'Ahsoka' Episode 3: “Time to Fly” Recap and Review
THE SERIES EMBRACES ITS ANIMATED ROOTS IN A SHORTER, BUT VITAL EPISODE
WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS
Fresh off the heels of its second episode’s ending, Ahsoka’s third episode follows the titular Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson, reunited with her once-apprentice, Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), on their new mission to intercept villain Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) and her allies from accessing the newfound intergalactic pathway established in previous episodes.
As the protagonists make their way to the planet Seatos, via hyperspace travel, Huyang (David Tennant) helps Sabine practise her lightsaber skills, using his droid body to employ several holographic lightsaber targets. Ahsoka, unsatisfied, believes Sabine can do better, and gets Sabine to put on a training mask, to impair her vision, in an attempt for her to better trust her instincts and unlock her connection with the force. Once blinded, Ahsoka easily bests a frustrated Sabine, who shows serious doubt that she has the ability to connect to the Force, as a Jedi would. Ahsoka explains that the force is not an ability that is exclusive to Jedi, and that it takes a great willingness, which she further implores Sabine to commit to, as Sabine struggles to pull a cup across the table with the force.
The show then catches up with Hera Syndulla, (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as she debriefs the New Republic Defence Council on the Imperial presence on Correllia, which she and Ahsoka encountered in the previous episode. After briefly catching up with Chancellor Mon Mothma, (Star Wars veteran Genevieve O’Reilly) Hera makes an appeal to the defence council to create a task force to further investigate and eliminate the emerging threats of darkness, hoping to prevent the return of Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn. Hera’s plea is unsuccessful, after her impartiality to the operation is questioned by Senator Hamato Xiono (Nelson Lee), mentioning her connection to Commander Ezra Bridger, last seen with Admiral Thrawn before their disappearance in the finale of Star Wars Rebels. As Hera leaves the holo-meeting, the show properly introduces her child son, Jacen Syndulla, only previously seen in a split-second of Star Wars Rebels’ finale. Jacen remarks his excitement to hear that “his Aunt Sabine is becoming a Jedi,” and wishes to become a Jedi as well, which is something that could very well happen, given his late father, Kanan Jarrus, was indeed a Jedi.
Back on Ahsoka’s shuttle, Hera reaches out to Sabine, Ahsoka, and Huyang, to tell them the bad news over hologram, which is cut short as the communication becomes jammed. Ahsoka pulls the shuttle out of hyperspace, having arrived at the Denab system, where Elsbeth and her sinister allies await them. Quickly after arriving, Ahsoka’s shuttle is met with unexpected company in the form of the Dark Jedi apprentice Shin Hati, (Ivanna Sakhno) Inquisitor Marrok, and a handful of Elsbeth’s goons, all piloting small, yet lethal, starfighters. Sabine mans the shuttle’s rear defence turret, and has trouble connecting, both her shots and ability with the Force. As the shuttle takes more hits, Ahsoka pivots, asking Sabine what she needs to succeed, then piloting the shuttle in such a manner so that Sabine’s shots can connect, gunning down a few enemy fighters, leaving only Shin and Marrok’s ships in the air.
As the shuttle gets closer to the Eye of Sion, Elsbeth’s massive hyperdrive ring, Huyang insists that Ahsoka drive the shuttle closer and closer so that he can get a proper scan of it, to understand its capabilities. Ahsoka reluctantly obliges, although the shuttle takes several massive hits from enemy fire as Huyang gets closer and closer to completing his scan. After a barrage of hits, Huyang is able to complete his scan, but overloads his own circuits and the ship goes offline after sustaining extensive damage. Ahsoka tells Sabine to get the ship’s power back online, as she quickly suits up in a Republic Navy Blue space suit, and stands on the outside of the shuttle, deflecting enemy fire, reminiscent of her Clone War era Jedi antics. Eventually, Sabine is able to get the ship’s power back online, and Ahsoka gets back inside the ship quickly. They then try to proceed closer to the hyperdrive ring, yet again, before fire from the turbolaser batteries force Ahsoka to pilot her shuttle into the atmosphere of the planet Seatos.
As they enter Seatos, Ahsoka and Sabine encounter a pack of Purgill, the mysterious hyperspace whales from Star Wars Rebels, last seen latching onto Thrawn’s fleet of Imperial Star Destroyers at the battle of Lothal in Star Wars Rebels’ finale. Ahsoka, pursued again by Shin and Marrok, navigates her shuttle through the massive Purgill’s flightpaths, evading the two Dark Siders, buying enough time to safely land in the planet’s crimson forest. Ahsoka then powers off the ship quickly to evade detection from Shin and Marrok, who fly right overhead the shuttle, unable to locate the heroes. Shortly after, Huyang’s system reboot is complete, bringing the droid back to operation, as he reveals the indications of his scan. The Eye of Sion is revealed to be supposedly capable of intergalactic travel, and is operating from Seatos in hopes of matching with the Purgill migration pattern, in hopes of Elsbeth and her lightsaber wielding disciples locating Thrawn.
The episode quickly ends by cutting back to former Jedi Baylan Skoll, (the late Ray Stevenson) flanked by an armada of Elsbeth’s soldiers, on the outskirts of the crimson forest. After a brief moment of thought, he reveals that he has sensed the Jedi inside the forest, and orders for them to be hunted down, as the episode comes to a close, teasing a tense next episode with lightsaber duels galore.
Ahsoka’s third episode clocks in as its shortest, which is noticeable, given the lengths of its prior two episodes. However, that does not stop the series’ narrative momentum all that much, with the heroes developing as characters, and several thrilling continuous action bits in the latter half of the episode, feeling very much in line with the nature of its predecessor series, Star Wars Rebels. The first third of the episode, featuring the training bits with Ahsoka and Sabine, feel very stiff and wooden, with the dialogue feeling very unnatural and needlessly expository. However, when Sabine and Ahsoka’s relationship is tested during the space action scenes, the development of their relationship feels much stronger, and more natural. The inclusion of Mon Mothma is a big highlight of the episode, with O’Reilly so effortlessly conveying the grace, complication and burden of the iconic Rebel leader, and makes the character feel very much the same, despite the noticeable change of era she inhabits. The inclusion of Hamato Xiono, a character from another animated series, the criminally underrated Star Wars Resistance, is also a welcomed one. His passive aggressive nature really helps to challenge Hera as a character, giving Winstead the room to dispel doubts about her portrayal of the beloved character in some tense scenes. While the episode could stand to be longer, and develop its villains a bit more, Ahsoka’s third episode is ultimately an effective one, with some decent character moments and pulpy set pieces harkening back to its animated roots, while keeping the urgent narrative momentum unaltered, readying viewers for an action-packed next episode.