the galaxy forever. Sabine ignores this and pushes on the fact she wants to see Ezra. Thrawn obliges. He tells her she’s free to go and he’ll give her transportation and provisions so she can search for her friend. Sabine is more than a little stunned, but she helped Thrawn and now he’ll help her. Thrawn does, however, let her know that when his ship leaves, she’ll be stranded there forever. He also isn’t sure if Ezra is even still alive. Sabine is certain, though, and Thrawn hits her with “You’ve gambled the fate of the galaxy on that belief.” “You wouldn’t understand,” Sabine says.

Enoch and the Night Troopers provide Sabine with a Howler, a large, scary wolf-looking creature, which is not a surprise if you know Dave Filoni (he loves wolves with mystical powers). Enoch hands Sabine her blasters and lightsaber, and warns her how dangerous it is out there, sending her off with the ominous “Die well.” And just like that, she’s off, but we see she’s being watched by everyone. Thrawn reveals that letting her look for Ezra was really the only agreement, not that they couldn’t hunt her after. So that’s what Baylan and Shin will do. And if she finds Ezra, they’re told to kill them both.

The rest of Sabine’s scenes were like taking a fast-forward trip through highlights of the original Star Wars trilogy. She rides out into the vast nothing looking for her friend and gets attacked by a group of bandits, like Luke in A New Hope. Here though, instead of straight-up Tuskens, they’re Tuskens mixed with samurai. She defeats them, just barely, once she takes out her lightsaber with the final one running away in retreat. Later, she’ll amusingly scold the Howler for running away from danger, a moment with big C-3PO/R2-D2 energy, before he smells something and they head off.

Before Sabine moves her journey into Return of the Jedi highlights though, Thrawn explains to Morgan that his numbers have dwindled and if Baylan and Shin do find Ezra Bridger, they can’t send out that many troops. Not that it matters in his mind. Leaving the galaxy is the only goal. Killing the Rebels, or bringing back her mercenaries, is not a priority.

Sabine and the Howler reach a clearing and it starts sniffing what looks to be a rock. Alas, it’s not. It’s a cute, turtle-like alien (identified as a “Noti” in the subtitles). The Noti is scared but Sabine reassures it. It gets even more confident when it sees Sabine’s Rebel symbol which it recognizes. In fact, the Noti is wearing a necklace of the same symbol. That can only mean one thing. It knows Ezra. When Sabine says that name, the Noti calls out its friends, who have also been hiding disguised as rocks. The Noti converse and we hear two words that we definitely recognize: “Ezra Bridger.” They lead Sabine away, hopefully to her friend.

That scene, and the one that follows, was so obviously Filoni doing his own version of the Ewoks to me. Our hero meets one lone, cute being. They speak a different language but eventually, it takes the hero to its village where they reunite with their friends. This isn’t a deep-cut, mind-blowing observation but in harkening back to the original trilogy so specifically, Filoni is giving Ahsoka some of that goofy energy Star Wars desperately needs to be its best.

The other thing Star Wars needs is deep mythology and the following scene provided more of that. Baylan and Shin are on Sabine’s trail and take a minute to survey her battle with the bandits. The master and apprentice discuss Ezra Bridger, whom Baylan never met and refers to as Bokken Jedi, a brand of Jedi trained after the Jedi Order fell. Shin thinks that makes her like Ezra but Baylan says no. Ezra was trained to be a Jedi. Shin was trained to be something more.

The pair discuss the pluses and minuses of the Jedi Order as well as Baylan’s rising confidence that his mysterious plan will, in fact, be possible. Everything he’s seen confirms the stories he heard were true. Shin seems very skeptical about all this but Baylan tells her something is calling to him.

Sabine and the Noti arrive at their village, continuing the Ewok parallel. She sees only Noti (including an adorable baby!) around but Kevin Kiner’s music, suddenly more optimistic and heroic, speaks to us as the Force speaks to a Jedi. Something big is coming. Sabine is about to give up when the camera pans left and a human figure stands in the background. “I knew I could count on you,” says the one and only Ezra Bridger. It’s a moment that, sure, maybe was underplayed a bit, but feels so long in the waiting for Rebels fans that it was beautifully cathartic. Finally, we know for sure that Ezra survived; here he is, alive and well, and Sabine found him. She gave up everything for it, but she found him. This is a moment Dave Filoni has been waiting to give Star Wars fans for a long time, and it was worth the wait.

The pair fall right back into their playful, almost sibling-like banter. Ezra doesn’t even know if his plan to save Lothal and defeat Thrawn worked. Sabine tells him it did. He also wants to know how the heck she got there but Sabine tells him she doesn’t want to talk about it, which is frustrating, but hey. The friends have reunited and now Ahsoka, if and when she arrives, has another Jedi ally in the fight against Thrawn. “I can’t wait to go home,” Ezra says. Sorry bud. We’ll see about that.

Finally, the Great Mothers tell Thrawn his escape plan has another hiccup. A Jedi approaches. It can’t be Ahsoka Tano, Thrawn ponders. He was told she was dead. Morgan assures him of this but Thrawn is disappointed that she may have been duped, especially since “death and resurrection are common deceptions used by both Night Sisters and Jedi.” A very curious statement. Thrawn decides to assume Ahsoka is alive until he knows otherwise and asks to know everything about her: “background, history, homeworld, her Master, everything.” (That should make for quite the crash course.) Thrawn orders Morgan to destroy any star whale that approaches the planet and asks the Great Mothers to once again use their “dark magick.” “The thread of destiny demands it, Grand Admiral,” they reply.

Is that “dark magick” the same stuff they used to contact Morgan Elsbeth in her dreams? Is it more? Is it something we’ve seen before? How will Ahsoka and Huyang avoid the laser fire while inside the Purrgil? And what is Ezra going to think once he realizes everything Sabine gave up to get her? Those questions and more are just the cherry on top of the best episode of Ahsoka yet.

Truly, “Far, Far Away” had everything: humor, new creatures, new villains, exciting returns, big narrative payoffs, and cool action, all in an interesting, propulsive story. The one thing it didn’t have a lot of was Ahsoka herself and after her awakening with Anakin, we’d hope she’s a bit more in vibe with the show now. We’ll find out next week as the show continues to bring story threads from several years of storytelling together.

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