'Ahsoka' Episode 5: "Shadow Warrior: Recap & Review
The titular hero must relive her past to accept her new future
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
The very fabric of Ahsoka, both the series and character, is rooted in a melting pot of other Star Wars media. With the character’s introduction and most prominent story beats coming from The Clone Wars, and with the character at an metaphysical and spiritual crossroads, the return to that era seemed inevitable, which is a claim Dave Filoni seemingly agrees with, given the events transpiring in Episode Five, titled, ‘Shadow Warrior’.
The episode opens with General Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and her son Jacen (Evan Whitten) as they land on the base of the planet Seatos, where Ahsoka Tano was last seen, before being pushed into the ocean toward the end of the last episode. The pair search around for their Jedi allies, to no luck. However, they find Huyang, (David Tennant) mournfully standing by the edge of the cliff, holding Sabine’s (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) helmet. Huyang expresses his disappointment that both of his Jedi colleagues had split up, despite his insistence, which led to their separation and loss at the end of last week’s episode.
Directly after the title card, the show cuts back to the cliffhanger ending of Episode Four, with Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) reunited with her former master, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) in a dark, mysterious force void of some sort. Ahsoka voices her curiosity about the situation, in a foreign environment seeing someone she knows is dead. Anakin responds by telling her that he is appearing in order to “complete her training,” and that after her near-death experience, she has to face an ultimatum. “Live, or die”, says Skywalker as he ignites his lightsaber, engaging briefly in a duel with his apprentice.
Elsewhere, Hera and Jacen are still having no luck with their search, while Carson Teva (Paul Hye-Sung Lee) yields similar results in his aerial search. However, Jacen begins to sense sounds of lightsabers clashing from the water with his force abilities. This then leads the trio to go and search for Ahsoka in the nearby body of water.
Returning to the duel, after a few key strikes, Anakin shatters the ground beneath Ahsoka’s feet, leaving her free falling through the mysterious force void. As Ahsoka gets to her feet, she quickly realizes she is inhabiting a younger version of herself, played by Ariana Greenblatt during the Battle of Ryloth as a padawan, during the time of the Clone Wars. As she orients herself, Anakin and a pack of clone troopers come rushing into the hazy environment. After rushing into battle, the show transitions to the aftermath of the battle, with young Ahsoka sitting mournfully over the body of a dead Clone Trooper. Ahsoka expresses her regret, with many troopers having been killed in the battle, under her command. Anakin reassures her, by telling her that like it or not, she is a soldier, and that he must teach her to be a stronger warrior. Ahsoka responds, asking if a legacy of violence is what she would in turn pass onto her own Padawan, and exclaims that she wants to stop fighting, to which Anakin responds, “then you will die.” Anakin runs off into battle once again, with his silhouette briefly transitioning back and forth into his alter-ego, Darth Vader.
Shortly after, Ahsoka and Anakin enter another iconic Clone War battle, The Siege of Mandalore. After making quick work of a few Death Watch Mandalorians, Ahsoka is congratulated by Commander Rex, (Temuera Morrison) in a brief cameo marking his live-action debut. Ahsoka then turns to Anakin, expressing her regret for her legacy in the war only being one of death and destruction. In turn, she questions Anakin’s own legacy of death and destruction as Darth Vader, which prompts Anakin to become Darth Vader, with his eyes turning the jaundiced Sith yellow, and his lightsaber turning into the signature Sith red. After a few key blows, Anakin kicks Ahsoka back into this force void, as she returns to her current form, embodied again by Dawson. The two trade blows, with Anakin exclaiming that Ahsoka must die. She in turn disarms him, putting his own lightsaber against his neck, responding, “I choose to live.” Anakin reverts to his light-side iteration, smiling, and leaving Ahsoka with the parting words, “There’s hope for you yet.” Ahsoka then awakens, submerged in the ocean that she was cast off into.
Still looking for Ahsoka, and stalling time, Hera and Carson defy an order from Chancellor Mothma, (Genevieve O’Reilly) to return to the New Republic fleet, risking their ranks and reputation, choosing to hold out for their Jedi ally Ahsoka. They are soon after able to locate her, where she is quickly rescued being brought onboard Hera’s starship ‘The Ghost’ thanks to a dive rescue from Lieutenant Jensu (Chau Nemova).
A while later, Ahsoka wakes up, donning a new white garb, as she steps outside and thanks young Jacen for helping save her. Ahsoka and Hera share a moment, talking about where Sabine could have went off to, and if she is even reachable, with the star-map of her projected location being destroyed. Ahsoka looks up in the sky, revealing a pack of Purgill, the mysterious hyper-space whales seen earlier in the series. She then proceeds to fly her shuttle up to the Purgill, and uses the force to bond with the biggest whale. The whale, in response, opens its mouth, to which Ahsoka and Huyang fly inside of. Hera wishes Ahsoka for the force to be with her on her new adventure, with Ahsoka in turn promising to bring Sabine and Ezra home. Outside the orbit, a fleet of New Republic cruisers arrive to intercept the plan, but are quickly interrupted as the fleet of Purgill, now carrying Ahsoka and Huyang, jumps to hyperspace, as the episode ends.
Filoni’s second, and final directorial outing of the season is a mediative, emotionally charged episode that examines Ahsoka’s aforementioned legacy of “death and destruction”. The flashbacks relate to Ahsoka’s current emotional state and journey in a rather profound way, with Hayden Christensen crushing it as Anakin once again, embodying the Clone War iteration of the character to a tee. Casting Ariana Greenblatt, an actress who is younger than Ahsoka than she was in the actual flashback scenes, helps to really convey the message and help the audience see her almost constant involvement in war from a young age in a new, more necessary and interrogative manner. The use of The Volume technologies in the Star Wars series has mostly been subpar, and its use in this episode, to present more rugged, hazy looking war scenarios is ultimately commendable, as is Filoni’s directing of both the lightsaber duels and CGI Purgill scenes.
The flashbacks, while reviling in Clone War nostalgia, ultimately serve a bigger purpose, and Ahsoka as a character feels like a changed character in the episode’s stunning second half. Rosario Dawson benefits greatly from this character change, whose performance noticeably improves when she is given the freedom to be more warm, rather than stoic as she’d been for most of the series up to this point. As always, the Kiner family excel with the series’ score, expertly re-using existing character themes, many of which are their own, to accentuate the character moments and spectacle alike. Ultimately, this episode embodies many of Filoni’s best qualities. Idea-heavy, mediative, and fuses existing aspects to forge a new story, yet in the case of this episode, while solid, the execution of what’s on the page does leave a bit to be desired, in terms of characterization and clarity regarding it. Nonetheless, the strong finish to the episode, with the stunning Purgill jump sequence, and the many memorable flashbacks, anchored by the remarkable performance from Hayden Christensen help to make this episode a major hallmark of the series, and this new era of Star Wars as a whole, while also keeping viewers enticed for what’s to come in the next week.